JAPAN’S AGGRESSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1938, Page 5

JAPAN’S AGGRESSION

NEW POSITION IN ASIA

SEEN THROUGH AMERICAN EYES EFFECT OF “BRITISH DEFEAT AT MUNICH” By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. NEW YORK, November 8. In a leader entitled “Charge it to Munich" the New York “Herald Tribune” says: “The relentlessness with with the Japanese have pushed forward the policy of expansion since the fateful autumn of 1931 when Sir John Simon refused to stand by America’s demand to Japan that the Nine-Power Treaty be observed has now reached proportions promising to embarrass seriously the British Empire even more than the United States. “Under the stimulus of the British defeat in Munich, Japan is establishing a new order in Eastern Asia. As Japan gains strength there, Britain weakens. “Mr Chamberlain may have bought temporary peace for the tight little isles, but he has encouraged forces of disruption in the far-flung Empire. He has made the Japanese threat unpleasantly real for Canada, New Zealand and Australia. “Hong Kong today is virtually a pawn in Japanese hands, and Japanese forces are hoping to establish themselves on the island of Hainan, which controls the approach to French IndoChina as well as to Hong Kong and North China. . . , “The point is, how far can Britain s retreat from China go before it stirs up unrest in India and elsewhere.”