GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1939, Page 7

GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN

Mr Chamberlain’s Survey of Present Position STRONG OBJECTION TO INCIDENTS LIMITS ON IMMEDIATE ACTION (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, August 4. Tn the House of' Commons the Prime Minister, Jlr Neville Chamberlain, replying to Mr P. J. Xoel-Baker (Lab) said: “I do not seek to minimise the Government's strong objection to the incidents in which Japanese have been concerned during the last lew months in the Par East, but I want the House to bear in mind that the situation for this country is particularly difficult. Sometimes I hear members say, ‘Why don't you do the same as America.’ It is hardly necessary for me to point to the fundamental difference between the position of America, in its isolation from Europe, and that of Britain. Surely we must think all the time—even in Ihe presence of insults and injuries which have been inflicted upon British subjects in China by the Japanese—what are the limits of what we can do at this particular time! “At the present moment, we have not got in the Far East a fleet superior to the Japanese, although we have such a fleet here. In certain circumstances we might find it necessary to send a fleet out there. I hope no one will think those circumstances will arise. I do not say this as a threat but only as a warning. At the same time, I would say we would much rather settle our differences with the Japanese by discussion and negotiation, providing we can do so without sacrificing what seem to be fundamental considerations and principles, than by the threat of force.’’ •Answering Mr Noel-Baker’s criticism of the “formula’’ recently negotiated at Tokio, Air Chamberlain said it did not imply any change in British policy in China. He repudiated Air Noel-Baker’s suggestion that the Japanese were demanding joint police control in the Tientsin Concession and said the discussions in Tokio were proceeding on the basis of police control remaining in the hands of the Municipal Council. Regarding the four Chinese wanted by the Japanese, and the question of handing them over, the Prime Minister said evidence had now been submitted by the Japanese and was being examined.

Referring to the currency question, which had been the subject of Opposition criticism. Air Chamberlain said: “The difficulty is, it is agreed that the present discussions are to be local discussions, about local circumstances and the position in .Tientsin, and ii you lake the matter literally, these questions of silver and currency are local questions, because the silver in question is in Tientsin. But in our view you cannot deal with these questions only in relation io Tientsin.’’ The Premier added that a much wider area than Tientsin was aflected. and it followed that it was not only Britain which was concerned. Britain had made it perfectly clear to Japan that she was not prepared to settle with the Japanese alone on these questions of currency and silver.

.Mr Chamberlain in concluding, said it would be possible to undertake the same commitments in the Far East as Britain had done in Europe, but he did not want to do that.