Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1940. FAR EASTERN CRISIS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1940. FAR EASTERN CRISIS.

AFORE extraordinary verbal contortions than those in which responsible Japanese spokesmen are engaging at present surely have never been seen or heard of in the history ot international diplomacy. Japan is in the position she now occupies because upwards of three years ago she followed up earlier acts of aggression by a wanton and unprovoked attack upon her peaceful neighbour, China, and as a consequence finds herself ’ involved still in a conflict in which she has little enough prospect of ultimate advantage. Having harried and despoiled a lame part of China’s territory, and with the deaths of.some millions of Chinese people—soldiers and civilians—standing to her account, Japan is herself suffering an exhausting and increasing drain upon her military and civil resources. It is in these circumstances that she has joined hands with the Axis Powers and now seeks to denounce as enemies of world peace and order the nations —particularly the United States and Britain—iwhich stand in the way oi the further extension of her policy oi aggression, lhe Japanese Foieign Minister (Mr Matsuoka) presumably has summed up his country’s demands in declaring that: — Japan has no intention of picking a quarrel with any country. However, she must peremptorily reject all nations which attempt to disturb the peace in the Far East by prolonging the Sino-Japanese conflict through assisting General Chiang Kai-shek. In its substitution of fiction for reality, this is a rather wonderful effort of its kind. If peace is to be restored in the Far East, Japan must lead the way by withdrawing her army of a million men from China. It is incidentally noteworthy that Mr Matsuoka is now inviting General Chiang Kai-shek to cooperate with Japan “in the construction of a Greater East Asia solidarity sphere, instead of prolonging the killing of innocent Chinese people by playing the role ot a front line for European and American capitalism.’’ This overture presumably implies that Japan is prepared to cast off the puppet government she has established at Nanking, with Mr Wang Ching-wei as its ostensible head, in opposition to the Chungking Government. Through all the twisting inconsistencies of Mr Matsuoka and other spokesmen, however, the fact stands out plainly that Japan, under her present rulers,, has no other thought than to pursue and extend her policy of aggression in and beyond China. Any possible doubts on the question have been resolved, by the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact and not even Mr Matsuoka himself can have expected anyone to credit his astonishing assertion that the Japanese alliance with the Axis is intended to prevent the European war becoming a world conflagration. What Japan has done is so to extend and enlarge her policy of aggression as to bring the possibility of War between herself .and the United States into serious prospect. Attention is largely centred at the moment on the question of the Burma Road and on Britain’s announcement that she will not renew the agreement under which that routeGnto China was closed temporarily. Much more than the question of the Burma Road is involved, however. The Japanese Foreign Minister and his chief, Prince Konoye, obviously are perturbed over other and greater issues. It seems quite possible, indeed, that Japan’s inclusion of Indo-China in her area of occupation may enable her to close the Burma Road at .its inner end. The greater problem confronting Japanese Ministers is that of shaping and developing their schemes of extended aggression without inviting or making inevitable war with the United States.