Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1940. A POLICY OF BLUFF?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 October 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1940. A POLICY OF BLUFF?

* TN a statement reported yesterday, the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr Matsnoka, was quoted as saying: I think Germany and Italy will win the war. However e A e nt of the war turning unfavourably against them, Japan must be Waved to assist” He declared also that Japan « e® eluded the alliance with the Axis “ because Germany andMy recognised Japan’s guiding principle of 2,600 yeais, Mac o Ichiiu, meaning the eight corners ofthe universe nuclei o roof” In these- observations additional evidence nay be found, if it were needed, of the accuracy of the view held by some informed observers that the policy Japan is pmsum & under her present rulers is largely a matter of bln . No reasonably intelligent human being reading what Mi Matsnoka had to‘say on this occasion will doubt that he was turning a blind eye on facts and drawing, though not with any very impressive effect, on his imagination. It would be clenj in o Mr Matsnoka himself an. ordinary standard of intelligence to suppose that he spoke sincerely. It is simply not to be credited that an educated Japanese statesman believes that Geimany and Italy have recognised any principle of order in human affairs. The course to which these nations are committed under their gangster dictatorships is nothing else than a vile reversion to barbarism. There is no question of the Axis and Japan finding a bond of union in their common acceptance oi any principle of world order. The actual ground on wine i they have met is the practice in common of international banditry. , While Mr Matsnoka’s insincerity in these particulars is patent, it may be doubted, also, whether he really believes that Germany and Italy will win the war. If he does, however if, that is to say, he believes that the Axis Powers are capable of overthrowing world democracy, which at an ultimate view would entail the defeat and subjection of the United States as well as the British Empire—he must believe also that Japan is doomed. Nothing is plainer than that the British nation almost alone meantime stands between the Axis aggressors and voilcl dominion. A victorious Axis undoubtedly would reduce Japan to a condition of ignoble slavery. It seems much less probable that the present rulers ot Japan are actually anticipating an Axis victory than that they hope, in the present disorder of world affairs, to be able to extend their policy of aggression and predatory acquisition in Eastern Asia. Having attained what is virtually an occupation by conquest of French Indo-Cliina, they no doubt are still hoping to lay hands on further loot, notably the Dutch East Indies. These hopes rest upon a belief that the British Empire is too heavily engaged elsewhere to play any fully effective part in opposing Japanese aggression in the Far East and that the United States can be bluffed into remaining inactive. _ In fact, however, there is every indication that the United States is in no way inclined to be bluffed by Japan and that the further extension of Japanese aggression almost certainly will be met by effective Anglo-American opposition. In the speech at Dayton on Columbus Day which was reported yesterday, President Roosevelt not only declared that the people of the United States and all the Americas reject the doctrine of appeasement and recognise it for what it is—a major weapon of the aggressor nations —but used further words which have their clear message for Japan. When we speak of defending the Western Hemisphere (the President said) we are speaking not only of territory in North, Central, and South America, or the immediately adjacent islands, but we include the right to the peaceful use of the ’Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. That has been our traditional policy. On this side of the ocean there is no desire and no effort by any race or nation to control any other. The only encirclement sought is the encircling bond of good old-fashioned neighbourly friendship. Thus bound together we shall be able to withstand any attack from the east or west. Together we shall be able to ward off any infiltration of alien political or economic ideas which would destroy our freedom. There is convincing evidence that in the policy the President thus set forth, he and his Government have the support of a united nation. It does not appear in these circumstances unduly optimistic to believe that the hopes entertained by the rulers of Japan—hopes rather of profiting by present world disorders than of sharing in the results of an Axis victory—are doomed to collapse. In President Roosevelt’s assertion of the right of the- United States and other American nations to the peaceful use of the Pacific Ocean a note of warning is struck which Japan evidently would be extremely unwise to disregard. The facts appear to justify the statement that the Japanese bluff has been called.

WEAKNESS IN STRENGTH.

VISITOR from Berlin was quoted in one of yesterday’s cablegrams as stating that the confidence of the German people in their Fuehrer is still high. “They believe,” he added, “that the war will end before winter. The Propaganda Minister has given an impression that London is already a mass of ruins.” Accompanying news spoke of the success of the Nazi dictatorship in preventing any general circulation of news of the tremendous devastation wrought by the R.A.F. in various parts of Germany, “the districts affected being sealed from each other.”

AH this no doubt represents a remarkable achievement on the part of the Nazi dictatorship and its appropriately unscrupulous Propaganda Ministry. It is an achievement, however, which brings embarrassment, and an ultimately deadly danger in its train. Sustained thus far with delusive hopes of victory before winter, the people of Germany will suffer a shocking disappointment when they find themselves'committed to another winter of war in which, as information stands, their rations are to be reduced. Whatever the time and the weight of privation needed to disillusion the. German people may be, it is clear that the policy of buoying them up with false hopes invites an ultimate and terrible collapse. In any case, it by no means assures the continuance in power of gangster dictators that they may still be able for a time to maintain their ascendancy over the masses they have egregiously gulled and deceived. A number of the props of Hitler’s power in Germany can be classed as nothing else than criminals, some of them of an exceptionally degraded type. Tn a regime which discards and scoffs at elementary principles of morality, these men are held together simply in a base association of what appears to them to be self-interest. They revel in an opportunity to plunder, terrorise and maltreat people of their own and other nations. In the last war it was the German Army leaders, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who first declared that defeat was inevitable and that the nation must sue for peace. An opinion may be ventured that it is in the inner circles of the Nazi Party that the inevitability of defeat in the present conflict will first be recognised and acted upon.