Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1940. THAILAND AND JAPAN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1940. THAILAND AND JAPAN.

PGR a good many weeks now contention between Thailand A and French Indo-China—air raiding and reprisals, artillery duels across the Mekong River, and some minor encounters ot land forces—have been reported at intervals together with some inconclusive attempts at negotiation over Thai demands Lor the Cambodian territory which now forms part of Indo-China. In their immediately obvious scale of importance, these events are not calculated to awaken much interest in a world shaken by vastly greater wars, but they derive significance from the extent to which Thailand, the country more familiarly known to many foreigners as Siam, is playing, more or less consciously, the part of puppet for Japan.

A glance at the map will show that Thailand, as it is at. present constituted, includes a considerable part of the Malay Peninsula, of which the remaining part is occupied by the Federated Malay States, with the island of Singapore lying oft the south-eastern extremity of the Peninsula. An element of genuine nationalist aspiration no doubt enters into the current Thailand demands on Indo-China, together with an inclination to profit by the embarrassments and difficulties in which the French colony is at present involved.

According to the Thailand Premier, his country is demanding only a small part of its lost territory and would be content with the restoration of two limited areas on the Thailand side of the Mekong River. ■ There are good grounds for believing, however, that much less would have been heard of these demands but for Japanese prompting and that Japan, having extorted by threats the right to occupy and use naval and airbases in Indo-Chinese territory, is also intent on turning the dispute between Thailand and Indo-China to account in furtherance of her projects of aggression and expansion to the south.

Thailand, as a special correspondent of the “-Sydney Morning Herald” wrote recently, entered the twentieth century “with her ancient border quarrels apparently ended and turned with great enthusiasm to the promotion of internal reforms and the modernisation of her agriculture, industry, and institutions.” Tn this policy of progress, Thailand has been aided by her neighbours, particularly Britain and" Japan, but, as the same correspondent further observes: —

The Japanese, in aiding Thailand, have entrenched themselves in the country’s life. Practically every Government department, the army, the majority of the banks, and nearly all commercial firms have Japanese advisers. Japan now occupies the same commanding influence in Thailand that Germany has won in Slovakia. Japan has played cleverly on the enthusiastic nationalism of the Siamese. She has never lost an opportunity of recalling that Cambodia was “seized” by the French, or to insist that for 50 years Thailand’s industrial and financial activities have been dominated by Great Britain and China; and Tokio still maintains that Britain has attempted to mould Siamese foreign policy.

In fact, however, Japanese influence over Thailand has been so extended and consolidated that “the Siamese are apparently willing to assist the growth of Japanese power in the Far East and run the risk of themselves becoming subservient to an ally whom they’ helped to power.”

With Japanese forces already stationed in northern IndoChina, it'was reported not long ago from Shanghai that foreign observers saw another immediate source of danger Jo IndoChina in the. current tension between that colony and Thailand. It was held likely that any serious clash between the two might be used by the Japanese as a pretext for landing troops and “restoring order.” It was added that: —

British strategists are known to be deeply concerne , y T likelihood of Japanese control of southern Indo-China, 01 *' anese troops there could move unopposed across Tiai ‘ blockade the Malay Peninsula in the event of a Brills - U conflict.

The general impression conveyed is that Japan is 1 )U1S,1/I ’ towards both Thailand and Indo-China very muc i n J’j . policy—one combining provocation with allegedly |»o ( ’ interference—as Nazi Germany pursued towards ausu a, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other States beloie pioce o extend her boundaries in Europe.

Although they may appear in themselves and at I”*'/ to be of minor importance, the events ol the )O1( different between Thailand and Indo-China assume a vei >* e ; aspect when they are considered in Ilnar nnnmliale ■ P»s. relationship Io Japanese sehcines ot " ‘ “jj ’ that enters into the Japanese « be "" / ' or effectively in detail, bid it aiay bo hoped that is ’ ’j will |„ eonntered in t o .neasnres Urban 1 /; // IXXS glbat exists between the British Umpire and the United States where resistance to Japanese aggression is concerned.