FAR FAST PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1941, Page 2

FAR FAST PROBLEMS

UNITED STATES' POLICY. j . I It is easy in retrospect to denounce -•American shortsightedness in arming : ja potential enemy in Japan, states a J contributor to the "Christian Science l Monitor." Yet the alternative policy J of wholesale boycott and embargo had i and has its risks, and should certainly 'be undertaken only if the United | States is prepared for war in the Far .' East. For it is extremely probable that Japan's military and naval lead- ■ i vrs. if denied access to raw materials o in America, would endeavour to seize ' such a storehouse of oil. tin. rubber 'land tropical raw materials as the : j Dutch East Indies. The natural wealth ■j of the Philippines has also not escaped l ; Japan's attention, The United States 1 in the Far East has been facing much ’■ the same dilemma that France and ■j Great Britain faced before the war in /regard to Germany's expansion in Eastern Europe. There has been the i same difficulty in making up the nai tional mind whether to stand firm or ■ to yield With present-day events moving at such a quickened tempo, the hour of inevitable decision is perhaps not verv far oil'.