Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1941. JAPANESE ASPIRATIONS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1941. JAPANESE ASPIRATIONS.

Q.\ the strength of his reported observations to an interviewer (the Tokio correspondent of the “New York Times ') on the subject of Japan s new order and the intended phases oi its development. Admiral Suetsugu. though he is a member ol the Cabinet Advisory Council, might be classed as irresponsible. He is quoted by the correspondent as stating t.hat “Australia and India, but not New Zealand, will be in the second phase ol •Japans new order" and that: —

The first phqse would include China, the Malayan islands, and the Dutch East Indies. Singapore was the key to the situation. It was regarded as a serious obstacle, to Japanese hegemony in the South Seas.

As a naive expression of purely predatory intention, this could not well be surpassed. Admiral Suetsugu apparently believes that the British and other territories he named either will submit to enslavement by Japan or can be made to submit. Incidentally, the unity 01 the British Empire apparently is something of which he is completely unaware.

From the British standpoint, the Japanese admiral’s observations, apart from being devoid of morality, of course tall short of being even rational. They cannot be dismissed as a mere curiosity of individual aberration, however, for the reason that to a considerable extent they relied accurately the policy declared and now in a measure being pursued by the Japanese Government. The leading members ol that Government, amongst them the Prime Minister, Prince Konoye ami the Foreign .Minister, Mr Matsuoka, have proclaimed, though in vaguer terms than those, employed by Admiral Suetsugu. that .Japan is determined to establish her leadership in Eastern Asia and elsewhere, and have in some important details proceeded from words to actions in .seeking the realisation of these aspirations, As matters stand, there is a good deal to support the opinion expressed by the Singapore correspondent of the “Sunday Express" that the territory which promises the most immediate rewards for Japanese financiers is the vulnerable Dutch East Indies and that Japan, like Hitler, may be preparing to gamble all on one desperate coup. The only division, of which there has been any convincing evidence of late among the present rulers of Japan is that between those who are prepared at once to risk everything in this gamble and those who desire, on purely prudential grounds, to await further developments. That Japan is organising and making preparations whicli would enable her to launch an attack on Singapore and the Dutch Indios is made manifest in the recent course of events. She has extorted from French Indo-China the right to introduce forces into and make use of bases in that territory, and Thailand is much under her influence. It cannot be doubted that in her role of mediator between Thailand and Indo-China in their territorial dispute Japan is intent primarily upon extending her control over both countries. Thailand and Indo-China are so much at her mercy that she may bo said to command the land approach to Singapore. Of late. too. she has withdrawn considerable forces from parts of China in order to ’post them, in Hainan Island and elsewhere, in readiness to support a policy of southern adventure. There has been no indication of any abatement of these preparations for aggression, or of actual retreat from the policy on which they are based, though there have been some statements of a trimming character. It was reported yesterday, for instance, that in rejecting the declaration of the Netherlands Government that the Netherlands East Indies would not participate in Japan’s new order in East Asia, the Japanese ViceMinister of Foreign Affairs, .Mr Ohashi, said that Japan was concerned only with economic and not political aspects of Asiatic expansion; hence the discussion in Batavia would be continued despite the objections of the Netherlands Government in London. While it is intended presumably to imply that Japan is engaged only in economic bargaining with the Dutch East Indies, this characteristic utterance makes it clear that, under pretence ol economic bargaining. -Japan actually is intent on both political and economic dictation. In the extent to which it is developed and defined. the policy of the Japanese Government is quite in keeping with the frankly predatory .aims declared by Admiral Suetsugu and others. It may Im hoped, however, that even the present rulers of Japan, much as they are inclined to aggression and to aggrandisement by conquest, will be compelled to recognise that the course of world events is tending steadily to rob their schemes of any hopeful aspect they may ever have worn. An American correspondent in the Far East observed recently that if. as some commentators believe. Hitler’s world strategy consisted some months ago of plans for simultaneous assaults by the Axis Powers on Gibraltar, Suez and Singapore, the Japanese moves (a reduction of operations in China ami preparatory massing of strength in the south) seemed to lit into this picture. There is in fart not Hindi doubt that the policy the Japanese Government has yet to modify in any vital particular was based upon an expectation of shattering Axis victories in Europe. The significance ami effect of the actual eour-.e ol events in Europe and in Africa must make some impression even upon people as obstinately intent upon a given course as are the present rulers of Japan. It is perhaps n reasonable estimate of the existing state of affairs to suppose that the Japanese Government is badly at a loss, although still desperately intent on predatory aggression in the extent to which it is practicable and that Admiral Suetsugu and others like him are persistently piping a turn* they do not know how to change.