Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1941. “INDEPENDENCE” IN JAPAN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1941. “INDEPENDENCE” IN JAPAN.

IJAf) use is made of a good word in the cabled statement, that Japanese newspapers expect that their country,, in the situation arising out of Germany's attack on Russia, will follow the “independent” policy which is intended to achieve her major objective of a “new order” in East Asia. In any worthy connotation, an independent policy would imply also an upright policy, but in the outlook of the more or less inspired Japanese Press an “independent ” policy apparently means an attempt to find in' one abominable act of treachery and aggression an opportunity of extracting profit from another act of a similar kind. In Japan, as in Germany itself, the Nazi attack on Russia appears to have occasioned in the first instance overwhelming surprise. This is easily understandable, but there is a departure from elementary principles of honesty in the fact that some at least of those who direct opinion and shape policy in Japan are already casting about for ways and means of turning the new and surprising situation to account in furtherance of a policy of Japanese aggression. .Making any claim at all to honesty and good faith, Japan could be under no uncertainty as to the attitude she is bound to take rip towards the war between Germany and Russia. It is only a little over two months since -Japan concluded with the Soviet Union a Neutrality Pact, Article 2 of which reads: —- Should one of the contracting parties become the object of hostilities on the part 1 of one or several third Powers, the other contracting party will observe neutrality throughout the duration of the conflict. It is thus clear that Japan is solemnly pledged to a policy of neutrality as between Germany and Russia, and that she can pursue the so-called “independent” policy now expected by her newspapers only at the cost of proclaiming to the whole world that her national word is as worthless as that of Hitler. Other evidence than newspaper expectations that Japan is contemplating a policy of black bad faith appears in a Tokio cablegram received yesterday which stated that:— The Japanese Premier, Prince Konoye, and Mr Wang Chingwei (head of the Nanking puppet Government), in a joint statement, pledged themselves to collaborate to eradicate the evils of Communist aggression and in establishing a new order in East Asia. In this transaction, Wang Ching-wei is a cipher, or at most an entirely servile attribute of Japan. Upon the latter country total responsibility rests for the so-called joint statement of policy, and the policy put forward amounts plainly to a treacherous repudiation of the Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union into which Japan entered freely little more than two months ago. Impossible as it evidently is Io rely upon Japanese good faith, some weighty reasons appear for agreeing with the opinion expressed by that veteran Australian Minister, Mr TV. M. Hughes, that Japan’s position has been weakened by Germany’s latest action and the danger of an attack on Australia (lie might have added also on New Zealand) lessened. Any considerable measure of military success gained by Nazi Germany against Russia no doubt would be regarded by Japan as creating opportunities for a. policy of predatory aggression on her own part. This appears, amongst other things, in the assertion of a Tokio newspaper that “the Russo-German hostilities make it virtually impossible to keep the European war from spreading throughout the world.” Where her ambitions of southward expansion and other details of her policy are concerned, however, Japan evidently has been deterred much less by fear of Russia than by the dangers she would incur in challenging the British Empire and the United States in the Pacific. These dangers, to say the least, have not obviously been lessened by the Nazi attack on Russia. On the contrary there is much to support the opinion widely expressed that Germany’s action is a tribute to the splendid defence of Britain and io the effectiveness of the British blockade. Japan still has excellent reasons to think twice before plunging into a war in the Pacific in which, in all human probability, she would have to reckon with both the British Empire and the United States.