Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1941, JAPAN GROWS BOLDER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1941, JAPAN GROWS BOLDER.

QNLY a sharp reversal of.' the Japanese attitude, in. the discussions with the United States, it is now reported would give any chance of agreement. To this a New York cablegram adds that:—■

Informed officials say that the Japanese are at present temporising, because they desire to get a clearer picture of the developments in Europe, particularly the Russian situation.

In other words, the militarists who have long swayed the destinies of Japan, and probably do so still, are hoping that Nazi Germany may win a sufficient measure of success in Russia to enable them to defy the democracies and stake all their hopes on a; policy of unbridled aggression, in conjunction with their Axis partners.

While it may be hoped that the Japanese militarists in any event are indulging in fallacious hopes, the danger stands out very obviously that a spectacular success gained by Germany on the Eastern front, such as the capture of Moscow, or an extension of the invasion of Southern Russia, may bring the Pacific crisis swiftly to a climax.

Whether the American-Japanese discussions could in any case have been carried to a point of practical agreement is at best an open question. In a recent article in the “Christian Science Monitor,” Air Randlill Gould, former chief Far Eastern correspondent of that paper, observed that none in responsible positions could see what possible appeasement could be ottered to Japan with any prospect that this would not lead to deepening, rather than lessening, of the present trouble.

Therefore (he added) there is a universal conviction that the only way America and China can ever win through to a durable working arrangement with the Japanese is to maintain a strong front which may finally, through one means or another—peaceful means of course preferred —alter the whole line of Japanese policy and restart Japan on civilised lines. More clearly than ever before, Washington perceives that in dealing with totalitarianism of any sort, efforts at comprise lead only to defeat.

The same decided view is taken by the Chinese National Government headed by General Chiang Kai-shek. Indeed some uneasiness was awakened in Chungking by the fact that the United States had even opened discussions with Japan and fears were expressed that the outcome might be a “Pacific Munich.”

Backed by Great Britain, however, the United States Government appears to have been honestly of opinion that it might be possible to induce or compel Japan to abandon and reverse her policy of aggression. It has been denied emphatically that the United States would attempt to reach agreement with Japan on the basis of a compromise harmful to China. Hopes of agreement that were entertained appear to have rested rather on the belief that there are in Japan commercial and other elements, which, given the opportunity, would assert themselves against the militarists, and that an uncompromising stand by the English-speaking democracies in support of China was the best means of giving these elements their opportunity and encouraging them to make use of it.

For the time being at least, hopes of a peaceful understanding' with Japan are tending to disappear. The danger is in plain sight that even inconclusive and temporary successes gained by the Germans in Russia may enable the Japanese militarists to carry the day in favour of a policy of reckless aggression. Tt becomes necessary for all the Pacific democracies, amongst them this country and Australia, to brace themselves for the possibility that this danger may take sudden, and urgent shape.