ALLEGED OFFER TO JAPAN

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21583, 20 November 1941, Page 4

ALLEGED OFFER TO JAPAN

Unofficial suggestions from the United States that Japan may be asked to renounce her affiliation with the Axis and join the antiHitler front are at least provocative of thought. Stranger things have happened even in this war, but the fly in the ointment seems to be China. But for the unfinished China war Japan might easily be persuaded that she made a dangerous choice when she joined the Axis. Having gone so far, can she be persuaded to sacrifice her ambitions in China ? That is very doubtful at the present moment, but the time may come when Japan will be faced with the alternatives of making an honourable peace with China or sacrificing her own national security. The parties negotiating at Washington are observing the closest secrecy. It cannot be imagined that this perhaps final opportunity of reaching an understanding will be allowed to pass without resort to far-reaching explorations. The United States knows perfectly well that Japan has made a calamitous mistake by linking her fate with Germany’s. Is it impossible for American statesmen similarly to convince the Japanese ? If and when that realisation came to the Japanese mind, startling developments in Japanese policy could be expected. Germany, for instance, turned two complete somersaults in her relations with Russia in the course of two years. It is not improbable that Japan would change her policy just as drastically if she could be shown a way out of the Chinese impasse. American newspapers say that Japan will be offered the status of an ally instead of a foe if she is willing to leave the Axis and help the democracies. Under such conditions the United States would use its good offices to secure a settlement with Chiang Kai-shek, under which Japan would receive economic rights in China and equality with the Western Powers, in full consideration of China’s sovereign rights. If that offer is indeed made, will Japan accept it ? Can an arrangement be reached that would be fair to China ? These problems are apparently receiving consideration at Washington. Much depends upon Japan’s ability to approach the task in a reasonable spirit and to eradicate from her mind the idea that the world’s prizes await the nation that dares to place might before right.