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Show Will We Risk War With Japan The seeming quiet in the Far East should not beguile Americans Ameri-cans into thinking that the Japanese Jap-anese have abaundoned their ambitious plans for the aggrandizement aggran-dizement of the empire. The withdrawal of soldiers from the interior of China is taken tak-en in many quarters to be the first step in preparing for an ambitious movement in another area. This may be French Indo-China, Indo-China, the Netherlands East Indies In-dies or, as some suspect, the region reg-ion around Singapore, site of the great British naval base. The Japanese blandly assert that they want peace with the United States but, significantly, at the same time, they regret that the United States does no-understand no-understand the situation in the Far East. The recent appointment appoint-ment of a new ambassador to this country, who is cons dered "friendly" to western nations, is a typical Japanese manoeuvre, signifying nothing. Just now, the Japanese are sitting on the fence, watching developments de-velopments in Europe, but gett-l ing ready to climb down on the right side, according to ihe outlook. out-look. If Germany and Italy are winning, the Japs will become insistent about their program; if Great Britian looks like a possible pos-sible winner, the Japs will wait for a favorable opportunity. There are several courses o: action open to the United States, with some arguments in favor of each plan. The probabilities range from emulation of the British example, concentrating upon the European situation and taking care of the Far East later, to open advocacy of a stern policy pol-icy against Japanese aggression, even If it flirts with warfare, upon up-on the theory that the Japs cannot can-not afford a war with us without almost certain disaster. In between, there are such steps as putting an embargo upon up-on all imports from Japan, the dispatch of abundant war materials ma-terials to the Chinese government govern-ment and the dispatch of a strong naval squadron to Singapore, where it will block Japanese expansion ex-pansion southward by gunfire, if challenged. In our opinion, one or more of 'these in-between measures will be resorted to with the full knowledge thai they may lead to war. |
