Evening Star Newspaper, February 2, 1930, Page 35

Part 2—-8 Pages EDITORIAL SECTION - he Sunday Star. NAVAL PARLEY IS MARKED BY DELEGATES’ GOOD WILL Won't Risk Wrecking Conference to Get What They Want—French Are Co-operating. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ONDON.—The first and what might perhaps be described as the decorative stage of the Naval Conference is ended. In this stage there were three parts: First, that of introduction while the delegates were arriving and meeting; second, the dramatic climax when the conference was formally opened in the oyal gallery of the House of Lords by the King himself; finally, the stage in ‘which the delegates first met in a body around the green table and took stock of each other. As contrasted to the Paris or the Washington Conference, one must say at once that, despite the Tather grandiose circumstances of a Toyal address, the London Conference has so far proved a less absorbing spec- tacle. In the London press it has fought a losing battle. Among the general public it has commanded vastly less interest than did either of its great predecessors. ‘When one turns from the spectacular %o the more prosaic, to the question of what light the early days have shed n_future prospects, one must say nestly that we are about where we ere before. We do know as a result ©f the first contacts with the French that they have not come to wreck the conference, either wilfully or uhrough nt_obstinacy. Tardieu will play ball if he can; he would prefer to £0 home with a treaty rather than with the dangerous glory of having wrecked the meeting. ‘We do know just as clearly that our own delegation has reached a clear, definite decision to insist that the ’quemon of parity in cruisers shall be the first point discussed between us and the British, that no consideration of battleships shall be weighed until .the cruiser question is settled, and finally that all naval tonnage questions shall be of in one treaty. U. S. Has No One-Man Show. Similarly we know that the United States is the only country represented by a dzle‘gunn as contrasted to the one-man shows which the British and Italians are putting on here. Nor is it less clear that in our delegation per- haps the decisive work of negotiation be done by two Senators and one near Senator—that is, by Robinson, Reed and Morrow—and the view of the Senate, which is always in the back- ground, will be powerfully Voiced at all ‘When it comes to the question of the purposes of the other delegations, noth- ing is yet clear. It is fair to say that Macdonald is still standing by the Rap- idan agreement, which provided for ty in cruisers on a basis of 339,000 315,000 tons. But it is clear that he is on the one :me being -umd ‘:o c y pressure y Tory press, and on the other is confronted by French and Italian pro- irreconcilable with British two- of interest in the We the grams power standard ideas. The central point first days was the French know now that France is here to obtain limited to the Mediterranean. But it is at one time doubtful how little France | will take and how much Britain is will- ing to give; that is, whether France would be satisfied with some new ver- sion of the Kellogg pact, or Britain would be willing to go the length of a real Mediterranean Locarno. Both ex- tremes seem doubtful. As to Japan and Italy, they are on the surface the most difficult of the delegations, because both have to de- mand what are actually prestige terms. Italy asks parity with France, Japan a little advance on her Washington ratio. Since the representatives of pre-Fascist Italy obtained parity for Italy in bat- tleships at Washington, Mussolini’s dele- gate cannot face his master if he fails where Albertini and Schanzer succeed- ed. In the domestic and political situ- ation in Japan, Wakasuki's needs are not less exigent. Neither Italy nor Japan wants more ships, but the right to have ships they do not want has become a matter of honor at home as it is a matter of political concern abroad. In general, however, none of the major issues has been approached. And the American delegation has definitely assumed a position of walting on one hand for Italy and France to come to an_agreement, because our delegates rightly perceive that Britain's naval strength is contingent upon French and Italian and perhaps a little on Japan- ese strength, and we must wait for the clearing up of these points. Opening Inauspicious. In one respect it is clear that the conference has opened rather inau- spiciously. The very great nervousness on the part of the principal delegates has led to the immediate adoption of those methods of secrecy which proved fatal to the success of Paris 11 years ago. ‘This nervousness is the result of a clear perception that the problems are full of thorny points and the ex- ploitation of these might provoke real press battles between the national cap- itals. On the other hand, a period of ut- ter silence has already inevitably pro- moted the circulation of many sensa- tional rumors and reports demanding immediate emphatic denials which never overtake the original lie. Even more serious is the opportunity afforded for mendacious and propaganda ma- neuvers which are even more poisonous. To sum up, in the first phase of the conference, nothing but preliminaries have been touched upon, but in this period it has become clear that the conference will be long, two months at least, that it will be excessively diffi- cult to achieve any result by reason of domestic political conditions in most of the nations here represented. But on the other hand, nothing has yet oc- curred to make eventual success seem unlikely and, as I have said, fears of a premature collapse due to Prench E)llcy have been dissipated. In a word, if the actual problems have lost nothing of their formidable proportions it has been disclosed that the psychological conditions have been exaggerated. some sort of guarantee pact, presumably (Copyright, 1930.) American “Export Offensive” Is Feared By Germans to Be Goal Set by Hoover BY JOHN ELLIOTT. BERLIN—German financial circles, Which at first were Inclined to the collapse of the stock market in Wall Strest as a blessing to the rest of the world, now see in it @ new men- ace to German industry. Even the fear recently voiced by Dr. Siemens, of the wall known electric company, that German concerns would eventually fall into the hands of their American rivals, has been driven into the back- ground by the specter of American ananufacturers driving Germany out of $he markeis of the world. Americans, who in their sehool days were taught to look with awe on Ger- man exporters as masters of the art of catering to the tastes and prejudices of foreign customers, may perhaps be forgiven a thrill of pride on this sud- den revelation of the respect enter- tained for the prowess of American traders in Germany. . For when the news that President Hoover was calling a conference of American economic leaders to Wash- ~ington was cabled to this country, Berlin newspapers blossomed forth with alarmist headlincs such as “America’s Export Offensive.” When_stocks first began crumbling in New York, Germany breathed easier, foreseeing the possibility of floating German municipal and commercial securities once more in Wall Street. Financial circles in this country also figured correctly that the end of speculation in America spelled easier money rates for business men at home. But they did not take into consid- eration the possibility that the dimin- ished buying power of the American people, through the loss of savings in the Stock Exchange crash, might com- pel American manufacturers to concen- trate on the building up of their for- eign trade to recoup their losses in the ‘gomestic field. Sound Warning of Rivalry. ‘This possibility first dawned on the Germans, apparently, when President Hoover made his dramatic intervention in the crisis. It is certainly a tribute o the reputation that Mr. Hoover has made for himself in Germany by his work as Secretary of Commerce that observers here immediately foresaw a #erious threat to German export trade. '""One of the first to sound the alarm was Dr. Paul Silverberg, prominent Rhineland industrialist, who, in ad- dressing the Col Chamber of Com- merce, declared: “Domestic purchas- ing power in the United States has now reached its high-water level, and we/| must count on the overflooding of non- American markets by the production ©f surplus from American quarters. So much more serious for our own ex- rts. Dr. Silverberg expressed grave doubts ®s to whether German industry was in 2 position to compete with her Ameri- can rival, owing to wage conditions and the tax system prevalent in the reich. George Bernhard, editor of the Vi sische Zeitung, admits that Germany will indirectly be hard hit by the de- Velopment of America’s export business. He es the moral for Amernca in | the recent stock market tumble was the danger of inflation produced by the pever-ending stream of foreign gold flowing into the country from repar- al and the inter-aliled debt pay- ts. mplaining that “common sense esses very slowly in the United Stites,” this writer, who is reputed to be | unfriendly to Anglo-Saxon coun- tries, asks whether the American people will care to continue through these per- petually recurring cycles made by spec- ulation followed by catastrophic losses, or whether they will not prefer to ask less in the way of reparations and keep tly | siderably more than a nickel, the many: “We would be under estimat- ing President Hoover by not taking into d | account that he now believes the time has come for realizing his favorite plans for peaeable American expansion by way of a mighty extension of American 9! business. Not for nothing has he devoted his immense energy for years to the task of creating for his country the best foreign trade organization— an organization which not only has spirit and size, but a consular apparatus far superior to that of any other coun- Y Financial Reform Urged. ‘The Tageblatt says that the Germans need not view these erican prepara- tions in a defeatist spirit, but that the German government must take meas- ures in time to ward off the threatened American competition by a reform of the country’s ancial system. “Now, more than ever, it is a ques- tion of fight for Germany’s existence,” warns the Tageblatt solemnly. For- merly, it continues, America was in the economic struggle partly neutral and at times Germany's ally, through ex- tension of credits, but now,' as the United States girds its loins for the battle for foreign markets, “we as a nation primarily dependent on exports will perhaps find in the United States our most dangerous economic oppo- nent.” New Use for Talkies Is Revealed in Japan Japanese recently had a startling revelation of the value of talking pie- tures, which are just going through the “novelty” stage in Japan. When the first of the companies to introduce sound films came to Japan arrange- ments were made to take a talkie news reel of some prominent men. One of these was Baron Tanaka, former pre- mier. He died not long after this “shooting,” and a large memorial meet- ing was held for him with a public hearing of the film. The former premier appeared on the screen, and after be- ing introduced by Edwin L. Neviile, American charge d'affaires, delivered a short address. The effect on the audi- ence was unusual. Individuals as we as the public press pointed out the ap- propriateness of showing the picture and praised the newest scientific device for preserving the memory of those who | have died. Vatican Wins Odd Suit in Hungarian Court A delicate point of law, growing out of the fluctuations in European money values following the war, has been settled by a Hungarian court in favor of the Vatican. The case grew out of the will left by a Budapest citizen, Michele Bakony, who died in 1907 leav- ing 1,000 crowns to the Holy See, the amount to be pald after the death of his spouse, who, it so happened, re- mained alive until 1927. At that time the equivalent of 1,000 crows in Italian money was 5 cents, and the Vatican consequently refused to accept the leg- acy, taking the ter to court and demanding the equivalent of the sum which Bakony actually had intended to grant the Holy See. Now, after two years of discussion, the Hungarian court has decided to give the Vatican 70 per cent of what it has demanded, or approximately $140. ‘This being con- can has itself as satisfied with the decision, WASHINGTON, D. (¢, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 2, 1930. Preserving Land of Tragedy Area of the Cherokees at Last Will Be Embraced in Great Smoky National Park—1Its History Recalled BY BEN DIXON MACNEILL. ITH only the most casual stirrings of interest among those who:: mission in the uary 11 acquired title to territory extending over an area of sguare miles, ‘The territory ever was for an aboriginal literature in America and looks down upon the undimmed flame of a bitter hate that had its beginning just 100 years ago when ignorant but politically potent Georgians mistook copper for gold. This newly-acquired dominion of the United States is the first body of land bought by the States of North Carolina and Tennessee with funds raised by private donation—most notable of which is the $5000,000 contribution of John D. Rockefeller, jr.—to become part of the Great Smoky Mountain Na- tional Park. The right to purchase the land has been fought through the courts, the battle ending recsntly in the decision of the United States Supreme Court, when it upheld findings against a great lumber company. There is as much more to be bought. Descriptions Wasted. It is & territory upon Which the most florid adjectives of publicity experts— retained lo inspire contributions—have spent themselves impotently. Their su- rlatives were exhausted in the foot- ls and comparatives were equally helpless when it came to describing a dozen of the highest peaks east of the Rocky Mountains, with streams that come tumbling riotously out of them, and far, deep valleys into which few, if any, white men have ever fought their way. together it is a country about which it is next to impossible not to become lyrical—unless ome i so0 thoroughly awed that lyricism flees from him. Among the national parks it will, when BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON. HILIP SNOWDEN, whom France was the first to christen “Eng- land’'s Iron Chancellor” (they called him other names, too, at that Hague reparations confer- ence), is brewing Labor's budget, and the financiers, business men, colonels, die-hards and patriots who toasted him when he held Europe up for another £2,400,000 of reparations, and got it, are wondering what he is going to pre- sent in Parliament shortly—a bowl of mother’s milk or a caldron of devil's broth. For this is a man of surprises and riddles. Very busy he has been, holding the treasury fort against spending min- isters since he got back from The Hague, fatigued with victory and cov- ered with glory. He has managed to keep new expenditures down to around $100,000,000—on top of estimated ex- penditure under all heads of around $4,000,000,000—but it has been a tough Jjob and he is not through yet. His big, unlimited loan of October, 1929, dimmed his Hague renown more than a trifle. For one thing, it has anchored British credit at 5 per cent for the next 15 years and some think British credit should be on a 4% per cent basis. For another thing, it de- preciated existing government bonds. War 55 had been above par and all government bonds were standing a trifle better than the 5 per cent basis. And then, to make sure that he got some- thing anyway, the chancellor placed $150,000,000 of his loan privately with the big banks and insurance houses at 99',, which the stock market com- plained was favoring the money inter- est at the expense of the public, which had to pay $100 for the $850,000,000 worth of stock it took up. A Social- ist chancellor handing a premium to the money kings at the expense of the small investor! Now Rated as Financier. But Philip Snowden, the one-time doctrinaire Socialist, is a bit of & prac- tical financier these days. And as for what people may say about him, whether they be bankers or brokers or rebels or the Labor Left, he does not care a darn —simply, when he has made up his mind and set that lean and rocky chin, he does not care a darn. They discovered that at The Hague when the reparations row was on. Aris- tide Briand, the soother, the charmer, thought to dislodge him from his posi- tion by the arts of suasion and ca- jolery. He broke upon Snowden as a suave wave which breaks upon a rock; the wave receded, the rock remained. None of the delegates could understand him, He was outside their experience —this strange man with his fixed blue, sunken eye and large, wr?trudlng ears flanking a white gnome’s face. M. C.Mron, lump, soft-fleshed, pro- turberant in the waistline but in the mind, finance mll;llw ol’m' . h:‘ watched this grim and menac! - nomenon in horn-rimmed spectac! days and then suddenly said to Briand: “I have thought for days that I have seen that man before and now I know where I hive seen him before. Behold the man who burned Joan of Are.” M. Cheron was not far wrong. Snow- den, clenched, crippled, cold, clear- headed, industrious, incorruptible, in- domitable, insular and dry (in the al- coholic sense) is the pungent national- ist ingredient in the British Labor- ist cocktail—in which heady and it draught the Welsh Jim Thomas Vtt- | By o mlylsmmm"y -tional interna ist flavoring and the Macdonald the emo- tonalist basis, - cludes the grave of the only hope that | les for | shy " gE:ALUSKA LOOKED BACK it has been made accessible by highways, become one of the most notable public dominions in America. It will extend over an area of approximately 600 square miles, lying on either side of the boundary between North Carolina and Tennessee, down into the lower . valle; of it has never been seen by the eyes of a white man except through the lens of an aerial camera. ACROSS THE VALLEY OF THE NOONDAY —From a painting by Edwin Willard Deming. Reaching down the eastern slope of the Great Smoky Mountains from the peak that is called Mount Guyot, the territory enfolds and embraces the comparatively small reservation of the Cherokee Indian nation, the bronzed inheritors and keepers of the most sin- guiar racial hatred in America, who curse the memory of Andrew Jackson as the memory of perhaps no other man in America is cursed. They look PHILIP SNOWDEN—BRITISH LABOR'S RIDDLE. —Drawn for The SBunday Star by Eric Pape. ‘They* do not breed either Thomases or Macdonalds in the region Snowden comes from. He was born and spent his boyhood and youth in a little vil- lage on the borderline between the cot- ton country of Lancashire and the woolen county of Yorkshire; and in those two areas they breed ver{ English males, true to type generation after generation. Lancashire men get on— adventourous and quick-witted and cold men, outstanding in business enter- prises; Yorkshire men are massive, solid, slow, stubborn and tend to pre- em| in the banking, legal and in- surance fields. Birkenhead is & man of Lancashire, Asquith, came from York- combativeness - calculating power and sense'of . realities, and the Yorkshire dourness and humanity. He was bred in & hard world of hard folk; he has had & hard fight, and he is hard. He has been called the British Machiavelll, and he has been called briliant. 1In fact, he is neither. He is simply remarkably clear-headed and Iu nmther o)lfll-(uhiml ed radical wr}n h:l 'm| early narrowness of out- E\Eu ot "poli o Chougnt. oy 'the experience 25 ot and the Labor small town and national politics and journalism (he now is 65). . Above all, e is a fighter from the land of the rou!h. fighting, northern tribes. Name of Lad Matter for Thought. He is a weaver’s son. But the father had ambitions for & boy who was_al- ways head and shoulders above the other village boys. Snowden senior may even have had premonitions, for it is sald that “ David” was the name orig- inally chosen for the new addition to family, but the father thought it over and decided that “if ever th' laad becomes faymous Philip'll sound better ner David.” 8o Philip it was, As with Macdonald, the vil- 1age school and the village schoolmaster had 'some say in the destiny of an un- umlly bright pupil, the pride of his class. to go to the mill (this was long before & minimum age labor law was passed) Philip had passed examinations and be- come a pupll-teacher. He was in his teens still when his parents went over the county border, lo"o;lung in the track of better jobs in the , and Phillp, who lived with his parents, uprooted from his and got & job in an Insurance was at the with unperturbed calm upon the com- ing of the park and wonder if again th? are to be torn up by the roots and thrust adrift. But their lands are not involved in the plans of those who have achieved the park. ‘Toward the southern end of this new dominion of the United States stands the rounded peak that bears the name of Chief Junaluska, last and atest of the lords of the Cherokees, el President of his nation. Under hi leadership the Cherokees were recog- nized as an independent republic, and it was his inspiration that converted his people overnight into a literate nation with the beginnings of a literature of its own. Junaluska died and with his broken heart lies buried on the top of his lonely Flk. Such of the histories as concern themselves at all with the expulsion of the Cherokees from their country—the land that is now to become a park— speak of it as the Removal. The Chero- kees speak of it as the Betrayal. And coupled inevitably with it is the echoing curse uttered by Junaluska when he stood on the top of the peak, looking backward upon his desolate land, and cursed the day that he had saved the life and the military reputation of An- drew Jackson at Horseshoe Bend. These Cherokees are the descendants of those who survived the atrocity of the Re- moval. Justice May Be Lacking. Something of justice may be lacki in this bitter hatred of Oldychkory. ‘nx year before the Removal he had quit the White House to return to Tennessee and cough his life away. But he was President when the first demands were made in the early thirties after the Geol s thought thghld discovered old in the Valley of Noonday Sun. t was his successor who ordered the Removal and sent Gen. Winfield Scott to the Great mf xgyo#mxnfllnl up a nation of 15 people and drive them westward. But Jltkpson hldd;:rt (Continued on Fifth Page,) Britain’s “Iron Chancellor” Financial Victory Over Rest of Europe at The Hague Made Philip Snowden a Hero in England flair for ana; figures were not difficult to He worked by day in the office and attended night school, coaching himself for the examination which opened the door to the state service. He passed with honors in open competition; and at the same time escaped forever from the manual workers into the class of the brain workers. (He does not and never has belonged to \:lx:z\khbor union.) And he began to Youths Classed as “Thinkers.” It was a time when such young men (of & class which previously had been denied the benefit—the landed gentry and the employers of labor called it the | curse—of free education and a chance in life) all over England were thinking. H. G. Wells, a harried apprentice boy in’ a dry goods store, was thinking. Shaw was not only thinking but ha- ranguing crowds from the vantage post of & s0ap box. Macdonald was a three- dollar-a-week clerk, and thinking. Jim ‘Thomas was a small boy, getting ready to clean engines in the big sheds. The youthful Lloyd George was denouncing the squire and parson of his native vil- lage and preaching home rule ‘Wales, Trade unions were in their in- fancy. There was no organized Labor party and not a single representative of Labor sat in the British Parliament. Young Snowden had little time to g into the question of Socialism thor- oughly and no opporunity at all at that time to get mixed up in the new young Soclalist movement which was upset- ting the squires and vicars, the feudal lords of the villages. For he was now, at 22, an official in the customs and excise department and working in the Orkney Islands. But he was destined not to evolve | and rise in the narrow rut of the reve- nue department of state. One day while he was cycling he had a serious accident which laid him up for a long time, caused him years of suffering, crippled him for life and ended his ca- reer as a salaried s servant. He walks now with two sticks, but he car- ries the real mark of his malady in his seared face, * * * Makes Study of Socialism. It was while he was lying on his back for a year and during his prolonged convalescence that aunmovde'n read almost everything that been writ- ten up to that time about Socialism and anti-Socialism. He applied his class views and his mathematical mind to the arguments for and against and was converted to Socialism—or, rather, con- vinced that his early feelings could stand the test of reason. He cut his Socialist and political eye teeth on the affairs of his native vil- lage of Cowling, whither his parents had now returned. As his health slowly came back and he wheeled himself about in an invalid chair he found a vent for hl:hln'dheml and At an age when other boys had | He ‘This mutual improvement class under Snowden's guidance became rather too rlnk in color to please the local Wes- leyan pundits, and his little group had to move out of the school premises and into the hall. He been re- tired . from state service for three years when & new law was passed which him jor & seat on the ). BY C. B. GARY, U. 8. Naval Reserve: former U. S."Navy. and intellizence of- fcer. U. S. naval detachment in Turkish waters and in Eastern Mediterranean. HE United States has many rea- sons to be thankful for the At- lantic and Pacic Oceans, among them being that these waters have insured us, from the be- ginning of our history, against the necessity of maintaining a standing army on the European scale, Hence, our interest in the problem of the limi- tation of armaments is peculiarly and essentially a naval one. And this prob- lem is further simplied by the fact that, as far as we are concerned, it is directly confined to only two other na- tions—Japan and Great Britain. As an aid in appreciating the prac- tical difficulties attending a reconcilia- tion of the divergent naval interests of the United States and the two powers with which she is directly concerned, let us consider the geographic, economic and political fastors underlying and determining the respective naval poli- cies of Japan and Great Britain, But as a background we might first observe that at the close of the World War there appeared certain phenomena which are essentially pertinent to the subject at hand. Balance Disturbed by War. First, the disappearance of Germany as a world naval and colonial power had disrupted the alignment and the static balance of the relations of the other naval and colonial powers one to an= other. This necessitated an appraise- ment of each other's new interests, new points of agreement, new points of fric- tion and possible antagonism and a re- adjustment of relations and a reorienta- tion of policies on the basis of this ap- praisement. Second, the United States and Japan had risen to a position of such mari- time strength as to make it possible for them to challenge, if not shortly transcend British supremacy in that heretofore exclusive sphere. In the case of the former this was supported and accentuated by an unsurpassed economic stren And in both cases this required that they be among the first to be considered when any world problem arose. ‘Third, the politico-naval center of gravity of the world had shifted from West to East, from the North Sea to the Pacific. This would appear to be one of those great changes in the course of history, the significance of which is only comparatively faintly seen at pres- ent and the consequences of which may not be fully apparent for scores of years. Japan's Rise Meteoric. ‘The meteoric rise of the Japanese ‘Empire from a state of obscurity and isolation to that of a world power in the span of the life of a single man is one of the most remarkable transitions Lieutenant. lisutenant. to round | of ps at Tsushima, as they destroyed the Russian fleet, an- nounced that Japan was of the world as well as in it; that she was a power. These were other shots which were heard around the globe, The rapid industrial, commercial and political development of Japan, her ac- tivities in Korea and Manchuria and emphasized the effect of Togo's victory. Today it is ly Japan mt gives to Pacific the significance which that ocean now has. Insularity Shapes Politics. Japan's fundamental interest in the sea arises from the inescapable fact that the salt water which surrounds and indents her affords her the only means of foreign communication. And the naval policies of Japan are deter- mined by and based upon this insu- larity, her inaccessibility, her peculiar geographic position in the Western Pa- cific and her intimate political and eco- nom‘lc relationship to the Asian conti- nent. To the south and west, Japan finds her routes to the antipodes, to the In- dies and to Europe lying entirely within narrow seas, flanked by the Philippines and controlied by British naval bases. To the east she sees 5,000 miles of ocean separating her from the conti- nental limits of the United States. But she cannot forget that only a narrow strait, less than a hundred miles in width, divides her from Asia. And so Japan, in a very elementary and literal sense, finds herself thrown back on Asia. Bound to Asian Continent. She blankets the northern portion of the continent and by virtue of this can control three of the four great gateways into Eastern Asia—t] Yangtze, the Gulf of Pechili and Viadivostok. She interposes herself on the ocean routes between the United States and the Philippines or between Europe and China. Her possession of Korea and her occupancy of Manchuria place her definitely and irrevocably in Asia. Interwoven in and about Asia, Japan is forcibly in intimate contact with all Possessions of Western powers in the Far East, particularly with those of the United States and Russia. And, lastly, her great distance from the American :‘leld l\(:rgp!ln con‘:lx:llen:}lolnd the weak- 'ss of her communication lines to but emphasize what is at on?em:n Isolation and her strength. In a geomaritime sense, therefore, Japan is the \Fre-emlnent factor in the Eastern world. For these geographic reasons, the control of those narrow waters at her back which separate her {rom Asia—the Japan and the Yellow Seas—is absolutely essential to the life of Japan, Strategic Position Strong. ‘These realities of geograph; ve Japan an_ enviable smwpcypg[nno'lf tBeuuu o; her isollt'l:n she has only W0 naval powers consider, th United States and Great Britain, 'rh: territory which she controls, being concentrated in the Western Pacific, permits of a concentrated defense, while her outlying islands and man- g-ct:dse provide her with an insular bar- Wxn case rglr ‘l'"l. W"’)"l.hln wer, particularly wi e United States, but with the exception of Rus- sia, she has only to seize the Asiatic or Western Pacific ions of her enemy (which she could easily do) and defend herself on interior lines her back to Asia. e While, on the other hand, her oppo- nent must cross the thousands of miles of ocean from either or Amer- ica before Japanese terri can be touched. =Naturally, these facts have great influence in' determining y | nese naval policy, Dependent on Imports. Economic factors accentuate the sig- nificance of Japan's geographical p:u‘i. tion and her sea and ocean communi- cations. Because of excessive popula- tion and poverty of natural Japan is not self-supporting in ¢ ‘the major portion of the tial for major n o essen of modern life, not to speak of 'Ill', Coiton, ruboer and Toodatatts, " O , rul She must 9 pay for these largely by her in, tra pee shipp! l“ud de services and by Western S SEA POWER MAIN DEFENSE OF BRITAIN AND JAPAN Each Country Dependent Upon Ocean Trade in Peace and War Alike. nomic and social pressure is rapidly forcing her into a highly industrialized state which, in turn, requires that she find new markets or penetrate old ones in the face of intense world competition, Asia is at once Japan's great source of natural supply and her great area of outlet. The Yangtze Valley and her Korean and Manchurian holdings are capable of supplying Japan with coal, iron ore, foodstuffs and other necessary commodities of life and industry and they give her an excellent entry into the undeveloped, but potentially vast market of China. To the south, in the Indies, 'lie sources capable of supplying her with rubber, cotton and oll. But whether in the case of the mainland or the Indies, Japan can draw from and carry to by sea alone. These economic facts bind Japan to Asia and to the sea as indubitably as she is so bound in a geographical sense. And they require, in Japanese opin- ion, a nationally self-sufficient mercan- tile marine, a completely insured access to these areas which sustain her eco- nomic life and a completely insured passage through the Japan, the Yellow and the China Seas. Foreign policies are largely dictated by geographic and economic considera- tions and the foreign policies of Japan ]un examples t}’l‘l "I‘I“ !.ru&xm Political- y, as phically and econol Japan is plnh{y linked wxm and particularly with China. In fact China is, in the last analysis, the alpha and omega of Japanese foreign wflw. Looks to Chinese Market. For as Japan gazes over the wide Chinese market, she sees reflected there- in her economic future and the for the exploitation energies of her peo- ple. The security of her Asiatic sources of raw materials and foodstuffs, the assurance of a favorable, if not domi- nant position in the Chinese marke and freedom of econemic and pol action in Korea and Manchuria are, in the eyes of Japan, absolute essentials of Tphoncyin ; e principal opposition to these poli- cles has been nnm likely to be en- countered in the nationalism of China, the never-ending “drang nach Osten” of Russia for a warm-water seaport, the political and commercial interests of European powers and the “open door” mllcy of the United States. But if the tegrity of what she takes to be her interests on the Asian continent and her communications thereto can be safeguarded, Japan can mnndlnui lace the Pacific and the future in that . Policy Defended in Wars. These geographic, economic and litical facts evolve themselves into c under], all Jaj ae: tion with which w":’r‘e here eonecmdm an ac- namely, that Japan should have tive hand in the deeviopment of North- Asia and that other tion or strentgh on the Asian b as to threaten Japanese interests there- on or Japan therefrom. The character of this policy, exerted over an area in which every is deeply interested, requires, in Japa- nese mind, that Japan be prdv!pned to her part in the late war have merely | Wars, has tened. But the defense of this policy is de- pendent upon local sea supremacy and particularly upon the security of Japan’s maritime communications to the conti~ nent. Hence, from the national policy there flows, as a corollary, Japan's basic naval policy, which might be phrased as follows: To maintain a naval strength which would be, in effect, superior to any other such possible strength that could be brought ot bear against her in the Western Pacific by any other power. Great Britain, In the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury Charles II of England and Louis X1V of France were dickering over the details of a joint campaign which Ihed were planning against. the Dutch. = Lou! suggested that he might take command of the combined naval forces. Chatles replied with an expression which was and is an artlle of faith of Britain and ;'r;e lppllclél‘on of 'm has given to T emp mari supremac; th;_o:l:hou:;m world. " v rather natve reply was, “ the custom of the l.h.ltz}f to eomn?-nhd the sea.” For three centuries and a half, or since the defeat of the Spanish er old GMWTM e The Br Empire stands out in his- tory as the classical exponent of sea power and the outstanding example of the effect of the sea upon the course of g:fr‘:?n"b 1111{ ':.he sea lrmd its command uilt her empire, and -!h%;lu l;fi::‘lned lt? G g e Bri seaman and trader. hand in hand, created the mhfi;.: bire as we know it today, while the British navy (“that great bond of ems pire”) and ‘the British mercantile ma- rine have been and are the expressi of British sea power and the instrus ments of its maintenance. All British ?l.c‘;:.l policy is predicated upon these Trade and Navy Linked. Furthermore, the tion which Britain has d:lvudngs-g:‘dmm‘ - ticed between the two arms sea power—forelgn trade and maritime strength—has had the effect of British foreign policy and naval policy ::r:h}:lru L:‘ & whole, supplement er in eve and with their enters or responding posif SR o these fundam Us now examine the fl’une‘:h br‘;d lleu!: underlying British naval policy. the case of all nnpf-&ncly The tight insularity of driven her people to t{xe Rl‘rlllhw ably as the melancholy steppes E sia has kept her peasante i (o o Under this pressure and in * ,” the empire Wrought until now there is hardly in the world in whlch. ll'mun h‘ Detached From Europe. As between the British Isies Japan, we find many graphical 3 both blank off (and [ & i il : She must look abroad | Brl