The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1918-01-04
THE AGREEMENT WITH JAPAN.

Al AioI DluSl Tie new agreement De-
tween the United States and Japan
appears to reverse our national pol
icy in the Far East; in reality it re-
adjusts that policy to the entirely
new conditions that the war and the
revolution in China have brought
about.
More than two years ago the Com
panion pointed out that the war had
given Japan a primacy in the political
affairs of the East that other nations
must inevitably recognize. At a
time when the great inert mass of
China was beginning to stir itself
and so to disturb all the carefully
planned political arrangements of the
Orient, all the European powers were
occupied in a war so tremendous that
they had no time or energy to spend
on the Chinese question. Japan was
left to make its influence all power
full in China; for the United States,
which alone of the Western powers
might have i~nterposed, has never
shown any disposition to interfere in
sstM alg At as
1890 NteFf9ty or. fiHas
md the eQual-trading rights Of ali
notions IN that country was respected.
The new agreement binds japan
permanently to observe both these
conditions, on the other hand. the
United States frankly recognizes the
special interest" in China that ,Ja-
pan, by reason of its propinquity to
China, and the racial likeness Of the
two nations to each other, has long
claimed. The phrase is vague; the
exact character of the special inter-
est" is left undescribed. The agree
ment is intended to satisfy rather
the sensitive self-respect of the Jan
anese than to settle by definition the
future relations of the two nations
to each other and to China.
The agreement will strike most
persons as sensible. Nothing except
inVlnclble distrust of China could
Justify this country in declining to
to admit that Japan bears to adjacent
countries less well-ordered than itself
somewhat the same relation that we
nave long asserted tc exist between
ourselves and the countries immediate
y south of us. In the past such dis
trust has been sedulously cultivate dand
n%ourlhed, we have reason to believe. bv
Germany, to whose interest it was 70
keep Japan and the United States
apart. The new agreement at once
improves the relations between tbe
TWO nations; it must diminish the ma
spoken suspicion that has too often
elouded their friendship; and if SINH
larly interpreted and scrupulously OBJ
served by both nations, it will make
war between them almost impossible
winch IS as much as can be said of
any instrument of the kind.
oplnion-in China is not satisfied with
the new agreement, of Chinese policy
.ne new agreement, 70 Chinese policy
mas iohg consisted of playing off one
great power against another, rather
than IN preparing itself to assert the
independence to which it's potential
strength entities it. The Chinese M
doubt dread the preponderent influence
OF Japan, but undermining the nation.
politically and industrially, under any
auspices whatever can only hasten the
day when it will really be sufficiently
strong and self-conscious to make it.
self the equal if not the superior of any
Asiatic power. Meanwhile, the United
States seeks to assure it Of two essen.
tial safeguard to its progress-territo.
rial integrity and freedom Of trade
Youths Companion.