The Washington herald., 1921-10-30

Informed, insist that Japan will &C.
cept this solution, this compromise
and come back out of Shantung,
giving Mr.. Harding and Mr.. Hughes
that moral and political triumph
which has so much value In the ex-
listing situation In the. domestic
field. But I cannot forget that
at the precise moment the world
war broke the British were Civ
ing the Bagdad Railway to the
Germans With the accompanying
right to exploit q vast share Of In
terest in Asiatic Turkey. Yet this
largess did not prevent war or even
delay II for an hour.
1t Is easy enough to guess that
Japan will accept willingly our per-
mission, Endorsement, approval
when II Is a question of Manchuria
and of Mongolia, but is IL equally
certain that they will bow to our
veto in the matter Of China proper?
This means, II 1t means anything,
that we shall more and more be-
come the guardian Of China
China Practically Helpless.
The fact is that China cannot
stand alone, that we deny the right
of all nations to support 1t and thus
to dominate II. But unless we are
resolved to repeat the record In
Mexico and preserve chaos We shall
have to act and the rewards Of ac>
ton speaking commercially are be-
yond compare.
Again, all this means that We ap-
pear on the mainland Of Asia. 1t
means that whatever the compro-
mise of Washington. henceforth we
and the Japanese must be rivals in
the Far East. 1t means that we
shall be involved, entangled, COM
mitted, we, who ishrank from Civ
ing even a moral guarantee to
French security on the Rhine or
Polish independence along the Me-
men. It means that we are uncsl
taking to have an Asiatic policy as
Britain has always had a European
continental policy. and that ineluct-
ably that policy must, like the
British, seek to preserve a balance
Of power by combining with the
smaller and weaker states and
against the strongest, which Is
patiently Japan.
Sets Up Asiatic Policy. O..
Back of all else what we are do
ig Is setting up an Asiatic policy.
We are undertaking to assert and
maintain an Asiatic doctrine. we
are demanding that Japan shail
recognize us as an equal in a held
which Japan has with ever In
creasing determination sought to
dominate. We begin by concedine
Manchuria to japan, which Is some
thing, the sine qua non of any
AL.kNAa ~ thu a.
emit issue, but not less clearly we
follow with the enunciation of the
right to ask Japan to retire from
China proper. So far still, we as
sumo the right to restrict and 70
rsuulate the future of a great and
proud people, whose attitude to-
ward us is terribly complicated by
the fact that we refuse to recog-
nize them as racial equals and
maintain against them immigration
barriers which constitute a deadly
insult.
VIII Side Stay Retiredf
All OF this is long way from the
original conception Of the WASH
ington conference as gathering to
deal with the question OF the limi-
tation of ornaments. To get Japan
to play the game we are now pre-
pared to surrender to her Manchu-
ria and Mongolia. But, after all
this Is what Mr.. Wilson did at
Paris in the case of Shnntung with
such disastrous consequences. And
granted that Japan win retire from
Shantung in return for her freedom
of action In Manchuria. win she
stay retired? Or will she follow the
French precedent after the confer
ence Of Algeciras7 And ID the In