Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-18
us. TRIES TO KEEP
MANCHUR|AN PEACE
Administration Action Is Held
Based on View Province
Is World Problem.
nv FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

All over the United States this week
end the man in the street Is asking
ubv the Hoover administration Is EN-
hroilins" America in the war-threaten,
inc controversy between China ana
Japan in Manchuria. A queStlon Una.
arouses no less mystery is why 'ap.aath .
so bitterly opposes our Sittlhe IA w. W.
the League of Nations with a We" l"
nreservi1g peace in the Far East.
n is possible for this writer 70 SCI
forth the attitude of the United States
Government on both OF these issues.
Tet II be said at once that notnlng Is
more remote from the administrator
purpose than to involve America IN Ilie
quarrel between the yellow P eopIeS,
president Hoover and Secretary SLlmson
are bending every energy and influence
ar their command to prevent a Sno-
Iananese war because. as events III
1ei4-1918 proved. nobody can tell WneIe
such a conflagration would spread DC
fore it burnt itself out. 49, :.
The administration believes tnere Is
nrinciple-that nowadays the peace OF
the world cannot be disturbed any
where without immediate and immense
efTect unon American interests. ms
is especially the case in the Far East
Rig Trade Interest at Stake.
II might be possible, though unlikely.
that a couple of minor countries mlgnO
he at war. say, in the heart OF South
America or some remote corner OF Eu-
rome and confine hosttlitieS to tnelr
own territory. But, on account OF tne
far-fung interests which nations nke
the United States. Great BrltaLn'
Erance Germany and The Netherlands
have in Asia, it would be Impossible
to localize a war between China ana
Tanan. Communications shipping anu
trade most of them in foreign hanoS,
would be crippled or destroyed II China
were turned into huge theater OF war:
American holdings in the ORIENT are
estimated to be worth close TO Sl,ooo,-
non 600 Uncle Sans largest stake IN
China and Japan is invested in OIL Win
nuhIic utilities and tobacco coming
pext The United States interest in the
East includes S422 100000 In japanese
dollar bonds. Apart from these out
right investment values, great war III
Asia would ieopardize an annual Amer
ican trade of about 81, ooo, ooo.0 600 with
.Tanan and some s14o,o00,oo0 with
AS an up-to-the- minute indication OF
how even the mere threat OF war can
hold I'D American trade, 1t is noted t!lat
the shippers at Seattle who were aoouE
to transport the 100000 900 ousheis VI
recently sold to China, hesitate to DO SO
while the risk of a Sino-Japanese con-
f1ict looms on the other side OF the
Pacific.
Manchuria Held World Issue.
It is because war would endanger the
safety CT their enormous and dlverStle9
interests that the United States and
other countries have fastened to pool
their efforts for the preservation o!
peace in Manchuria. They are actuateo
bv another motive, namely, by the 1act
that for the past 35 years Mancnurla
has been a world problem.
The japanese stoutly Tepudiate inns III,
during the pending controversy with
China-both at Geneva and ~ other
capitalists being concentrated on
establishing the principle that the
Manchurian squabble is purely 1amiiy
affair between the Chinese and the
Japanese and one in which the nom
Asiatic governments and peoples nave
no right to interfere. That is why
Toxic is insisting upon thrashing the
dispute cut exclusively with Marking.
The United States concern In the
Manchurian situation is as old as the
open door policy proclaimed by Secre-
tary of State John Hay in the midst
of the Mckinley administration, 81
years ago.
Before that time, though more in
tensively since then, this country has
maintained a sentimental interest In
the independent development of China
Both in the last days of the old en-
pire. and more particularly since the
birth of the republic the Chinese peo-
pie have looked to America as the one
great power Upon which they could rely
for square and disintereSted deal.
Japan Resents u. S. Action.
Japan's territorial and political aspi-
rations on the mainland OF Asia always
have been promoted with an eye peeled
in the direction of the United States
because of acknowledged American in
terest in the integrity Of China. 1t was
mainly at the demand of the American
government at the Washington con-
ference of 1922 that the Anglo
Japanese alliance was broken up. Under
the wings Of that pact Japan always
felt that she could proceed more or
less unmolestedly to carry out her pur-
poses in China, and primarily in Man
churia
1t was at the Washington conference,
too. that Japan reluctantly was brought
to acquiesce in the evacuation OF Shan
tung Province, wherein she acquired a
predominant position at the Paris
Peace Conference despite the opposi-
ton of President Wilson. All these
things have combined to make the
japanese feel that Americas hand is
raised against their legitimate aims in
China.
Japan is definitely resentful of our
participating in any League of Ma
tons action on the present occasion
because she thinks it would be set
ting an unfortunate precedent if the
United States first major co-opera-
ton with Geneva was in the nature of
coercion against Japan. For this rea-
son Toxic vociferously objected to the
phrase in Secretary Stimson's note to
the League advocating the use of pres
sure" upon both disputants in the Far
East.
L. S. Tries to Keep Peace.
From the Washington standpoint,
the japanese should have stressed the
fact that the only pressure" which
Secretary Stimson suggested is such as
lies within the competence" of the
League AS all the world knows, this
competence" does not provide for the
Leagues applying pressure on either
Japan or China to the point of waging
Headache-E,