The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-02-26
JAPAN HOLDS
ALL TRUMPS
IN FAR EAST
U. S. Islands in Pacific Are
at Mercy of Nippon If
War Comes.
TREATY STAND AMAZING
Tokio'S Claim That 9-PoWer
Pact Does Not Apply in
China Is Startling.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SINTMS
Scripps-Howard Foreign Editor


WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.-Japan's
claim that the nine-power treaty to
safeguard China'S territorial and
political integrity does not apply,
because conditions there are unset
tied, is viewed here with amaze
ment.
Navy and state department Off
Gals emphatically assert that the
whole purpose of the treaty was to
remove Pacific and far eastern
areas from the realm of conquest,
to make possible a program of
peace and disarmament, in which
the United States voluntarily made
the heaviest sacrifices.
Purpose of navies and naval bases.
a naval authority declared, is
to be able to strike wherever ma
tionaI interests may be endangered.
Patiently, therefore, if the far east
still was to be regarded as a field
for conquest, the United States
would not have left its interests
there undefended
At Japan's Mercy
The Philippines, Guam, Samoa.
and other American interests in the
Orient, it was pointed out, today are
hostages in the hands of Japan.
offering constant, tangible proof of
our good faith. Should Japan scrap
the four-power pact as we'll as the
nine-power treaty, these interests
would be hers for the taking.
From YokoSuka, great Japanese
naval base, to Guam, is only 1850
miles. From our nearest base, in
Hawaii to Guam, it is more than
$500 miles. From Bake. in the ia
panese islands, to Manila it is a
bare 800 miles, while from Hawaii it
is $500, and from San Francisco.
1900.
Between Hawaii and the Philip
pines lie the Japanese outposts in
the inundated islands of Jaluit, Pom
ape, Truk, the Bonins, and so on,
whence our warships. en- route to
relieve Manila, easily could be way
laid.
1000 Miles to Hawaii
From our Pacific coast bases to
Hawaii is more than 1000 miles. BY
the time our feet could reach Ha-
wall, tacticians assert, the Japanese
fleet could do the 1850 miles to
Guam, and the 300 miles to the
Philippines and take possession.
At Guam are only few anti
quated six-inch guns-no match
whatever for the sixteen-inch thun-
derers of Nippon's Negatos and
MutSus. And while the United
States naval base at Cavite, on Ma
Mia bay, is somewhat better armed,
Manila would not be attacked from
the sea, but taken from the rear by
forces landed farther up the coast.
Very few troops are stationed there,
If Japan forced a war on the
United States, navy men say, our
fleet would have to wait at Pearl
Harbor, in Hawaii, until sufficient
ships could be built to risk the 1900
mile voyage from there to the scene
Of conflict.
All this should make it perfectly
clear, it is observed, that very def
mite peace pledges regarding the
Pacific and the far east we're in
dispensable before the United States
would scrap its then existing de-
tense machinery and leave its every
interest west of Hawaii at the
mercy of Japan.
Danger Spot of Orient
China long has been the danger
spot in the far east. It is an open
secret that the great powers have
been anticipating her breakup and
planning to grab her territory. For
the last forty years the menace has
been more marked than ever, and
statesmen have feared that another
world war might get its start
there.
Accordingly, at the Washington
conference, China was as much in
the spotlight as naval limitation it.
self. 1t was recognized that her
domestic affairs were chaotic and
would continue to be so, probably
for decades to come.
1t would take many years for her
to switch over from medieval WAYS
to modern and, pending the transit
ton, she would be too weak to de-
, fend herself.
The nine-power treaty, pledging
the signatories not to take advan-
tage of her chaos therefore, thus
became the keystone to the whole
FAR eastern peace structure, and
this structure, in turn, became the
foundation of the agreement to