Evening star., 1935-06-30

Strife-torn Europe looks helplessly
at the growing power of Japan. 1t
realized that some day new Japan
will become a real menace, but 1t
consoles itself by saying that such
a day is still far off and accepts the
Oriental philosophy that China is in
conquerable and that sooner or later
it will actually swallow its conqueror.
In the meantime, as to give body to
this thought, the principal Western
powers have raised their legations in
China to the rank of embassies. The
State Department used to be against
such a move, maintaining that China
is not actually sovereign state. There
still are foreign concessions within
its territories and foreigners still en-
Joy extraterritorial rights and the
jurisdiction of their own courts pre-
sided over by foreign judges.
When European powers approached
the State Department, about year
ago, sounding it out whether it would
agree to raise the rank of the Amer
ican diplomatic mission to that of an
embessy, the responsible officials said
emphatically no" But when, despite
the negative attitude of the American
Government, Italy went ahead and
transformed its legation into ar en-
bassy in September, 1884, nothing
more could be said about it.
X X 4
To console the Chinese for the fail
ure of enforcing the nine-power treaty,
most of the signatories have now AM
bassadors at Peiping.
The japanese, always prepared to go
one better the European powers, have
two Ambassadors. One the regular
man Akira Ariyoshi, the other one a
special Ambassador, who outranks
the regular man. His main job is to
check up China's suppressions of the
anti-Japanese boycott and other anti
Japanese activities. His duties are
those of a super police officer who
waves the big stick over the heads Of
the confused Chinese officials.
X X y X
Japan intends to show to the Chinese
that it is big hearted. The Chinese
have been trying since the end of the
World War to get rid of the foreigners
extraterritorial rights without success.
The Japanese government intends
to abolish the extraterritorial rights of
its citizens within the next few months.
X X X Il
The truth Is that the japanese need
no exraterritoriality With the entire
coastline and river system within
reach of her gunboats and airplanes,
she can afford to relinquish this
right" with much less fear of loss
than the other powers.
Her policy cannot fail: with one
hand she strikes China and with the
other she pats her on the back. This
mixture is bound to give good results,
especially that it cannot be copied by
the other powers.
X X X
Among the "dont's' of diplomatic
etiquette there is one which must be
followed without hesitation: Don't
serve salad to japanese official on
plates which have the picture of the
Japanese Emperor or Empress painted
on it.
The imperial family is sacred to
the japanese; the Empress shows
herself unveiled to her subjects only
once a year, and that IS a red letter
day in the life of every loyal jap
aneSe.
Some time ago a high American
official, not conversant with the jap
aneSe customs, made the terrible faux
pas of serving salad on a plate which
had the head of the Empress of
Japan painted on it. The hostess was
particularly proud Of having pur-
chased in Europe dozen plates, each
having the painting OF a different
sovereign on it. To show her high