Evening star., 1937-09-19
RUSSIAN MENACE
SPEEDS JAPANESE
Toxic Hastens to Compete
Conquest Before Soviet
Can Aid China.
BY FRANK H. HEDGES.


TOXIC, September 18.-The un-
omcial war that started only a few
miles beyond the walls of old Peiping
on the night of July Z threatens to
destroy both countries, in the larger
sense.
The conflict theatens to be so pro-
longed as to remove the empire of
Japan-financially and economically
from the front rank of world powers.
II threatens, from the Chinese view
point, to block and impede for gen.
erations, If not longer, tn remarkable
progress the Chinese Republic has
made under the guidance of General
ssimo Chang Kai-shek.
The hope has not yet perished-
and II there is no intervention from
any outside nation there is still JUS
} tihcation for this hope--that this I'M
omcial war may not have to be fought
to finish. That would mean that
neither China nor Japan must perish
as factor in this somewhat crazy
world. If there is intervention from
outside, it would be idle to predict
EdSJ
might do to this globe.
Soviet Intervention Most Likely.
The nation from which intervention
would most likely come is the Soviet
Union. This Japan realizes, and it
accounts in large part for the policy
OF Toxic, both on the field of battle
and in diplomacy. Great Britain
might step in to protect its vested
interests in China, but it would not
go to the length of waging war with
Japan so long as the conflict remained
confined to the Far East. The United
States has made it very plain that
1t will do its utmost to prevent be-
coming entangled in Asiatic questions.
There is very real dread here of Rus
dan help to China. And there is much
justification for this apprehension,
which is almost an obsession with the
Japanese.
Japan fears Communism's possible
INVASION OF Japan as an economic and
political theory which would destroy
al that those who rule Japan hold
most dear. To them, Communism and
the Soviet Russian government (and
rs armies) are one and the same thing.
During the more than II years that
the writer has lived in Japan or in the
Far East has this been true. and If
has become increasingly true as japan
began to depart from the wavs of
genuine Western democracy to follow
the idols of Fascism and Nazism.
The natural reaction on the part of
al Russians who adhere to the present
MOSCOW regime has been one of in
ereaSing antagonism to all things Japa-
nese. The seeds Of bitterness left by
Russlas defeat at the hands of japan
N lso4-o5 have never died out.
Soviet Sees Self Messiah.
Tsarist Russia felt itself to be the
destined Messiah Of the nations of the
world on Christian basis, to be the
new Rome. Soviet Russia likewise be-
lfeves itself to be the Messiah of a new
world-on the basis Of the brotherhood
q man (in common with Christianity
Hnd OF an economic equality which II
breaches but has not yet found how
to practice.
Japan, with its unquestioning belief
IN the divinity of the imperial house
and the descent of the japanese race
from high heaven, in order to rule the
world, cannot accept such Russian
theories. And Japan and Russia. Tokyo
and Vladivostok, lie very few flying
miles away from each other.
Ine announcement of a Sino-Rus-
sian non-aggression pact at the mo-
ment when the Shanghai battle was
At Its height cannot be ignored bv
Toxic. Even granting that the quite
annocuous publicly stated terms of
the pact be all there is thereto. it
amounts to moral declaration be-
fore the world that Russia will stand
by China
With the curious. illogical thinking
OF the japanese, there seems to be
no realization among most of them
that when Toxic concluded an 'ideo-
logical pact with Berlin against COM
munism but not against the govern
ment of Russia" just some such
Russo-Chinese alliance became in
inevitable. The one is the fruit of
the other, and both spring from
mutual distrust, suspicion. almost
hatred, between Russia and Japan
that antedate the days OF Communist
triumph in Russia.
The aims and ambitions of Russia
and Japan in the Far East con-
dict. Moscow and Toxic recognize
this fact. The aims and ambitions of
Nanking and Toxic conflict even more
strongly.
1t so happens that, as your cor
respondent honestly believes neither
Japan nor China sought war. But
real war is here, no mater by what
fancy term it may be called.
Russian Aid Crisis for Japan.
Why should Moscow declare war
when both Toxic and Nanking refuse
to do so? Why should not Russia
send non-secret but nom official aid
TO China, through Outer Mongolia and
otherwise. in the hope that it will
cripple Japan?
Ine japanese war Office is wise
enough to know that, if strong Rus
sian help be given to China, then
Japan faces such crisis as it has
never known in all the claimed CEN
turies of its existence
In trying to read Japans present
military policy Alright, all this must
be Kept In mind. From military
strategic point of view, it seems to
be folly for Japan to have opened the
battle front all the way from the Man.
churian border TO the southern city of
Canton, from the coast to such inland
cities as Kalgan and Eankow. From
the financial and economic view