The Washington times., 1937-11-22
France Bows to japan

tween South China and French IndoChina. This
cuts off one of the few routes for the munitions which
have been trcklng into China in such pihfully small
quantities.
You may not have read much about this in the papers,
but is one of the most significant events of the
tire Far Eastern war.
The details Of the situation, briefly summarized
are Japan threatened to bomb the railroad which
pu;,.;nlo steams up from Indo-Chna the
border through South China. She also
O"'e'e" threatened to seize the Island of Hainan
near the IndoC Chinese Coast to arpane base
in order to accomplish the bombing.
Hainan is not French, it is Chinese. Furthermore,
Japan threatened only to bomb that part of the rail-
road on Chinese SOIL She made it clear that that part
Of the railroad French soil would be untouched.
However French money is invested in that part of
the railroad on Chinese SOIL So for the sake of few
million francs the Republic of France bartered away
principle which may mean life and death to it.
That principle is collective action against aggres-
sor nation together with aid to the victmized nation.
For this principle France has been fighting at &C.
neva Paris Rome and London for two decades. This
is the principle in conference after conference which
her diplomats have tried to persuade this country
to accept
But the United States, whether rightly wrongly,
has stuck to the principle Of treating both begerents
alike Today both China and Japan are free to buy
in our markets.
But now France goes step beyond the policy
which she has criticized the part of this country
and bars shipments to China the victim, while con-
tinuing shipments to Japan, the aggressor-all
because French money is invested in Chinese railroad
In 1881 and 1892 Japan staged her first great march
into Chna-the invasion of Manchuria. It was the
n.-,-.,. initial chapter in her campaign of
O'p''" conquest, the present war being the
Pressure Fails second,
At that time Henry L. Stmson, Secretary of State,
recognized what every student of the Orient recognized
for the Japanese have printed official documents out
lining their Far Eastern aims) that this the first
bite the Japanese to take out of China and that
if they prevented from swallowing and dgesting
this mouthfu they would not bite again.
Accordingly Mr.. Stmson tried to secure the coopera-
ton of both the French and the British in bringing
diplomatic pressure upon the Japanese. This pres
sure officially promised.
But at least two occasions when the American
Ambassador in Tokyo delivered notes of protest to the
japanese Foreign Office and when the British Am
bassador by Encouragement, delivered similar notes.
it significant that the British Ambassador each
time went back to the Foreign Office an hour or so
later And these second calls he explained that the
British Reoret note he had delivered earlier in
the day was only matter of
DU0S "''CS routine made necessary by his
Britannia Majestys desire to please the United States
and that in actual fact the British understood and
sympathized with japanese aims in Manchuria
Later the British to regret this. They have come
to regret it particularly during the present war, be-
the Japanese having digesed and rested up from
their first mouthfu have taken another bite and
this time they down very close the British sphere
of wealth and influence-the Yangtze And with Brit
sh hands tied by Musson in the Mediterranean there
is very little they can do about it.
Japan will take other bites out of China, and even
tuay, the democracies Of the world continue to be
supine they are today she will have bitten down