Evening star., 1939-01-10
methods Short of War

Metn0dS Short OF War
While attacking "the new philoso-
phles of force" in his message to
Congress last week, President Roose-
velt declared that war is not the
only means of commanding a decent
respect for the opinions of mankind" :"
Our neutrality laws, he added, may
operate unevenly and unfairly-may
actually give aid to an aggressor and
deny it to the victim" It will come
as surprise to the country, and a
not dlsagreeable one, that since last
July, Japan has been blacklisted by
the United States from further pur-
chase of either airplanes or bombs
here. The ban was declared by the
National Munitions Control Board
under the discretionary authority
vested in it by law. The board, of
which the Secretaries of State,
Treasury, War, Navy and Commerce
are members, decided to deprive
Japan of American aviation supplies
because of the bombings Of civilian
populations in China. The embargo
did not go into effect until after the
japanese had purchased nearly
$9,0O0,O0O worth of aircraft and am
munition in this country during the
first six months of 1898.
Short of war" the United States
overwhelmingly formidable weapon
for the encouragement of aggres-
sion-the most potent measure of
quarantine" at our disposal, in the
sense President Roosevelt used that
terms at Chicago in October, 1897
is the economic weapon. 1t finds
characteristic use in the decree of
the Munitions Control Board. The
revelation that Japan may no longer
draw upon our aircraft industry to
sustain her undeclared war on China
will naturally suggest other avenues
open to the United States for amel-
iorating what Chinese Ambassador
DR.. Hu Shih frankly describes as
the present condition in my coun-
try-she is literally bleeding to
death"
If it is right to withhold aircraft
and bombs from Japan, why not
scrap iron, which is 50 essential to
the production of munitions? And,
some Americans will ask-since ia
pans acquisition OF foreign exchange,
for purchase of war sinews abroad, is
dependent upon the export of her
products, such as raw silk, why, in
the name Of consistency, is this
mainstay OF Japans war making
capacity also not withdrawn? For
eign exchange, producible only by
export trade, is no less essential
to the Japanese than aircraft, which,
after all, they can buy outside Of
the United States, if necessary, and
must now obviously have been doing,
for the better part of half year.
In light Of Washington's action,
just disclosed, it is worth recalling
what DR.. Hu Shih said in New York
on December 4, last:
China does not expect any other
nation, however friendly and
sympathetic, to take up arms and
fight on her side. But she does
expect, and she has a right to
expect. that the sense of Justice
and the feeling of common hu-
manlty may yet be strong enough
to move the men and women of
the democratic and peace loving
countries to put a stop to the
inhuman traffic of supplying
weapons of war and essential raw
materials for manufacture of the
weapons of war to a nation unani-
mously condemned by more than
fifty other nations as the violator
OF solemnly pledged treaties and
as the breaker OF world peace
incidentally, the embargo on air
craft for Japan is In categorical pur-
suance of the counsel offered by
former Secretary of State Henry L.
Stimson year ago as that policy,
short Of. war;" which the United
States, in fidelity to it's traditions
was thoroughly justified in adopting
against the proponents Of "the new
order in Asia"