Evening star., 1941-04-20
White Man Retreats in Orient
Except in Netherlands Indies
Prestige and Power Decline as Japans Sun Rises,
But Dutch, Building Up Islands as
Home, Are Standing Firm
By Relman NORM.

BATAVIA, Netherlands Indies Cor
respondence of the Associated Press).-
Is the white mans day of empire in the
Orient drawing to a close?
An outstanding trend in recent history
has been the steady decline of his pres
tige and power out here as the sun of
Japan rises higher.
Many are asking whether the last
pages in the 400-year- r-old story of Oc-
cidental penetration in the Far East
the drama played by Give in India,
Raffles in Malaga, the Americans. Perry
and Harris, in Japan and a score of
Britons and Americans in China-are
not being written.
The answers are closely linked with
events in Europe. Whether Japan can
establish her new order in Greater East
Asia depends largely on whether the
British Empire-to which the United
States has pledged all aid-can with
stand the Nazi onslaught.
Success for the japanese program, it
is generally agreed out here, means
ringing down the curtain on phase of
Oriental history. But even if Japan fails,
many believe she will have set in motion
forces that will complete the process
of ousting the white man.
Foreign Business DrasticalIy Cut.
The japanese not only have uprooted
western political, cultural and CONNER
cial institutions pretty thoroughly in
their own territory, but, in the uprooting,
they have set the example for other
yellow and brown races.
From end to end of the Japanese En-
pire, foreign business has been drasticallv
whitfield down
Less than 10 years ago, an American
salesman made 100000 in Japan SELL
ing monographs and records. Ameri-
cans owned and operated gold mines in
Korea, sold OIL automobiles and in
surance in Manchuria, built these terri
tories into important markets for
motion pictures.
All that is finished already. Firms
that have been in existence for so or
more years now are operating with skele-
ton staffs, unable to import goods or
remit assets, hanging on from day to
day mainly in the hope that strangling
wartime" restrictions will be lifted
sometime
Wherever the Japanese have gone. on
the continent, they have taken the pro-
cess with them. The Japanese Army-a
government in itself-occupies the once
important trading centers, Tientsin,
Hankow. Shanghai, Canton~ It sur
rounds Hong Kong. The japanese Navy
has blockaded the whole coast.
Even japanese Complaining
Even japanese are complaining. Their
warehouses on the China coast are
bulglng with imports that can't move
because of army regulations.
The "old China hand" will tell YOU,
too, that even if the present Chinese
japanese War had not come, China would
have followed the japanese example.
The Chinese were developing unity and
national consciousness. Pressure was
building up against those white insti-
tutions of extra-territoriality (the right
Of foreigner to be tried in his own
IOuI l, ullOcI Ills UWD law, III CIllIldJ ana
landed concessions, governed by foreign
ers and protected by foreign troops.
Observers in China say that the war
delayed China'S movement against these
privileges, but it has accelerated Chinese
nationalism, which ultimate will breach
them.
Travel southwark. The biggest and
most direct oriental assault on west
ern empire is taking place in French
Indo-China. japanese troops are sta
toned inside its borders. japanese war
ships ride in the harbors. The dispute
between Indo-China and Thailand
(Siam) was taken to Toxic for settle
ment. Reports indicate that Japanese
businessmen are on the way to complete
control of rubber and rice in Indo-
China.
Next door is Thailand. Japan built
most of the Siamese Navy, assisted in
training the army. has three or four
different treaties of friendship cultural
exchange and trade with the Thai gov
ernment.