Evening star., 1943-11-22

made public by the State Depart
ment.
The policy of secrecy and censor
snip at the source has been carried
by both Republican and Democratic
administrations here and by govern
merts abroad.
It's not the fault of any one man
or group of men. It's system OF
long standing. While there is much
to be said about the danger of in
flammatory statements or premature
publicity at moments of great ten
sion or crisis, the fact remains that
the statements made by Japan to us
and by the United States to Japan
If published fully at the time of the
exchanges might have made public
opinion in both countries more con-
versant with the dangerous trends
toward war.
Bluntless VS.. Supineness.
Looking back over the record one
cannot help but be impressed by
japanese bluntless and directness
and by the corresponding supineness
OF the American policy which failed
to take the American people into its
confidence SO that the proper steps
either preventative of war or at least
preparatory to war might have been
taken. Today American boys are
dying in the equatorial jungles or
are being sacrificed in naval war in
the Pacific in which the japanese to
date have had advantage in land
bases and in naval strength all be-
cause the United States Navy was
not built up to proper size to cope
with war in the Pacific while at
the same time assisting the British
Navy in the Atlantic.
The japanese told us bluntly in
December, 1885, and again in 1896
that they intended to go their own
way in naval building and that the
famous Washington naval limita-
ton treaty of 1922 was not to be
renewed. Japan refused to limit
the caliber of her guns on big bat
tleship and, what's more, she denied
us access to the so-called Mandated
Islands of the Pacific which she
fortified and today is using against
us in a vast area studded with
fortresses. Pearl Harbor was at
tackled from those islands, yet we
of the United States accepted in
1896 this gross violation of treaty
without a public protest and with
out even telling the American peo-
pie the significance of it. The Sec
retary OF State in telegram to
Ambassador Grew presented to the
Japanese government at Toxic,
wrote on June 13, 1896:
"A strong undercurrent of sus-
picion and conjecture has existed
for some time past over harbor de-
velopments or Notifications in pos
sessions which both Japan and the
United States have in the Pacific.
No objection to the visits of Japa-
nese government vessels to the ter
ritorial waters and closed harbors
Of Alaska has been made by this
Government.
"In our view it is unfortunate
that the government of Japan so
far has not adopted an attitude
similarly liberal in the face of al
legations that in the japanese Man
dated Islands of the Pacific i'm
provements are being carried out
which are irreconcilable with ia
pans treaty obligations not to
fortify these islands"
This was followed by our request in
July, 1886, to send the destroyer
Alden to visit inundated ports, but
the japanese refused to answer our
request for permission and evidently
the matter ended there-the Ameri-
can Government did nothing more
about it so far as the record shows.
Did Congress Know?
The question is whether the SEN
ate Foreign Relations Committee
knew and whether the Senate and
House Naval Affairs Committees
knew all this and whether they, too,
acquiesced. Also what steps did the
Secretary of the Navy take In 1886 to
advise Congress of the strategic
weakness which was being developed
for us by Japan's refusal to renew
the armament limitation treaty of
1922? Would Japan have attacked
us at Pearl Harbor If we had had a
substantial navy in the Philippines
and sufficient bases with adequate
aircraft at Dutch and British bases
in the Far East? wouldn't the press
of America have urged this on Con-
gress If the Official truth had been
revealed?
In 1896 we were in the middle Of
our spending orgy on WPA leaf,
raking and other means of "priming
the pump" the total of the deficits
running by 1889 up to $685. 900 900 900.
If only one-fourth of this amount
had been devoted from 1896 to 1899
to the building of Pacific Ocean
Navy with score of big aircraft
carriers-the floating bases we are
compelled to use today-and If our
diplomacy in the '20s and '3Os had
been devoted whole-heartedly to
making the League of Nations an
effective instrument of international
naval and air force to prevent war,
the whole history of the world would
have been changed and perhaps
many American lives now being so
heroically sacrificed in the Pacific
might have been saved.
1t makes one wonder if the hush
hush. of governmental policy
throughout the world on interna-
tional questions isn't the real sin of