SAMMY AND NIPPO

While we pray over the bleached bones of the Blue Eagle, while Europe staggers under the weight of a monetary crisis and the militant activity of Herr Adolph, Japan prepares for another invasion into China. Not satisfied with the rape of Manchuria, the Nipponese warlords now turn their lascivious eyes at the fertile lands lying between the Great Wall and the Yellow River.

In the past, the Japanese have advanced with bewildering speed and have then maliciously thumbed their noses at the rest of the world. Downing Street, Rue d'Orsay, Pennsylvania Avenue have been caught sleeping under the table, and, harried by an eager press, have attempted to formulate a policy on the spur of the moment. The result of the 1931 flasco was our stupid non-recognition policy and our futile attempts to cooperate with the League of Nations.

American Policy should be formulated in terms of American interests and not in terms of vague principles of international equity and justice. We must recognize that Japan has scrapped the League Covenant, the Kellogg Pact and the Washington Conference Treaties. It is useless to labor over rotting carcasses.

Once and for all it should be recognized that our financial interests are bound up with the prosperity of Japan and the pacification of China. Japan is our best customer in the Far East. Furthermore her merchants are our leading agents in China. It is essentially stupid for the United States to climb out on any more limbs in behalf of English investments in China or French money in Indo-China. We hold no concessions in China. Neither have we any territory which is prejudiced by Japanese aggression or investments, which are worth the price of adequate defense.

The frantic pleas of national defense urged by such jingoes as Senator Hiram Johnson, rest on no secure factual foundation. Most naval strategists recognize that the United States is practically impregnable. Successful Japanese action in the New World is predicated on a naval force of such colossal proportions that no national budget could ever bear it.

In the light of these considerations, it is folly for the United States to attempt to throw pillows of diplomatic intrigue in the path of the Japanese Frankenstein. This does not mean that Nipponese aggression is thereby condoned. But it is far less expensive and far more prudent for the United States to mind its own business and strive to take advantage of the impending Japanese agression in the light of American interests.