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HESITANCY
OF JAPAN
Italian Pact
Obligations
"The Age" Special Representative.
LONDON, October 14.
Japan's obvious hesitancy as
to whether to take a strong line,
now, that she sees the British and
United States' uncompromising
reaction to tne tripartite pact,
and President Roosevelt's decla
ration that the Americas will
not be scared into ways the die-
tors want them to follow, to
gether with his reassertion of
the right to peaceful use of the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, con
tinue to share diplomatic inter
est in the Axis and Balkan
thrust.
The British press welcomes Mr.
Roosevelt's broadcast as leaving no
doubt as to where America stands
and as to how it regards the pact.
It is agreed that on the eve of the
bitterly contested Presidential election
Mr. Roosevelt could not have spoken
as he did if he had not been- speaking
for a great majority of people in the
United States. 1
Mr. Matsuoka is considered to have
revealed Japan's doubts about what
is best to do — whether to appear to
be conciliatory to Britain and the
United States,, or whether to appear
to be strongly pro-Axis — not ' only by
his reply to Mr. Churchill's reference
to the Burma road and the tri-partite
pact, but by his statement to the mass
meeting In Tokio that if the war
should take a turn unfavorable to
Germany and Italy, Japan must be
prepared to assist them.
This latest official Japanese pledge
Is all the more puzzling unless, as Is
assumed, it reflects uncertainty, when
it Is compared with reports from Rome
Indicating that not a few people there
are wondering if Herr von Ribbentrop
was not precipitate In making formal
Japan's secret co-operation with the
Axis, and where the view is extending
that, Mussolini does not desire to
have war with the United States at
the moment, when Italy's only war aim
is to crack the British Empire. Under
the pact, if Japan became involved
with America, Italy might be obliged
to assist her.
Intimidation Aim
These Rome reports are regarded as
support for the view that the Axis
believed the pact would intimidate the
United States, and thus reduce sup-
piles to Britain, which was its prime
purpose. Neither Germany nor Italy
wanted America to enter the war at
this stage either in the Racific or the
Atlantic
The fact that It Is felt in London,
as in Washington, that Japan will let
the reopening of the- Burma Road pass
without feeling that the honor of Ja
pan is Involved is encouraging the be
lief, that the new Anglo-United States
policy of firmness toward Japan may
well prove to be a deciding factor,
and will influence Russia to make up
its mind as to whether to assist Tur
key and Greece to blunt the swift
mechanised spear thrust of the Ger
man forces fn the direction of the
Dardanelles by directly helping them
to withstand it.
In view of Japan's changing tone
diplomats are considering the possi
bility that the unpublished proctocoi
attached to the tri-partite pact allows
the Japanese Government wide liberty
of Interpretation of what would con
stitute a United States "attack" under
the terms of the pact; but it is also
pointed out by the Tokio correspon
dent of the "Times" that even if this
be so the interpretation of the pact's
operative articles will be the affair,
when the time comes, not of the
Japanese Foreign Office, but of the
internal forces to the pressure of
which the conclusion of the treaty
was unquestionably due.
The "Times," in a leading article,
says: — "If the object of the pact was
to reduce Marshal Chiang Kal shek
and his Government to submission, it
has failed already. If it was de
signed to Intimidate America its failure
has been even more disastrous. As
a 'peace pact,' as Mr. Matsuoka de
scribed it, the pact of Berlin has not
achieved its object, and Mr. Matsuoka
seems to be conscious that all has not
gone quite according to plan."
"Mr. Roosevelt's -speech is the most
outright answer yet given to the trium
phant announcement of the conclusion
of the triple alliance." says the "Daily
Telegraph." "it is under such leader
ship that we may look for the develop
ment of 'all aid short of war' for Great
Britain."
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