Making Declaration of Pacific Policy
pp. 7-8 · Read in the full issue
The World Now Waits Upon America :: Her Epoch- Making Declaration of Pacific Policy
rE mask is off. For the first time in centuries, we of the European civilisation” are face to face with realities, bare and raw.
We know now that, despite social evolution, and intellectual culture, and religion, the bestial law of the jungle ■again may rule human affairs to-day, just as it did ten thousand years ago.
The right of individual liberty, of men tal freedom, of private property, which we had come to regard almost as part of the solar system, is being attacked and derided by hundreds of millions of people. Now, only by colossal sacrifices, can we retain the precious things which ■ we had thought were ours by natural right.
Humanity is at the cross-roads. One path leads to an international combina tion which will police the world, and keep in check the rogues and thugs who now menace us. We can gain that path only through the victory of the Allies. The other path, which we must travel if the Totalitarian States subdue us, leads most surely to another Dark Age.
THE “Haves” are being openly challenged by the “Have-nots”.
The robber nations almost are per suaded that the moment they long have awaited is come—that the well endowed democracies are not able to defend their possessions—and per haps before this ink is dry, Italy and Japan will have joined Germany in a supreme effort to loot the rich Em pires of Britain, France, and Holland.
These are most critical days. Italy teeters on the edge of war, eager to take the plunge, yet fearful of the cold blast. If Italy joins Germany, developments will be rapid and world shaking. Turkey then will join the Allies; Russia will display a sharp anti-Fascist bias, encouraging Jugo slavia to resist Italy; Germany prob
ably will invade Holland—and then Japan, seeking every opportunity for expansion in Asia while the European powers are unable to protect their Asiatic territories, will plan the seizure of the Dutch Indies, and possibly Cochin China and Malaya.
WHAT started all this? Two months ago, it looked like a clean-cut struggle between the Allies and Ger many, with Italy and all the others strictly neutral.
Everything changed when Hitler in April made his treacherous, long calculated attack on Denmark and Norway, and the Allies, although they smashed his naval forces to pieces, were unable to dislodge him. The Allies landed small armies in Central Norway; and then, finding the enemy strongly established, and being un able themselves to use tanks and aeroplanes in this most difficult ter rain, they very quickly (and very wisely) withdrew them again. Why dissipate their strength in a useless struggle among the barren Norwegian
This article was written on May 9 the day before Hitler invaded Holland. The world shaking events, between May 9 and 15, altered none of this argument.
mountains, when Allied forces could be effectively employed elsewhere?
True, it meant the desertion of the remaining unconquered Norwegians, the opening to Germany of Western Norway ports as submarine bases and aerodromes (which are 150 miles nearer England than Sylt and Wil helmshaven), and the virtual presen tation of Sweden to Germany. These are the things that impressed the
other still-neutral robber nations. But it meant also that the Allies’strength remained unimpaired—supreme on the sea, equal to Germany’s on land, and fast acquiring an ascendancy in the air.
But Mussolini, sitting on the fence, like a carrion crow, since September is listening with increasing eagerness to the urgings of Germany , (r . Sg . , .
Our enemies are weak and vacil lating,” cries Hitler. “See! they run from us > even in Norway. Nazi Ger man/. strong and bold, takes what she wants and these effete old Empires „ ’ stop US. An d Jw^ OA So Srced tncklmg aown nis cnm, sees tnat Germany 5^55?^.„A u ?5 ria ' Czecho Slovakia, Memel, Poland, Den and Norway. “You would not J°i n us * n September” taunts Hitler.
“ See what y° u have missed! Come on in ’” says Hitler ’ “ and then Ja P an i o j n us and p-reat Fmnireq ™ join us, and three great Empires
™ nwr riri fnT iJn a
basket " nPB IrUlt mto a waitm S °asKet. an y wonder that Mussolini, tortured day and night by his dream ° t f J^ n n “| e * h «“^ his navy to war stations, and sets his enslaved newsnaners to screamim? eil&lctveu liewspapeiS lO SCI earning abuse and derision at Britain and France? Hour by hour, in the early days of May, the Mediterranean ten sion increases T HE f what restrains Mussolini, avid A for war-glory and spoils? The am / factor that kept him quiet in September uncertainty. Then, he was not sure of Germany’s ability to J s P ol ls against the Allies, Now, he is uncertain about the United States.
So, also, is Japan uncertain. Jap anese Irredentists are frantically eager to take advantage of the pre
sent situation, and vastly to extend their Dominions in the Pacific; but that great American fleet in the North-east keeps them at home, cursing, and impotently plucking at their fingers.
That actually has been the position for many months; but it was clarified, in unexpected and extraordinary fashion, on April 18, in a deliberate, calculated statement, by the United States, which is likely to be an im portant factor in this Hitler war, and which seems certain to have a pro found effect upon the future of the Pacific. It came in this way; It is expected that Hitler, as part of his policy of seizing his smaller and weaker neighbours, will invade Holland. In that event (asked pub licists and newspapers in mid-April) what will happen to the Dutch East Indies? Will the Allies, or the United States, take them tinder their pro tection. to be held in trust for Holland?
Immediately, there was a sharp re action in Japan. The Japanese news papers, obviously under official in structions, published “warnings” that any interference in the Dutch East Indies by other Powers would bring about strong action by Japan. The “Japan Times”, which is the sub sidised organ of the Japanese Foreign Office, said, on April 15: “Any change in policy regarding the Far East possessions of European nations must be accomplished only with Japan’s full consent and concurrence. Any attempt to ignore that principle would involve a revision of Japan’s policy of non-involvement in the war”.
Converted into simple words, that is a plain announcement by Japan that Japan will not allow any Euro pean nation to bring about far reaching political changes in its possessions in the Far East. Presum ably, it refers to the North-west Pacific, also—for the East Indies really are in the North-west Pacific.
A CLAIM so impudent and bom bastic could scarcely escape a challenge; and, to the outspoken re lief of all the Pacific nations, the American Secretary of State, Mr.
Cordell Hull, on April 18, in plain and unequivocal language, announced the policy of the United States: “Intervention in the domestic affairs of the Dutch Indies, or any alteration to the status quo by other than peaceful processes, would be prejudicial to the cause of stability, peace, and security, not only in the region of the islands, but in the entire Pacific area.
“This conclusion is based on a doctrine which has universal appli cation, and for which the United States unequivocally stands.”
Mr. Cordell Hull supported his state ment by references to a series of treaties and agreements, affecting America, Britain, France, Japan and Holland, extending over 35 years. It was interpreted, throughout the world, as a clear indication that the United
States will resort to naval and mili tary force, if necessary, in order to maintain the status quo in the Pacific.
Japan, as usual, when confronted with this straightforward intimation of American policy, turned a hurried back somersault. Japan, it was ex plained, wants nothing more than America: namely, a guarantee of the status quo in the Pacific. If the State Department gentlemen in Washington had not been restricted to the language of diplomacy, they would have said. "Oh, yeah!” They know, and we know, that if those great grey warships had not been clustered so thickly around the Stars and Stripes at Hawaii, the Nazis of Japan, like the Nazis of Germany, would have been looting and raping their weaker neighbours, even down to the Tropic of Capricorn. Washing ton is not blind to the significance of that frantic activity in Japanese ship yards, where at least half a dozen battleships, of around 40.000 tons each, are being secretly constructed.
A FORTNIGHT later, America acted again. Just when the anti- British screeching of Italy’s controlled press was mounting to a crisis, the United States Ambassador interviewed Mussolini; and, immediately. Italy issued a reassuring statement, and the clamour died down.
It was only a temporary respite, but it showed with what vigour America is acting, and the direction of her efforts. She will prevent the spread of the war, if she can. If she fails, she must march again, as she did in 1917.
If America enters the war. it will not be because she loves Britain, or because she fears defeat of the Allies, but because she dare not leave Nazi-ism undefeated. Unbroken Nazi ism means, inevitably, not only the end of the British and French Em pires, but the end of a world in which Americans may live and breathe freely, and preserve their individual liberty and democratic institutions.
Imagine a world controlled by goose-stepping, fist-clenching, regi mented Nazis, swaggering, screeching Italians, and merciless, swarming Japanese—all so different in charac ter and appearance, yet all united in their determination to batter civilian populations into cringing subservience to totalitarian ideals and institutions.
There is another, and a purely selfish consideration. Figures indi cate that the United States either must gain greater freedom for inter national trade, or face the stark prob ability of revolution.
In “a hole in the ground” (Fort Knox, Kentucky), America has ac cumulated gold worth $18,000,000,000.
The total gold in U.S.A. to-day re presents more than two-thirds of the world’s recorded supply. It is being used mostly to finance business ex pansion within the United States.
Yet, in March, 1940, in U.S.A., there were no less than 9,000,000 un employed. 6,000.000 of them young
people who had never had a job.
Anyone with even an elementary knowledge of national economics can read that writing on the wall. For America, there is no way out of the impasse, except the victory of the democratic nations, and a tremendous revision of international trade bar riers. Cordell Hull cannot have for gotten the 1933 Economic Conference, and the lessons learned in that dis mal failure.
A COUNTRY like U.S.A., with 130,000,000 people, organised for war, probably could defeat the anti democratic Powers, singly; but could she do it if all the robber nations were united against her? Probably not.
Better to join Britain and France now, make a certainty of the job, and then take a large part in forming an international union that will give all nations some guarantee of peace and freedom. The United States, in 1920, after helping the de mocratic nations to win the war, deserted the League of Nations—and so laid the foundation for the present hellish mess. American opinion, now, surely must realise that, with radio and aviation as important weapons of aggression, the width of the Atlantic no longer gives isolation and protection. America, if she is to sur vive as a free nation, must help to police the world. Her ships must be free to cross both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, without molestation or risk.
Myopic little newspaper-men, in U.S.A., scream furiously against American involvement in the war; but, if they regard American freedom as a paramount issue, they cannot escape the cold logic of facts. Presi dent Roosevelt and his advisers are under no delusions. If the war does not spread, Britain and France yet may defeat Nazi-ism, with the help only of American factories and money; but, if Italy comes in, American par-, ticipation is inevitable. The alter native is too horrible for contem plation.
MEANWHILE, here in the Pacific, we European communities are given a further respite. If America will not allow Japan to disturb the status quo in the East Indies, she cannot logically disregard any threat against the safety of British and French Territories in the Pacific. Of course, there is little logic or con sistency when one deals with poli ticians, and America has the most variable species of politician on earth.
They are the reflection of American public opinion, upon which a cock eyed, irresponsible, sensation-loving press plays whatever tune it pleases.
But, if we cannot depend upon the logic of politicians, we can at least rely upon the logic of cold facts. Be cause it is necessary to her self preservation (the strongest motive in human affairs), the United States wiU not allow the status quo in the Pacific to be disturbed. We always have believed that; and Mr. Cordell Hull’s statement of April 18 gives point and substance to our argument.