EASTERN ALLIANCES
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—With all the present confused thought and alarmed recriminations now going on about the Far East, one question seems to stand out clear and four-square. Why did we allow ourselves to be persuaded (I won't say bluffed) into breaking off the Anglo-Japanese Alliance ?
Your correspondent Mr. Arnold Keppel, in The Spectator of 24th ult., seems nervous lest Japan may take a fancy to Chinese-Turkestan : a trifle too close to our North Indian frontier for comfort. As allies of Japan our interests and position would be perfectly secure in those parts. Mr. Keppel would have us leave the League of Nations and " join with America, and with America alone " : whereas it was owing to our desire to consider American susceptibilities that we threw away the substance of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty, for the shadowy—what ? Certainly nothing in the way of reduced tariffs, or it seems, in sympathetic treatment of our financial and unemployment worries.
In any case Japan is the leading Power in the Far East now, and if we want a fair share of China's trade in the future, we shall do well to keep on friendly terms with her. Our last effort to " please everybody "—the Embargo on Arms Export, has got us equally disliked by China and Japan, while other countries are free to step in and secure any orders for munitions that may be had. Geography is on the side of Japan in Far Eastern affairs.
I have not touched on Japan's loyal co-operation in the Major, Royal Marines (retired).
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