CHINA AND JAPAN
Sex,—Your correspondent Jaya Deva casts doubt upon my explana- tion of the closing of the Burma Road and refers to the statement made by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on July 18th before the House had gone into secret session. The truth is some- times to be found by reading between the lines, and the Prime Minister gave a hint to that effect on October 8th when, after exp!aining that the Government had wished to give China and Japan an opportunity to settle their long and deadly quarrel, he added, " There were no doubt some other reasons, but that one is enough. (Laughter.)" As these events took place just after the fall of France it was not difficult to read between the lines. The Economist on July zoth, for example, said:
" Nobody likes the solution. Nobody thinks it is a useful contribution towards the establishment of better relations. . . . Obviously, however, the step was not taken because the British Government thought it in any way proper or justified. It was taken on strictly realist grounds. We are engaged in a major war in Europe and our most powerful Continental ally has collapsed. . . . So heavy are the actual and potential duties of the Navy that an extension of naval warfare into the Pacific might tax its capacity to breaking point."
The Spectator on October Ilth said:
" In the middle of July when the decision to close the road for an experimental three months was taken, our situation in Europe, after the fall of France, was gravely critical, and there was something to be said for avoiding a new crisis in Asia at that moment. Some hope, moreover, was cherished, or at any rate professed, that the interval of three months might give time for some kind of settlement between Japan and China."
Japan had also read between the lines for when the road was reopened she chose not to regard it as an act of war. There is nothing particularly new or surprising, therefore, in the explanation that I have given. It happens, moreover, to be true.
Your correspondent also takes me to task for saying that in some respects the workings of the Japanese mind are beyond our com- prehension. " The Devil himself knoweth not the mind of man " said Chief Justice O'Brien in a leading case decided in the thirteenth century. It is difficult to understand the mind of the man next door, more difficult if he lives across the channel or at the other end of Europe, more difficult still if he is a member of the Japanese race who for thousands of years have been isolated from the rest of mankind. Jaya Deva suggests that there is no difference between the Japanese imperialist and the German or the Italian. Up to a point I agree. " It makes very little difference," said Mencius, " whether you are killed with a knife or a club." But if you can guess which weapon the other fellow is. likely to use you may not