EUROPE AND ASIA
EVENTS that take place near to us naturally loom larger than those which are more remote, but even so sensational an event as Hitler's meeting with Mussolini has not overshadowed Japan's cynical defiance of the world. For the average man, " foreign politics " during the last year has generally signified the politics of Europe ; the " world " issue has appeared to be the issue between dictatorship and democracy. The Far East has been out of the picture when we were contemplating the fighting in Spain, or hearing with horror the story of the bombing of Guernica, or congratulating Mr. Eden on agreeing with France to take action against piracy. Our " foreign affairs " have been in the main European affairs ; the causes of danger for us have all seemed to lie on the neighbouring continent ; there, and there alone, have been our potential enemies against whom this terrific speeding up of armaments has been undertaken. Certainly, when the country as a whole agreed to the massive defence plan of the Government, no one was giving much thought to China and Japan. It was thinking only of the combustible elements which threaten to flare up in Europe.
If it were true that Europe was the whole world, it would still be desirable that Great Britain should direct her policy to appeasement, to finding, so far as is compatible with national interest and honour, a modus vivendi with countries whose methods of government— to put it moderately—are uncongenial to us. But since it is not so, it is doubly important that Europe, which has at least a common basis in history and civilisation, should not find herself so weakened and distracted by neighbourly quarrels—like the city-states of ancient Greece—as to be incapable of making any united stand for what must still, for want of a better word, he called Western Civilisation. It should be remembered that the first vital blow to the League of Nations was struck, not in Europe, but in Manchuria. A disunited Europe could do nothing to check Japan's aggression there ; and today Japan feels that she can defy world opinion in openly breaking the laws of war in China.
We have to be grateful for a breathing space in Europe. Signor Mussolini has been able to go to Berlin without a secret grievance, thanks to the readiness of Britain and France not to exploit their advantage in the Nyon agree- ment. The two dictators moved in procession guarded by massed troops ; inspected munitions works ; con- gratulated each other as " warriors " ; praised the " indestructible will to live and assert themselves." But their public utterances at the Berlin banquet were unusually moderate, except in the references to Russia. No language of defiance was thrown at the rest of the world. They pleaded in chosen words for better under- standing. Though they insisted on the special interests which make their own co-operation inevitable, they used almost identical phrases when they said that they did not aim at creating a bloc directed against other countries, but on the contrary were anxious to collaborate with them. Whilst Herr Hitler emphasised the community of interests in Germany and Italy as arising from their common views about the State, Signor Mussolini laid more emphasis on the active struggle against Bolshevism- " the modern form of darkest Byzantine arbitrary force." But neither said a word to indicate that the Rome-Berlin axis had been made stronger by any tangible agreement reached in the course of the Duce's visit. On the con- trary, though Signor Mussolini has no doubt found much to gratify him in the military spectacles and the vociferous greetings to which he was treated in Germany, he has possibly been made to feel that the Rome-Berlin axis must not be subjected to too heavy a strain. The references which both of them made to international co-operation should be considered in connexion with Mr. Eden's speech at Geneva. Their joint answer to Mr. Eden is at least not a negative, and suggests that more definite overtures in the immediate future might prove fruitful.
And certainly the course of the war in China is a violent reminder of the need for the establishment of more rational relations between Powers in Europe. Japan, who has no heritage of western customs or ideas, but who in the short period of three generations has absorbed all the surface learning of the Occident and has taken over all the mechanism which western science has made available, is now applying western ideas in the crudest, most superficial, but perhaps not the most illogical, way. The militarist and imperialist element is now dominant in Japan. It is proceeding actually, though not avowedly, in accordance with a programme audaciously published about ten years ago, having for its ultimate aim nothing less than the domination of the whole of Asia, achieved successively by Japanese arms and economic penetration. It is not necessary to use exagger- ated language about that irresponsible programme or to revive the old bogey of the " yellow peril." It is more to the point to notice that the militarists who are now directing the policy of Japan are, in their conduct of the war, merely applying ideas which have already become current throughout the whole of Europe and in this country. We have constantly, in our desire to be realistic, accepted the notion that a nation bent upon war will stop at nothing ; that it will start hostilities without any formal declaration of war ; that it will bomb open cities and strike at civilians in order to destroy the morale of its opponent ; that it will use poison gas and perhaps let loose germs in the ruthlessness which aims at nothing but victory. All of these things which we have declared to be inevitable Japan is now doing with the most complete indifference to humanity Thousands of men, women and children have been massacred in the crowded cities of Canton, Nanking and Hankow. Fishermen, engaged with their families in their peaceful avocation in junks, have been mercilessly drowned by a Japanese submarine. Charged with these and other unspeakable brutalities, the Japanese Minister of Marine blandly asserts that it is " unthinkable that the Imperial Navy would commit an act contrary to humanity." Japan has even learnt the western language of diplomacy.
She is only doing what we have all declared to be inevitable in modern war. But if " inevitable," these practices are not yet legal. They' are still contrary to the admitted obligations of war. But if such practices pass now without effective protest they will become precedents for the future. In the massacres at Canton we have warning of what may happen in the crowded capitals of Europe. Japan has been able to count upon the fact that Europe is so hopelessly divided within itself as to be incapable of co-operative action to prevent this ugly combination of science and devilry which, though not peculiarly Eastern, is applied by Japan with unexampled thoroughness. Civilisation is now con- fronted with the most extreme and most foul mis- adaptation of itself. The United States, Britain and other western Powers have made their formal protests; The Assembly of the League of Nations has passed a vigorous resolution condemning the outrages. What will be the next step, more especially on the part of those Powers which are most directly concerned in the Far East, namely, Britain and America ? If western protests prove ineffective and are regarded as insincere, little will be left, in the eyes of the East, which is not to the discredit of their civilisation. That is a formidable consideration to a country which still has responsibilities for the government of India.
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