Japan in the House
In his speech in the Foreign Affairs debate on Wednesday, Mr. Morrison gave his opinion that the Japanese treaty was "another important contribution to the stability of the Far East." In theory this should be so, but in practice the prospect of the treaty's signature continues to arouse as much disquiet as it allays. It is true that no treaty can ever produce guarantees of the sort that the victims of former Japanese commercial and military adventures overseas would like to see constructed ; but there should at this stage, at any rate, be a reasonable hope that the Japanese are turning over a new leaf. Not many speakers seemed to have such a hope. Mr. Morrison's answer to China's fears of a revived Japan was simply that we had "not been un- mindful of China's position and interests." And the fears of Lancashire can hardly have been lulled by Mr. Younger'sassur- ance that the Government was "fully aware of the anxieties felt in trade and industry" over Japanese competition. Neither of these speeches showed much evidence of conviction.
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