The Denounced Treaty The actual denunciation of the Washington Naval
Treaty by Japan, which took place on Saturday,- was accompanied by the expression of a number of unex- ceptionable sentiments regarding Japan's desire for disarmament and peace. She is, of course, perfectly entitled to denounce the treaty, but no smooth words will disguise the seriousness of her act. The United States will certainly react by building up to the full limit permitted under the Treaty while it is still in force (till the end of 1936), and the coming manoeuvres of the American fleet in the Pacific will acquire a significance which it is undesirable to have to attach to them. Japan, of course, claims that she is standing simply for " equality in defence." What she is actually demanding is an arrangement that would give her unchallenged Supremacy in the Western Pacific. There might be circumstances in which that would be open to no more objection than America's supremacy in the Eastern Pacific. But for a nation with Japan's record in regard to China from the time of the Twenty-One Points demand in 1915 down to the date when by her action in Man- churia she broke at once the League Covenant, the Kellogg Pact and the Nine Power Treaty, the claim is untenable. This country and the United States must unite to resist it.
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