Poor Propagandist

The neat, polite little yellow man who read his country's defiance of world opinion to the League of Nations (TIME, March 6), Yosuke Matsuoka marched down a Manhattan gangplank last week and into a waiting automobile. Policemen were thick as flies "BOO! BOO! BOOOOO!" went a crowd of about 300 assorted Chinese and Communists. Patrolman John Ello took into custody one Lin Naphin, 32, who was clutching a loaded pistol in his overcoat pocket. Smiling politely, Statesman Matsuoka was whisked from the waterfront to the echoing calm of Fifth. Avenue's swank (but bankrupt) Hotel Pierre. There he sat down under a portrait of China's late great Li Hung-chang and awaited the Press.

Officially Yosuke Matsuoka was on his way back to Japan to report to his government and resume his seat in the Diet. Unofficially he was in the U. S. to explain Japan's position on Manchukuo and the League. For that he is well equipped. Taken to Oregon at the age of 12 he lived there until after his graduation from the State University. He speaks English with only the faintest accent, thoroughly understands U. S. psychology, as he showed at the very outset of his interview:

"We are not appealing to the United States or anyone else. We are not a vassal state of America or any other country. We Japanese are poor propagandists, as you well know. That is why we are misunderstood.

"We Japanese regard Manchuria as the life line of Japan. That is a pair of words frequently heard in Japan, 'life line.' Manchuria is Japan's first line of defense. . . . We sacrificed 100,000 men and two billion yen to get it back from Russia--that may not seem like a lot of money to you in this rich country, but it was a staggering burden to Japan at that time."

Disregarding a confused reporter who kept calling him "Mr. Manchukuo," Yosuke Matsuoka continued:

"We object to the designation 'puppet state' for Manchukuo. That was one of the errors of the Lytton Report. There is a certain analogy between the Japanese-Manchukuo relationship and the United States-Cuba relationship, but there is also this difference: Japan did not first conquer Manchukuo and then give it virtual independence. Manchukuo sprang into being as an independent state. As such it is not a protectorate, just a friendly nation. . . . Your country has not made the sacrifices in developing its neighbors that Japan has made in Manchuria. I question whether the United States would permit the territory contiguous to the Panama Canal or important points in the Caribbean to be held by a hostile power. . . . I suppose you know that American trade with Manchukuo has increased since the foundation of the independent state, while Japanese trade has stood still.

"In Geneva I made it plain the Japanese delegation had walked out of a special session on the Manchuria question with no intention of returning for that discussion. I cannot say whether Japan has withdrawn from the League. On that I am waiting word from Tokyo. My part is done."

The word that little Mr. Matsuoka was waiting soon came. The Privy Council forwarded a 700-word document to Geneva announcing formal resignation from the League. It was compressed into one brief official message to the Press:

"The Japanese Government has come to the conclusion that it can. no longer cooperate with the League."

With Japan's withdrawal from the League (first major power to resign), what was to become of Yap and the other island in the South Pacific that Japan holds under League mandate? There was no reference to them in the message to the League, but a smiling official spokesman explained:

"Japan will not raise this question in any form and if it is raised by others it will be met by unflinching Japanese determination to hold the islands."

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