Keeper of Peace

(See front cover)

No Japanese juggler in any U. S. circus was last week keeping aloft a variety of balls, plates and fiery sticks more dexterously than Koki Hirota, Japan's Foreign Minister. In Britain President of the Board of Trade Walter Runciman could devote his entire time to the trade war he had declared against Japan. In Geneva a League of Nations strategy board could concentrate on a proper reply to the Japanese charge of League interference in China, in Nanking the Foreign Office could give its undivided attention to the new Japanese doctrine of a moral protectorate over China. But in Tokyo Foreign Minister Hirota had to keep all three issues in the air at once with one hand conduct the routine business of the Foreign Office with the other and wave the Japanese flag with his teeth.

Trade War. Aiming at Japan, Mr. Runciman announced last week that imports of foreign textile goods to Britain's Crown colonies would be limited henceforth to the average amount imported irom each country during the years 1927-31. While statisticians with slide rule and pencil last week figured out these quota restrictions, it was a fact that exports of Japanese cotton goods to all countries rose from 1,413,480.000 sq. yd. in 1927 to 2.090,228,000 sq. yd. in 1933 and surpassed the total British exports of cotton goods for the first time in history. Though tariffs on Japanese goods have been raised in a dozen countries year after year Japanese wages are so low and Japanese machinery so effective that in 1933 Japanese cotton goods exports increased by the millions of square yards thus: South America: 29 Africa: 41

Australia: 20

Egypt: 15

As a world problem the present Japanese trade menace is largely a matter of textile goods. Only in the U. S. where Japanese dumping has been receiving more and more attention since the last days of the Hoover Administration is the accent shifted to small manufactured goods-celluloid toys, rubber soled shoes crockery electric light bulbs. The U. S. is by far Japan's greatest market, but from the U. S. Japan imports one-fourth again as much as she sends.

The cotton war between Japan and Britain budded and bloomed in India five years ago. Remembering the picturesque but inefficient spinning wheel of St. Gandhi, people forget that even in 19^9 idia had a modern, highly efficient domestic cotton industry capable of supplv-mg all but 25% of her needs. That 25% was the prize, and in 1929 Britain got twice as much of it as did Japan. Then came Depression, the Gandhi anti-British boy, depreciation of the yen. Japanese cotton sales to India rose "and rose until by 1932 they not only passed Britain but were cutting seriously into the sales of the Indian mills. In 1933 the Indian Government increased the tariff on foreign cotton goods, which was mostly Japanese, to 5%, set the duty on British cotton at 25%. It did not stop the flood and Japan struck sharply back. Her spinners voted to buy no more raw cotton from India Last winter British, Indian and Japanese cotton manufacturers met in Simla, patched up a peace for India. A further cotton conference began in London on St. Valentine's Day. It failed to settle the question of Japanese exports to the world at large. Mr. Runciman's manifesto on quotas followed.

Britain could do nothing about anti-Japanese quotas for the Dominions, but ardently she hoped that they would follow suit. Because the British Dominions supply much of the raw materials on which Japanese industrial economy is dependent, they appeared none too eager last week to crimp their own exports. In Australia the Melbourne Argus (which last week won a University of Missouri School of Journalism honor medal, see p. 22) put it bluntly: "Australia has no complaint against Japan who is a good customer for her wheat and wool. Australia, as is natural from her geographical position, has found good markets in the Far East and unless international rivalries are pursued to the point of national suicide that trade must not be discouraged. The poor people of both England and Australia do not wel come a policy compelling them to buy in a dearer market." In Tokyo last week arrived sober, youthful-looking John Grieg Latham, Australian Minister for External Affairs. He was dined & wined, received by the Emperor in audience and taken in state to inspect two cotton mills. To interviewers he announced : 'I am willing to hear any proposals on matters of trade and transmit them to the Commonwealth Government." Japanese were convinced that his trip was to pave the way for a separate Australian Legation in Tokyo to handle Australia's interests apart from those of Britain.

Britain also realized last week that she may not be able to enforce anti-Japanese quotas for some of her East African possessions because of the Congo Basin treaties which assure commercial equality in the Congo Basin to the signatory powers. Tanganyika Territory in East Africa, excluded because it is a British mandate, was glad. Reporters found an overworked doctor in Tanganyika who announced:

''People forget the low purchasing power of the native boys. The purchase of cheap Japanese rubber soled shoes has done more to check hookworm here than all the efforts of the health department."

Japan did not accept a trade war with Britain passively. It meant more to her than just a chance to increase textile exports. Japan's foreign trade is vital to the nation's existence. The development of new markets is the cause of her imperialism, and she cannot finance that imperialism unless other nations buy her goods. Working for starvation wages is a patriotic duty in Japan.

Having taken affairs right out of the hands of Minister of Commerce Joji Matsumoto, Foreign Minister Hirota last week summoned his trusty Official Spokesman, curly haired Eiji Amau. At the end of their interview the latter went out to the Press and parroted:

''We Japanese were all brought up to believe Adam Smith and the Manchester School [of economics]. The fact that Britain has adopted a quota system, which is usually a device of countries unable to face competition, has made a certain impression on the Japanese who had been accustomed to regard Britain as a great trading nation.

"A decade ago the mere announcement of such a step would have upset Japanese industrialists. Today they have more confidence in their power to meet competition."

Minister Hirota's next step was to set one group of Foreign Office assistants to studying whether or not the British quotas could be claimed as a breach of the Anglo-Japanese commercial treaty. Another group went to work on a schedule of anti-British retaliatory tariffs to be used as a last resort.

The League. The next problem in Koki Hirota's busy week was what to do about Dr. Ludwik Rajchman. So glaring are the things that the League of Nations ills to do that the world is apt to forget the practical international charity which the League attempts. Year ago it was the League-inspired loan to Austria that did much to ward off Hitlerism and keep Engelbert Dollfuss in the saddle. Since 1930 the League has been doing what it could for impoverished China. Eight months ago it commissioned its Dr. Ludwik Rajchman, Polish expert on China, to act as financial adviser to the Nationalist Government and handle reconstruction work in the Chinese provinces.*

Like most League attaches, Dr. Rajchman is an ardent liberal, instinctively opposed to Japanese imperialism. To Japan's chagrin he is also an able administrator. In a short time he had coordinated reconstruction work in seven provinces, persuaded the Nationalist Government to spend $15,000,000mex.--six times as much as in 1933--for reconstruction. Then he returned to Geneva with a strongly worded report demanding more money and moral support for China if that country is not to collapse before Japan.

In Tokyo Foreign Minister Hirota felt it wise to consult the Emperor's ear, venerable Prince Saionji, last of the Elder Statesmen, before tackling the League's work in China. This time the Hirota words were delivered to the world not through Spokesman Amau but through Rengo, the official news agency. First came a warning to frighten possible investors: "Financial conditions in China are most distressing. Chinese merchants abroad who have been remitting between 300,000,000 and 400,000,000 yuan ($100,000,000 to $133,000,000) a year to help Chinese finances have ceased remittances. Last year China's trade showed an excess of imports amounting to $200,000,000 and if this continues a few more years the Chinese Republic will be bankrupt." Then came the protest proper: "China ought first to readjust her debts before any more money is loaned. Unless such a readjustment is made an added burden will be placed on the Chinese which will tend to delay unification of the country and the attainment of order and prosperity. . . . This is what Japan cannot countenance as she realizes that it devolves upon her to be the Keeper of Peace in the Far East. ... If necessary the Japanese will take measures to cope with any situation likely to arise subsequent to international financial assistance to China."

At this point it was necessary for Japanese militarists to put in a word. In an impassioned address before the assembled governors of Japanese prefectures, chunky Vice Admiral Mineo Osumi, Minister of the Navy, demanded immediate increase in Japan's sea forces. "We appeal to your support for this program which is essential to protect Japan from her enemies," cried he. "The next naval conference will not concern the Navy alone, but may decide the destiny of the Empire. Japan must take this opportunity to free herself from unfavorable restrictions." In Geneva Japan pulled wires to force the withdrawal of Dr. Rajchman as financial adviser to China. Fearful of a show-down on Japan's new position as "Protector of the East" the League knuckled under. It intimated that Dr. Rajchman will not return to China. Nanking. In all this prattling over China few paid any attention to the real interests of that vast sprawling helpless country. Nanking, impotent against Japan's armies, had one obvious weapon to wield against Japan's declaration of a moral protectorate. She could appeal to the signatories of the Nine Power Treaty (1922) guaranteeing Chinese sovereignty independence. Months ago when the Japanese doctrine was first proclaimed that was just what Nanking prepared to do. Prudent investigation in Geneva. London, Paris, Washington told her that the smaller powers were leaving the entire matter to Britain and the U. S. who might be willing to challenge Japan for their own good but not for the good of China. An appeal that fails is worse than no appeal at all. China held her peace. One little nose-thumbing at Japan Nanking could afford. Though Japan had made much of her opposition to the sale of munitions to China, and the use of foreign military instructors for Chinese troops, a commission of 22 bright young Chinese officers left Shanghai last week to visit Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain and finally the U.S. to inspect forts and munitions factories and study the organization of foreign armies.

The Man Who Failed. It is not news when a U. S. citizen fails in college and later achieves great success at his chosen profession. In crowded Japan where university graduates sprout like weeds and jobs are sparse, it is news indeed. Sweating over their studies, Japanese students remember that Koki Hirota was the man who failed in his examinations for the diplomatic service only to become one of Japan's most effective Foreign Ministers. He was born in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu 56 years ago. Kyushu is as solidly conservative as Maine. As a sober little schoolboy Koki Hirota was an ardent member of a super-nationalist secret society known as the Genyosha or Black Sea Society. Its leader, Mitsuru Toyama, now 78, is still politically active, head of the far more formidable Black Dragon Society whose members for the most part are not schoolboys but army officers. Koki Hirota is still his good friend, but he has grown smoother and wiser. After studying at the Imperial University in Tokyo, Koki Hirota attempted to enter the diplomatic service. He flunked miserably.* As a consolation Enjiro Yamaza of the foreign office Political Affairs bureau got the boy an under-clerkship in the Japanese consulate in Seoul, Korea, coached him for a second try at the examinations. Koki Hirota's chief in Korea was young Katsuji Debuchi, lately Ambassador to Washington. The two have been fast friends ever since. After finally passing his examinations Koki Hirota spent a plodding apprenticeship in the Foreign Office, first in Peiking. later London, and Russia. After the War he served at the Embassy in Washington, returned to Tokyo in 1921 and was made Minister to The Hague in 1927 where for the first time he earned a little leisure. All his life he had been far too busy to engender colorful stories or indulge in hobbies, but in The Hague he suddenly evinced a passionate interest for tulip bulbs. Day after day he puttered about his planting fields, fertilizing pistils with his little camel's hair brush until he finally produced a new tulip all his own. After a tour of duty as Ambassador to Moscow, Koki Hirota's big chance came last September. Foreign Minister Count Yasuya Uchida had seen his country through the Jehol invasion. He was tired. 68, and getting deaf. Premier Saito picked Koki Hirota to succeed him. Observers called it "simply the substitution of a vigorous and unspent man for one who is weary." Since the growing power of Japanese militarists forced the resignation of the last truly international-minded Foreign Minister, Kijuro Shidehara, in 1931, the basis of Japan's foreign policy has not changed one inch. She is bound to make herself master of the Far East, peaceably if possible, by force if necessary. But the Japanese are a polite people who search constantly for a foreign minister who car hew to the line his country has chosen and at the same time avoid enraging foreign powers by imprudent statements. It is the despair of Japan's diplomats that there is no language that can explain what Japan is about to do that will not also inflame the foreign Press. Premier Saito and Elder Statesman Saionji forced the resignation of fire-eating War Minister Araki four months ago because of the latter's imprudent announcements. For the same reason they passed over General Araki's own candidate for Foreign Minister--Matsuoka, the man who marched the Japanese delegation out of the League of Nations. Koki Hirota was popped into the office before most Japanese militarists realized what was brewing. Conspirators Saito and Saionjii knew that fundamentally Minister Hirota is as ardent a nationalist as any Black Dragon could wish, but they hoped & prayed that his long service in the diplomatic corps would make him more discreet and softspoken. Minister Hirota's method of being discreet and soft-spoken while carrying on Japan's policy of expansion is to supply the words and let anonymous spokesmen voice them. Last week excitable Tokyo papers were demanding the resignation of his best-known, obedient Eiji Amau.

*An old and trusted hand with the League of Nations, Polish Dr. Rajchman is not only an economic adviser but a physician who has done health work for the League in Poland, Russia, China. In Warsaw last week his cousin, Col. Floyer Rajchman, was the first Jew in Polish history ever to become a Cabinet Minister. He was named Minister of Industry and Commerce. Col. Rajchman, too, has first hand knowledge of Japanese imperialism. He has served as Polish Military attache in Tokyo.

*Recently the Tokyo Miyako Shimbun gained access to bundles of examination papers of students trying for jobs in Manchukuo with the Ministry of Railways. Samples: 1) Marconi. The Crown Prince of Ethiopia; the President of France; roast hog. 2) Hindenburg. The Premier of Denmark; Capital of Germany; a business quarter in England; an Australian port where woolen is exported. 3) Movement against cooperative societies. The birth control movement as advocated by Sanger.

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