Adventures in a Dove's Nest

Ko Ishii is a pink-cheeked, affable, stogy-smoking diplomat who was once (1929-30) Japanese Consul in New York. Last December he became spokesman for the Japanese Cabinet, replacing the somewhat less affable Foreign Office spokesman, slightly cockeyed, definitely popeyed, short, swart Yakichiro Suma. Last week Diplomat Ishii talked the Japanese Foreign Office into a lot of trouble.

Relations between Tokyo and the London-Washington Axis were tense in the midst of the Far Eastern war scare. The Japanese, who had started the scare, were dismayed at the length it had gone. To their protestations of peaceful intentions U. S. Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles coldly replied that the U. S. was interested in deeds, not words, and Congress voted an appropriation to fortify Samoa and Guam. At this point Ko Ishii bustled into his press conference and suggested that the U. S. restrict its activities to the Western Hemisphere. Then he let the cat out of the bag.

"We are utterly unable to see any good purpose to be served by the prolonging of war," said he. "Japan is fully prepared to act as mediator . . . anywhere in the world."

This was a full diplomatic retreat, for only through the prolonging of war in Europe can Japan hope to snatch more of East Asia. If there was any doubt that Spokesman Ishii was talking for his Government, it was dispelled by British Foreign Under Secretary Richard Austen Butler, who told the House of Commons that the mediation offer had been made official. This week Prime Minister Churchill received Japanese Ambassador Shigemitsu, turned the offer down.

Germany's Ambassador to Japan, Major General Eugen Ott, rushed around to the Foreign Office to demand of Foreign Minister Matsuoka what he meant by letting down Japan's Axis partner while that partner was trying to promote a Russo-Japanese non-aggression pact. Yosuke Matsuoka mumbled an "explanation to the press." He had referred to the Thailand-French Indo-China dispute, which Japan was already mediating. "Of course," added the flustered Foreign Minister, "Japan would be happy to mediate any dispute if the opportunity presented itself, but the entertainment of such a peaceful desire was something different from making a specific offer to mediate the European war."

Lost Face. Japan was not long in getting reactions from this backdown. She had not only lost face diplomatically, but she had lost the military initiative. In Singapore thousands of Australian troops landed after a 3,000-mile trip. They sang Roll Out the Barrel, tossed pennies down on British dignitaries waiting to welcome them, cockily announced that they were "all set and fighting fit," then set out for northern Malaya. U. S.-made bombing planes reinforced the British Air Force at Singapore. New U. S. fighting planes were sent to the U. S. Fleet in Hawaii.

Japan's potential victims plucked up their courage too. In Chungking the Hunan Provincial People's Political Council stepped into the dispute between Chiang Kai-shek's Government and the Communists, appealed to Communist Leaders Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh to end the "undiscipline" of Communist Army units and join the Government in a fresh attack on Japan. In Vichy the French Government announced that it would reject Japan's terms for ending the Thailand-Indo-China war, that French Indo-China would resume fighting rather than give Thailand 50,000 square miles of territory which Japan would presumably occupy. To keep from losing more face the Japanese mediators persuaded the belligerents to extend the armistice.

Snake's Egg. Plaintive voices were raised in Tokyo against Anglo-American belligerence. Foreign Minister Matsuoka, holding interviews twice a day, discovered that Great Britain and the U. S., Australia and The Netherlands Indies, were trying to "encircle" Japan. He even suggested that "the white race cede"; 1,200,00-mile Oceania, the islands of the south Pacific "to the Asiatics," i.e., Japan. The metaphor-of-the-week was produced by the Army's spokesman, Major Kunio Akiyama. Said he: "Japan has the heart of a dove of peace, but a snake--the United States and Great Britain--has placed its egg in the dove's nest." The egg, Major Akiyama went on to explain, was "the fortification of Singapore, the arrival of Australian troops in Malaya and the impending fortification of Guam and Samoa."

A correspondent asked the Major what he thought would hatch from this egg.

"God knows," said the Major, "but the dove will protest vigorously."

Sick Leader. That inveterate hypochondriac, Premier Prince Fumimaro Konoye, still lay abed with the "cold" he caught two weeks ago--a good deal less sick than his 100,000,000 people in featherweight houses had begun to feel. Bed was no place for the Premier at a time like this, and the influential Tokyo Asahi was only echoing the growing concern of the country when it came out and told Prince Konoye so. In the frankest piece of criticism a newspaper has directed at the Premier since he became head of the Government, Asahi said:

"There seems to be room for criticism of his continued absence and his occasional illnesses at the most critical times. We say that if the illness of the Prince is not too serious, it would be no end of help if he attended the Diet. . . . However, if the illness is serious, we earnestly hope for a more thoroughgoing treatment of the patient, at the same time giving someone else the right to speak with responsibility for the Premier.

"It should be realized that a war is going on and a still graver crisis is facing Japan. The uncertain state of the Premier's condition is depressing."

Pat Hand. In Washington the State Department sat tight with what it considered a pat hand: a superior fleet, superior commanding intelligence, superior economic resources, a superior willingness to fight and, for the fifth card, a joker that few people realized was in the deck. The joker was the Norwegian merchant fleet of some 200 vessels, most of which have been armed as raiders and are now in the Pacific. In case of war in the Far East this fleet would join British, Dutch and U. S. merchantmen in support of the U. S. Navy.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.