No Pact

The biggest news last week of U.S. foreign relations was only an unconfirmed report. But it may well have been true, even if the U.S. had no part in it. From Washington the New York Times's Hallett Abend (who left Shanghai last October, after 14 years of service in the Far East) reported that Japanese Ambassador Nomura for nearly two months had been secretly trying to negotiate a U.S.Japanese neutrality and non-aggression pact with Secretary of State Hull.

Such a pact would presumably: 1) enable the U.S. to fight in the Atlantic without fear of attack by Japan; 2) enable Japan to pursue her adventures in the Pacific without fear of attack by the U.S. Or it might be a cunning Axis plot to divert U.S. attention away from the Orient.

If Admiral Nomura thought Cordell Hull would sell China or the East Indies down the river, in exchange for a promise from Japan, he did not know his man. Japan, as Mr. Abend expected, promptly denied that any such proposal had been made. Mr. Hull merely said stiffly that U.S. policy in the Far East remained exactly what it was in April 1940, when he told Japan that any change of status in The Netherlands East Indies would be "prejudicial to the cause of stability, peace and security. ..."

But even if Mr. Hull would not listen to a Japanese proposition, the proposition, if made, was significant. It suggested that Japan might be in a mood to go a long way, even to sell out her Axis partners, if the U.S. would just let her liquidate her China venture with a little profit.

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