THE STRUGGLE FOR ASIA

Howard, Harry Paxton

The Struggle For Asia By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of two articles by Mr. Howard on the behind-the-scenes struggle by the great powers for Asia. The second will appear...

...Molotov and Eden agreed, and the Chinese envoy at Moscow obediently came over and signed...
...The war for Asia is a war for empire...
...For Soviet Russia, Europe is of primary importance...
...In Asia, it is more populous, and has far more native support...
...In the meantime, to the anger of President Roosevelt and his Filipino friends and dependents, the Japanese-patronized "Philippine Republic" has issued a "declaration of independence," formally recognized by the Japanese and their Asiatic associates...
...Roosevelt's angry response was to have been expected...
...Then will come the western part of this immense island, which is to be recovered for Queen Wilhelmina, formerly of Holland, whose present capital is a migratory one...
...Whether it is India or Burma, Persia or Palestine, China or Java, New Guinea or the Philippines, that are immediately involved, the struggle is primarily one between great powers for imperial domination...
...There are few Burmese or Malayans who would welcome a British reconquest of their territories...
...During the 19th Century, Britain and Russia were the great rival empires...
...STALIN'S AMAZING VICTORY at the Moscow Conference, where he gained formal pledges from the American and British governments to support him both during the war and during the peace to follow, with the boundaries of the Soviet Union to be decided by Moscow alone, is linked closely with the situation in Asia...
...The Japanese have an effective fifth column in India, prepared to cooperate with and welcome a Japanese invasion...
...Douglas MacArthur and his brave boys are step by step recovering British New Guinea for the Empire...
...So much for "sovereign" China...
...Burma must be recovered for the British Crown...
...President McKinley stated that he could not locate the Philippines "within a thousand miles...
...For Europe is of central and vital interest to Moscow...
...MacArthur, who insists with some justice that if all available forces were diverted to the area under his command we might reconquer the Philippine Islands within a couple of years...
...Japan Sets Up Shop A little isolationist country, forced out of its determined isolation by superior western armaments, subjected for a time to virtual colonial status, it escaped from that status by becoming an ally of British and American imperialism against China...
...Finally it went into business for itself, becoming our enemy instead of our ally...
...The rivalry has continued down to the present day, but other powers have come into the picture...
...The Japanese Empire, built up by Britain and the United States as an ally and tool against China and against Russian Empire, expanded into a great imperial power, utilizing the political,, military, and industrial techniques of its Western teachers and developing some wrinkles of its own...
...In the wake of the armies follow the British imperial officials who re-established themselves and resume their rule over the natives of those areas...
...A satirist might remark that Teddy got us into the Far East, and Frankie got us out...
...So also with the Solomon Islands, New Britain, New Ireland...
...If Stalin can gain control of the populous and productive European continent, he can return to China later...
...The official communique on the Tri-partite Conference made it wholly clear that the Chinese government did not participate at any time...
...Their President, Jose P. Laurel, appealed to the United States, in the name of the Filipino people, "to prove to the entire world the sincerity of her protestations of friendship toward us by not placing obstacles in the path of the new republic...
...Unlike the Burmese, the Filipinos did not declare war upon the United States (and Great Britain), though they agreed to give the Japanese military and naval facilities in the islands...
...Soviet Asia covers even greater territories than those under Japanese hegemony...
...The Japanese Empire is as populous today as is the British Empire...
...Roosevelt the Second— after building it up for eight years—denounced it as "brutal," "savage," and "treacherous...
...The three powers reached their decisions, however, and Secretary Hull suggested that China's name be added to the Declaration...
...Meanwhile, at a heavy cost in blood, sweat and tears, Gen...
...Russia's First Interest So Moscow has gotten its demands in Europe—and Persia—and is now headed for direct ascendancy on the European continent as well as in Persia...
...It was Theodore Roosevelt who actually launched us on our career as a Far Eastern power in 1898, when as Undersecretary of the Navy he sent instructions to Admiral Dewey at Hongkong to attack the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay...
...For more than a century the rulers of Russia—-whether Romanoffs or Bolsheviks—have been trying to press southwards into the warmer and more densely populated areas, but have been repeatedly checked by the British, who for many momentous years succeeded in enlisting the Japanese in their support—and for even more years have succeeded in getting American support...
...The second will appear in an early issue...
...The actual position of China was quite clearly shown by the decision to include the Chinese government in the "Joint Four-Nation Declaration" at Moscow...
...For the past two months, the lines of the British diplomatic retreat before Moscow have become ever more clear...
...But before this is done, there are more urgent things to be accomplished...
...Behind this retreat of British before Red imperialism lies the struggle for Asia...
...The Japanese militarists now exercise hegemony over some 500,000,000 Asiatics, in a vast area covering more than 4.000,000 square miles...
...Not only was the Filipino-Japanese move a reply to his promise to "liberate" the Philippines, but it was a further move in the liquidation of American imperialism in Asia...
...As a part of these deals—which have been taking place behind the scenes for the past three months—the Russians staged an ostensible retreat in Chinese Turkestan (Sinkiang), where they withdrew their advisors and their industrial establishments and permitted the Chiang Kai-shek regime to establish itself...
...Prime Minister Churchill's (and President Roosevelt's) ambitions on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel, Churchill's frank determination to maintain the Fascist "existing structure" of the Italian state as of August this year, Churchill's determination to restore the Serbian ("Yugoslav") and Greek kings to their thrones in opposition both to democratic elements and to Stalin's Communists and "Partisans," are meeting utter defeat...
...Secretary Long was having a day off...
...Britain cannot afford seriously to antagonize Moscow—if the British want to retain India...
...In the vast territories of Asia and its fringing islands and archipelagoes, containing 1,300 million inhabitants—an actual majority of the human race— the only independent and non-imperial countries today are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan...
...The United States cannot afford seriously to antagonize Moscow—if American imperialism wishes to retain its foothold in China...
...At the present rate of progress, we may look forward to recovering all of British New Guinea for the Crown in the course of the coming Winter—or Spring at any rate...
...Empire In Asia Preparations are already being made for the attack on Burma-—to the disgust and resentment of Gen...
...Its population, however, is much sparser—some 60,000,000 persons...
...Roosevelt the First ballyhooed Japan as a "great, modern, progressive" country...
...This change coincided with a change in our official propaganda concerning it...

Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 46


 
Developed by
Kanda Sofware
  Kanda Software, Inc.