Friendly Caution to Japan

Before World War I a very few U. S. businessmen conscientiously made themselves specialists in foreign countries, cultivating good relations not only as good business but as a patriotic duty. Last week in Manhattan, at the annual session of the Academy of Political Science, a businessman who is a specialist on Japan spoke some far-reaching words. That Banker Thomas Lament's words would be heard in Tokyo seemed certain, for the House of Morgan was once U. S. banker for Japan. That some of his words would suggest to Japanese how they looked to Western eyes also seemed certain: "I have made many friends in China and scores in Japan, some of the latter, because of their liberal views, having alas! met death at the hands of assassins."

Should the U. S. tighten trade embargoes against Japan? Said Banker Lamont: "A private citizen not familiar with all the factors would not for a moment presume to suggest detailed measures to the Administration whose foreign policy along this line has been so carefully developed." Nevertheless, he pointed out inconsistencies and omissions in U. S. embargoes that still permitted Japan to get war supplies.

Lament points:

>Japanese entrance into the Axis was designed to draw U. S. attention away from the Atlantic, panic the U. S. into reducing aid to Britain. It failed.

>"As long as Britain holds out, Japan does not dare attempt much. . . . Constantly increasing material aid to Britain is the No. 1 route whereby Japan's threat to America can be rendered null and void."

>"The Administration has already established the principle of extensive credits to China. . . . What China sorely needs is to have that support take the form of material supplies and planes as well as of credits."

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