Loaded Gun

When he froze Japanese assets in the U.S. last week (see p. 11), President Roosevelt did not automatically put an end to U.S.-Japanese trade. Neither, except oratorically, did he put an end to the U.S. State Department policy of appeasing Japan with U.S. oil. There were plenty of official loopholes in the freezing order through which that trade could be carried on. What the President did was to load and point an economic gun at Japan. But it was a big-caliber gun, and it was ready to fire at any moment.

The gun crew is a three-man "policy board": Treasury's Ed Foley, State's Dean Acheson, Justice's Francis Shea. Theirs is the job of determining the policies under which the Treasury will issue licenses for the export of U.S. goods and for the transfer of Japanese assets to pay for them. The State Department credits its own oil policy with having kept Japan out of the East Indies for two years. If this policy is influential with the board, licenses will no doubt be freely issued and the trade will go on. Asked about the board's policy last week, Ed Foley remarked: "I don't know, we haven't met since the freezing order was signed."

Whether the gun would be fired depended chiefly on Japan. But its very size and power were enough to scare many U.S. businessmen--to say nothing of Japanese businessmen--last week. In combination with similar British and Dutch weapons, it might lay the Japanese economy low in six months (see col. 2). But it also had a kick that would jar 200,000 silk workers in the U.S. (see below).

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