Gen. Oshima made preliminary commitments which might have led the German Government to think that Japanese military and naval help would be forthcoming in the event of general European hostilities. He probably would have been recalled had he been a civilian, but he is an Army general and the Army would not consent to such a drastic action against the first of its generals to be given a leading diplomatic post.
That Japan had to deal simultaneously with the question of a military alliance and the dangerous Soviet fisheries issue—while at the same time carrying on a full-fledged war in China—was symptomatic of the present inflammable course of international events, Japan steered a somewhat uncertain path through those obstacles. The fisheries settlement early this month represented some losses, but the plain truth was that Japan was not prepared to make good on her declarations that she would fight Russia rather than surrender the fishing rights.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.