London, Aug. 24.
In q leader headed "Japan's hazardous enterprise," the "Daily Telegraph" to-day says that it must be acknowledged that the rejection of the proffered guarantee for the safety of Japanese nationals if the International Settlement is excluded from the area of the conflict, is likely to be the fate of all offers of conciliation. Any moderating influences in Japan, the newspaper declares, have been over-ridden by military elements which are resolved on war.
Those who have watched, with all sympathy, the growth of the great Japanese nation must, now most regret a decision which. jeopardizes everything that has been won in fifty years of unparalleled advance.
For a war, the leader continued, that already involves great forces on two fronts, and may presently extend to other fields, Japan is ill-equipped financially and economically, Japan's resources, the "Daily Telegraph" points out, have already been subjected to enormous strain by her Chinese enterprises and the promised reward to her people' in new fields of profitable enterprise has not been realized.
Perhaps, the newspaper concludes, it is not too late for her statesmen to consider whether the prize of further conquest is worth risk to the whole economy of the nation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.