The declaration made before the Lower House of the Diet in Tokyo by the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Koki Hirota, that Japan is determined to collect an indemnity for the "China Incident" whether the nationalist government is able to pay such an indemnity or not, raises a delicate and somewhat Paradoxical issue. Japanese military commanders have repeatedly declared their intention to wipe out the government of General Chiang Kai-shek and to establish in its place a government "friendly" to the Japanese. They have succeeded to a limited extent in doing this in some parts of the country, and in the meanwhile have withdrawn recognition from the government against whom they are fighting and from whom Tokyo intends to collect the indemnity. If this government is to be destroyed, can it be asked to pay the indemnity? Or alternatively, can the government set up in Peiping under the inspiration of the Japanese be expected to pay for the actions of the Kuomintang government and still remain "friendly" to Japan? The answer to both questions would seem to be in the negative. Mr. Hirota's hint that indemnities can be paid in kind as well as in cash does nothing to make the position clearer. To take the produce—coal, iron, or anything else—of a "friendly" government in recompense for losses caused by the acts of a unfriendly one would almost certainly have the effect of Changing the "friendly" attitude into one of bitter hostility. It is a dilemma the solution of which will be watched with interest.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.