The impression that the Administration means business seems to be confirmed by the comment of the "Washington Post," which, referring to the expiry today of the American-Japanese Treaty, says: "On January 26, a new significant chapter in Japanese-American relations will be ushered in. For more than eight years the Japanese have repeatedly manifested complete disregard of American rights and interests in China. The State Department has protested against a long and humiliate ing series of unfriendly actions, but the protests have been wholly ineffective."
The "Washington Post" points out that the way is now open for the stoppage of the supply of basic war materials to Japan, in accordance with widespread popular demand.
"No one knows better than the Japanese," adds the journal, "how seriously they would be injured by legislative interference with their trade. Whether retaliatory measures will be taken' against Japan depends largely on Japan's conduct in the Far Bast, The sword of Damocles! is obviously poised over Tokyo"
The "Evening Star" speaks in the same forthright manner. "The Mikado's Government," it says, "has long been aware what it must do to! make the United States once more treaty-minded—Japan must pledge herself to mend her ways in China and be judged in Washington by her works and not by her words." January 26 is the turning point in Japanese-American relations, "but there is no longer room for doubt that beneficial result can only follow a fundamental change in heart and spirit of the policy in Japan"—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.