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"There are those in other countries who do not fully comprehend the attitude of Japan toward China nor the measures she has taken. . . . Although Japan has been the chief victim of the abnormal state of affairs in China, other countries have also suffered intolerable indignities. At the same time it is admitted by those conversant with actual conditions in China that no remedy can be effected by having recourse either to the covenant of the League of Nations or to any other organ of what may be termed 'machinery of peace.' In fact, it has been the practice of the powers, as has been demonstrated on innumerable occasions, to repair or prevent injuries to their important rights and interests in China by direct application of force without relying upon those instruments of peace. . . .
"There are those who argue as though the action of Japan were a violation of the Kellogg-Briand anti-war pact. But such contention has no foundation in fact. . . . The anti-war pact does not put restraint upon the exercise of the right of self-defense.
". . . The independence of Manchoukuo has been achieved through the spontaneous will of Manchurians and should be regarded as a consequence of a fissiparous* movement in China, and that recognition by Japan of the new State thus created cannot violate the stipulations of the Nine-Power Treaty.
". . . It appears that in certain quarters a plan is being considered to reach a solution . . . by investing China proper in one form or another with authority over Manchuria. . . . The People of Japan can never consent to a solution of that kind."
Suez to Kamchatka? There were two still more drastic ideas which Foreign Minister Uchida did not voice in his formal address but which other Japanese, nearly as potent politically, called to the world's attention. For a fortnight foreign correspondents had heard rumors that Count Uchida was about to formulate a "Japanese Monroe Doctrine.'' claiming the right to protect all Asia "from Suez to Kamchatka," except American & European possessions, from Western aggression, and that the originator to be cited for this idea was none other than the late great Theodore Roosevelt. Editors were unable to find any trace of such a doctrine in T. R.'s writings or biographies.
Last week gentle, white-haired Viscount Kentaro Kaneko, Harvard 1878, Privy Councilor of Japan, came forward with an articlee in Contemporary Japan to explain that he was the person to whom President Roosevelt had suggested a Japanese Monroe Doctrine. The Viscount said it had occurred during a rocking chair conversation at Sagamore Hill in 1905 while Russian and Japanese delegates were negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth which ended the Russo-Japanese War. He explained that it has never before been published because he had promised President Roosevelt not to do so while the latter remained in office or afterward except by special arrangement. T. R. went hunting in Africa, then returned to start the Progressive Party. Then came the War—they never got around to it.