JUST PALS

Japan, after eleven years has reestablished her naval base at Port Arthur, which position has been entirely reconditioned since February, 1932, whence Japan at any time is well fixed for operations against China, or against Russia should such operations ensue. On the same pages of the New York Times is printed the news that Russia is beginning to emerge from its policy of watchful waiting that has characterized its relations with Japan in the past few months into a new attitude which has been described by the New York Times as "getting sore," for Russia has grown sharp with Japan; as the Soviet on the Western Front is no longer willing to be bluffed by England, so the Soviet on the Eastern Front feels strong enough to tighten her demands in Tokyo.

Mutually embittered, further disagreement between the major powers of the Far East is not far in the future, and when the time comes, Russia may well find herself on one side or the other. If the Soviet joins China against Japan, strange bedfellows will be the result, for England and the United States have the choice of backing either Russia, which the United States does not even recognize, or Japan with which both the United States and England have been peremptory in the immediate past. That Russia should back Japan seems extremely unlikely because of the present developments; and in view of the League's past handling of the Sino-Japanese affair, trouble in the future is likely to receive little more than protest from that score; but Russia becoming officially embroiled in the Eastern question would immediately have the effect of starting the line-up of the sides in the struggle that is to come.