At the Stroke

Last week the Japanese Ambassador to the U. S., Kensuke Horinouchi, called on the Assistant U. S. Secretary of State, Adolf Augustus Berle Jr. No more dissimilar diplomats ever confronted each other. Mr. Horinouchi looks and acts like an animated cartoon of a Japanese statesman. Mr. Berle looks somewhat like a white mouse. But behind his pallid exterior he hides a talent for positive statement, a certainty that he knows what's what.

To Kensuke Horinouchi, hunched Mr. Berle was a figure of doom last week. Expiring in only 72 hours was the U. S. Japanese Commerce & Navigation Treaty of 1911. the keystone of a trade vital to Japan and valuable to the U. S. At and after the stroke of midnight. Jan. 26, the U. S. could hike tariff duties on imports from Japan, put many an obstacle in the way of exports to Japan. Ambassador Horinouchi therefore came to ask: What now?

Adolf Berle answered with many words, all of which reduced to: Wait and see. Thus the U. S. for the moment left its trade relations with Japan precisely as they had been, reserved the freedom to put on the clamps should Tokyo further injure U. S. sensibilities or rights in China. On the day when the trade treaty lapsed and this Damoclean policy went into effect, Secretary of State Hull was bedded with the sniffles. President Roosevelt was mum. U. S. scrap iron, oil, many another export essential to Nippon's Armies continued to move across the Pacific. Embargo-minded Senators were given to understand that it would be a good idea to hold off on bills curbing trade with Japan, let Ambassador Horinouchi and his superiors in Tokyo continue to wait, see, and--who knows?--mend their military manners.

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