Surprise

Nothing that Joseph Stalin said on Red Square last week made such a stir as was caused in Tokyo by his remark that Japan is "an aggressor nation." Said the official Japanese Domei agency: The Japanese people were "surprised and offended." It added: "The Soviet Nation is a realistic country, so in all probability her foreign policy vis-`a-vis her neighbor is not wholly immutable. . . . Consequently, it is the firm belief of the Japanese general public that Japan must also adopt a realistic policy that will conform with any new situation created by the Russians." What Japan feared was that Russia would sooner or later make war on her.

There was other disturbing Russian news for Japan. Paper-short Moscow had allowed 700 pages for a novel by Alexander Stepanov called Port Arthur. Not only Japanese eyebrows might be raised by the book's description of Port Arthur (which is in Manchuria, and hence claimed by China) as a leading Russian port on the Pacific.

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