The Japanese in Hainan Japan's occupation of the island of
Hainan, in the Gulf of Tongking, has caused natural alarm to the British and, especially, the French Governments. Hainan occupies a vital strategic position, lying close to Indo-China, on the main Far Eastern sea routes to Singapore and Hong-kong, and across the Singapore-Shanghai air route. Japan's ex- planation for her action, which infringes the 1907 treaty by which she recognised that Hainan lies in the French sphere of interest, is that the island provides a base for the import of arms by the Chinese Government ; the loss of this base leaves Chiang Kai-shek with only the Burma road as a source of supply. M. Arita, the Japanese Foreign Secre- tary, declares that the occupation is dictated solely by military necessity, and hence can only be temporary ; the motive may be not merely to strengthen the blockade but to threaten French and British interests and dissuade them from lending any assistance to China. The French Govern- ment must rest content with M. Arita's assurance ; but an uneasy suspicion remains that Japan is imitating the occu- pation of Majorca by her partner in the Axis, and indeed that the occupation of Hainan is not unconnected with the Mediterranean crisis. France might well draw the con elusion that to defend her Empire it is necessary for her to resist aggression in Europe.
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