Dmitry Manuilsky

“ Much more complicated is the "European" policy of American imperialism. The distance between the United States and Europe is too great to permit the former to exert, today, any direct intervention in European affairs. Even in Asia, in the fight with Japan, the U. S. A. tries to shove forward a third power. All the more so does it avoid a direct mixing into European affairs. American imperialism intends to play, in our century, the same role that Great Britain played in the 19th century with respect to the Continent. ”

“ British imperialism is the deadly, most implacable foe of the Chinese revolution. America and Japan have not yet ruled in Asia, they are first making their imperialist bid for mastery. England is already an Asiatic State which must be driven from the strongholds it has build upon the Asiatic continent. And this struggle of the toiling masses of Asia against the British robbers is likewise one of the factors that may accelerate the bloody solution on the Pacific. ”

“ At the present time there can be no great colonial movement that fails to cut deeply into the diplomatic web of international relations of the big capitalist bandits. Such a movement radically changes the relation of forces between them, sharpens their struggles, and stimulates their appetite. The Chinese Revolution and the colonial revolutionary movements have prospects of success because they occur at a time in which antagonisms on the Pacific are not lessening, but sharpening. ”

“ We are a world party which does not close its eyes to its own weaknesses and its own mistakes. The British strike already showed our weak spots. If the European proletariat did not react sufficiently to such an event as the British General Strike, or to the miners' struggle, the question arises whether, in the face of a new war, when the situation becomes all the more complicated and difficult for a mass action, whether we are prepared for resistance. A specially responsible task confronts our Young Communist Parties of the Far East at this time, particularly the Chinese comrades. ”

“ Capitalist England, which in China is already being held in an iron ring by America and Japan, looks uneasily upon the possibility of a coming American expansion to China, and is making desperate efforts to launch a war to be fought by others. The fortification of the Singapore naval base which took place after England had signed the Washington treaty, proved that British Admiralty by no means considers impossible such a solution of the present struggle for Asia, for China and for the Pacific. ”

“ Secondly, at the end of the 19th century, when capitalism in the United States, as a result of its turbulent development, felt itself restricted within these confines, when the American bourgeoisie for the first time turned its eyes to the Pacific and to the Chinese markets, American capitalism unfurled a new banner upon which was blazoned the program of the "Open Door." ”

“ The Philippines can be compared to a revolver, the muzzle of which is pointed at Japan. The revolver is dangerous, because at the very opening of the war it could be captured by Japan, since the Philippines lie opposite the Japanese naval base of Formosa. Yet the Philippines have economic importance also for the United States. It is well-known that the United States are absolutely dependent upon Britain for their supply of rubber. Investigations undertaken recently have shown that climatic and soil conditions are favorable for the raising of rubber in the Southern part of the islands. ”

“ It must be considered that if this war on the Pacific breaks out before the unification of China, Japan will make a predatory attempt to occupy China in order to make herself master of the vital arteries required for its defense and for its industry. ”

“ China will fulfil this task among the island inhabitants of the Pacific, not with fire and sword, but bound up with the process of the revolutionization of the native population. Yet this is not the most important task of the moment. The Kuomintang Party is now confronted with the chief problem of how it can exploit the antagonisms between the powers that encircle China in order to foster the cause of the revolution. America's position makes possible greater maneuvering. The plans of American imperialism constitute a terrifying economic and military-strategic menace to Japan. ”

“ The tremendous development of capitalism in the United States goes hand in hand with a similar development in a whole series of "virgin countries"—Argentine, Brazil, Canada, Australia, etc. If a great economic crisis does not lead to an economic collapse here, then only an armed struggle on the Pacific Coast can create an immediate revolutionary situation in these overseas countries. ”

“ Already since the Hongkong strike the Japanese have really dissociated themselves from the brutal British policy of conquest in China, thereby leaving the British alone to receive the blows of the national revolutionary movement. Japan's policy of an actual recognition of the Canton government is based upon the hope, on the basis of race relationship, to find sympathy with the Right Wing of the Kuomintang for a new alliance. Further more the Japanese cannot disregard the fact that an economic revival of China offers big possibilities to the marketing of Japanese industrial products. ”

“ That unclear Pan-Asiatic movement which Japan has thus far endeavored to master, which it has been trying to give the character of a race movement in order to turn it into a tool of its imperialist policy, will unquestionably take on a new face through the victory of the Chinese workers' and peasants' revolution. ”

“ The United States has an interest in the rising of a more or less powerful State in eastern Asia, capable of challenging Japan for the domination of the Asiatic peoples of the Far East. Hence the "neutral" watchful-waiting attitude of the United States towards the military struggles now taking place in China. If the worst comes to the worst the United States is even ready to make a settlement with a victorious Canton Government, since the practical Yankees weigh the perspectives of the Chinese revolution from a business standpoint. ”

“ The question of the Dominions, in the present phase of antagonisms on the shores of the Pacific, is the point that impels Great Britain, in case of a Japanese-American war, to an alliance with the United States. Hence the prospect of a joint attack by England the United States against Japan seems more likely. England is interested no less than the U. S. A. in the elimination of Japanese competition in the Far East, primarily in China. ”

“ The "Open Door" is the policy of every rising young imperialism that comes into the world somewhat belated, i. e. when the world is already divided among other capitalist rivals, When the United States made its appearance in China, it found that country under the practically unrestricted influence of Japan and Great Britain. Great Britain was the first capitalist country which had gained a foothold in China. ”

“ Japan, a nation of 60 million inhabitants, tightly crowded upon the limited area of its islands (Nippon, Sikok and Kui-Siu) has a natural pressure towards the Philippines, towards the Malay Archipelago, towards the innumerable little islands scattered over the immeasurable surface of the Pacific Ocean. The British Dominion, Australia, is busy stirring up the nationalist passions of the white race, through its capitalist press reports on the "yellow peril". ”

“ England needs the freedom of the South China Sea which is a main highway to India, For this purpose England has established a protectorate over the north western portion of Borneo. England will never consent to Japanese occupation of the Philippines or of Indo-China, because this means a deadly danger to its naval base, Singapore. Furthermore, England is interested in maintaining the domination of the southern seas which in a certain sense form a corridor between two rows of islands which connect England and New Zealand. ”

“ It is sufficient to point out that Japan's favorable balance of trade with China during the first quarter of this year has doubled in comparison with the same period last year. Thanks to low wages in China, the profit of the Japanese capitalists in the textile industry takes on literally terrific dimensions. Thus, e. g. certain Japanese textile enterprises in China pay their stockholders 150% dividends. The military-strategic and the economic interests of Japan are too deeply anchored in China to tolerate a realization of the American plan. ”

“ In Japan itself, an active nationalist agitation is being carried on, directed primarily against the United States, as the power which stands in the way of Japan's further development, and which condemns it to colonial enslavement. In Japan the threatened war in the Pacific is discussed openly and unconcealed ”

“ It will turn into-a vast movement of the Asiatic countries oppressed by world imperialism, for their liberation from the imperialist yoke. Japan, which jointly with the white imperialists played an active role in the suppression of the Boxer uprising in 1900, will not fulfil this mission. Only revolutionary China is qualified for this task, and this movement of the Asiatic peoples will be directed against Japanese imperialism as well as that of England and America. ”

“ Japanese expansion becomes an immediate menace to Australia, New Zealand and the whole oceanic Archipelago. England would thereby be driven from the Pacific. Still more likely appears British neutrality during the first phase of the Pacific conflict, especially at the beginning of the campaign. England will prefer not to mix in the struggle from the first day in order to get herself into a position similar to that occupied by America in the European war from 1914 to 1918. ”

“ England could combine with Japan for a joint struggle only if the separation process of the Dominions was already so far advanced as to call into question the continued existence of the Empire. Nothing further would be left for British imperialism than.to stake all on a single card, in order to save its continued existence. ”

“ Will it not shrink back from the mood of the toiling masses, in whom still lives the remembrance of the devastation of the great imperialist war? There can be no doubt that fear of revolutionary upheavals holds the present capitalist governments within bounds. ”

“ Finally, the actuality of the Pacific problem is increased by changes within world economy. The whole post-war development was characterized by the shifting, slowly but uninterruptedly, of the center of gravity of world economy to the overseas countries. ”

“ But both of these plans are bound up with tremendous hazards that the troops, transport, etc. may be sunk—and this contradiction between the economically aggressive role of American imperialism, and its military-strategic possibilities, determines the attitude of the United States towards China. ”

“ We have not the slightest occasion for pessimism. If the Canton Government, while simultaneously consolidating its internal situation by means of a closer alliance with the peasantry, will be able to exploit these contradictions skilfully, then it will undoubtedly emerge victorious from the Chinese toling masses' present herioc struggle for their national liberation.
American Imperialism in the Fight for the Pacific. ”

“ On the island of Mindanao and the small islands adjacent there can be accomodated at least 1,500,000 rubber trees which will produce approximately 200,000 tons of rubber, enough to supply the world market. ”