FAR EAST: Mediation: It's Wonderful

The war between Thailand and French Indo-China ended last week. The victor was Japan. Nobody had asked Japan to mediate the quarrel, which had gone on intermittently in the swampy jungles along the Mekong River since October, but fortnight ago Tokyo offered its services. When the offer was not immediately accepted, Japan became insistent, threatening. Nipponese warlords insisted that, as "the most stabilizing power in the Far East," Japan alone had the right to settle Oriental differences. Under duress Vichy, then Thailand, accepted.

Last week the stage was set for mediation, Nipponese style. The Japanese cruiser Natori steamed into Saigon...