3 CONFERENCES AT PRAGUE AND BERGEN AND THE LOOMING WAR 323a settlement could only be reached with third power involvement.
Members noted that the outbreak of war in Europe had heightened the
significance of the international dimensions of the Sino-Japanese con-
flict. They were of the view that ‘[w]hether or not the two areas of con-
flict’ continued to be ‘physically separate,...the economic and political
relations between them were so close that the developments in Europe
would have far-reaching effects in the Far East.’^294
Members were agreed that the European war had already affected
the attitude of third powers, whether belligerents or neutrals, to the Far
Eastern world as well as their capacity to defend whatever interests they
might have in the region. Members noted that the European belligerents
now found themselves in a weaker position vis-à-vis Japan as they had to
focus their activities on the war at home. The European belligerents were
also in a weaker position vis-à-vis Japan because they could not ‘afford to
antagonize a Power which each side presumably...[hoped]...to secure as
an ally.’^295 Members thought that by contrast, the position of the United
States vis-à-vis Japan had been strengthened: the European war meant
that Japan was now ‘deprived of important European supplies and mar-
kets’ and that as a result, Japan had become ‘far more dependent upon her
American trade for essential war materials and the foreign exchange neces-
sary to finance her purchases abroad.’^296 In regard to the USSR, the view
of the meeting was that its position vis-à-vis the Far East had not changed
in a material sense, although some expressed the view that ‘Soviet involve-
ment in the European conflict was only a matter of time.’^297
Many of the recommendations that came under the heading of
‘Methods of Adjustment,’ recommendations that would have been
described as methods for peaceful change in the pre-World War II con-
text, reflected the IPR’s traditional conviction that political conflicts can
generally be resolved into a series of broadly economic problems capa-
ble of being overcome through an enlightened policy of cooperation.
The fourth and final series of round tables, in addressing the essentials
of a viable settlement of the Sino-Japanese conflict, discussed the pros-
pect of ‘parallel and mutually beneficial economic development in China
(^294) Ibid.
(^295) Ibid.
(^296) Ibid.
(^297) Ibid.