NEW ZAIBATSU IN JAPAN?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 117, 2 March 1950, Page 5

NEW ZAIBATSU IN JAPAN?

British Representative Raises Question i TOKIO, March 1. The American chairman ((Mr. W. Sebald) ruled out of order the British representative (Colonel W. R. Hodgson) at an Allied Council meeting, when he tried to raise the question whether a new Zaibatsu had arisen in Japanese banking.

Colonel Hodgson asked Mr Sebald, as head of General MacArthur’s diplomatic section, to furnish a report on the decentralisation and dissolution of Zaibatsu enterprises, which matter had not been raised in the Allied Council for more than two years. Colonel Hodgson said: “Eight banks in Japan at present fcontrol 80 per cent, of the whole industrial, financial and economic life of the country. The occupation may have decentralised the Zaibatsu, but the Zaibatsu created certain banks which they control. By removing one evil you may well be creating another, because the banks have control of the vital matter of foreign exchange.” Colonel Hodgson asked “why in December, 1948, the occupation decided to take no action to disperse the banks, and to what extent is the occupation creating a new . type of Zaibatsu?” Mr Sebald ruled Colonel Hodgson out of order on procedural grounds, and directed that his remarks be struck from the records.