TRADE WITH JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2905, 18 October 1916, Page 5

TRADE WITH JAPAN

CRITICISM AND A REBUKE.

'At yesterday's annual meeting of the Central Chamber of Commerce Mr. A. Leigh Hunt said that ho was , sorry to see. that "Now Zealand houses werb sending their representatives to Japan, as he. regretted to think what the position might he after the war, when. Britain was able to supply the goods that were, now being imported from Japan. In the matter of trade morality, religion, and morals New Zealand had . nothing , in common with Japan. Japan had no trade morality. No tradft contract could be enforced in the Courts of Japan by an alien. That matter had been put before the Japanese Government Commissioner, and he had admitted it was so, saying that they' were absorbing Western ideas. If they would absorb them in their entirety it would be different. They had very little in common with Japan, and the-day might come when she would not be our Ally. He hoped that trade with Japan would be of a temporary nature. • . . < Mr. A. M. Holmes took Mr. Leigh Hunt to task on what ,ho called the drastic and sweeping 'charges which had'been made against an Ally. "If we don't shake hands with the friends we have to-day who may be enemies to-morrow," said Mr. Holmes, "we will never have, any friends." Continuing, lie said that his experiences had been such that he would deal with Japan rather than with America. But comparisons • .were odious. His experiences both as an exporter to. and an importer from Japan' had been as pleasant as any with England or the Continent. He had dealt with a Japanese firm, which had .been established for twenty-five years in Sydney, which had probably adopted Western ideas in their entirety. They could not expect Japan to assist them unless they assisted Japan as freely and fully. Thoy could not ask the Japanese to escort their boys to the front ■ with their warships, and then say that they would not buy anything from them. He thought that Mr. Hunt had been a little premature and sweeping in his strictures on Japan. Why, ther.e were many things they could not get anywhere else—cotton waste, glass bottles, etc. (Applause.)