TRADE WITH JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2917, 1 November 1916, Page 6

TRADE WITH JAPAN

Sir, —111' view of the sweeping charges brought against Japan by ono of tho gentlemen at the Central Chamber of Commerce, who was very properly rebuked by Mr. E. 31. Holmes, as reported in yow issue of "Wednesday last, it is well that we sbouldl recall tho striking sorviccs rendered to ns by the Japaneso Navy in the earlier stages of tho war, and sine©, by the way in which Japan has helped to keep ilussiiv supplied with munitions. These services, great as they aro, should not le measured by what Japan has done for us, but by what she might have dona against us if slio had jio political morality, and had come in with Germany, as she probably might have donn on her own terms. What a calamity this would have been for us and the Allies generally is perfectly oWious.

It is because Japan lias throughout been a useful and honourable -number of the great allianco of civilisation against barbarism that ono would prefer to sco trade and friendship encouraged with her, rather than with -leutral countries, whose political morality begins and onda witli words. As to trade morality, wo have th'ei spectacle, in our own country, of those engaged in the production and handling of the necessaries of life exploiting, not only tho Mother Country in its dira need, but our own people, by demand* ing prices for our produco which are not justified by the extra cost of production. —I am, etc., R. D. PELL. Nikan Bay, October 21, 1916.