ISLANDS IN PACIFIC

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 87, 7 January 1935, Page 7

ISLANDS IN PACIFIC

Japanese Expenditure

COMMISSION’S REPORT

(Received January 6. 7.20 p.m.)

Geneva, January 4.

The Mandates Commission, in its report to the League Council in regard to the Pacific islands under Japanese mandate, referring to Marquis Ito's statement that the sums spent there were for purely civil and commercial purposes, says that it appears that the amount of expenditure is somewhat disproportionate to the volume of commercial activity. The commission would like further particulars. Regarding the sum of £40,000 spent on subsidies, Marquis Itc said that the subsidies had actually decreased between 1931 and 1933. Heavy expenditure had been involved, as the tonnage of ships using the po.-ts increased, and there were now regular services between Japan and the islands. M. Rappard, a Swiss member, asked Marquis Ito about the expenses for harbour works—£B7so for a new pier at Sarpan, £12,500 for the construction of an anchorage St Palau harbour, and £6700 for an anchorage at Rota. Mar quis Ito complained (hat Japan’s attitude had been misunderstood. The expenditure at Sarpan began in 1932. As a continuation of improvement work the entrance of Palau harbour needed widening and it was proposed to start a sugar plantation at Rota in 1935.

A message dated November 4 stated that the Mandates Commission discussed startling allegations that Japan had prohibited foreign vessels from visiting or using the harbours of certain mandated islands in the Pacific.

Delegates questioned the Japanese representative, Marquis Ito. regarding reports that an American astronomical expedition had been refused permission to visit the islands to observe the. eclipse of the sun, pointing out that if it were true, then it lent colour to the stories that the Japanese were forifying the islands.

Marquis Ito, in a somewhat reserved reply, characterised the reports as tendentious. He declared that Japan itself had organised an expedition to view the eclipse, and invited foreigners to accompany it. He promised to investigate specific cases. The members then suggested _ that Japan could easily prove its sincerity by allowing foreign vessels to call and inspect the islands. Marquis Ito did not reply.

At a later sitting of the commission, Marquis Ito was cross-examined for five hours, but did not explain why the destroyers of all nations were not allowed in the recently-enlarged harbours of Saipan in the Majianne Islands, and Palau which were strategically placed to give access to Hawaii and the Philippines.

The delegates also wanted to know why Japan was subsidising the building of airnorts and yet had refused permission to foreign aviators to land. Marquis Ito admitted that manoeuvres had been held at the mandated islands. and therefore foreign visitors were unwelcome. The Anglican Bishop had been refused permission to lend at Saipan, though it was in his diocese, because Christian missionaries were not permitted on the islands. Marquis Ito admitted that Japan had spent £BO,OOO in 1933 in reconstructing four harbours. A London cable dated November 6 stated that the “Sun-Herald” agency correspondent said that if the Japanese had fortified their Pacific mandates and the Bonins, they had not only explicitly violated Article Four of the mandates, but Article Nineteen of the Washington Treaty, which is reinforced by the mandatory article. Such was the British Government’s interpretation of the situation, but it was understood that the British considered that they and other Governments had not heard anything sufficiently serious to justify action.