JAPANESE MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1933, Page 6

JAPANESE MENACE

'■ '/ ‘NAVAL; ARMS AND TRADE. ANTI-BRITISH TARIFF WAR. LONDON, June 14. The ,Sun ncivs service says the Japanese demand for naval parity with Britain and America, coupled with the threat to trade of Japanese competition. twill! bring the Pacific more prominently apd importantly into world 'problems than ever before. . u It,.is expected that. Japan, will press for parity until the naval conference in 1935, but her breaches of the Washington'Treaty are causing the,, utmost perturbation. Japan undertook not to attack China, not-to. seek a variation of the 55 —3 naYa-l 'ratio, arid not to fortify her Pacific possessions, but she has abused , this agreement-, it is o’aimed, by attacking China : ’and then claiming naval parity" with Britain and America.. Now she is ruthlessly assaulting world trade. Tlie British Government ,j 6 anxious ami the position .is being constantly discussed between London and Tolaothough so far there are no sign s of a solution. The Tokio correspondent of the Daily Mail* says that as a result of the Indian Government’s tariff ,on non-British cotton goods Japan has virtually declared an anti-British tariff war. The Japanese Foreign Office indicates that it will neither support nor oppose a boycott of British trade. The Ministers of Finance and Commerce are reported to have conferred and decided to seek an emergency ordinance for retaliatory tariffs on Empire goods,/ which probably will be enforced in yjljjf— It is intend to levy pfohi^tiy ; e, : duties specifically on Australian wool, and wheat, Canadian timber and. wheat.,; British machines and steel, and Indian cotton arid iron. Count Ishil, the chief Japanese delegate to the World Economic Conference, S 3.y s he favours the lowest possible reduction of tariffs and an increase ot world consumption instead of restricting production. Japan is not actuated by an isolationist policy and will cooperate with the nations in advancing the world’s welfare.