DUTCH INDIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 158, 4 June 1940, Page 7

DUTCH INDIES

JAPANESE CONCERN. ECONOMIC FACTOR. HINT OF TROUBLE. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received June 4, 9 a.m. TOKIO, June 3. Tlie Foreign Minister (Mr H. Arita) said Japan’s concern was not confined to tlie maintenance of the political status quo in the Netherlands East Indies. In view of their resources in trade and industrial potentialities it was natural that Japan was very seriously concerned over their economic status. It was true the East Indies were connected with Europe as a Dutch possession, but they were also intimately bound up with the destiny of East-Asia.

Mr Arita drew a picture of two nations, one a small area with a large population and poor natural resources, the other large and thinly-populated, with good resources.. r “Suppose a further situation developed in which tariff walls, immigration restrictions and other ~ barriers seriously impeded the normal flow of goods and commodities between them.” he said. “AVe could hardly expect the absence of friction and conflict. lam afraid not a few so-called Pacific questions may be traced to kucli contradictions and injustices.” RELATIONS AA’ITH AMERICA. The Premier (Admiral Yonai) in a Press interview, said: “There is a a way of improving the aggravated relations between Japan and the United States, hut it is neither being considered nor taken. I am .not in a position to disclose the nature of this way to better relations ” The statement is interpreted to mean that Japan does not intend to conciliate the United States by abandoning any policies towards China or other Far Eastern issues Admiral Yonai said he did not regard the presence of United States warships at Hawaii as menacing the confident Japanese Navy which had never been defeated. The nation need not worry over the JapaneseUnited States naval ratio. Japan was prepared to face any development and intended at present firmly to maintain non-intervention.y _ Admiral Yonai doniod that Japan was preparing to negotiate a peace with Chungking. ■ ■