Japan Relies on Birthrate for Victory

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 208, 1 September 1942, Page 5

Japan Relies on Birthrate for Victory

CAN ONLY BE BEATEN AT SEA. Received Monday, 8.30 p.m. LOURENCO MARQUES, Aug. 30. “Japan can be beaten only by driving her out of Manchuria, China, Jalaya and the East Indies, ’ says Mr ieorge Gorman, a Journalist who spent ixteen years in the Far East. He saio japan s determined bid for Pacific mastery is based on a more far seeing policy than immediate military subjugation. “The keynote of the Japanese programme is a population increase carried rorward by a systematic reproduction of their own kind. Japanese births are expected to reach 2,000,000 annually within five years. The Japanese in the occupied territories are waging a continuous campaign against the white races. “Japan is powerfully organised financially. There are fixed low prices for every commodity. Rationing is faithfully performed and the people are not spending their surplus money because very little can be purchased ror entertainment. Voluntary savings are therefore buttressing obligatory invesment in Government bonas. There is full exploitation of the resources of industry, trade and commerce in order to stave off internal economic pressure. “Japan cannot be beaten by a blockade or internal disruption. The Japanese themselves believe that only a defeat at sea can beat them. The Japanese contend that tney will hoid the territory won not only because their manpower is always increasing but because they propose to give the native peoples better terms than they received from the whites.” THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE. Received Monday, 10 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 30. Information reaching India from Soutneast Asia, says the New Delhi correspondent of the London Times, indicates that ihe Japanese co-prosperity regime, far • rom being the promised economic millenium, is synoynmous with the most acute depression. This is not merely the aftermath of hostilities on the soil of tne South-east Asian countries but the result of the fact that they are cut off • rom the markets for raw materials. Japan is unable either to offer alternative markets or provide transport to such limited markets as are available. Accordingly, products are piling up. The Philippines sugar industry is doomed and the Burma rice industry is hard hit, millions of growers facing ruin.