JAPAN’S POWER

Southland Times, Issue 24837, 1 September 1942, Page 5

JAPAN’S POWER

HIGH RATE OF BIRTHS (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LOURENCO MARQUES, August 30. “Japan can be beaten only by driving her out of Manchuria, China, Malaya and the East Indies,” says George Gorman, a journalist who spent 16 years in the Far East. He said 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 population increase, cal" ried forward by systematic reproduction of their own kind. Japanese birtns 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,” he said, “Japan is powerfully organized financially. There are fixed low prices tor every commodity and rationing is faithfully performed. The people are not spending their surplus money because very little can be purchased for entertainment. Voluntary savings are therefore buttressing the obligatory investment in Government bonds. 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 blockade or internal disruption. “The Japanese themselves believe that only defeat at sea can beat them. The Japanese contend that they will hold the territory won, not only because their man-power is increasing, but because they propose to give the native peoples better terms than they received from the whites.”