AUSTRALIA AND JAPAN.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 3 August 1917, Page 3

AUSTRALIA AND JAPAN.

JAPANESE POLITICIAN’S OPINION. NEW YORK, August 1. The New York Tribune’s Washington correspondent and other papers quote articles by Woneda, a Japanese Parliamentarian, in the magazine “Taiyo,” wherein he says the war brought the relations of Japan and Australia into friendlier connection, but he is doubtful whether this cordially will be maintained after the war. Prior to the war Australia regarded the Japanese as destroyers of *‘White Australia,” which was a ridiculous misconception. The Australians made a condition (with the British Admiralty for leaving the patrol of the Pacific to the Japanese. It appears probable that Australia’s anti-Japan-ese policy will seriously affect the Anglo-Japanese Alliance when the rights of the colonics in framing British diplomacy are fuller established.

The Efficiency Board reports that it advised the Minister of Customs that in view of the shortage of ships to carry supplies the Minister should inform newspaper proprietors that all serial and other matter which is not of daily interest should be deleted, with a view to reducing the size of, if not entirely abolishing, the issue of supplement, The Board was further of opinion that in many cases newspapers could be combined with advantage to the Dominion.

A new departure was introduced by Mr. Acheson, S.M., at the Assessment Court, Balcutha (says the Free Press), when several farmers, who were objecting to the value made by the Government valuers, w r ere asked to name the price at -which they would sell to the Government. One man, whose property of 315 acres was valued at £2545 promptly said he would sell for £I6OO, and signed a memorandum to that effect. The Magistrate said he would recommend th e Government to take it, seeing that it was after land for returned soldiers.

Uncle Sam is proving that he is profiting by the mistakes of John Bull. A clever American x>roducod *a cartoon showing Britain handing over to America three war volumes, each labelled: “My Mistakes.” Those records have been carefully read. One result has been that President Wilson natonaliscd the Red Cross Societies of the republic, and appointed as the administrator, and director Mr. Henry Davison of New York, a leading member of the J. P. Morgan Co., a financial house that has been the friend and agent of the Allies throughout the war, Mr. Davison devotes the whole of his time to the affairs of the Red Cross.

Seldom did an entrenched enemy run away more quickly than the Germans from the fortress place of Levin, said Mr. Beach Thomas, in describing the battle. It is piled with his valuables, big and' small. There are great heaps and dumps of artillery and trench mortar ammunition, there arc sidings with undamaged trucks, and a whole system of tfench railway lines and trucks perfect as when left. One dugout contained the best store boots that ever I saw. They are of thick leather, in one piece, coming hip-high, and worth at least £lO a pair. And when the Germans, with his Joint commercial and destructive instincts, leaves behind such valuables. h*> i» in a panic indeed.

A member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, belonging to a draft of reinforcements which proceeded Home, by a troopship bearing the name of an English county (says the Dunedin Times) makes some caustic comments, in a letter to his parents, respecting the quality of the food supplied on board. He asserts that the potatoes have not been eatable, and that, while it might be expected that New Zealanders would at least get good butter, on one occasion the men on board "put on a stretcher, composed of a towel and flag-sticks, the butter that was issued (to them, covered it with ia Union Jack, read the burial service over it, and cast in to the deep." According to the same writer, there was a shortage of supplies on the troopship before she reached her destination.