THE JAPANESE BUDGET

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 340, 22 January 1937, Page 5

THE JAPANESE BUDGET

ARMAMENT INCREASE SEVEN-POINT PLAN. Britain Accused of Interfering At Every Turn. Press Association—Copyright. Tokio, Jan. 21. At the opening of the Japanese Diet to-day the Prime Minister, Mr. Koki Hirota, announced a programme containing seven points and including the strengthening of the national defences, industrial development and commercial expansion. Militarist members of all parties are openly critical of the Administration and it is believed a crisis is developing. A War Office pamphlet, issued in an attempt to justify the huge armaments Budget, frankly accuses Britain of interfering at every turn with Japan’s continental policy, thus tending to impair a rapprochement between China and Japan and peace in East Asia. The Soviet, it alleges, is undisguisedly provocative and the United States’ clearest desire is to control the Pacific and increase her hold on the Chinese market, for which reason she is hurriedly strenghtening her navy and her fortifications.