The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1920. JAPAN'S NATIONAL SECURITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1920. JAPAN'S NATIONAL SECURITY.

Prom whatever point of view Japan's policy is considered, the fact remains that she is the paramount Power in Eastern Asia. Her rise to that position was as startling as it was dramatic, and having attained the distinction the indications are that she intends to. keep it. At present, except for the alliance with Britain, Japan is almost isolated, her policy of expansion viewed with misgivings, and her safeguards for national security liable to misconstruction. In some respects Japan may be likened to Britain, more particularly in the direction of expansion. Both countries are comparatively small, Japan having a slightly larger area, but the populations are much about the same. Historically Japan has the advantage, her records* dating back for over 2500 years- while she can claim an unbroken sovereignty Since 660 B.C. Her civilisation, •however, and its consequent effects, belong to a much more recent period than in the case of Britain, but she is doing her best to make up for the time lost in the past, and having become one of the Great Powers is asserting herself in a manner that is somewhat disconcerting to other peoples. The time has come when Japan has to face the urgent problem of expansion, and a recent pronouncement by Professor Kimura, of the Imperial College of Commerce at Tokio, sets forth the view that if the Japanese do not find a natural outlet- they must force one. The alternative is just what is exercising the minds of the statesmen and people of several lands where the idea of what is generally described as the "Yellow Peril" has become a menacing shadow. Regarded impartially, it is doubtful whether the English-speaking communities can justly blame Japan for following Britain's example in stretching forth tentacles over a large portion of the globe, yet it is the fear of this policy which has evoked the clamor for isolating Japan as effectually as possible. The application of science to engineering feats has enabled vast streams to be held up, but science is not likely to be equally effective in any attempt to confine such people as the Japanese to a territory they have outgrown, or to erect an impregnable barrier against a destiny on which such a nation pins its faith and its resoures. The natural outlet by peaceful penetration, or the outlet by force, are Japan's only means of expansion, and it rests with the other nations concerned to consider well which course would be the more or less harmful. Japan is apt to be regarded from the yiewpoint of the dark ages of her history, and not from her status of to-day. As a corrective to this estimate Japan's naval and military Budget for 1920 is worthy of special note. The naval appropriations alone amount approximately to the large total of £45,000,000. It is considered that about half the Japanese revenue will be devoted to armaments, as against 18 per cent, in 1913, and it is expected Japan will push her eight years' naval programme to completion with all expedition. Herein, again, is to be found a similarity between Japan and Britain, both being largely dependent on naval efficiency, though the cases are not parallel, inasmuch as Britain's expansion has created an Empire on which the sun never sets, while Japan is starting at zero. The Anglo-Japanese alliance is now in its nineteenth year, and competent authorities consider that it has vindicated the wisdom of those who made it. Both to England and Japan it has proved of great advantage during its existence j it has stood the test of time. To Japan, especially, during the critical period when Russia's claim to dominate Korea and Manchuria threatened her very existence &u a nation, Britain's benevolent neutrality was a factor of supreme importance; without it she could hardly have achieved the position of a great Power. Japan has an aggressive military party that is inclined to imitate the policy of the same party in Germany under the Empire, but iriser op.iUMgU kaye prevailed, &l>

[ though at 6ne time their ■ policy threatened disaster to China. Yet Japan is by no means the only nation which has found profitable opportunities in the necessities of other countries. This statement is not submitted by way of apology for Japanese action, but rather as pointing a moral. The keynote of Japan's foreign policy is to be found in national security, and the nation's leaders now recognise that future security must depend, not on territorial expansion on to the Asiatic mainland, but on the successful solution of the food problems, for a rapidlyincreasing industrial population. All the same, expansion is a necessity, and it would be unwise to ignore the fact that the process 6f obtaining national security fits in with, the creation of means whereby Japan, in the future, can back up by force, if required, her policy of penetration.

LABOR AND DEPORTATIONS. The evolution of the autocracy of Labor is not devoid of those special features which are inherent to primitive instincts. In matters wherein extreme Labor take a .ha 1 any outrageous development may be expected, for sanity has fled. The dominating tenet is that might is right, hence the one big union proposal that is deemed to them as sufficiently powerful to remedy every obstacle to their will. A striking illustration of the depths of unscrupulousneas to which militant Labor is prepared to descend is afforded by the recent action of the Trade Union Congress at Sydney, when a settled policy of sabotage was formulated, osCensibly in connection with deportations, but manifestly for any and every purpose which the extremists decide upon. The possibilities of one big union as a controlling power over all national and industrial activities evidently seem illimitable to the propounders of the scheme, while the chosen weapon is the go-slow policy, aided by seditious propaganda. The prospect ahead, if these devotees of sabotage have their way, is by no means pleasant. . They hope to institute an era wherein Labor coercion will hold sway—a rule that will stop short at nothing, no matter what the consequence* may be, so long es their end is gained. Law and order must be relegated to obscurity, industries ruined beyond redemption, people starved, shipping and locomotion reduced to inertia, and the very security of the Empire dissipated by disaffecting our soldiers and sailors, the newspapers are to be controlled and only allowed to publish what will help and not impede this revolutionary movement. In other words, anarchy and chaos are to reign supreme. That is one side of the picture. What of the other? If there is to be a clash of wills; if sanity is still a force and good government a cherished heritage, then ..the misguided and mentally unbalanced extremists must be treated as being as dangerous as mad dogs. The bulk of the workers have too much common sense to be made the tools of rabid revolutionaries, and the resources of civilisation are ample to crush sabotage and its exponents. Hitherto there has been marked patience and tolerance pn the part of public men when having to bear hardship and inconvenience as the result of despicable action of the irreconcilables. This has been construed as a sign of weakness, and the extremists have been emboldened to greater defiance. So long as they only talk, no great harfl will be done, but if they proceed to action on the lines threatened, there will be a day of reckoning for them. It is for the governments of countries affected by this curse' of sabotage to prepare for action and organise its loyal forces, so that if and when the need arises the people will be prepared. To be forewarned is to bo forearmed. The foundation of society must be protected and safeguarded at all cost.