JAPAN’S NAVY

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1922, Page 5

JAPAN’S NAVY

ITS EARLY EXPANSION. IS IT A MENACE? ANXIETY IN AUSTRALIA. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received June 13, 9.15 p.m. London, June 12. The Yorkshire Observer, in an article, says: “We hoped the Washington Conference had allayed the Australian tendency towards Japanophobis, but people who have once given way to an attack of nerves are apt to see frightfulness in shadows, and the promulgation of a new naval programme at Tokio had a repercussion in alarmist articles in the Sydney press. “It must be admitted that the Japanese seacraft Budget, amounting to £35,000,000, does little to substantiate hopes of naval economy. There is also force in the Australian comment that the bulk of the programme consists of cruisers and submarines Admitting this, by what obsession of a Mongolian bogey does the Sydney press persuade itself that a good understanaing regarding the Pacific counts for nothing? We are not told how many years the Tokio shipbuilding scheme will take, but it is only fair to presume that Japan will respect the Washington limitations. “It must be remembered that Japan in the East occupies much the same position as Britain elsewhere —it is an island Power depending on seaborne commerce, hence the necessity of swiftmoving protective craft. Australia’s surest line of defence must be a population matching in some degree its vast territory, but this event seems coming very little nearer. What Australia wants is more hands and more mouths and not more submarines or more cruis-