Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1940. JAPAN TAKING THOUGHT?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1940. JAPAN TAKING THOUGHT?

VO one can be expected to take serious notice of the remark- ' able assertion of the Japanese Foreign Minister snoka) that his country’s pact with Germany and Italy is, it anything, intended to save the United States from itself. Neither is it possible, in view of the ruthless methods ot slang itcr and terrorism Japan has adopted in China, to place much faith in Mr Matsnoka’s expressed concern at the prospect ot bringing an awful catastrophe of extended war oil humanity At the time when Mr Matsuoka was declaring that this prospect made him shudder, or within a few hours of that time, Japanese airmen were helping the Chinese to celebrate their national anniversary by dropping 800 bombs on the populous suburbs of Chungking and on villages along the Yangtse—that is to say by murdering unoffending civilians. Assertions' on benali. of the present rulers of Japan of an enlightened concern foi humanity are not and cannot be made convincing. On some other grounds, however,'the softened tone that is being taken at the moment bv representative Japanese spokesinen is to be welcomed. The underlying suggestion, for what it is worth, is that the Japanese Government may have lost confidence to some extent in the polios’ of unlimited aggression to which the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact was intended to open the way.

If Japan is in fact inclined to take thought before plunging into new acts of aggression, she and other nations are to be congratulated on the fact. The opinion was expressed in Wellington yesterday by the. Chinese Consul-General, Mt b eng Wang, that Japan’s strength had been so sapped by her three years'"’ war with China that she was powerless to undertake any further war, and was not likely to fight either Britain oi the. United States, It must be hoped that Mr Feng Wang is right. Japan has seemed of late to be committed to a policy which would be bound almost as a matter of course to bring her into collision with both the English-speaking nations. _ It is true that no specific or conclusive grounds exist for believing that the United States and the British Empire are prepared to combine in withstanding Japanese aggression, but there is a great deal to suggest that-they will take united action if Japan forces it upon them-.

It might be thought that even an intelligent regard by the Japanese Government for the interests and welfare of the people, over whom it .rules would ensure the decisive rejection of any thought of extended aggression in the Pacific. Remarkably as Japanese resources have stood up to the strain of the war on China, they are visibly undergoing a very serious strain and a great increase in the burdens now carried could hardly be expected to lead to anything pise than national collapse. Statistics of Japanese national finance, trade and cognate details certainly do not suggest an ability to meet the demands that would be made in an indefinite extension of war in the Pacific. Japan’s total national expenditure for 1936, the last complete year prior to the invasion of China, was 2,312 million yen (about £136 million sterling). Expenditure this year, 1940-41, is to amount to 10,300 million yen (£660 million sterling), of which taxation, approximately three and a half times as heavy as in 1936, is to provide about one-third. Since 1936, the total of Japan’s internal loans has much more than doubled and now stands at approximately £1,353 million sterling.

Figures of trade have a very vital, bearing on Japanese economy and resources and it is of great importance that Japan’s exports' to America and the British Empire amount to 36 percent of the whole and that 57 per cent or more of all Japan’s imports are obtained from Anglo-American sources. Excluding Manchukuo and China, and taking account only of the trade from which Japan derives foreign exchange and is able to obtain essential industrial and war materials, seventy per cent of Japan’s trade is with the British Empire and the United' States and its possessions. Observing in a recent editorial that conversations then in progress between the United States and Australia clearly were aimed at cheeking Japan, the British “New Statesman and Nation” added: —

An important means of pressure at our disposal is our ability to cut off Japan’s supplies of oil. Japan draws every ton she uses to bomb Chinese cities from British, American and Dutch sources. When President Roosevelt recently laid an embargo on the export of motor spirit British companies stepped in to supply the aggressor’s needs, and he withdrew his futile prohibition. An agreement for mutual defence against Japan is worthless if our capitalists compete to supply her military needs. Canada all the while is pouring her nickel, copper, and timber into Japanese harbours, and Australia is at pains to extend her trade with this hostile Power. These Dominions must conform their policy to the interests of peoples who seek peace round this ocean if they expect to enjoy British and American protection. Unless we can all compel these interests to submit themselves to the common good we deserve every jibe Hitler ' has flung at our plutocracy.

Although it is only a few weeks since these words were written, it may be hoped and believed that considerable progress has since been made towards eflactive Anglo.-American agreement in regard to opposing Japanese aggression. It is in any case a condition of successful measures to that end that the British Empire and the United States should combine in economic action, and if need be in defending that action.

Assuming these conditions to be. satisfied, Japan could not embark on her schemes lor the establishment of “a new order in Greater East Asia,” which, as General Chiang Kai-shek has remarked, imply that Japan is determined to extend her power over the waters of the Pacific - as well as over China, without incurring the danger of early and disastrous economic collapse. Inflicting much misery on China, Japan has herself fared badh in her invasion of that country and has little enough in the way of advantage to set against the loss of lite and wealth, and the continuing disorganisation of her national economy that adventure has involved. For Japan’s own sake, as well as for that of other nations, it must be hoped that her rulers may yet be impelled to abate rather than attempt to extend their aggression.