JAPANESE RESOURCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE RESOURCES

INCREASED GREATLY BY CONQUEST BUT TIME NEEDED FOR FULL EXPLOITATION. SOME SERIOUS DEFICIENCIES. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, June 22. The battles of the Coral Sea and Midway Island’are viewed in London as being the first serious setback to the Japanese, constituting a warning that their time to consolidate their spoils may be short. While the Japanese now possess immense potential resources as a result of their remarkable conquests, yet their future military progress may be conditioned by the extent to which these resources can be exploited, which will take time. Meanwhile, the United States’ mass production can play an important part in allowing the Allies to take the initiative. “The Economist,” assessing the gains to Japan, says there is no reason to suppose that the Japanese will have difficulty about their oil supply, and that the refineries in Japan and Manchukuo will probably be adequate for war purposes. It is believed that a fairly high percentage of the Sumatra oilfields were captured undamaged. The Japanese have resumed the production of Malayan tin and rubber, while the food problem, which once was of dominant concern in the Japanese economic policy has been solved by the control of all but a fraction of one per cent of the rice which normally entered international trade. The Japanese are not without difficulties, however, the greatest of which is shipping. Mr Matsukuma, former Foreign Minister and a director of an important shipping line, estimates that 10,000,000 tons of merchant shipping is required to reap the benefits of the “co-prosper-ity sphere,” in which the Anglo-Dutch interests formerly owned the greater tonnage, which fortunately is not available to the Japanese. The Japanese have launched a programme for the construction of standard wooden junks and utility war time ships in which the use of steel is minimised. Japan’s shipping bottleneck is at present very narrow, causing drastic reductions in imports of foodstuff's. A shortage of machines and agricultural equipment is another outstanding obstacle to development. The equipment and machinery which the Japanese now need urgently came formerly from England and America. This indicates that the Japanese cannot produce an adequate supply of capital goods without serious privations for the Japanese population and also the inhabitants of the occupied territories. Thus the Japanese must screw up production to totalitarian levels, and also make good the machinery which the Allies destroyed. “The Economist” states the opinion that the Japanese development must be delayed, but that time is on their side unless they can be evicted in the interval before full exploitation. The “Financial News” states: “Japan has gained formidable raw material resources since her war against the democracies began, but in the longer run she cannot begin to compete with the mass production of the United States’ industrial machine. In two vital materials alone —steel and aluminium —Japan’s capacity is at best no more than 10 per cent of that of the United States. Moreover, all reports from the United States agree that Japan is entirely lacking in the technical resources with which to reinforce her output of raw materials.