JAPAN THREATENS REPRISALS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21178, 30 July 1940, Page 4

JAPAN THREATENS REPRISALS

Only the extreme dependence of the Japanese economic system upon imports of raw materials from abroad could cause Japan to take the risk of threatening the United States with economic reprisals for the American embargo on the export of scrap metals and oil. Statistics show that Japan as an industrial nation and a country involved in war could be reduced to a condition of impotence were supplies of raw materials from abroad suddenly suspended. And the United States is the greatest supplier of the very goods upon which Japan depend-. The United States explains the embargo by stating that she finds it necessary to conserve her resources for purposes of her own national defence. The embargo is a severe blow to Japan—probably far more serious than the loss to China through the temporary closing of the Burma munitions route. Japanese anger will be aroused still more by the simultaneous announcement that the United Slates has approved of a charter to Russia of oil tankers for the transput of petrol to Vladivostock—to an old enemy of the Japanese. insistence that the extension of export licensing to oil and scrap iron is not connected with Britain’s acquiescence in the closing of the Burma road will not do much towards softening the blow to Japan. Officially Japan is merely seeking an explanation of the intentions of the United States, but the strength of the feeling aroused is reflected in unofficial quarters and in the Press. One suggestion is that Japan will retaliate by “cutting off from the United States supplies of rubber and zinc from the South Seas,” though it is difficult to see how that can be done. The Japanese Press is particularly hostile. One paper declares : “Undoubtedly Japan will deal a blow to the aggressive American policy in the Far East.” That comes strangely from a country that might be dangerously near collapse if America placed a complete embargo on trade. Japanese leaders are insisting that Japan must become self-supporting, but before that can be done aggression must be successful much farther afield than it at present extends. Unless Japan’s position is desperate indeed, America can regard threats of reprisals with equanimity.