SETTING THE PACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 9

SETTING THE PACE.

JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC. LIGHT CRUISERS AND SUBMARINES. MR. WILFORD SPEAKS. Mr. T. M. Wilford, Leader of the Opposition, is at present visiting Australia. About a year ago Mr. Wilford made a tour of the Far East, visiting Singapore md Japan. His views on the situation in the East were given to a representative of the "Melbourne Herald" the other lay. "I know that the Japanese as a people ire not internationally aggressive," said Mr. Wilford. "I realise that the Diet, or Parliament, of Japan is a mere debating society; and that the House of Peers has no authority on questions of war; but I realise that, despite the pacific nature of the Japanese as a people, the Genros, or Elder Statesmen of Japan (a mere handful of individuals) have the private ear of the Emperor, and that on their whisperings depends the question of whether or not war shall be declared upon any foreign nation. "I am satisfied that Japan has carried out the letter and the spirit of the Washington Conference in relation to capital ships, but I also know that in light cruisers and submarines she has set a pace for the world; and that today in light cruisers alone she has 15 at least with a superiority in speed over any British or American light cruisers of from three to four knots. "The British Government knows this, and also knows the quantity of fuel oil that Japan lias stored for service, and where it is stored. Naval Base Secrets. "If the secrets of the naval station at Kure, on the Inland Sea of Japan, were well known, the whole world would ask: 'Why this feverish race for supplementing the strength of the light cruisers and submarines in Japan? From whence is the menace? And what is the purpose?' "The exclusion laws of America will never furnish a casus belli. The exclusive laws of Japan, though not so called, are equally effective against the United States as against every nation of the world. "No foreigner can engage in agriculture in Japan, he cannot hold property, he cannot practise the professions without impossible conditions, and even Koreans (or the Clioseuse. as the Japanese call them) cannot enter Japan if their entry is likely to disturb labour conditions there, and Korea is to-day part of Japan. "The division of the American Fleet into two parts, one for the Pacific and one for the Atlantic, is the hope of Japan. Japan and the TJ.S.A. "Their casus belli, if there ia one invoked, will be the alleged interference of America in China, after the outrageous 21 points treaty forced upon China by Japan during the war. I heard a boast in Japan last year while I was there that Japan could land 40,000 soldiers in the Philippines in five days, or in American Guam Island in four days. "Are there any reasons to warrant the reasons that Japan has ideas of gaining territory iv Australia or in New Zealand? "Japan to-day is a country which can be compared to a big bowl filled to the brim with population, with a further I increased supply yearly. Over 800,000 was the increase in population of Japan last year, notwithstanding the figures (official) issued by that country. "The next question I ask is: 'Where is the Japanese base? It was in the Inland Sea of Japan. Is it now? When will the history of the Japanese occupancy of the Caroline Islands be written frankly and fairly?' Island Submarine Base. "Is it understood by the people of Australia and New Zealand that the Japanese have moved both to the Caroliues and that Hogulu Island, in that group, has a harbour capable of becoming a first-class submarine base? "Is the strategical position of Hogulu Island with relation to Australia and New Zealand considered seriously by our peoples of the Pacific? I doubt it. "Look at the map. See what relation the occupancy of that island has with relation to our homes out here; recollect that Japan does not want to fight Australia or New Zealand. She only wants an alteration of our immigration laws. There is no necessity for her to be aggressive if we were willing to alter them. But we are not willing. Can she make us. Think it out! "Japan admits that we are entitled to have a base at Singapore. iShe admitted it by her representatives at Washington. She cannot deny that it was deliberately exempted from the area affected by the treaty. To us, Singapore is the throttle valve of the Pacific and it is at the same time the Clapham Junction of the East. "I have just returned from there. I spent 17 days with those who were the British Government's agents and advisers, and saw the whole projected scheme, and I also saw something which has not yet been made public in your Australian Press. "I saw that Japanese capitalists — I, of course, do not say the Japanese Government —had secured the only iron ore field in the Malay States. I saw that Japanese capitalists had secured 1000 acres round the site selected for our wireless station on Singapore Island, and in a motor boat I went to the Eastern Entrance of the Straits of Johore, the only entrance to the site of the projected naval base, and I saw the 10,000 acres I (or some of it) occupied by Japanese capitalists for the purpose of growin" rubber and cocoanuts. "I went to the point commanding the entrance to the Straits, a high plateau, and saw. even as an amateur, the strategical position selected by these capitalists for the cocoanut grower. They had just planted the sides of the cliff when I was therp, and one of the motor boat men slightingly remarked that it was the last place he would have chosen for the planting. "This promontory is the only high ground at that part of the entrance, the opposite siile of the entrance being sandy shoals, often shifting and cer- j tainly not stable. It was certainly a reason for thinking very hard, especially when we know that the western entrance —which Col. Kepington, in "Blackwood's ! Magazine," said would require millions ! to dredge-—was closed by a causeway of | granite from Woodlands to .Tohore; it is 60 feet in width, with a railway line and a motor track beside it on top of thecauseway. ""What do the Japanese want with Hogulu? What have they taken this big area in the Malay States for? Why are they all round Singapore? "And what does their proximity to the Dutch East Indies, which are undefended by any naval force, mean in future yearss

"All round the East President 14 points are discussed as if they were the alpha and omega of the Pan-Asiatic movement. " 'Self-determination' is tho watchword in tho Philippines to-day, where Manuel Quezon, the head of the Filipinos, preaches that doctrine. Self-determina-tion is the expressed and unexpressed desire of the Javanese in Java, while in China it 13 the battle-cry of Chang Tso Lin, Wu Pei Fu, Sun Vat Sen, and Chen Chaing Ling, who, though divided as to who shall rule, are united in this daily cry of China for the Chinese; while in India, with its teeming millions, public revolt has become a daily expression of a desire for some kind of self-determina-tion. "Let us in this Pacific, far from our homeland, be watchful. Let us ask our coußins in America to see that the Eng-lish-speaking raco stand together—not for aggression, but for peace, and let us learn from the Icesons of the past that unity is strength."