JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 6

JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE.

(By MARO T. GREENE.)

EFFECT OF BREAK ON MANDATE

Any possibility of a break between Japan and the League of Nations at once advances the question of the Japanese Mandate in the Pacific Islands, the former German groups known as the Caroline* and the Marshall*.

There has been considerable controversy already over these islands, which are. incorrectly inclnded among those of the "South Seas," being wholly north of the equator. Australia has always contended that her gunboats, having captured German New Guinea from the enemy.- proceeded north in 1014 and landed first in the Marshall and the Carolines. However, the Japanese are there, and the great point is that tliev intend to remain there, even should there "develop a rift with Geneva which should force Japan from, the League altogether. ! Japanese interests in the "South Sea Islands' are now very large, and there are more than 20,000 Japanese living in them, with emigration from the mother country thither continuous. I Thus the Foreign Office declares unequivocally that "under no circumstances could Japan contemnlate abandoning the islands." While Japan to-day readily admits foreign visitors to the islands, and provides regular passcncrer service from Kobe, this was not the case during the first three or four years, and if there 'is any basis at all for the many rumours that spread about that part of the Pacific times were •somewhat troublous for a while. As, a matter of fact, it could scarcely have been otherwise. These Marshall and Caroline Islanders are a kind of blend of Papuan and Polynesian, with a touch of Malay and other bloods. When the astonished natives saw their German .overlords suddenly depart to be succeeded by another kind of people altogether, brown like themselves, but far from similar in any other way, they had no idea what it all meant, and they took to it not at all. That their resentment promptly manifested itself no one can doubt, and it is quite as ctytain that the Japanese dealt with this recalcitrance in prompt and characteristic fashion. However, the Permanent Mandates commission was exercising surveillance all the time, or was at least assumed to be doing so, and had anything serious developed in the Japanese manner of handling the natives it probably would not have passed unheeded. Whatever friction did arise has practically disappeared now, for there is every appearance of amity and accor.d between the Islanders and the Japanese administrators, as well as with the Japanese immigrants. Japan has made a marked success of these Pacific Islands from an economic viewpoint, and, as it is but fair to say, a reasonable one from any other. Foreign visitors have been numerous during the past four or five year,?, and none has found any indications of discontent or reason for such among the natives. On the contrary, the islanders appear, now that they are accustomed to the hitherto unheard-of idea of sustained industry and a certain amount of restriction as to their habits, to have accepted it all willingly enough. They are exce'llently eared for medically, their standard of living is much hlsrher, and their industrial task is by no means burdensome from any viewpoint except that of the usually indolent South Sea Islander.

All that being tile ease, tlie Japanese position is that tliev have established their riirht to these islands and the justice of their rule. Nor is there lacking a good deal of foundation for that position. In any event, nothing is farther from the Japanese intention than to abandon them, whatever may happen it Geneva in the near future. ® And in any possible attempt at coercive measures to bring about such abandonment, it should not be overlooked that there is the essence of considerable trouble.