JAPAN'S POPULATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 6

JAPAN'S POPULATION.

"Peril of the Pacific." This heading of the * "Star" cable news serves to remind us that able observers have for a long time expected trouble from that quarter. An American professor, Warren S. Thompson, a little while ago wrote a book, "Danger Spots in World Population," in which possible future wars are discussed with great learning. He considers the Western Pacific the most dangerous spot in .the world—the area including Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the Dutch Indies. The most likely aggressor is, he thinks, Japan. Japan is four-fifths mountain, and the remaining fifth, is so densely crowded that two-thirds of the farms have less than 2J acres, and one-third have less than IJ. Consequently the people are condemned to the most rigid vegetarianism, being deprived not only of flesh, but of butter, milk, cheese and eggs. Less than half ever taste fish. Fruit . lis almost unknown. To get this meagre diet, the people have to work very hard, and it is estimated that two-thirds of all the farmers' money go in fertiliser. Naturally the population question is the one subject of conversation. Ing# valuable work, "The Japanese Population Problem," Mr. W. R. Crocker says: "If a traveller were asked to single out the first subject engaging public opinion in Japan to-day, his answer would be the population problem. It has gripped the imagination and the thinking of the whole nation." Professor Thompson makes the suggestion that an international land court should be established, with power to transfer unoccupied territory from its present holder to some country which is able and willing to use it. S. GLADING.