Australia and Japan.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20905, 12 July 1933, Page 8

Australia and Japan.

T*.- present militaristic mood of the .v*ya ;ese nation has made Australians understandably nervous; and it is rcgi ettable that the Rt. Rev. Dr. Duhig should increase that nervousness by an assertion as groundless as it is sensational. " Something " must be done, and that quickly," says Dr! Duhig, "if we are to hold " Australia for the white race/' He

had in mind, it appears, a wellmeaning but uncomprehending suggestion by the Dean of Canterbury to cede part of northern Australia to Japan. Both the Dean of Canterbury and Dr. Duhig assume without argument that Japan is overpopulated and that the pressure of population can be relieved by emigration. The first of these assumptions is very common and is usually a superficial deduction from a comparison of Japan's density of population with that of other countries. But a country with a high density of population is not necessarily overpopulated. The density of population in France, for instance, is higher than in New Zealand; but France's capacity to absorb fresh population is at present relatively greater than New Zealand's. Opinions differ on the question whether Japan is overpopulated: but most English and American investigators, basing their conclusion on a study of production indices, have given a negative answer. Moreover, Japan's birth-rate—34 a 1000—is not alarmingly high. At least a dozen countries have a higher rate; and if European experience is any guide a rate of 34 a 1000 may be reduced to 20 a 1000 in a few decades. The second assumption—that emigration will help to solve Japan's supposed population problem—is rejected by almost all authorities, whether Japanese or foreign. There are not more than 700,000 Japanese living abroad at present; and the natural population increase in one year is usually equal to the total emigration in the previous 50 years. Nor is the slow rate of emigration due primarily or in any large degree to restrictions in Australia and America on the entry of Asiatics. The truth is that the Japanese are not an emigrating people. Frequent attempts by the Japanese Government to colonise areas in Manchuria and Brazil have failed. In Japanese society the unit is not the individual but the family; and both family ties and love of the fatherland combine to make the individual reluctant to emigrate. " Japan has come to the " conclusion, as conditions exist," said Mr Inouye in 1928, "that she " will not encourage her emigration " unless it is welcomed, for it is " much better to send one merchant " who takes an order which can "keep 100 employed at home than "to continue unpleasant international relationships over a few "hundreds of emigrants." What Japan needs, and what she asks for. are markets for her products and access to supplies of raw materials. The conquest of Australia will not satisfy either of these requirements.