INFLUENCE IN JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23536, 14 January 1942, Page 8

INFLUENCE IN JAPAN

GERMAN MILITARY MISSION REORGANISATION OF ARMED FORCES [By Ernest Pisko, in the ‘‘Christian Science Monitor.”] [Published by Special Arrangement.] One aspect of Germany’s methods of world conquest that has received less attention than it deserves is the •work of its military missions sent to all parts of the world to prepare the ground for the great venture. These missions were sent with a double purpose. In many cases the avowed purpose was to train foreign battalions on the Prussian model. Pul the other side of their mission was usually far more important. The nature of it was hinted at in instructions reported to have been given in 1924 by General Hans von Seeckt to a German officer about to go abroad as a military instructor. ‘‘Never forget,” he is reported to have said, “that you go there not only to teach, but also and more so—to learn. What you teach will be to the advantage of the other country. What you learn is of importance to Germany, You know which duty ranks higher,” But the obtaining of information was only one of the objectives of these military missionaries. They had otherwise a vital part to play in the diplomatic game of the Reich. The work of the military mission to Japan met with singular success. In that country, too, German soldiership commanded profound respect. Since 1872 German instructors have been employ-'d to remodel the Nipponese army after European standards, and young officers have been sent to Germany to study there the military arts. Only for the four years of the first World War was this policy interrupted. To-day, that mutual exchange is taking place on a large scale. Hitler himself ordered the Nazi authorities to extend special facilities for army men visiting Japanese Army and Navy men. The same persons whom Emperor William II styled “yellow apes” have been exempted by the “Aryan Overlord” from the otherwise rigid “laws for the protection of the German race” and besides are permitted to acquaint themselves with the minutest details of German military equipment and instituii>m.-.. Not Only Soldiers The intimacy is not merely onesided.' The number of German technicians and engineers in the Japanese war industry is estimated to be very large, not counting the purely military instructors, whether German 01 Italian, who are engaged in training detachments of the Japanese army in South China. Save for Italy, there is no country in which Nazi influence is greater than in Japan anc, in which the German Ambassador could sway so much power. The head of the German Embassy in Tokyo, General Eugen Ott, went to Japan in 1936. assigned to study the conditions in the Nipponese Army. He is said to have reported to Berlin so favourably that Hitler decided upon