PACIFIC TRADE

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 134, 4 December 1919, Page 11

PACIFIC TRADE

VAST JAPANESE ADVANCE

MONOPOLY IN THE ISLANDS.

The British islands of the South Pacific will yet prove to be sorao of the richest commercial assets of the Empire. Unfortunately, writes J. T. Macmahon in tho Daily Mail, they are 14,000 miles from the British Isles, and tho popular notion still exists that they are .merely romantio lands under a fierce- sun, the haunts of cannibal peoples.

Nothing could bo more absurd than this idea. Inquiry will show that they possess magnificent commercial possibilities. Millions of British money have been invested in the scientific: cultivation of hundreds of thousands of acres of coconut, rubber, sugar, sisal hemp, cocoa, coffee,, and tobacco, tropical products common and necessary for the food and industries of mankind.

These cultivations have called into being a trade to-day worth ten. millions sterling, and also a rivalry for it among many nations that must- very soon make the bouth Pacifio a zone of remarkable- commercial activity. The commercial discovery oE these fertile islands is due solely, to the bravery and enterprise of ihe British. At one time British trado was easily in the ascendant there; to-day it is—mainly through the war—fast losing -round Immediately before tho war German traders'wero beating all comers; at present the'advance of Japanese trade is most remarkable. It has already gained such a command of the whole Pacinc trade, and shows such marvellous energy and enterprise, that five years hence competition with,it will be futile. This Japanese grip of the Pacific trade—not worth a, Japanese toothpick five years ago—is especially significant and hampering to tho commercial ambitions of Australia, the direct representative of British trade and interests in the South Pacific. During the war Japan, having men, ships, unlimited merchandise, and a free, open way in tho Pacific, has made a progress which proves the enterprise of Japanese commercial abilities, while it confirms the Japanese eagerness for Pacific possessions and extensive trade. The Marshall Islands, for which Japan now holds the mandate, offer an interesting example of Japanese trado penetration in the Pacific. Here, twenty-five years ago, and despite German ownership, British trade began to be popular with the wealthy natives. Up to last year that trado still flourished; to-day it is ended, which means a loss of over £200,000 a year. .

Japanese traders are in every lagoon^ smart, dapper little men who speak English, French, and Cerman—men who have completely mastered the . Marshall language ; who have been trained either in England or America; who are noted for their keenness and energy; and who are, in their spare time, schoolmasters to the intelligent natives. Japanese trading vessels—to be found in every nook and corner of the South Pacific Islands—are fast multiplying in the Marshalls; many more are on the stocks in Japanese shipyards, vessels especially designed for the shallow waters of the Marshall lagoons.

Jatuit, the capital of the Marshalls group, with its splendid harbour, is one of the busiest ports to-day of the South Pacific Islands; tho harbour is constantly filled with Japanese shipping. A line of modern, well-equipped- Japanese steamers now maintains a regular monthly service between Japan and the Marshalls via the Carolines, and ■ they arc literally pouring in Japanese manufactured trade goods for distribution throughout the whole Southern Pacific lands. Japanese emporiums, some of them on a vast scale, with innumerable smaller concerns, are increasing in the Marshalls, and are spreading their branches into the British islands adjoining. Trade is brisk, and the peculiarities of the native trade, in foods and clothing, have been, and are, 60 carefully studied that presently competition will be wellnigh impossible. Every article of trad-1 in tho Marshalls is Japanese, most -attractively offered. The range extends from neodle3 to anchors.' from preserved meats and fruits tc patent medicines, from sewing machines to gramophones, from biscuits to lager beer, from scents and pomades to whiskies and wines, from oil classes of jewellery to all classes of European wearing apparel. All these goods are firmly holding the native tastes.

No timo is to be lost in. reviving British trade in the South Pacific. Every day of indifference and neglect will- mean a loss that will recoil upon the Empire and tho decliuo of British influence and prestige in tho whole Pacific.