MILITARISM IN JAPAN

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 7

MILITARISM IN JAPAN

A PROFESSOR'S WARNING.

/ (proa ouk feViN conntSi'ONiir.NT,) SYDNEY, 2nd August. In appealing for a sympathetic and helpfuK attitude towards China in what he termed her extreme hour of trial, Dr. J. v C. Ke#e, an Englishman, who is now professor of philosophy 'at Shantung University, China, and. who has spent over ten years in the East and is now visiting Australia* made a striking indictment, of Japanese militarism. Addressing the Minions Club—a strong organisation of business men—ho declared that despite all they, heard to the contrary, Japan, was still an autocracy, ■subjected to the... autocratic power of the Black Dragon military caste, so that Japan would, never, become demo-v cratie if the ruling powers got their way. The Japanese Diet was largely camouflage, and the power of ths members was mainly that of saying "Yes" to the; decisions and desires of the Cabinet, which, represented tho "Elder Statesmen. The press in Japan was entirely under tho domination ol the Cabinet, and was as much a Government bureau as if its director was drawing Uovernment salary and his term of. rule dependent on the, whim of the Government. The press could not publish a single item, of news that tho Japanese Cabinet wished to suppress. The destinies of- Japan, proceeded the Proiessor, were absolutely in the power of Che Chauvinistic Party, and they wore the party seeking naval and military' domination. But it' must ever be remembered that these military rulers were situated in a country. whero thero was neither coal nor iron, and all the raw material for warfare had to be imported. * The northern parts of Japan provided but little for the support of lifu, and even Southern Japan only grew vice. All wheat had to be imported 1 it.to Jayxtii. On the other side of the Yellow Sea was China, so naturally rich Mat it easily provided all'the'iieaessa-ries' of .life, whilst coal and iron abounded in quantities capable of supplying tho world's' needs for hundreds of thousands of years.- Japan knew that without the..'consent of the Western Powers she novev would wage a . first-class war so long as "she was deprived of the raw materials, but if she got the coal anil iron and labour facilities of China sho would bo independent of the Western Powers, so the. Western Puwers should be escceedingly citrefnl- not to allow her, or,to help hor, to get her hands on a weapon such as they never had reason tio fear in the past. The only people the Japanese fenred and respected were, the Germans, and that-bepaus© of then military and economic efficiency.