THE PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 8, 9 July 1935, Page 11

THE PACIFIC

ECONOMIC FORCES

SOVIET. RUSSIA A FACTOR

CHINA AND JAPAN

Economical and political forces at play in the Pacific and particularly in the Far East were discussed by Mr. Edward C. Carter, secretary-general of I the Institute of Pacific Relations, when addressing the Rotary Club at the weekly luncheon today. He was introduced by Rotarian C. Weston, K.C. Among the visitors present were the Hon. Mr. Justice Smith, Sir Clutha Mackenzie, Mr. Walter Nash, M.P., the Rev. F. H. Wilkinson, Mr. H. F. Yon Haast, Mr. K. Sato (assistant managing editor of the "Osaka Mainichi"), and Dr. Oliver (Dominion Museum).

There were few of the Dominions more concerned with the interplay of economic forces in the Pacific and particularly in the Far East than New Zealand, said Mr. Carter. Mr. Sato had already said that there was a discernible shift of economic interest from the Atlantic to the Pacific., That did not necessarily mean that Empire trade and European trade were dwindling. It did mean,. however, that simultaneously with what was going on in the Empire and in Europe there were emerging in the Far East and in the Pacific generally stouter forces of commercial expansion than had been known in former years. After referring to what had been achieved in Japan, with,, particular mention of the amazing success attained by Japan in dedicating the machine to the task of raising the standard of living of the people, he dealt with the transformation taking place in China, which, he said, was emerging from her old feudal organisation into a modern State. The tempo there was slower than it was in Japan. The mass of the population was vastly greater, and. of course, the beginning of the modern era" had not started as quickly in China. Nevertheless, China, too, had struck her tents and was on the march' towards the use of the machine, for better or for worse, to advance the position of her innumerable millions. STRIKING CONTRASTS. Only two or three years ago a good many were pretty sceptical as to the extent to which the ancient order could readjust itself to the terrific forces and pressures of the modern world. It had been necessary for him for several years to go to China and Japan a number of times, and the contrasts, one year with another, were very striking. The average hardbitten Shanghai-minded Englishmen and American business men who had lived for twenty or thirty years there until recently had been very pessimistic as to China's capacity to put her house in order, but somehow or other the present Government at long last had started the unification of China. Woollen mills had been organised almost overnight in China, continued Mr. Carter. There' were now fifteen mills, and there was reason for believing that the increase in China's importation of wool in 1934 over 1933 would probably be followed by a further increase this year. "A FASCINATING DKAMA." Another factor in the Pacific was, ot course, Soviet.Russia, said Mr. Carter. One of the most fascinating dramas of our time was the way in which the Soviet were developing the Far Eastern republic of the Soviet Union. If one travelled through the Volga and through Siberia towards Vladivostock fie was almost sure to'see on railway sidings or passing him great immi-. grant trains. He had seen one with no less than seventeen hundred immigrants leaving the crowded regions of the Volga to start out across the great stretch of prairie to open up a new empire with much the same spirit of the old pioneers. That thrust of the Soviet immigrant across Siberia was no more hostile, in intent to the Far East than the thrust into the Pacific or towards the shores of the Pacific of ancestors of the people of.New Zealand and his ancestors. ■ "We have no idea what changes, either in Europe or Asia, will do to the United Kingdom, the overseas Dominions, or to any one of the Pacific countries," said Mr. Carter. "All that we do know; and probably in New Zea-land-it is harder to realise than almost in any other country in the world, is that the most persistent and striking factor of the present age is change; and so when you find China and Japan are on your doorstep, when you find Soviet Russia, whether you like it or hate it, a factor in the trade of at least five of the seven seas, when you realise what these new nationalist economics are doing to the old trade routes, there is no line which anyone can take, except to resolve to study the5 situation." The task>f the1 Institute of Pacific Relations was to promote among; the business men and in other spheres continued study of the relationships of the peoples' in the countries bordering on the Pacific.,; ' , . , , Mr. Carter-was accorded a vote ot thanks for' his address.