ECONOMIC ACHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 152, 30 June 1942, Page 5

ECONOMIC ACHES

JAPAN'S TROUBLES

NEWLY-WON EMPIRE

(By Telegraph—Press Associatloh-r-Copyriglit.) (Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, June 29. Japan's effort to digest her newly-won empire is giving her an economic stomach ache, says the New Delhi correspondent of the "Evening Standard.'? This is not wishful thinking; it is a hard deduction from facts collected from very reliable sources, and correlated by experts with the latest Japanese propaganda. Japan has pocketed the world's richest sources of raw materials, but in so doing she has cut off 90 per cent, of her own markets and those of the occupied States. She is unable to absorb more than a fraction of the vast rubber, tin, sugar, and rice output of these States.

In a bad shipping jam, Japan is desperately trying to readjust the internal economies of the conquered countries. Analysis, of Japanese radio propaganda proves that the readjustment is not based on a scientific programme, for the good reason that there is no short-term cure for the situation because of the ruthless debasement of living conditions and purchasing power in,the occupied areas. Since the preseilt hardship and discontent among the vast conquered populations may turn into a tide of hate, Japan obviously faces a serious problem.