CRISIS IN EAST

Evening Star, Issue 22723, 10 August 1937, Page 3

CRISIS IN EAST

EFFECT CM SHIPPING No marked reactions in the Japanese shipping trade to New Zealand have yot been experienced through the crisis which has arisen between Japan and China. However, the effect which tho repercussions of war may have on tho services was indicated in a cable message, published recently, which stated that the Japanese Government was permitting foreign vessels to participate in coastal trade in order to alleviate the shortage of cargo space due to the operations in China. One of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha motor ships, the Sydney Mam, which was to have arrived at Auckland from Kobe yesterday, will now call at Sydney and Melbourne before reaching that port, where she is now duo on August 26. The diversion was the result of a last-minute decision to cancel the sailing last mouth from Yokohama to Australia of the company’s motor ship Tokyo Alarn. one of the fastest ships of any trade operating ou the Commonwealth run.

It is considered to be a reasonable presumption that this measure was due to tho Japanese activities in China and that tho Tokyo Mam is being used for carrying stores, munitions, or other necessities for the Japanese army in North China.

The' merchant service of Japan is under almost as autocratic a control as tho Japanese Navy, and when shipowners accepted the encouragement of Government subsidy laws they were willing to fall into their place in the plan of national services. A remarkably high’standard now obtains in the Japanese merchant ships, and the control maintained by the State over the personnel—every Japanese seaman is a Naval Reservist—keeps the men up to the same standard as the material. In time of war the Japanese Navy has a large supply of ships available for auxiliary purposes whenever they are wanted.