JAPAN HARD HIT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 September 1924, Page 5

JAPAN HARD HIT

RICE SUPPLY STOPS

TOKYO, August 30. Japanese merchants are watching the developments of the civil war in China with the gloomiest interest. Already many cancellations of orders are coming from Shanghai, where trade has already been badly'checked through the forcing up of the price of silver through heavy purchases by Chinese banks, which had been caught with over-issues of paper. Another gloomy factor in both the Che-kiang and Kian-su provinces is that the rice producers, from whom Japan buys through Shanghai, being thus enabled to exchange Japanese manufactured commodities for the rice, are affected by the engagement of the provinces in the war. The flow of rice to Shanghai is thus brought to a stop. Japan exported to China goods worth 100,000,000 yen in the first half of the year, mainly through Shanghai. The civil war will mean the wiping out of Japan’s main export market. Japanese militarists also are keenly watching the war, especially ' developments in the Manchuria-Chi-li clash. Japan has vast interests in Manchuria, where the defeat of General Chang Tso Lin would mean an invasion from the south, endangering the safety of the large Japanese population in the zone of the South Maehurian railway. The possibility of Russia assisting one side or the other is also discussed.