JAPAN DEMANDS DUTCH OIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 6

JAPAN DEMANDS DUTCH OIL

Further evidence of Japan's readiness to give compliant assistance to the Axis Powers is furnished by the Batavia correspondent of the NewYork Times. This evidence is wholly credible, because of its origin and the conformity of its circumstantial details with what is known of commercial dealings in the Netherlands East Indies. Under concession- granted by the colonial Government, British and American companies arc operating oil fields and refineries there, and under longterm contracts are delivering their entire output of aviation gasoline and crude oil to various British countries. Last autumn Japan concluded with tho Government an agreement ensuring a share of such products, reasonable covenants protecting the rights of these companies and otherwise providing against Japanese interference with legitimate undertakings. Now, in the guise of an "economic mission," Japan's representatives are de.mand--1 iog that the agreement shall be

reopened; th.ey threateningly insist upon Dutch acceptance of the demand. The purpose in this highhanded action is unpleasantly obvious. Both Japan and Germany require oil for war needs, and to Japan the Netherlands Last Indies present a convenient source of it, with the additional possibility of passing supplies on to Germany. Of all this the colonial Government is fully aware, and in the circumstances is determined not to consider a reopening of the question, because its sympathies are definitely with the Allies. It has made its refusal unmistakably clear : should Japanese pressure become intolerable, the whole negotiations will be broken off. Increasingly apparent is Japan's aim of browbeating, under Axis orders, the Netherlands East Indies, but there are welcome signs of firm Dutch resistance. To this part of the world the outcome is highly important.