PLIGHT OF JAPAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19001, 25 October 1923, Page 7

PLIGHT OF JAPAN

A SEVERE SET-BACK. PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION. (Special to the Australian Press Association.) TOKIO, October 22. Interviews with Japanese officials and European diplomatists indicate that the estimates of the losses which were published in the early days of the disaster were much exaggerated. The olticial estimate of the dead in all the places affected is now nearly 200,000. In estimating the property losses the most difficult question is whether they should be computed on a basis of the original cost or on the present renewal cost. In either case reliable figures are impossible to obtain, and the suggestions vary between £500,000,000 and two billion pounds. In the destruction of the most of Tokio the disaster struck at the heart of Japan, Tokio being the financial centre of the nation. It is the financial burden owing to the reconstruction work that Japan must fear most. On the one hand, the Government must expect a decrease of its receipts owing to the decision as’ an emergency measure to reduce the taxes or to exempt from payment those in the devastated districts. On the other hand, enormous sums of money' are required for the relief of the sufferers and for the work of restoration. The Government has decided on a drastic policy of retrenchment, involving the total abandonment or postponement of the schemes in hand both in the current and the next financial year. The Budget of £135,000,000 has been reduced by £25,000,000. The great setback to the finances of the country must react on the domestic developmental and foreign policies. How the huge sums required will be raised remains to be ; seen. There is a national sentiment against extensive foreign loans, but foreign borrowing to some extent will be unavoidable. How little Japan’s credit Iras been affected may be gauged from the fact that the exchange rate lias scarcely fluctuated since the earthquake. The financial position is now comparatively stable. Naturally the banks are conservative with regard to loans, but the bank rate is unchanged. Advantage is being taken of the present situation by the larger banks to squeeze out the smaller ones or to force them to amalgamate. The position of those people who lost bonds and stock in the fire following the earthquake is most serious. In many cases the registers have also been destroyed, and it will take years to straighten out the position, with a total loss in many cases. —A. and N.Z. Cable.

NEW ZEALAND’S CONTRIBUTION. LONDON, October 23. Sir Janies Allen, on belialf of iNew Zealand, has sent £25,000 to the British Charge d’Affaires at Kobe for the relief of the earthquake sufferers. The Japanese Ambassador at London has written to Sir James Allen as follows:—“I did not fail immediately to inform my Government of this most generous donation. I beg of you to convey to your Government my sincerest gratitude to New Zealand for its magnanimous action in aid of the sufferers. A. and N.Z. Cable. THE NAVAL LOSSES. EARLY REPORTS EXAGGERATED. ANALYSTS OF POSITION, TOKIO, October 23. (Received Oct. 24, at 9.40 p.m.) How far has Japan’s naval strength been affected by the earthquake? Early rumours indicated that half the sea-going fleet had been destroyed, but it is now known that these were a gross exaggeration.

The Naval Department has issued statements from time to time and the most authoritative opinion in Japanese circles is that in these statements the losses have not been under-estimated. No ships afloat were destroyed by fire. The loss of the naval technical laboratory at Thukiji was a serious blow because it was the only organisation for the study of advanced weapons and the armament of ships. The Amagi, which was at Yokosuka, suffered serious damage. This was one of tire battle cruisers which was in course of construction at the time of the Washington Conference, and which, in accordance with the terms of the Naval Treaty, was to be converted into an aircraft carrier. The Amagi has probably been damaged beyond repair, and it seems that the battleship Kaga upon which work was stopped alter the Washington Conference will now take the place of the Amagi as an aircraft carrier. The light cruiser Daya, which was in course of construction, was destroyed at Yokohama, and two submarines in dock at Yokosuka were seriously damaged. The only other ship damaged much appears to be the mikasa which was to have been scrapped, but which will now be employed as a target ship. Otherwise the losses are represented by buildings at Yokosuka and elsewhere. Th© Government hopes to re-establish Yokosuka as a port in six months’ time. The destruction of the private dockyards at Yokohama and.Uraga is a serious loss. . An important result of the disaster will be a reduction in the Naval Estimates for 1923-24, which will showi a decrease of £600,000 compared with those for 192223. The ships to be scrapped under the Washington Treaty have undergone the first scrapping operations which means that their armament bus been removed, but the period for their total destruction has not yet elapsed. Th© Maidzurn naval station and Chinkai, in Korea, have been reduced to minor naval stations and Port Arthur has been abolished, but the Defence Corps is to be retained. The Gensan station in Korea will also be abolished following the Washington Treaty, whilst the Takeshiki station in the Straits of Korea was really dismantled before the earthquake. Untouched are the Japan steel works, near Hakodate, where 16in guns are made, the Kawasaki dockyards near Kobe, which builds submarines and smaller guns, and the Imperial Steel Works near Nagasaki, which constructs armour plate, and the great Mitsubishi Company at Nagasaki, where battleships are laid down. —A. and N.Z. Gable.

At the end of August the Japanese Embassy in London issued a detailed statement of the action being taken under the Washington Naval Treaty:— Warships for -which preliminary work for the withdrawal from the Navy has already been completed are; — Battleships 4 Battlecruisers 3 Coast-defence ships 3 The kinds, number, and tonnage of warships which are in construction; Cruisers, two (7100-ton type); cruisers, five (5500-ton type); cruisers, one (5100ton type). Aeroplane-carriers: Two warships have been converted as above in accordance with the provisions of the Naval Treaty, but their tonnage is not fixed yet. Destroyers: Seven (1400-ton type); four (900-ion type). Submarines; Eighteen (tonnage not published). Gunboats: Four (338-ton type); five (special service ships). The number of officers, N.C.O.’s, and men which has been readjusted and reduced ; Officers, 500; special service officers, 500; non-commissioned officers, and men, 11,000.