DANGER OF STARVATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25963, 2 October 1945, Page 5

DANGER OF STARVATION

CUT OFF FROM IMPORTS NEW YORK, Sept. 30. Japan, on the basis of its own governmental figures, will be in very real danger of starvation by the end of the year or early in 1946, says the New York Times Tokio correspondent.

Colonel Kramer, head of the Economic Control Board, stated that Japan had been largely cut off from essential food imports by the Allied air and submarine blockade since 1944. Her supplies of rice, cereals, and other foodstuffs are expected to be able to furnish a diet averaging only 1551 calories per person in 1946, compared with the 2160 calories which the Japanese health authorities hold to be necessary, and the 4000 calories prescribed for American troops. Colonel Kramer stressed that the American Occupation Army cannot and will not independently undertake the task of feeding the Japanese. He added that the Japanese Government had so far suggested no plan for dealing with the critical situation.

Japan desires to import 2,000,000 tons of petrol annually from the United States and also as many cars as possible to revive the domestic transport system, according to the Minister of Transport, Mr Kohiyama. The Government is requisitioning vehicles for the occupation authorities, who require 400 cars, 700 trucks, and 100 buses. The American air raids reduced the annual capacity of Japan’s railways from 150,000.000 metric tons to 60,000,000.' The railways had 3891 locomotives available, compared with 6030 before the war; also 92.774 freight cars, as compared with 117,598. The merchant marine was reduced from 6.380,600 tons before the war to 1,200,000, of which only 200,000 are at present fit for sea. The merchant marine lost 31.000 seamen during the war. and 85.000 others were involved in shipwrecks.