JAPAN IN THE PACIFIC

Otago Witness, Issue 3403, 4 June 1919, Page 62

JAPAN IN THE PACIFIC

AUSTRALIA'S TRADE THREATENED. (From Ouh Own Coebespondent.) SYDNEY, Maty 5. The statement of the Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand that the presence of the Japanese in the Pacific "is causing him some misgiving exactly expresses the feeling in interested circles here. The Pacific islands trade is of the greatest importance to Sydney, and the operations of any powerful competitor among the islands groups would be felt here at once. Men who "have come down from the islands recently declare that if we have removed Germany from a position dangerously close to our shores we have admitted another Power equally as active. Before 1914Japan took "an important part in the Northern Pacific trade; but she operated from her home ports, and had no advantage over her competitors. Since she occupied the Marshall" and Caroline groups, right under the equator, however, she has been very active, and there is not much doubt that she intends to make these valuable islands the base for widespread and intense activity throughout the. Central Pacific. She is hurriedly arranging steamer services, knowing that, with the British steamers reduced in numbers by the war, and subject to the still tremendous demands of demobilisation, she has an excellent opportunity of establishing herself firmly before she meets serious competition. The position is causing much annoyance in Australia. It is pointed out that, while Japan did practicallv nothing in the war compared with the heavy sacrifices of the principal Allies, she is yet reaping all the advantages of being a member of the alliance, and is unfairly profiting by those advantages. At the moment, it looks as if Japan will take away some proportion of Australia's trade; and if she does, the reaction in Australia, where the feeling towards Japan can never,, he described as cordial, is likely to have far-reaching and important consequences.