The Rice v. Beef Standard. A Big Problem In The Far East

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19248, 13 February 1937, Page 9

The Rice v. Beef Standard. A Big Problem In The Far East

"THAT Tokio is nervous concerning • the possible effects oil aerial warfare is obvious enough. As the local saying lias it: 'ft is farther from Japan in Siberia than from Siberia to Japan'—by which is implied thai -while, in the event of a conflict with Soviet Russia, the vast territories of Siberia would present few important targets for Japanese airmen to attack, the aerodromes of the Soviet Far Eastern air force" would l>e within easy flying range of Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokio—overcrowded mod-, cm cities, no easier to defend from! air attack than London or Paris."— Thus writes Mr. Hessell Tiltman, in "The Far East Comes Nearer." Mr. Tiltman is very frank about Japan. He shows how nearly one million miles of Chinese territory have been seized, and he emphasises the possible conflict with Russia, whose AitForce may or may not be n menace to Tokio as noted above. "If Japan selected the arbitrament of armed might," he goes on to say, "won the resultant conflict, and moved her frontier to Lake Baikal, the victory would give her the Far Eastern Republic, and clear Soviet Russia out of the Pacilic. "But it also would leave Japan, established in Eastern Siberia, with a country unsuited for Japanese colonisation on her hands, and a irredentist problem (in the shape of 20,000,000 communists waging guerilla warfare against -her) beside which the problem of those 'bandits' of Manchuria would pale into insignificance. Victory also would create a new common frontier with Soviet Russia along which 'incidents' would multiply until a further explosion blew it out of existence. New Zealand readers, however, will be interested in his summary of the trade situation, for Japan's industrial competition is' being felt by all the nations.

When All Allowance is Made. "Japan has been helped enormously by the modernisation of her factories carried out without any regard for vested interests, and by the skill and discipline of hor admirable workers/' says Mr. Tiltman. "But, when all allowance has been made for that fact, it remains true that she has been assisted even more by what has been termed the 'rice standard'—that is, by the simple standard of life to which the Japanese are, as a race, accustomed. It is this factor, entirely new in the competition between industrial nations, whieh accounts for many of the charges made against Japan, and for many of the fears entertained elsewhere. As the Federation-of British Industries put it, in a recent report:— " 'ln plain -words, unless rice is made equivalent to beef, the beef standard will cease to exist so far as many industries are concerned.' "Precisely. What is the solution of that problem? For if tho British worker is entitled to his meat dish once a day, the Japanese worker ia equally entitled to the bowl of rice which is his preference. It. would be unreasonable to expect Japan to* introduce a Western wage standard, into her factories without regard to national habits and needs. What is a 'Western standard,' anyway? The scale of real wages in Japan is already equivalent to that in Italy or Poland —two European nations which, are, from the point of view of labour conditions, most backward. ..." China Makes a Move.

"The 'trade ■war'! Japan'* industrial expansion, is but one phase, although the most striking phase, of the industrialisation of the East which lias boon proceeding steadily for the past 20 years," says Mr. Tiltn>nn in a later chapter. "The same process is proceeding in China also. "To-day the Chinese are threatening the Japanese cotton industry with the very fate which the .Japanese have meted out to Lancashire. The Chinese mills are already serious rivals to Japan in supplying piece-goods to the East Indies, especially to the large Chinese communities there. With China becoming steadily more industrialised the world is within measurable distance of cheap production in excelsis. Japan's industrialists may, however, be left to ponder that problem.

If the Long View is Taken. "Tailing the long view, the industrialisation of Asia may well prove of benefit to the world. The resultant increase in purchasing power and the elimination of squalor in that continent will provide new markets sufficient to recompense the Western nations for the trade that has 'gone east.' In the future the real Eastern markets wall be for such commodities as wheat, rice, foodstuffs, cotton and raw materians for the factories, and specialised machinery rather than for manufactured products, "Just as Japan is changing the territorial map of Asia, so her industrialists arc re-drawing the trade maps of the whole earth. The challenge of the Japanese factories is an acid test for Britain's industries. There will inevitably bo changes even more sweeping lhan those which are now history. But there have been changes comparatively as violent in this country in th past. All the distressed areas in Britain to-day are not duo to the 'wicked Japanese'! "Once the transitional stage is 'over; and each nation is making its

maximum £>nl ribution to the health, wealth and happiness of mankind, the result will enrich and not impoverish the world. Meanwhile, Japan is keeping her teeming populations employed and her machinery busy; those who uro infuriated by those facts should consider the alternative solution to that population problem, which would be large-scale Japanese migration overseas. To Australia, for instance." Mr. Tiltman's book is notable for its interviews with the leading men/ of Japan. He gives the full story of the February, 10:5b*, revolt in Tokio, and shows how if trouble arises between Russia and Japan it may involve all Europe and Great Britain.