JAPAN’S MANDATE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1933, Page 5

JAPAN’S MANDATE

OVER PACIFIC ISLANDS EFFECT OF LEAVING LEAGUE. NO INTENTION TO SURRENDER. (By Marc T. Greene in the Wellington Post). Tokyo, Dec. 20. Any possibility of a break between Japan and the League of Nations at once advances the question of the Japanese Mandate in the Pacific Islands, the former German groups known as the Carolines and the Marshalls. This mandate was entrusted to Japan in 1922, and there was formed to administer it the Imperial Japanese South Sea Islands Government, which established its headquarters on the coral island of Parao, in the Carolines. The present Governor, who lives there, is Baron Masayuki Matsuda. » There has been considerable controversy already over these islands, which are incorrectly included among those of the “South Seas,” being wholly north of the equator. Australia has always contended that her gunboats, having captured German New Guinea from the enemy, proceeded north in 1914 and landed first in the Marshalls and the Carolines. For a number of years the awarding of these groups to the Japanese was • sore spot, and it still continues to chafe. However, the Japanese are there and the great point is that they intend to remain there, even should there develop a rift with Geneva, which should force Japan from the League altogether. Japanese interests in the “South Sea Islands” are now very large, and there are more than 20,000 Japanese living in them, with emigration from the mother country thither continuous. Thus the Foreign Office declares unequivocally that “under no circumstances could Japan contemplate abandoning the islands.” CHANGE OF MASTERS.

! While Japan to-day readily admits foreign visitors to the islands, and provides regular passenger service from Kobe, this was not the case during the first three or four years; and if there is any basis at all for the many rumours that spread about that part of the Pacific times were somewhat troublous for a while. As a matter of fact, it could scarce have been otherwise. These Marshall and Caroline Islanders are a kind • of blend of Papuan and Polynesian, with a touch of Malay and other bloods. Generally speaking, they are considerably behind the Polynesian peoples of Hawaii, Samoa and Tahiti intellectually, though in advance of the New Guinea and Solomon Island races. With folk of this sort the Germans had a, manner of dealing which, if not altogether altruistic, at least maintained relations on a fairly amicable basis and kept the natives reasonably content. Spain sold these islands to the Germans at the beginning of the century, seeking thus to recoup somewhat the national finances, badly depleted by the Spanish-Ameripan War. The German manner of administration was much more pleasing to the natives than the Spanish, and for twenty years or more the Marshalls and Carolines knew an era of tranquility and a degree of prosperity. When, therefore, the astonished natives saw their overlords suddenly depart to be succeeded .by another kind of people altogether, brown like themselves, but far from similar in any other way, they had no idea what it all meant, and they took to it not at alh That their resentment promptly manifested itself no one can doubt, and it is quite as certain that the Japanese dealt with this recalcitrance in prompt and characteristic fashion. However, the Permanent Mandates Commission was exercising surveillance all the time, or was at least assumed to be doing so, and had anything serious developed in the Japanese manner of handling the natives it probably would not have passed unheeded. Whatever friction did arise has practically disappeared now, for : there is every.appearance of amity and accord between the islanders and the Japanese administrators, as well as with the Japanese immxgrants. ' "' '' ■: * J Moreover, the- achievements of Japanese , in ten years have been remarkable, nor have they failed to consider the. physical and social well-being of the natives. These islands are not the healthy groups that Samoa and Tahiti and the Fijis are, and the new administrators found much to' do in the matter of improving. the health of the 70,000 islanders. It is necessary to note that they have accomplished this in a degree considerably in advance of the achievements of other . Pacific Islands Mandatories. An educational- system* practically non-existent under both Spanish and German regimes, has been inaugurated also, and even if it involves the teaching of Japanese to the natives, no one can doubt that it is highly beneficial , INCREASED PRODUCTION. Education compulsion, together with rigidly-enforced regulations concerning habits 'and customs generally, was probably the first source of friction between the islanders and their new rulers. Before the Japanese came the natives had lived and acted and consorted as they pleased, nor had they bothered much about schools, for there were few in existence, anyway. But the Japanese altered, all this laissez faire way of living, and required every able-bodied person to assist in the work of developing the islands’ industries, especially sugar production. This has now increased to the extent of nearly half a million piculs a . year. The phosphate industry, too, ha® been improved until 1,500,000 yen yearly is the value of the exportation. Last year more than 12,000 tons of copra were sent to Japan, an increase of about 500 per cent, over the German production in any year of that occupancy, of the islands. The pearl fisheries, too, are assuming importance, and a great deal of dried fish is being ='sent to Japan. Altogether the value of the islands’ exports, last year was not far shore of ten million yen, about two and a half million in excess of imports. Japan, then, has made a marked success of these Pacific Islands from an economic viewpoint, and, as it is but fair to say> a reasonable one from any other. Foreign visitors have been numerous during the past four or five years, and none has found any indications of discontent or reason for such among the natives. On the contrary the islanders appear, now that they are accustomed to the hitherto unheard-of idea of sustained industry and a . amount of restriction as to their habite, to have accepted it all willingly enoug . They are excellently cared for medically, their standard of living is much higher, and their industrial task is by no means burdensome from any v ewpoint, except that of the usually m olent South Sea islander. If they are compelled, as youth, to learn the Japanese language, it is no more than happens In French Tahiti, or in British Samoa or Rarotonga, as concerns those respective tongues. All that being the case, the Japanese position is that they have established their right to these islands and the justice of their rule. Nor is there lacking

a good deal of foundation for that position. In any event, nothing is farther from the Japanese intention than to abandon them, whatever may happen at Geneva in the near future. And in any possible attempt at coercive measures to bring about such abandonment, it should not be overlooked that there 3 s the essence of considerable trouble.