JAPANESE IMPASSE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19960, 19 November 1934, Page 6

JAPANESE IMPASSE

VITAL PROBLEM OF THE DAY EXPLOSION MAY COME The urgent need for co-operation between Britain and the United States in order to avoid a conflict with Japan was emphasised by Mr F. Milner, M.A., C.M.G., rector of Waitaki Boys’ High School, at a gathering of representatives of the Christchurch, Timaru, Oarnaru and Dunedin Rotary Clubs in Timaru on Saturday night. Mr Milner was invited to say a few words in regard to the Japanese situation, and he said that in that evening’s paper he had seen an ominous statement by the new head of the Japanese Navy, Vice-Admiral Sankachi Tak.ahashi, and he had endeavoured to elucidate its implications. He would like to call attention to what General Smuts had said in London in regard to the imminent danger zones of the world. He had said that although Hitlerism and Nazi-ism were intransigent in Germany and Fascism was undoubtedly bellicose in Italy and had sinister possibilities, and although the French were cynical in their attitude to Central Europe, none of these equalled what was occurring in the Far East, and he appealed to Japanese statesmen and militarists to abstain from further provocative statements and their action in trampling on solemn international undertakings to which they had affixed their signatures. General Smuts had continued that the prosecution of the campaign in Manchuria would mean not only the rupturing of the Washington Pact but the scrapping of all the peace machinery that had been accumulated in the last 20 years, and might easily lead to war. That day they were told by ViceAdmiral Takahashi that not only would Japan at the naval conference demand full naval parity, but that parity must not be camouflaged in any way, and he also said in regard to the mandated islands that there must be no question of Japan giving them up, no matter how they came under her charge. If the Powers wanted to quibble or dared to try to deprive her of her full powers over them, such foreign powers would meet the full might of the Japanese Navy. Economic Drive Mr Milner said that last year he had attended the conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations at Banff, where there had been 17 Japanese publicists present, and from their attitude it had been made clear that Japan’s aggressiveness there was a stark economic drive. There was a net increase in the population of Japan of 1,000.000 a year, and there were only four ways in which that increase could be absorbed. The first possibility was that of intensive scientific agriculture, but that had been proved to be impossible, for Japan was saturated from an agricultural point of view, only onesixth of her area being arable land. The second possibility was that of emigration, but the Japanese were not an emigrating people. As a matter of fact, the population of Japan had been increased tremendously by the repatriation of her nationals. Actually there was no more than 600,000 Japanese outside the Japanese Empire. This was not because every nation had shut her doors to Japan. Peru and Brazil were asking for Japanese, and were receiving no more than a mere trickle. He wanted his audience to be assured that emigration was not even a palliative. Birth Control. Mr Milner said that the next possibility was birth control. The Government did not prohibit it; in fact, it tolerated it, but the people would not practise it, and even if birth control was applied to-morrow, they would have to find fresh industrial occupations for 250,000 workers each year, and they could only do it by increased industrialisation. More intensive scientific agriculture was an impossibility, emigration was an impossibility, and birth control was an impossibility, so they had to fall back on increased industrialisation, and that was why Japan was challenging every country in the industrial markets to-day, and it was going to go on because Japan was prosecuting an irresistible economic drive. Sooner than see its children starve it woul.l fight. There was no more heavily-armed nation in the world to-day, and the Japanese were telling their people that they were maligned and misunderstood and ruled off from the rest of the world, and such talk was encouraging a rebellious temper. Access to Raw Materials. Mr Milner went on to say that for five years there had been an unprecedented increase in the Japanese naval budget, and that had only been done by balancing the budget by terrific internal loans. If Japan was going to secure increased industrialisation, she must have access to raw materials and a share of the world markets. Manchuria had been a disillusionment, because she could not procure there the right kind of iron ore or the right kind of coal, and therefore Japan was looking further afield. She had full charge of the iron mines of Malaya, and she knew to a ton how much there was available in Northern Australia and in New Zealand, and she was also conducting an intensive mineral survey throughout the Far East. Japan must have access to the raw material, and if she could not get what she required for her industrialisation policy, her children would starve and she ‘would fight. The world had to approach this crucial question with sympathy and understanding. “Japan lias a powerful case,” said Mr Milner, “and if we stand off the explosion will come. There is no more serious question facing the world to-day than the solution of the Japanese impasse in the Far East.” Mr Milner suggested that the only means of averting trouble was AngloAmerican co-operation. If they could get the Imperial and American Governments together on the question with free and frank representation, they could take joint action as did the Washington Conference a few years ago and postpone war in the Pacific for 15 years. He had taken on himself the responsibility of asking the New Zealand Government if representations were being made along these lines, and they had said that did not know. In any case, they considered that it would be foolish for New Zealand to take such action. The Royal Institute of International Affairs wanted New Zealand to speak up. If they were going to wait they were again going to have the hideous sacrifice of youth. What he had spoken of would come about unless they pooled the resources and statesmanship of the British Empire and America. They should call Japan to a conference, discuss the whole position in a friendly manner and see what was necessary to avoid war. He had met many of the big Americans and he knew that they were out to bring America increasingly under a Democratic policy into the world sphere. They were desirous of solving this vexed question, and he contended that if the best brains of the two countries could be assembled, they would find a solution of the problem before it was too late. He couLl assure his listeners that it was a very vital -matter, one demanding the best statesmanship available in the world to-day. On the motion of Rotarian W. Thomas, Mr Milner was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.