PLUNDER POLICY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22474, 8 January 1943, Page 4

PLUNDER POLICY

Japanese In Java

The "Frankfurter Zeitung.” the largest paper in the German City of Frankfurt, on October 14 quoted the following extracts from Japanese newspapers:— “The provision of rice in the Netherlands Indies is assured, although, despite this, rice ration tickets were introduced all over Java in the larger cities on March 17.” This was only two weeks after the Japanese occupation of Java. The Netherlands Indies Government Information Service says that the statement is further clear evidence of the large-scale looting which the Japanese immediately started after their arrival in southern regions, as all Japanese papers mentioned In April the arrival in Japan of so-called treasure ships “filled with thousands of tons of rice and sugar.”

Furthermore, the Japanese soldiers In Java were permitted, from March 20. to send large packets home filled with foodstuffs, such as rice, tinned meat, sugar, condensed milk, soap, shirts, towels, shoes, etc. The packets accumulated on the quays, assuming the proportion of mountains, showing what the Japanese called in April "southern hospitality.” More evidence of the Japanese plunder policy is revealed by the German radio, which on November 22 broadcast Japanese speeches and articles in connection with the recent Japanese harvest thanksgiving day. According to this, the Japanese rice crop this year was 22 per cent, greater than last year’s, whereas in June the Japanese papers estimated an increase of only 2 per cent, or 3 per cent. Considering that an increase in the yearly rice crop of 5 per cent, was generally hailed in Japan as excellent, this sudden rise of 22 per cent., as mentioned by the German radio, is, of course, the result of the huge shipments of rice from the Netherlands Indies. Burma and Indo-China. which are still leaving for Japan, leaving the people in the occupied territories to face the fact that, under the Japanese, their daily food is rationed.