The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1935. JAPAN AND CHINA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 19, 23 January 1935, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1935. JAPAN AND CHINA

r pHE relations of Japan and China can best be appreciated by looking at the matter first from the standpoint of Japan. Japan has found its population pressure so great that it has been compelled to hasten its own industrial development. The scientific organisation of her industries, the equipment of her factories with up-to-date machinery, and the adaptability of her people for machine-minding occupations has enabled her to succeed not only to the extent of providing for Japanese expanding demand for goods of western pattern, but she has succeeded even in invading the markets of the manufacturing countries of the world and beating the domestic industries at their own game. The present depressed condition of the consumers of all countries has caused them to lay the emphasis upon price rather than that of quality—this movement is undergoing a change at the present time—and consequently the low-priced, low-quality goods which Japan has shown herself exceedingly able in producing, have been very much in demand. Conditions then have favoured Japanese exports in this respect, but it must not be assumed that Japan is unable to provide goods of reasonable quality with equal facility that she produces low-grade articles. In recent years there has been a conspicuous invasion of the British Empire, and even of the United Kingdom, of Japanesemade cotton goods, and this has had a very harmful effect upon the Lancashire cotton industry. The answer to this on the part of the British Colonial Empire has been to place restrictions upon the importation of Japanese goods. The British Dominions have not, as yet, been involved in this matter, but it is not improbable that when their own industries become threatened they will have recourse to similar action to that taken in the Colonial Empire. Japan, naturally, is hardly likely to feel that the exclusion of her people and her products from large areas of the earth’s surface should be taken as a matter of course, and be accepted with a patient shrug of the shoulders. Excluded from other markets, either partially or in toto, she .naturally takes steps to secure a market which offers a wide field for the absorption of her manufactures. That market is China. China to-day stands particularly in need of plant and equipment, especially transportation equipment. The improvement in the transportation services of China would go far to consolidate the present comparative tranquility of that vast republic. Now in the equipment of China with capital goods, such as railway equipment, canal locks, flood prevention or control works, and road construction, loans will have to be negotiated by China with foreign lenders. Japan is by no means in a position to provide China with capital, whereas the United States of America, France, and the United Kingdom are very favourably circumstanced in this regard. The lender of the money to China will stipulate that the loans are spent in the country of the lender on goods of his manufacture, and so despite the needs of Japanese manufacturers for export markets, and the proximity of China and Japan, the prospect of Japan securing as much of China's import trade as the former desires, is not particularly bright, if the Open Door policy in regard to China’s trade is preserved. With these facts in the background, it is not difficult to piece together the Far Eastern problem, laying bare the motives which prompted Japan to renounce the Washington Treaties. The Washington Treaties were based upon the cardinal point of policy that the Open Door policy in regard to China would be preserved. Now that Japan has renounced the treaties the Open Door policy is in jeopardy.