The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1940. SPY MANIA IN JAPAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 179, 1 August 1940, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1940. SPY MANIA IN JAPAN

'J’HE allegation, unsupported at present by any produced evidence, that British residents in Japan have been engaged iu espionage, is disconcerting, to say the least. It should, however, be remembered that “spy mania” is not an unusual phenomenon in Japan, and on that account the present incident should not be given more than its appropriate significance. Japan is now passing through an acute political and economic crisis. The China incident has been consistently enlarged without .bringing finality any the nearer. Meanwhile, however, Japan has been feeling the cost of the campaign to be a very heavy strain. Japan would like to reach some finality, but she takes the view that a commensurate advantage must be secured to compensate her for the loss of men and treasure involved in this lengthy campaign. China, however, has registered an unexpected resistance, and appears to be capable of sustaining the present effort for a long time to come. Japan fears that China will maintain her traditional role of the “sword swallower,” namely, that of absorbing the invader or of exhausting his strength. With the United States placing an embargo upon oil and scrap metal, the Japanese war effort must slow down, and it is possibly because the Japanese Government adopts the view that the closing of the Burma road, at Japan’s request, has been followed by an adroit move on the part of the British to get the Americans to act, that the arrests of Britishers have been carried out in Japan. The Japanese will find it a very delicate business to carry out economic reprisals against the United States of America, because the latter country is the major market for the export of Japanese raw silk. The use of silk was at one time used extensively in the fabrication of aeroplanes, but now metals have replaced woven materials for the wings and fuselage the demand for silk by the aeroplane industry has declined. Further inroads have been made on the consumption of silk by the enlargement of the production of cellulose fabrics. The silk producers of the world are, therefore, not favourably placed to-day. Silk, for Japan, is an exceptionally important export product, because upon it depends the solvency of its agriculture. Agriculture in Japan does not pay, and the sideline of silk-worm culture is essential to make up the leeway. Should Japan lose the United States market for silk, then her agricultural population would be in greater straits than they are now. Reprisals against America, therefore, which led to the closing of the American market for her raw silk, is a risk which, if common sense prevails, will only run when she has determined to pursue the most desperate of paths—war against the United States of America.