JAPAN'S PEACE

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 July 1947, Page 5

JAPAN'S PEACE

AS HARD TO MAKE AS THAT IN GERMANY (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) London. July 14. The opinion that the making of a peace treaty with Japan and the establishment of an agreed level of industry in that country may ultimately cause just as many difficulties as the final -settlement with Germany, is expressed by “The Economist” in an article on lhe treaty negotiations. The journal points out that the large unexhausted stocks of materials found in Japan at the end of the war were allowed to disguise the true condition of Japanese economy. When these stocks were exhausted, and Japan had no means to replenish them, the extreme poverty of the country’s own nature! resources was starkly revealed. In those days even eminent public personages talked about "pastoralisation’’ of Germany and Japan,' but a change of mind was bound to come. It has now become apparent that if Japan is not to continue as a burden upon American and the British taxpayer, its economy, instead of being demolished, must be rebuilt. This is not going to be an easy matter, for if Japan has escaped the economic disintegration of Germany, its economic plight is 'tjuite as serious, and its position as an object of rivalry between Russia and the United States is very similar.

From the British point of view the Japanese situation can give rise to even greater anxiety, for whereas in Germany Anglo-American co-opera-tion has been obtained to a high de-

gree, in the Pacific friction between the United States and Australia renders it m.,ch mor e difficult to reach understanding between London and Washington. There is an attraction for many Americans in the idea of a disarmed Japan rescued from feudalism and converted to democracy by General MacArthur, but the trouble is that some other nations for various reasons find less pleasure in the picture. Russia floes not relish the thought of Japan as a permanent American satelite, nor do countries which suffered most from Japanese pre-war tiad P expansion like the idea of its rencvv..! as a subsidiary concern of the United States.