In Defence Of Japan

What is Happening in the Mandated Islands

The following article, in defence of Japanese activities in the Marshall Is lands (which Japan holds under man date) was written hy Mr. Carl R. Heine, a missionary of the American Board oj Missions, who has lived in the Marshall and Caroline Groups for a very long time. Mr. Heine is now a resident of Jaluit, Marshall Islands.

IN your November issue there is a para graph in “Tropicalities” concerning proceedings at the sitting of the Man dates Commission on November 10, when Japan’s administration of her Mandates in the South Seas was sharply criticised.

Apparently the vexed question was: “The difference of apparently one third be tween exports and imports the latter being the greater—led to the suggestion that the Japanese were draining the is lands of their natural resources, giving the natives little in return.”

It seems to me that with the infor mation supplied to the League of Nations from time to time by responsible Japan ese officials, and corroborated by Major Bodley, Professor Clyde, and other re liable writers who have visited the Man dates in question during recent years, there should be no valid reason whatever for the critical and distrustful attitude of the Mandates Commission. But the writer is not at all surprised, for it has long been evident that a fault-finding spirit is rampant nowadays, especially where Japan is concerned.

What explanations Mr. Ito (the Japan ese delegate to the League of Nations) may have offered concerning the matter I do not know, but this I can certify and affirm: The natives of the Japanese South Sea Mandates receive more for their copra under the present regime than they ever did before, and they are able to purchase all their requirements from a larger and more varied stock than they ever could before, and can do this at less cost than ever before.

These facts should tend to allay the apprehensions of the Mandates Commis sion. The Commission has been barking up the wrong tree.

But how about the excess of exports over imports? The explanation appears to be simple. There are several Japanese bonito-fishing ventures, purely their own, in the Mandates with an annual catch valued at over a million yen. Then there is the sugar industry in the Carolines, purely their own, with an annual output valued at over 10,000,000 yen. The lab ourers in these industries are, I under stand, practically all Japanese, from the mainland, or else Lu Chu islanders. It is only to be expected that most of the savings of these men, and also the divi dends of the shareholders, will not be spent in the mandates, hence the im ports will tend to be less than they might be under other circumstances.

But note that the islands are not being drained of their natural resources, the supar plantations being on State lands, formerly uncultivated and mistakenly considered to be of little worth, and no Islander has been devprived of his patri mony or means of sustenance.

New Sugar Industry

The principal sugar plantations are on Tinian and Saipan, in the Marianas, a spur of the Caroline Islands. Tinian is a long, flat-topped elevated island of coral formation, 38 square miles in area, and in some respects similar in appearance to Banaba or Nauru —the well-known phospate islands —but of a more terrace like structure on the weather side. It is only a few miles distant from Saipan, which is another island of coral forma tion, but very different in appearance to Tinian.

I well remember my first sight of the latter island, towards the close of 1918, when I was on a never-to-be-forgotten journey to Japan. The tide was low as we steamed along the weather shore.

From the outer edge of the flat-topped reef adjoining the land—a reef very simi lar to that of the typical coral island — columns of spray shot high up at short intervals, probably caused by blow-holes with large openings at the extremity of the reef, with small outlets further back.

I never saw anything exactly like it be fore. In a curious manner, many of these columns of spray seemed to main tain their upright position for nearly half a minute, without spreading out or dissipating, as they advanced across the reef towards the land like tall, sheeted ghosts.

At that time Tinian was covered with a dense jungle, wherein wild cattle and fierce hogs roamed at will, and no sound of human voice was heard. When I again passed the island in 1933 I was amazed at the great change that had taken place.

The dense jungle had given place to miles and miles of vivid green fields of luxuriant sugar-cane, ripening for the harvest, and the hum of busy industry had replaced the former solitude.

While viewing this prosperity, and considering the change and progress manifest elsewhere throughout the man dates, and comparing this with what I have read concerning alleged conditions in some of the mandates of other powers, it is to the writer obvious that Japan has demonstrated her ability to admini ster mandates as satisfactorily as any of the other Mandatories, and better than some. This finding may be objected to; flaws in the system pointed out; never theless, the truth will stand.

Air-Line To Marshalls?

I am interested in an item in your December issue, entitled “Japanese Wings Over the Pacific,” in which it was stated that misgivings have been felt in U.S. navy circles at Japan’s al leged intention to open an air-line from Japan to the mandated islands—that is, the Caroline and Marshall Islands.

Well, at present there are no signs here of anything of the sort being con templated. But I certainly do hope that the plan materialises, and the sooner the

better. I don’t see why U.S. navy circles should entertain any misgivings concern ing the project. Surely, in these days of world progress an air line from Japan to the Mandates is to be expected, and in fact it is long overdue.

No more misgiving should be felt in U.S. navy circles over the plan, than in Japanese navy circles over Pan-American Airways. If the Japanese have misgivings over that, they haven’t said so, to my knowledge. It would have been more ap propriate for U.S. folk to have remained mum, also.

Mr. and Mrs. W. Lieber, old residents of Tonga and Samoa, who have been settled in Sydney for some years, have been elected members of The Pacific Islands Club. Other new members are Mr. T. Wilson', at one time of Apia, Samoa, and Mr. Edward C. Snow, a former resident of Tahiti and Rarotonga.

Dr. A. S. Frater returned to Vila, New Hebrides, by the Morinda on May 27. Dr.

Frater is Medical Missionary in charge of the Presbyterian Hospital at Vila.