Japanese Poachers.
p. 26 · Read in the full issue
Another Series of Incidents.
JAPANESE poaching activities in South-west Pacific waters are slowly boiling up to a crisis.
More shell-stealers have been seen lately off the coasts of New Caledonia and the French, having caught and con fiscated three or four of them, are now eagerly trying for another capture.
A Japanese company with headquarters in the Caroline Islands is bringing suit the Australian Government, in connection with the capture of two shell poachers near Darwin. The Japanese have briefed leading Sydney counsel.
The Dutch, in January, boarded twelve Japanese fishing boats in the East Indies and arrested 80 Japanese sus pected of poaching and spying. The Dutch are spending £1,000,000 on East Indies defences, the money being raised by 1 per cent, duty on all exports.
All this cannot go on indefinitely.
Sooner or later, the Japanese will clash with the British, or Dutch, or French, or all of them.