Will Japan's Flag Follow

Japan's Trade?

The Plea For "Economic Advances"

LEADING Japanese statesmen, re cently, in public statements, have emphasised their claim that, while it is the ambition of Japan to make economic advances in the Pacific Islands, Japan has no ambition for territorial expansion there.

Mr. Miyake, of the Social Mass Party, said that Japan should be permitted to develop the resources of the Netherlands East Indies, the Philippines and other South Seas countries; but Japan was prepared, first of all, to make a non aggression pact with the countries con

cerned, to show that she had no terri torial aims.

A similar statement was made by the Foreign Minister of Japan, Mr. Hachiro Arita.

It is probable that Japan is quite sin cere in giving these assurances. The European nations which hold Pacific ter ritories must recognise Japan’s claim to freedom of economic expansion—they cannot expect indefinitely to coop up 100,000,000 people in the limited terri tories of Japan—and it is probable that this will be done in the future along the lines now indicated by Japan her self —namely, economic penetration, fol lowing the conclusion of non-aggression pacts.

The difficulty about these arrange ments, however, is that time does not stand still. The present generation of men who make these pacts, in all sin cerity, pass away, but the* economic penetration, which they have arranged, remains.

The result may be that a new gen eration of Japanese will see flourishing in, for example, the Dutch East Indies or British New Guinea, industries which have been created by Japanese enter prise, while those countries are still under the control of Holland or Great Britain. Thereupon, the Japanese will demand possession of those countries.

It has happened hundreds of times, and it will happen again. Once admit freely the Japanese merchant and the Japanese industrialist, and it is only a matter of time before we must admit also, as paramount, the flag of Japan.

Nevertheless, the problem of Japan must be solved —otherwise, we shall have a blood-bath in the Pacific —and so, presumably, the risk must be taken.