Japan In Stolen

Empire

Exploiting Indonesia for Her Own Benefit

From Netherlands Indies Government Information Service FURTHER details of Japan’s plans for the occupied territories in the South-west Pacific have been re vealed by an article in a newspaper of her German Axis partner, the “Muen chner Neueste Nachrichten.”

They confirm that Japan is solely interested in exploiting these territories for her own benefit. The welfare and progress of their populations is com pletely disregarded.

The first aim is to secure an adequate food supply—for Japan. The growing of rice and soya' beans, and the develop ment of the fishing industry, is to oe encouraged all over “Greater East Asia.’’

The second is the concentration of all industries in Japan and, possibly, For mosa, The third is to develop the Nether lands East Indies, Malaya, Burma and, to a certain extent, the Philippines, “along colonial lines,’’ so as to provide raw materials for these industries.

While coal will, of course, have to come chiefly from Manchuria and North China, the Netherlands East Indies, Malaya, and the Philippines are to grow cotton on a considerable scale to pro vide the raw material for Japan’s cotton industry which, before the war, was dependent chiefly on imports from Brit ish India.

This means that the natural resources of the occupied territories, on which the livelihood of millions of natives depends, are to be neglected.

ALREADY, this process has begun.

Rubber trees in Malaya are reported to have been cut down to make room for cotton plantations. Sugar plantations in the Philippines are said to have been converted for the same pur poses. The famous rubber and tobacco plantations of Deli (Sumatra) will have to make place for rice-fields.

In the Netherlands East Indies a con siderable increase of unemployment is recorded in agricultural districts, indi cating that here, too, the Japanese have begun to remould the country's economy for their own purposes.

At Bandoeng and at Medan, both towns in the centre of important agri cultural districts, the population has increased by about 30 per cent, since the Japanese invasion, owing to unemployed flocking to the towns.

Naturally, the Japanese are not going to disregard completely the rich rubber and tin resources of the occupied coun tries. But it is significant that these industries will be carried on as private enterprises. The Japanese State will not run the risk of being left with huge quantities of raw materials for which no market can be found.

Experiments are being carried out regarding the manufacture of petrol and oil from rubber, and it is announced that a factory for this purpose has been opened at Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, a Japanese research bureau has been established, with a capital of 10 million yen, to find other uses for rubber.

All this indicates that Japan’s policy is the exact reverse of what the Nether lands colonial policy has always been.

One of the outstanding features of Dutch rule is the East Indies open-door policy. This meant that the Nether lands East Indies were open to the

world. Anybody who cared to come and establish themselves there could trade freely, invest money, own property and receive the same treatment and protec tion as the subjects of the Queen.

The effects of this policy are clearly reflected in the figures compiled by the Royal Institute of International Affairs regarding the imports and exports of various Mother countries, from and to their respective colonies and mandated territories. It will be seen that Japan heads the list, while Holland comes last:—

Imports into Exports of Colonial Em- Colonial Em-

Countries

pires from pires to their Metrotheir Metrop o 1 i t a n p o 1 i t a n countries countries (1933) (1933) Japanese Mandate . 94.9 97.0 Japanese Colonies . 83.1 88.5 U.S. Dependencies * (including Philippines! 80.2 96.6 French Colonies .. 66.7 88.5 German Colonial Empire (1912) 62.1 68.3 Italian Colonies . . 59.3 65.5 French Mandates . 56.4 46.1 Belgian Congo . .. 43.4 71.1 Portuguese Colonies 43.0 49\ 5 British Colonies .. 24.4 32.5 British Mandates . . 17.9 31.4 Netherlands Indies 11.9 17.6