CONCESSION SOUGHT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 210, 5 August 1937, Page 14

CONCESSION SOUGHT.

JAPAN AND RAW MATERIALS. Japan is hopeful of obtaining from Holland a concession for the exploitation of oil fields in Dulcli New Guinea, Viscount Tadashiro Inouye, a Japanese peer, told members of the Japan Society in London. The keynote of the speech was Japan’s vital need of free access to raw materials, without which a nation could lay but a nominal claim to independence, and must he for <pver in an inferior position. “Owing to climatic and other reasons,” Viscount Inouye said, “vast potential areas of supply at present remain untapped—for example, the oil deposits in New Guinea.

“The land where these deposits occur is entirely devoid of civilisation. Under present conditions, it is hardly possible that civilising influences will be brought to bear there for many years. “In just the same wav as they have achieved such eminently satisfactory results in developing the iron mines of Malaya, Japanese capital and labour are prepared to open and develop the New Guinea oilfields.. “It is in such regions, hitherto uninhabited, and hardljj considered worth while by earlier exploiters, that Japan seeks her salvation in establishing free access to raw materials. The means she employs are essentially peaceful. She does not wish to win an unfair advantage over others. “In New Guinea, the climate offering such insuperable obstacles to European development, a Japanese company recently acquired rights for the planting of cotton. >

“Thus does Japan carry out the policy of making herself self-sufficient. “To accomplish such results, Japan must be recognised as a controlling influence in the East. To her must be allowed the responsibility of maintaining peace among her neighbours.”