"JAPAN'S OVERSPILL."
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—In reading your article on " President Harding's Invita- tions " in your issue of the 16th inst. I was much surprised to some upon the following paragraph : "When we are dealing with the problem of the Far East we ought, for fear of misunderstand- ing, to say that we have no desire that Japan should be shut up in a watertight compartment. It may be that in Korea and the other territory which she has acquired during the last twenty years there is room for the overspill of her population. But if this is not so, then most assuredly Japan must have some area marked out for the future accommodation of her surplus inhabitants. This need for new homes must not, of course; be allowed to disturb the communities which prefer their twn special forms of growth and development, but, on the other hand, Japan must not have her just claims for expansion met with a mere veto."
But, Sir, is not this just the whole trouble? In which direc- tion can-Japan extend? I cannot speak personally of Korea, but I do know that there is no room for much of the " over- spill" in Formosa; nearly all the flat land is already under cultivation and vast areas of hill country are still in the posses- sion of head hunters whom the administration hems round with an electrified wire entanglement the while it is endeavouring to induce them to become peaceful citizens. Then what area are you going to mark out for Japan's surplus inhabitants? Give her a chunk of Australia? I think the Australians would have a word to say. Part of the Philippines? She would like it, but the Americans would not. Honolulu? There are too many there already. She is not wanted in British Columbia, nor in California. Nor yet in China. But, as you are right in thinking, she must expand. That is the problem which Japan has got to solve, and well she knows it. A few months ago I landed in Japan from Formosa, where I had had the fortunate experience of being the guest of the Japanese Government for a fortnight. On my arrival at Kobe the editor of the Japanese paper, the Kobe Shinbun, called upon me. I told him of the courtesy and hopitality his Government had shown me in Formosa, and added that in North Borneo, the country whence I had come, there was an "open door" for Japanese. The old gentleman looked at me for a moment, and I thought he was going to burst into tears. "Then you are the only country in the world that wants us," he said. If an area such as you suggest could be found for Japan one of the most difficult problems of the Far East would be solved. But how is it going
Previous page
