Aviation Killed in Presence of Chang Tso-lin Mukden, Oct. 15.
Tokyo, Oct. 8.
There is a growing impatience among the public of Japan with the persistent depression, and complaints are growing ' increasingly Tender at the retrenchment and negative policies adopted by the Government. Anti-Government pro-campe, are laying the Hame for the present depressed ce of busi ness at the doors of the Government, and the view that the negative and retrenchment policies -have contributed to make the depression worse are gradually gaining strength among bankers and business men here. As a matter of fact banking and business interests really do entertain a fear that the continuance of the business depression will stultify all the makeshifts hitherto resorted to, to cover mismanagement of business.
At first Japan's business men thought that the business depression would be only temporary and had recourse to a series of clumsy makeshifts in the vain hope that things would soon take a turn for the better. Their hopes were, however, disappointed. The country has been in the slough of depression for five years already, and there is no prospect, within the near future, of better days returning.
Business men are thus at the end cot their tether and their distress is that they can not even pay their banks the interest on the loans secured. Bankers, who are as dis-estrously hit under the cireumstances, applied to the Government for help, but the Government being! sworn to a retrenchment policj—retrenchment was one of the planks Viscount Kato put into his political Platform when he assumed the Premiership—bas turned a dear ear to all these requests. This has driven doth the smaller bankers and business men to a species of despair, and they are now, to judge from various articles appearing in the daily papers and other periodicals, inclined to believe that even a bogus! or ephemeral boom is better than the unbroken spell of depression that has hit the country for five long years, and which has become accentuated by the bursting of the post-war boom and through the disastrous earthquake of 1923. This desire for secking a way out of the prevalent depression has come to be known as a "positive financial policy," as opposed to the "negative" or retrenchment policy of the Government.
Big bankers, however, have doubts as to whether such " "posi tive" policy would result in any improvement. Most leading bankers have on their hands claims amounting to from Y. 60,000,000 to Y. 100,000,000 which they have no hope of recovering. They, however, refuse to face facts and keep hoping that these can be recovered on the return of business prosperity.
Their fundamental error is that they still Keep thinking that the business depression is still temporary (It has been going on for five years). 'They have in the past resorted to makeshift after makeshift until things fare now in a fairly chaotic condition, the tinkering in business circles' only ultimately worsening the general state-of affairs. The Government seems to see the situation more clearly, and accordingly is against temporizing remedies.
There has been a demand certain quarters that foreign capital Government, however, has refused to listen to this plea, on the ground that, even if foreign countries are willing to make Japan further Toans, the course followed would be reckless one and the resulting benefit—if any—merely ephemeral; 's0 that, when the temporary boom Rad spent itself, the final condition would be worse than what it is now.
For the moment, the best efforts of the Government and business men are directed towards reducing wages, prices and rates of interest; also in more retrenchment and in vigorous adjustment. The re-thus far, have been nil. Work-the state of the weather, and, therefore, it is impossible to have anything resembling a fixed scale of prices.
The Seiyukai, the principal Opposition party, has begun to advocate an ampler supply of industrial funds, the lowering of bank rates, the protection of important industrial and nascent industries and the nationalization of electric and motor power. But it is questionable if these far-reaching remedies can be carried out at the present time, A more plentiful supply of industrial funds can only be realized by economy in public and private offices, unless recourse to borrowing is had, So far a8 the nationalization of electric and motor power is concerned, this is absolutely out of the question, for the country is actually groaning under the burden of national debts amounting to five billions of yen.
The depression is really the inevitable consequence of the reck-Jess financial policy pursued during and immediately after the Great War, and became intensified through the earthquake. The! Government sees that temporizing methods will not do; that real hard, persistent thrift and el mination of waste is the only way out. The financial situation being 30, it will have a correspond and important, effect on the nav building programme of Japan and on her armaments in general. This aspect, however, will be dealt with in another article.
During a demonstration this afternoon in the presence of Marial Chang Tso-lin, two aeroplanes: aloft collided, killing one of the aviators and! seriously injuring another.—Reuter's Pacific Service.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.