Frou ce Ows Comnesroxoest Tokyo, Dec. 29.
One of the chief anxieties paten'- felt by the Japanese authorities in the matter of iron and steel, 'Gnd, from time to time, strenuous efforts have been made by them to Bring about fulfilment of their' Jong-cherished plans to make the Gountry self-supporting in this, respect, One of these was the advancing of Yen 2,000,000 to the Hanyehping Steel works in China in order to extricate them from their financial aificulties, and at one time it look-'6d as if the Government had decided that to make any further a vances to the Hanyehping works Would be tantamount to. throwing: good money after bad, for Japan has already practically subsidized that steel works. But the fact thay they decided to take the risk is a lear indication of the vs Lue the authorities place on making fan uninterrupted supply of iron ore from a source which they could, if necessary, control by military means in' the event of their being: time, cut off from other sources in wa
Japan's problem of piveuring adequate supplies of iron and steel for her industrial undertakings really two-fold. Not only does she aim at securing control of iron-ore-producing sources, but also at rais-her own capacity for the production of pig-iron and steel from the ore thus obtained, In so far as the first of these objects is concerned, she starts with the initial handicap of being Si-provided by Nature with deposits. invher own territory. Vast quantities of iron sand exist in certain parts of the main island and tempts are being made to discover, if possible, some method of utilizing these deposits and extracting the metal, Un to now, however, no way has been discovered for making. its extraction a commercially feasible proposition.
japan, therefore, has to look else where for supplies of this exsontial yaw material without which her fron and steel industry would be alized. It is mainly to China lat she turns her eyes, as, not only China the nearest. available toare, bat alo, owing fo her strong strategical posi well placed to protect the producing regions in the adjoining republic from outside interference in the vent f lhe sures of, surly being denied to her in times of tmoreeser. In vu of these tial need of insuring an_uninterited ow of the ore frm it is little wonder that she ore lith of puno her "rights" and interests in China and also on gaining and maintaining that country's friendship.
Mina seen risen of the Die Goverment spokesmen stated ha Solus than, percent. of apart note of iron re come fiom the Yangtze Valley. This fact is of no small military significance when it remembered thst japan ing hard to make herself independ-of ati snurectet ito say of sources too far distant from She Par Bastar her sel apd ie Son reqivenents "ahd, import oth bt the ore fort means That he tty of the m bearing Sepsis, tot any in Marche, Sato, and mre, etna, {he "dite "bordering onthe ave, wil becrye tore al ier that eve an the ears Tal botha she the Soe to Broo SMisornce of any Wind i Ber Merete those parte ater word, Japan's strategic tion i the protection of te iron industry is not to be entirely adn may ye rebuded nie jing Manchuria and the Yangtze region. This, as may be seen, is Atvoun ne the ecole conta of lid at somer of inter ira oon tention ona ming from the "question of from are foppien, le-us ance at olson ur of Seog' ea and stool problem, namely the fulfilment Tone ogutoments of the metal Sertted frame oe, Aiiowsh kor ith Chin sod eu Ses
royes to the importance of. building hac pets Sepa up an iron and steel industry of! her own, it was not until the out-Deak of the Great War, in 1914, that the full significance of her position was brought home Tapan.. Up to that time, although she had been unable to' meet her own requirements "by means of domestic: production, she never had met with any difficulty in obtaining Supplies-from abroad, and the iron and steel producers of America and Burope welcomed Japan as a. customer. The war altered all this as, first Europe and then America had }to cut off their supplies te her, since they required every bit of the precious metal for themselves. "Not only, in fact, did Japan find her normal sources of supply cut off but before long she found her former suppliers asking her to provide them with the very mater-{als which hitherto she had always obtained from them Being faced the sudden and unexpected problem having to. make provision, not only for her own wants bat 0 for those of her allies hurriedly "set to work to establish a number of new iron and steel plants in Japan itself and also Jin Korea and Manchuria, The slump that followed within a year or two lof the cessation of hostilities, and the subsequent reduction of armaments, brought about a decrease in the demand for iron and steel and, a result, a number of these plants were forced to close down, But Japan had learned her lesson and was determined that _never again would she rest satisfied until she had made herself self-supporting in the matter of iron and step] supplies, By means of subsides {and tari walls, her industrialists Ihave been encouraged to build new and better-equipped plants, and no pains have been spared in the effort to reduce the adverse balance between imports and home production, 'The Hanyehping Works play an tant part in enabling the authorities to achieve the object in view, as they supply not only piz iron' for the use of Government steel foundries and subsidized ones, but_als> provide no small amount of Japan's requirements of iron ore for smelting. Thus, it is obvious that the Japanese authorities attach the greatest importance to the Hanychping Works and are willing! to risk monetary loans and advances render the country self-supporting in the matter of fron and steel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.