On the other hand, it is strongly urged that Japan rely to an increas ing degree on imports of German technical assistance because of the strides made by Germany in "ersatz" fields Ry reason of lack of direct access to' abundant sources of raw materials in the past, conditions which the economists find applicable also to Italy end Japan.
Beginning with the steel industry, seriously handicapped by the embargo on scrap steel exports by the United States which began on Oct. 15, last, Japan has been been forced to merge a number of units into a few larger corporations and to hasten the development of coal and iron ore on the mainland of Asia, the construction of blast furnaces to make pig iron, and to adopt new processes in steel. manufacture. Meanwhile, Japanese open hearths, which formerly used a large proportion of scrap metal, have switched to 70 per cent, pig iron and 30 percent, scrap, with a drop in output to 30 per cent. of capacity.
Analyzing this programme, hewt ever, it is obvious that Japan will be unable to get her steel industry operating at the levels formerly enjoyed for a great many years. Not only will the uncontestably large mineral resources of North China have to be exploited, but adequate rail transportation, from tracks to freight cars and locomotives, will have to be provided, and new adequate harbours and docks built in North China, it is admitted by the Japanese writers, The proposals to change the processes by which steel is made also are matters that will not be ro-solved for many years. Likewise, development of aluminum as a substitute for copper and other metals placed under restriction as recommended by the Japanese economists, will take time, and from the standpoint of other industrial production, they find "there is no choice but to promote the heavy industries in general" to replace stoppages in imports of machine tools from Germany and the United States; to increase the rate of self-sufficiency in automobile output, to develop new supplies of cotter in the Far East. and to procure sufficient crude oil supplies, for which expansion of the tanker ficer is essential.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.