New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-26

her money.
Her specie reserve has long since
passed the 0,000,000-yen mark.
Prominent men in Japan are dis
cussing in all seriousness how to
handle the accumulated and fast-ac.
cumulating idle funds in the banks.
At first the people said that we
should use them TO pay of our for
eign debts. Japan has been paying
her foreign creditors more than $780,
100000 a year in interest charges.
Why not cut that item off the wrong
side of the ledger? The suggestion
was sane and the country at large
thought we'll Of it. Then the ex-
perts got on the job. That brought
about a considerable change in pub
lie opinion on this important matter.
Mr.. Shidate, the governor Of the
Nippon Kogyo Bank, for example,
fayors the payment Of our foreign
debts only in a slow and gradual
manner. He does not think il wise
for Japan to employ anything like
the bulk of her idle funds for that
purpose. His reason is that, after
the great war, interest rates in Eu-
ropean money markets are bound TO
sosr-just how high no man could
say. Obviously, under such condi-
tons, it would be impracticable for
Japan to raise any loans in Europe,
and he thinks there will come
number of things in the post-bellum
period that may call for good deal
of outlay on the part of Japan. His
idea is to conserve a good deal of
the cash which we are getting at this
time and invest it in gilt-edged for
eign securities-the kind especially
upon which one could realize quick
ly-and in the short-term obligations
Of foreign governments-Russian
treasury notes, for example. The
funds may not command handsome
interests, but, in the end, he thinks
we would gain by so doing.
Time Ripe for
Expanding Industries
Mr.. Wada, the president OF the
Full Spinning Company, is decided
ly for an aggressive programme. He
says:
There is no quarrel at all on pay
ing back the money we borrowed. AT
the same time, we have right in
front of our eyes number of en-
terprises important enough to affect
the very destiny of our country. And,
happily, the time for the redemption
of our national debts is some ten
years away. This is the matchless
opportunity for the expansion of our
industries"
Mr.. Wada is one with almost all
the leading financiers Of Japan in his
emphasis on the japanese invest
ments in China. To the rest Of the
world, China is simply great mar
ket. TO Japan, she is a great mar
ket and something more-decidedly
more. Our industrial and political
life is a mirror wherein one can see
almost every detail of success or
failure of our diplomacy in China
and of our industrial activities there.
Mr.. Wada contends that what we
have accomplished in China so far
is pitiful. If we have tears to shed,
why, there is ample room in China
to shed them in. What the white
men have done in China is quite an
other story. Without counting the
more pretentious undertakings such
as railway construction work and
The development of mines-for to DO
so is too humiliating for us--but in
minor things the European and
American investments in China
amount TO a good deal more than
$500, 900 900 in value. The japanese
in China cannot be COM
pared with them, but they can turn
themselves into a fair joke beside
the white mems achievements. Yet
the European and American invest
ments in China were a simple matter
of money. With Japan China is a
ITO be or not to be" problem.
Trade Follows
Bankers Footsteps
The present opportunity appears
to Mr.. Wada TO be good enough for
any red-blooded japanese enterprise
to jump at. He thinks, though, that
the banker should lead the process
sion. His slogan is the establish
ment Of branch Offices Of the leading
Japanese banks at all the principal
trade centres in China. The crying
need Of Chinese trade to-day is the
of banking facilities
and credit machinery throughout the
republic. Mr.. Wada does not say
about the trade following