CO129-575-3 Japanese affairs 2-1-1939 - 21-12-1939 — Page 213

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

249

FAR EASTERN (JAPAN).

CONFIDENTIAL.

December 30, 1938.

SECTION 8.

[F 13878/68/23]

Copy No. 130

Sir R. Craigie to Viscount Halifax.-(Received December 30.)

(No. 965.) My Lord,

Tokyo, December 2, 1938. WITH reference to my despatch No. 667 of the 6th September last, I have the honour to report that, although no further Imperial Ordinances have yet been promulgated, preparations are evidently proceeding for the exercise by the Government of extensive powers under the National Mobilisation Law. The China crisis is now held in Japan to have entered what is known as the "stage of long-term reconstruction," and the need for sweeping internal reforms is being advocated by the military authorities and the right-wing elements in order to prepare the country for this task. Such reforms were foreshadowed in the state- ment issued by the Japanese Government on the 3rd November, and it is to be anticipated that the organised mobilisation of national resources will be among the first.

2. The present position with regard to the enforcement of the National Mobilisation Law is as follows. Imperial Ordinances have been promulgated :-

(1) To establish the National Mobilisation Commission, a broadly representa- tive body, which is required to give its consent before the various provisions are actually enforced (article 50).

(2) To provide for control of factories and enterprises (partial enforcement

of article 13).

(3) To take a census of the medical profession (partial enforcement of

article 21).

(4) To control the employment of certain classes of graduates of universities

and schools (partial enforcement of article 6).

These measures deal merely with formal procedure and the assumption by the Government of supervisory or restrictive powers; but no action has yet been taken under the law in its active sense of canalising and developing the economic resources of the nation.

It is now understood, however, that the Government have decided to invoke articles 16 and 22 of the law in the near future. The former article vests the Administration with powers to order the expansion and strengthening of the instruments of production, while the latter is designed to make available the technical personnel required for such expansion. In other words, the Government, who have hitherto aimed at controlling industrial development by such measures as the Capital Funds Adjustment Law and the Law for Emergency Control of Imports and Exports, are now to take powers to carry through a positive pro- gramme of industrial expansion along lines to be determined by themselves. It is easy to see that the enforcement of articles 11 and 12, for the provision of capital, of article 10, for the provision of materials, of article 13, for the expro- priation of patents and other rights, and of article 17, for rationalisation agreements among firms involved, will follow as a matter of course. It is to be expected that the control of prices will further be strengthened under article 19, and the whole machinery for the mobilisation of economic resources will be set in motion by the invocation of article 16. It is also reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs are considering measures under the law to strengthen the control of the press, to simplify procedure for the expropriation of land, &c., and to secure co-operation from the public in schemes for national mobilisation.

4. The machinery for the preparation of mobilisation plans and the drafting of the necessary Imperial Ordinances is, however, imperfect, and this fact has given rise to numerous delays. These matters lie within the province of the General Affairs Department of the Planning Council, which has many other calls upon its time.

There has recently been much criticism to the effect that the

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