ABSTRACT
According to the official statistics for 1926, more than 117 million gallons of crude oil, twenty-nine million of benzine, twenty-five and a half million of kerosene, and eighteen million of machine oil-a total of over 190 million gallons in all-were imported during that year, as compared with domestic output of less than seventy million gallons in all.* These imports, moreover, do not include either the output from Saghalien or the huge quantity of fuel oil bought abroad by the Japanese Navy, whose purchases, though kept secret, are known to run into three or four hundred-thousand tons yearly. It is probably safe to say, therefore, that Japan's annual oil requirements exceed her domestic production by well over three-quarters of a million tons even now, and the adverse balance is likely to increase rather than decrease unless some remedy is found before long.
