VERY IRRITATING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 277, 4 September 1946, Page 5

VERY IRRITATING

CRY OF COMMUNISM IN JAPAN WASHINGTON ANNOYED (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) NEW YORK, Sept. 2. State Department officials claim that General MacArtliur launched on his own initiative an anticommunist campaign in Japan in violation of American policy and directives from President Truman, states the Washington correspondent of the “New York Herald Tribune.” The charge is based on General Mac Arthur’s statement marking the first annivers-

ary of Japan’s formal surrender.. State Department officials said bluntly that General MacArtliur released the statement without consultation with the officials directly responsible for the United States foreign policy. No directive had been sent to General MacArtliur indicating any desire by the Administration to raise the cry of Communism in Japan. The incident is considered highly irritating because it came in the middle of delicate Russian and American relations elsewhere in the world. State Department sources say that American policy in the Par East aims at the creation of a just, durable peace, also the building of a bridge of friendship with Russia. The policy is not intended to establish a bulwark against Communism. One official commented that the Japanese had done nothing since the surrender to warrant General MacArthur’s statement.

Private advices from Tokio state: “One is apt to get from General MacArthur’s headquarters a completely false view of wliat is going on in Japan. Listening to the authorities one wondered why the occupation is not ended now. The Japanese actually are no more ready to govern themselves on a democratic basis than they were a year ago. The Conservatives are firmly in the saddle and are doing all in their power to preserve the status quo. Everyone must be aware by now that the Allied Council in Tokio is a farce, also that the Far East Commission seems to us like something on another planet.”