'PROPERTY OF U.S.'

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 163, 12 July 1943, Page 3

'PROPERTY OF U.S.'

RECONQUERED ISLES Chicago Paper's Claim For South Pacific N.Z. yress association—Copyright Rec. 11 a.m. NEW YORK, July 11. British territory in • the Pacific which has been reconquered from the Japanese by American troops becomes United States property, according to the Chicago Tribune, which in its editorial columns analyses alleged precedents of the Seventeenth Century, when British Courts decided that the Dutch' conquest of New Jersey and Pennsylvania extinguished the claims of private proprietors and that therefore all the land belonged to His Majesty after the British had reconquered the territory from the Dutch. This precedent, says the Tribune, finds application in the South-west Pacific after 270 years. It explains that the Japanese conquered British territory and American troops expelled the Japanese conquerors. The Tribune admits that the reconquest of New Guinea was achieved under General Mac Arthur's leadership by a mixed Australian and American force, and adds: "No such complicating factor is present at Guadalcanar, where the fighting was solely done by American forces. The newspaper concludes by quoting the legal precedent as set forth by the British Courts and says that sovereignty thus falls to America regardless of previous Empire mandates.

"Wo have not an economic but a military interest in these islands," the Tribune adds, "and we must not be forced again to undertake the bloody business of reconquering bases essential to the policing of the Pacific that fall to us by reason of our predominant power. Our present legal claims must be made the grounds for retaining sufficient military facilities in the South-west Pacific to do the job without needless sacrifice of American lives."