CEASE-FIRE ORDER GIVEN IN BURMA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 200, 24 August 1945, Page 5

CEASE-FIRE ORDER GIVEN IN BURMA

CONTACT WITH JAPS

British Warships Ready To Occupy Singapore

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 23

Lieutenant-General Kimura, commander of the Japanese forces in Burma, confirmed his cease-fire order in a message to the Allied commanders at 10.30 a.m. This is the first direct communication from the Japanese in this area. Lieutenant-General Kimura's message said that owing to the difficulty of communications he was unable to give a guarantee that his instructions had reached formations north of the Shwegyin-Papun line. He was not prepared to accept responsibility for their actions.

Lieutenant-General Kimura proposed that Allied soldiers should "feel" the sectors with which he was unable to make contact by radio. Serious Food Problem The surrender of the Japanese in Far East Asia will present the South-east. Asia Command with many problems. A headquarters officer said yesterday that the food problem was serious, for besides 80,000 prisoners and civilian internees there are hundreds of thousands of Allied and Japanese troops who will have to be fed. Major units of the British East Indies Fleet are awaiting orders to steam down Malacca Strait and occupy the great naval base of Singapore, besides various points on the Malay Peninsula and other Japanese-held territory, reports Reuters Colombo correspondent. Before the British Fleet can safely negotiate Malacca Strait minesweepers will clear the 700-mile long channel leading to Singapore. Admiral Georges d'Argenlieu, who is soon leaving to assume the Governor-Generalship of Indo-China, denied assertions that France was ; unable to administer the colony. He said the administrative corps was still in Indo-China, where it had remained throughout the occupation. He believed the majority were non-collaborationists who were prepared to resume their functions. Admiral dArgenlieu said France would be guided by the principles of the United Nations Charter in governing the colony.