The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1945. WELL SAID, GENERAL BLAMEY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1945, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1945. WELL SAID, GENERAL BLAMEY

QENERAL SIR THOMAS BLAMEY, Australia's hard-hitting Comman-der-in-Chief, has no illusions about the Japanese. He fought against them for more than three years, and he remembers that among their normal weapons they employ treachery in times of peace and atrocities in times of war. He does not recognise the Japanese as a gallant and honourable foe. And he has had the courage to tell them so. To Australians and New Zealanders, sickened by contemplation of the atrocities committed on our kith and kin, there is a most welcome and refreshing feeling about General Blarney's forthright denunciation. It is in terms for which we have waited in vain to hear from General MacArthur and Admiral Mountbatten, both of whom are aware of the perfidy of our defeated enemy. Admiral Mountbatten, it seems, had designed the surrender at Singapore to reconstruct in reverse the hateful ceremony when General Percival was humbled by Yamashita in 1942. The Japanese were to realise the extent of their defeat—the native population were to be shown that the British triumphs were as complete as were their earlier disasters. Apparently the policy-makers at Whitehall knew better. The Admiral's plans were ruled out. Where General Blarney was assured of the full support of his Government when he told the Japanese just what to expect, General Mac Arthur and Admiral Mountbatten have had different orders. The two Supreme Commanders must envy General Blarney.

Present developments, both in Malaya and in Japan, are causing grave disquiet throughout British and American countries. In the United States fresh disclosures of Japan's barbaric treatment contained in every dispatch, and elaborated by men now free to talk about their personal experiences during those terrible years of captivity, have caused a nation-wide cry for retribution. War correspondents' accounts of the opening session of the Diet in Tokyo, with Emperor Hirohito, decked out in military uniform, again making no mention of Japan's defeat, have angered Americans. British newspapei-s recount how the Japanese "are-being handled in Singapore with the cleanest white gloves." In Korea the Japanese Governor-General is to retain his high office. In Japan present institutions, with the welcome exception of Imperial Headquarters of the Armed Services, which is to be abolished, are to be used to develop and interpret the Supreme Commander's policy. Only in General Blarney's sphere is there any indication that the stern measures which we all believe essential are to be applied. To the man in the street Allied policy in the Far East has taken on an atmosphere of nightmare unreality. Contrast ;the manner of enforcement of sur; render in the West with what is now going on in Japan and the liberated territories, and there can be only one reasonable conclusion —the situation must still retain explosive qualities which preclude any early start on the measures which must be taken if Japan is to be made over.

When Germany surrendered her armies had been thrashed on the field of battle, had disintegrated. There was no longer any central Governmental organisation capable of continuing the struggle. When Japan agreed to surrender, on the other hand, vast armies had never been committed in battle, had never fired a shot in anger. From the moment of the original Allied landing in Japan troops have been pouring ashore, but they still represent only a small proportion of the force which will be required to carry through the disarming of the Japanese home armies. Similar conditions apply at Singapore, where the occupying forces are so far at little more than token strength. It is not difficult to imagine the dangers of such a situation. One small "incident" might incite the still armed and. belligerent enemy to violence which could' end only in tremendous Allied bloodshed, the loss of countless lives saved by the Japanese decision to surrender prior to the Allied invasion. Such a tragedy cannot be risked. Fear that it may yet occur seems the only possible explanation for the present conduct of affairs in Japan, Malaya and the other areas where surrender of large enemy forces is now being accepted. If there is any other explanation—if British and American politicians and foreign affairs experts have decided that the Japanese can be civilised without the sternest occupation measures— then the thousands of Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen who gave their lives on the long road to victory gave them in vain.