SIZE OF FORGES IN JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24677, 21 September 1945, Page 5

SIZE OF FORGES IN JAPAN

Policy Not Decided By Mac Arthur STATEMENT MADE IN WASHINGTON (N.2. Press Association— Copyright) TOKYO, September 19. General MacArthur’s Public Relations Office has announced that he is allowing his statement about the occupation force of 200,000 for Japan to stand without comment. The announcement added that General MacArthur’s statement was quite clear and selfexplanatory. “I am surprised that anybody can go so far at this time as to say what occupation forces are necessary,” said the United States Secretary of State (Mr James Byrnes), who is now in London for the meeting*of the Council of Foreign Ministers. The Acting Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) told a press conference that the United States Government, and not General Mac Arthur. was formulating American policy for the pacification and control of Japan. Departing from usual State Department procedure and authorising direct quotation, he said: "I have no comment to make on the military aspects of what General Mac Arthur has said. That is purely a military matter with which the State Department is not properly concerned. “The important thing is that the policy regarding Japan is the same policy which has always been held, and at present is held by this Government, Irt carrying out that policy the occupation forces are the instruments of policy and do not determine policy. Japan will be put in a position where she cannot renew her aggressive warfare.”

The correspondent of the Associated Press in Washington describes Mr Acheson’s statement as “mgre pugnacious than diplomatic and indicating a social and economic revolution in Japan, regardless of what General Mac Arthur thinks." Mr Acheson is believed to have spoken with the support of the War and State Departments, but at present it is not known whether his implied criticisms of General MacArthur were made with President Truman’s full .backing.

STATEMENT BY MACARTHUR EFFECTS IN GERMANY “BLOW AT MORALE, OF TROOPS” (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 20. "General tylacArthur’s statement that 200,000 troops would be sufficient to occupy Japan has had a bad effect here upon both American troops and the German people,” says the Wiesbaden correspondent of the "New York Times.” ‘‘The latter saw in the statement a hint that the American occupation of Germany might not be as long and rigorous as they expected. The Germans feel, rightly or wrongly, that the American attitude to Japan is a pretty good barometer of the attitude to Germany. "The statement has been another blow at the morale of the troops in the European theatre, where everybody hopes to go home. The general attitude is that if the United States can manage Japan with 200,000 men something must be wrong with the plans for Germany—or with those for Japan.”