GENERAL IN REPLY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26395, 13 April 1951, Page 7

GENERAL IN REPLY

“Compliance With

Directives” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.10 p.m.) TOKYO, April 12. Major-General Courtney Whitney, General MacArthur’s aide, issued a statement on his chiefs behalf denying any suggestion that he had ignored directives on public statements. The statement, which is the first official reaction since the dismissal, said:

“The General feels he complied meticulously with all directives received, not only recently, but throughout his military service.”

General Whitney detailed various of General MacArthur’s declarations and claimed that the Washington directive of December 6, 1950, "by its terms and spirit was interpreted at this headquarters as applying solely to formal public statements and not to communiques, correspondence, or personal conversations.”

General Whitney added that this directive was addressed to all executive agencies and not simply to General MacArthur. [The directive issued on December 6, 1950, by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to General MacArthur and other commanders embraced the Presidential order: “No speech, press release, or other public statement concerning foreign policy should be released till it has received a clearance from the State Department.”] Through General Whitney, General MacArthur denied point by point that he had been guilty of disobedience to his superiors. In his statement General MacArthur made it clear that he did not intend to drop the controversy with Mr Truman and the United Nations on Far Eastern policies. General Whitney argued that General MacArthur had never been specifically barred from making statements on the Korean war and its implications. In fact, he had been assured by Mr Truman that there was no curb on his authority to speak freely on the war. General Whitney, who has been General MacArthur's spokesman on larger policy matters for the last seven years, asserted that all the former Supreme Commander’s statements dealt exclusively with military matters, on which he possessed a duty and responsibility to talk. General Courtney Whitney requested retirement to enable him to accompany General MacArthur on his departure from Japan. There is speculation in Tokyo that General Whitney’s resignation may be associated with General MacArthur’s rumoured plans for political campaigning, into which he would build staff associates, such as General Whitney, his right-hand man as chief of the Supreme Command Allied Powers (Government Section).