THE YALTA PAPERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27626, 5 April 1955, Page 11

THE YALTA PAPERS

New Comment By MacArthur (N.Z. Press Association— CopurlgM) NEW YORK, April 3. General Douglas MacArthur said tonight that if any documentary evidence on the events which bore responsibility for the Yalta decisions could be released, it should be released in full. "I would deprecate most unequivocally a partial and selective release,” General MacArthur said in a statement.

The General, the former Far Eastern commander, referred to action by the Army yesterday in leaving it to the Defence Department whether to make public a series of 10-year-old documents, including General MacArthur’s messages concerning the war against Japan. The documents were said to relate to estimates on when the war would end and whether the Soviet Union should have been encouraged to enter the war against Japan. In his statement tonight, General MacArthur said: "I understand from the press that efforts are now being made to have the Department of Defence release for publication certain selected military documents for the most part bearing upon post-Yalta studies and plans dealing with implementation of the Yalta decisions, to the exclusion of the documentation which preceded the Yalta decisions and which alone might cast light upon the responsibilities involved.

“This could only result in added confusion in the public mind concerning the issue under discussion, which is the responsibility for the Yalta deCilions. I would be wholeheartedly in approval, should the Department of Defence deem it advisable, to have published all documents which bear upon responsibility for the Yalta decisions, but I would deprecate most unequtvocally a partial and selective release.

“If any documentary evidence is to be .released, it should be released in full.”

General MacArthur reiterated his previous statement that he was not consulted about the Yalta meeting and that he believed the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan was unnecessary. "... I had absolutely no connexion directly or indirectly with the Yalta conference," he said. General MacArthur’s statement concluded; "After the recent publication of the Yalta documents, to my utter amazement, it was stated on the floor of the Senate that the concessions made at Yalta by the American and British chiefs of state were based upon my recommendations. Such a statement is utterly unfounded and without the slightest basis in fact.”