ESPIONAGE SET-UP

Dominion, Volume 39, Issue 28, 27 October 1945, Page 7

ESPIONAGE SET-UP

Why Japanese Diplomats Have Been Recalled (Received October 26, 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 25. According to Government officials. General MacArthur is breaking down the Japanese diplomatic system for two reasons ; first, the diplomatic set-up had become an espionage system long before Pearl Harbour; and secondly, there was an outside chance Allied Governments might acquire secret Japanese papers bearing on the preparations for the war. Officials said that the first reason was by far the more important because it was regarded as certain that the Japanese had managed to destroy all valuable secret documents before leaving diplomatic and consular establishments.

The Allied Governments were determined that the Japanese must start from scratch in building up a diplomatic system once they were again qualified to resume intercourse with the world. Arrests by the Federal Bureau, of Investigation of Japanese nationals for espionage had virtually ceased when the Nippon diplomats and consular personnel were packed off to Tokio. The officials estimate that between 300 and 500 Japanese diplomats and consuls are still abroad. They will be returned to Tokio under General MacArthur’s order. Japan at the end of the war still had diplomatic relations with Switzerland, Portugal. Sweden and Ireland, and, In addition, there are some diplomats who have so far not returned from Spain, Argentina, Rumania and Turkey.