IMPOSING SURRENDER TERMS

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

IMPOSING SURRENDER TERMS

British Support For N.Z. Demand

LONDON, October 25. A strong plea for British backing for the Australian and New Zealand demand to be consulted about the imposition of surrender terms on Japan and the general Far Eastern settlement was made by speakers in the House of Lords debate. Lord Denman emphasized the detestation with which the southern Dominions regarded the Japanese for their cruelty toward war prisoners and civilians whom they had captured. “I believe that Japanese cruelty was deliberate and studied to humiliate white men and women in the' eyes of Asiatics, he said. “It is a thing wc cannot afford to ignore. I do not advocate a policy of revenge, but the criminals who committed these atrocities ought to be hunted down and brought to trial. Policies arc being framed and decisions taken m the Far East that will affect not only the nations whose borders rest on the I’aciJic, but the future of the whole world. 11l the British Cotnmonwealth none are so vitally affected as Australia and New Zealand.” Lord Denman moved a motion culling attention to the vital interest of the Australian and New Zealand peoples in the manner in which the surrender terms imposed on Japan were carried out, and recording the detestation with which the Japanese treatment of war prisoners and civilians was regarded by the British people. Lord Cranborne asked for a Government statement as soon as possible on policy toward Japan. Lord Bennett considered that the problem was one for the Allies, not for Britain alone. “I regret we should single out Australia and New Zealand as being the most vitally concerned in view of the fact that the Pacific washed the shores of Canada.” Lord Addison, on behalf of the Government, spoke appreciatively of Australia’s and New Zealand's vital_ services in helping to stem the tide of Japanese invasion, also their services in Africa and Crete. Canadians, without depreciation of their own _ remarkable contribution, would agree with this. Lord Addison added that Britain was in daily consultation with the Dominions. The Anglo-Dominion association was the most remarkable the world had ever seen and it. was the Government's aim to consolidate it still further if possible. He shared the hope that the Far Eastern Commission would not hesitate to speak its mind and make recommendations that would lead the Allies to pursue a policy through which Japan would effectively be deprived of any power in future to commit such abominations.