POSSIBLE TREACHERY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 39, 15 August 1945, Page 8

POSSIBLE TREACHERY

THE MILITARY CLASS

RUGBY, August 13. The "Daily Telegraph" feels that no great subtlety has been shown by the Japanese leaders in delaying the inevitable. "The Tokio statement yesterday that the Allied reply to Japan's offer of surrender had only just been received could not serve any useful purpose,' it says. "Set against the announcement of another conference between the Emperor and Togo, the fanatical militarist who is Foreign Minister, it proved that the situation had got out of control. There are evidently two, and probably more than two, opinions among the Japanese chiefs about what is now the best course for them to take. Some would die —or at least make most of the people die —in the last ditch, and others are for peace on any terms till the terms can be broken. The result is a compromise to postpone the surrender as long as possible." The writer insists that the Allies should be on their guard against assuming that, with the Emperor reduced to a tool in the hands of the supreme Allied commander, all difficulties 'will be easily overcome. It recalls that the Emperor cult was revived last century to serve the militarist and economic ambitions of the Japanese ruling class. "Despotism tempered by assassination is a fair description of Japan through the last 30 years," it says. "When. Hirohito performs what the Allies demand from him —that is to say, when he gives the Japanese army and navy leaders orders to surrender —it is uncertain whether they will all obey. Those who do may be in peril of their lives from the more ferocious and more fanatical warriors. The Allies must be prepared for treachery now, and the only security for the future is the establishment of a system which the militarists cannot dominate."