OCCUPATION FORCES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 150, 22 December 1945, Page 7

OCCUPATION FORCES

MACARTHUR DENIES REPORT

TOKIO, December 21

Russia has not only abandoned all plans to send occupation forces to Japan as a result of disagreement with General Mac Arthur, but also disapproves of the use of Australians for the same purpose, says the American Broadcasting Company's correspondent. Pie claimed to have obtained the information from a very reliable source.

Russia's attitude, he added, was that if Russia did not occupy Hokkaido, Australia should not occupy Kyushu. He claimed that as a result of Russia's disapproval, General Mac Arthur had cancelled the departure of the transport carrying Australian troops to Japan (presumably from an Australian port). General Mac Arthur's Chief of Staff, Lieut-General Sutherland, interviewed at Honolulu, en route to the United States, said that British and Australian troops would land in Japan in January. General Mac Arthur, in a statement regarding the A.B.C. broadcast, says that statement has absolutely no basis in fact. "For the second, time in recent weeks it has become necessary-for me to deny the allegation that I have threatened to resign," he said. "I am here to serve and not to hinder or obstruct the American Government/ It is my full purpose to see this thing through. The question of Russian participation in the occupation is a matter .for other decision than my own. If the correspondent made the statement he is alleged to have broadcast from Tokio. some one must have been feeding him the funny type of hooch that is being peddled round Tokio on the black market."