OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

Evening Star, Issue 25673, 22 December 1945, Page 5

OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

RUSSIAN OBJECTION TO AUSTRALIANS A CORRESPONDENT'S REPORT TOKIO, December 21. Russia has not only abandoned all plans to send occupation forces to Japan as a result of disagreement with General MacArthur, but has also expressed disapproval of the use of Australians for the same purpose, says the American Broadcasting Company s correspondent. He claimed that he had obtained that information from a very reliable source, and added that Russia's attitude was that if Russia did not occupy Hokkaido, Australia should not occupy Kyushu. He claimed that as a result of Russia's disapproval, General MacArthur has cancelled the departure of a transport carrying/ Australian troops to Japan (presumably from an Australian port). General MacArthur's chief of staff, Lieutenant-general R. K. Sutherland, interviewed at Honolulu, en route to the United States, said that British and Australian troops would land in Japan in January. General MacArthur, in a statement regarding the A.B.C. broadcast, says the statement has absolutely no basis in fact. " For the second time in recent weeks it becomes necessary for me to deny the allegation that I threatened to resign. I am here to serve, not to hinder or obstruct the American Government. It is my full purpose to see the thing through. The question of Russian participation in occupation is a matter for other decision than my own. If the correspondent made the statement he is alleged to have broadcast from Tokio, someone must have been feeding him the funny type of ' hooch ' being peddled around Tokio on the ' black market.' "