“A-CINDERELLA”

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1946, Page 5

“A-CINDERELLA”

EMPIRE OCCUPATION FORCE IN JAPAN “THE POOR RELATIONS” (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 2.' English and Empire troops in Japan, after nearly six months’ occupation, are openly asking if, under the existing circumstances, the present Empire force in Japan is worth while, says Mr. Lachie MacDonald, the Daily Mail’s correspondent at Osaka. He says this opinion is shared by many officers and men from New Zealand, Australia, India, and England.

One officer summed up: “We soon learned we had a thankless job in one of the worst areas of Japan, whatever people on higher levels may say. It was not long before we soldiers knew our part in the Allied occupation was to be simply that of a Cinderella. We sit in cheerless rooms, without even decent leave centres. The Americans, who occupy every important Japanese city and tourist centre, have all the best European-style hotels.” Another officer said: “The Japanese are well aware that we are the poor relations. The Japanese know that all official contact with the Japanese local administration is retained by the Americans, whose Military Government' has a team in our area for the purpose. The British, before erecting a partition in buildings which the Americans permitted them to requisition, must wait six to eight weeks for permission from Yokohama or Tokio.”

A Scottish sergeant said: “If London does not know, Britain has been made to look a fourth-rate Power in the eyes of the Japanese. Britain is not being well served in Japan.” ' Mr. MacDonald adds that there would be less grousing, and national pride would be enhanced if the British zone were extended to include the Kobe-Osaka area, which, before the war, was the main centre of British influence in Japan.