U.S. PROPOSAL FOR LESS REPARATIONS DEMANDS ON JAPAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 September 1947, Page 5

U.S. PROPOSAL FOR LESS REPARATIONS DEMANDS ON JAPAN

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1.

Writing in the American Magazine, Mr Cilfford S. Strike, chairman of a special committee of the United States War Department which is investigating the Japanese situation, urges the repeal of Mr Edwin Pauley’s plan for Japanese reparations,. (Mr Pauley was American representative on the Allied Reparations Commission). He claims that the plan would take from Japan about 30 per cent, of her peace-time industrial capacity through the loss of 1100 plants. • Mr Strike criticises Russia sharply for looting, not only Germany, but parts' of Manchuria, Formosa, and Korea.

In spite of the contribution of 14,000,000,000 dollars by the United States taxpayers for foreign relief, Mr Strike contends that Europe and Asia appear to be little better off than when the war ended. “Russia appears to be gratified by this situation,” he says. “The more chaos there is in the world the greater, the opportunities for Communist penetration, and the more money the United States gives away the less we shall have with which to fight a world depression—or another world war.”

The War Department's committee recommends for reparations the removal of some excess Japanese steelmaking capacity, oil storage capacity, and petroleum refining plants, all machine tools from the Japanese Navy and Army arsenals, special purpose machines from aircraft plants, and excess shipbuilding plants. This would represent a small pencentage of the plants earmarked in the Pauley plan. '