Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1948. Delay In Pacific

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1948, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1948. Delay In Pacific

THE bit tor, protracted sirnjiglo over the 1 future of Germany has tended to obscure the fact that no progress has been made with the task of drawing up a peace settlement for the Pacific. It iS j |lls tu ee vears since Japan iineonditionalh sip p-n--dered. and just a year since Ihe I ni led States (lovernmenl issued invitations 1o the eleven members of the bar .Eastern Commission to discuss a peace settlement. And yet a conference lias not scl been held. . _ Prior Io the invitation issiie.l ip Tin United States Government, efforts _at treaty-making had foundered on Russia s insistence that the task was one Jor the “Big Four” Council of Foreign Ministers. This proposal would, <>l course, ride out participat ion b.v Australia. Yew Zealand, and oilier lessor nations. 'Plicst* countries are vitally concerned with I iitni’P security in the Pacific and any proposal which would not give them their duo part in the conference on a peace treaty for Japan is wholly indefensible. This stand is supported by both Britain and the United States, who have repeateiily stressed Jo Russia the view that all the connirios which fought in the Pacific war should participate in the framing ol the peace settlement.

The comment by lhe Moscow newsjmper, Pravda, which we publish today, is typical of the Russian attitude to Paeifie'questions. The Americans are accused o[ using the occupation of Japan for the. secret rearmament of the country and suppression of lhe “ democrat io ' ’ forces. What Moscow no doubt has in mind is dial (‘ommunisls are placed in thi* same category as the Japanese ‘‘old guard"’ so, tar as restrictions on activity are concerned. Both are capable ol* disastrous adveiil nros. There has been a rapid increase in ('ominunist Party membership, and so long as Japan is kept in a. slate of uncertainly and economic confusion", so long will slit' provide a. fertile breeding ground for Communism. Continued procrastination is help I al to the Russian cause, and there is no doubt that Moscow plans are based on this tact. Since Russia shows 110 sign rd* abating her attitude towards die Pacific sphere, .the only alternative Io an indefinite stalemate, such as she has aimed al bringing about in Germany, is for die democracies to hold a peace conference without her. There are no Russian troops on Japanese soil, so that the difficulties which have arisen from Soviet non-co-operation in Europe cannot also arise in Japan.