MacARTHUR FLAYS SOVIET FOR “INCITING DISORDER IN JAPAN”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22971, 14 June 1949, Page 7

MacARTHUR FLAYS SOVIET FOR “INCITING DISORDER IN JAPAN”

(N.ZP.A,—Reuter—Copyright.)

(10 a.m.) TOKYO, June 13. General MacArthur today issued a formal statement naming Russia as the “incitor of disorder and violence in an otherwise orderly Japanese society.”

The statement was contained in an*official answer to a Note from Lieut.General Kuzma Derevyanko, the Soviet member of the Allied Council ■ for Japan, which protested against the , alleged suppression by the Japanese police of trade union demonstrations during May. Gene v al JVlacArthur said that the , Soviet letter was “replete with inaccuracies and misinterpretations of fact.” < Its purpose was to incite irresponsible and unruly minority elements in Japan n to violence and disorderly resistance ' against the duly constituted Govern- £ ment of Japan, with a view to creating * confusion, unrest and bewilderment in 1 the ranks of the Japanese masses. c I "Unconscionable Failure” “The Note was meant to screen the t Soviet’s unconscionable failure to abide bv the requirements of international c law and their specific Potsdam commit- t ments in the return of more than 400,000 Japanese citizens long held in bondage to their homeland,” said Gen- s eral MacArthur. £ “This failure to meet international ' commitments and maintain normal ' standards of human decency in the dis- c position of captives finds little parallel in the history of modern civilisation. %

“The Soviet actions so outrage moral civilisation that even the Japanese Communists have been moved to register a bitter and indignant protest.” General MacArthur said that Russia’s apparent championing of fundamental human rights on one hand and callous indifference of the fate of war prisoners on the other was a “shocking demonstration of inconsistent demagogy.” Soviet “Hypocrisy”

Russia’s effort to account for the missing Japanese war prisoners by charging a mathematical error was sophistry which would be small solace to the hundreds of thousands of Japanese homes from which family members were missing.

General MacArthur said: ‘For the Soviet to speak in derogation of the status of labour in Japan is hyprocrisy compounded. Japanese labour enjoys rights, liberties and safeguards largely unknown to the peoples of the Soviet Union which, following the totalitarian concept, holds under ruthless suppression individual liberty and personal dignity.

“For the Soviet to speak of ‘democratic rights, suppression of legal activities, arbitrariness and chastisement’ is enough to challenge the late lamented Ripley at his imagination’s best.” The Japanese Foreign Office revealed that shortly before General MacArthur's statement the Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshida, appealed to S.C.A.P. for renewed efforts to repatriate the Japanese in Russian hands. Mr. Yoshida said that a month of summer had already elapsed but Russia had not resumed even the promised repatriation of 95,000 Japanese.