JAPAN PLEDGED TO REPAY ALL DEBTS ABROAD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23041, 3 September 1949, Page 5

JAPAN PLEDGED TO REPAY ALL DEBTS ABROAD

(10 a.m.)

TOKYO, Sept. 2.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshida, broadcasting tonight in reply to General MacArthur’s statement marking the fourth anniversary of the surrender of Japan, pledged his country to liquidate all pre-war foreign loans and repay the money from the United States aid funds.

Mr. Yoshida declared that Japan must maintain her old reputation abroad as a nation which had never defaulted on its foreign obligations. He added that it was imperative that Japan should build up her export trade and import raw materials, technology and encourage capital from abroad.

Mr. Yoshida said all he could promise the Japanese was long years of austerity, hard work, privation and selfdenial.

The Japanese people must bear manfully the burden of defeat and rebuild the nation.

Mr. Yoshida declared that some day, having renounced war and forsworn all kinds of armament, Japan would join the United Nations and play her part in the maintenance of world peace. Quoting Mr. Churchill as describing British Communists as the “tools of a foreign Power,” Mr. Yoshida said the Japanese Communists were acting “under alien instigation.” The Government would defeat their attempts to create confusion and destroy the social order.