AUSTRALIA’S STAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 226, 23 August 1945, Page 5

AUSTRALIA’S STAND

SIGNING OF SURRENDER.

PART IN BIG CEREMONY. CANBERRA, Aug. 22. Representatives of the Australian Services will fdgn the instrument of Japanese surrender. This news, announced today, is regarded as a triumph for Australia's claim to be fully consulted in Pacific affairs.

The Australian delegates will be General Sir Thomas Blarney (leader). Commodore J. A. Collins and Captain It. It. Dowling (Navy), Major-Gener-al Berryman (Army) and Air V iceMarshais G. Jones and W. D. Bostock (Air Force). “This decision to include Australia follows the strong representations made by the Government concerning our rights to full participation in the surrender and armistice arrangements with Japan,” said the Minister of Defence (Mr Beasley). “During the past few weeks a bitter diplomatic struggle lias been going on behind the scenes lietween the Australian and British Governments,” says the Canberra correspondent of the Sydney Sun. “The Australian complaint was that Australia, the main upholder of the Empire of the Pacific, was being relegated to a position of dependency. Australia believed. that, as the solitary white race in the Pacific surrounded by nations of other origins, she had a vital interest in the Pacific. The preservation of a Japan with a code that viewed peace as a breathing space before another war might spell doom to Australia, and Australia contended that her future was too inextricably linked with what action was being taken for her to be indifferent.

Australia found that Britain did not figlit to get Australia represented throughout the surrender and armistice negotiations. The Australian viewpoint was that Britain by this attitude was relegating her to the position of a fourth-rate Power, so Australia asked America to use her influence to get Australian representation at the surrender. “On the military side also there was a conflict between the Australian and British viewpoints,” continues the correspondent. “Britain wanted only one Australian brigade to go to Japan as part of the British Empire force, but Australia decided to send two brigades. This meant that she would be able to play a more important part in the policing of Japan, which in turn would have a psychological effect upon the Japanese approach to Australia s importance. Australia also rejected a suggestion, that the Australian force should operate under a British commander and insisted upon her own commanders, subject only to direction from the Supreme Allied Commandei (General MacArtliur).”