Progress Of Surrender Negotiations

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1945, Page 3

Progress Of Surrender Negotiations

LONDON, August 20. Surrender negotiations have proceeded at many points on the widelyscattered Pacific battlefront. Manila.—The Japanese surrender mission has left Manila to return to Japan. It co-operated fully in giving technical information to assist to Allied entry into Japan. It was not empowered to bargain, but merely to transmit to Imperial Headquarters in Japan the terms laid down by the Allies.

Manchuria. —Japanese radio reports say that surrender negotiations are going on between the Japanese and the Russians in two of the main towns of Manchuria. The reports claim that Japanese units still police Harbin. The fighting in Manchuria is rapidly coming to an end. On most sectors of the front crack Japanese troops have stopped resistance and Soviet forces have taken nearly 100,000 prisoners in 24 hours. China. —The Japanese army in China has accepted Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s arrangements for the formal surrender. General Okamura told Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek by radio that Japanese surrender envoys tomorrow would proceed to Chihkiang to receive orders from the commander of the 'Chinese field

forces. Burma. —There is still no evidence of surrender in Burma. One British military spokesman said; “The Japanese have not shown even a pocket handkerchief.”

Java.—The Japanese-controlled radio at Batavia announced early today that the Japanese forces in Java had received orders from headquarters to cease fire. The radio added

that because of this the military administration in Java would in future dissociate itself from the Indonesian Independence Movement, which was fostered by the Japanese. Pacific Islands.—Surrender negotia-

tions are proceeding in New Guinea and Bougainville (Solomons), but so far there has been no word from either the 7th or . c )th Divisions in Borneo or from New Britain. Occupation Soon The Australian Minister of Defence (Mr J. A. Beasley) said his Government had been informed that in a few days Tokio would be occupied and the formal surrender effected there. A statement from General MacArthur’s headquarters in Manila says that Allied troops are preparing to take over their occupation duties.

A fleet of more than 100 Allied warships is steaming off the Japanese coast waiting orders to enter the enemy ports. In one of the main units of the fleet, the British battleship Duke of York, the commander of the United States Third Fleet, Admiral Halsey, last night talked with the Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. It is thought they discussed plans for steaming into Tokio Bay when the signal is given.