CABINET SHUFFLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24369, 3 September 1942, Page 3

CABINET SHUFFLE

JAPANESE CHANGES i MORE POWER FOR TOJO MINISTER'S RESIGNATION NEW YORK, Sept. 2 Ifc is officially announced in Tokio that the Foreign Minister, Shigenori Togo, has resigned and the Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo, has taken over the portfolio, This announcement confirms the report fcn the Domei News Agency published yesterday. ft is also reported that Togo's deputy has resigned. The Cabinet Information Board announces that Togo resigned for persona! reasons, and Emperor Hirohito accepted Togo's resignation and instructed Tojo to assume the portfolio of Foreign Minister. A report says that with the resignation of Togo, a new Ministry in the Japanese Government has been announced. This new department is the Ministry of Greater East Asia, and ii appears to be in control of Japanese conquests. Japan itself, Formosa, Manchukuo and Sakhalin are to be excluded from the scope of the department, to take charge in foreign couri tries and regions in Greater East Asia

Tojo has been formally installed a' Foreign Minister in succession to Togo. . whose resignation has started a wave of speculation. One of the divergent views is that Togo made his reputation in keeping peace with Russia, and thai lie has been replaced to make way foi an opposite policy. A further suggestion is that Tojo is trying to concentrate all effective power into his own hands. The Associated Press says the resignation of Togo is possibly a prelude to a Japanese attack on Siberia. Togo negotiated the Tokio-Moscow Neutrality Pact, and has repeatedly affirmed Japan's pledge of friendship for Russia. CHINESE ROUT ENEMY APPROACH TO KINWHA (Reed. 5-35 p.m.) LONDON", Sept. 1 The Chinese forces storming across Chekiang have intercepted and routed Japanese reinforcements which were rushed forward in a. frantic effort to halt General Chiang Kai-shek's forces which are approaching Kinwha, report* the Associated Press correspondent at Chungking. The Chinese have ambushed the Japanese moving up the railway between Kinwha and Lanchi, while another. Chinese column has advanced from Tangki to Kinwha. The Chinese military spokesman said that the Japanese at Kinwha are menaced by a nutcracker offensive along two railways. The Royal Air Force bomhed and machine-gunned Kalewa, on the Chindwin River, in an offensive reconnaissance over Burma on Sunday, says a communique from New Delhi. Hits were scored on buildings and river boats. All the planes returned safely. AIDING GUERILLAS ARREST OF SERBS ORDERED LONDON, Sept. 1 General Nedich, quisling Prime Minister of Serbia, has ordered the arrest of the entire Slovene committee of the Red Cross in Belgrade because the committee, including the chairman, 51. Smodej, is suspected of aiding the passing of military information to General Mihailovich, the Yugoslav guerilla leader. A correspondent on the Italian frontier, who sent this advice, also reported that 800 secondary school students, including 56 girls, have been arrested at Ljubljana and sent to a concentration camp in Italy. They are accused of collaboration t with the guerillas. General Nedich, former Yugoslav Minister of War, set up a so-called " Government of National Salvation " in August, 1941. One of its first acts was to pass a decree imposing tho death penalty for "Communist and anarchist activities. 1 ' Serbs joining the guerilla forces were threatened, and an appeal was made for troops to co-operate with the Germans against General Mlkailovich's forces. There was negligible' response. CANADIAN FORCES ARMOURED UNIT ARRIVED i Reed. 5.35 p.m ) LONDON. Sept. 1 Another armoured formation of Canadians has arrived at a British port. It includes a French-Canadian hospital staff, the first of the Women's Division of the R.C.A.F., and R.C.A.F. personnel and reinforcements. Major-General G. R; Pearkes, Y.C., at commander of the First Canadian Division overseas, will soon return to Canada to assume the appointment of General Officer Command-mg-in-Chief, Pacific Command, says a message from Ottawa. VICEROY ATTACKED ALLEGATIONS FROM BERLIN (Reed. 10.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 1 The Berlin radio says that sisots were fired at the Viceroy of India, the Marquess of Linlithgow, by a young Indian. The Viceroy was not hurt. A member of the Viceroy's bodyguard shot and killr-d the Indian. Messages from India indicate that most parts of the country are now quiet. Communications in the areas that were worst affected are rapidly being restored, and it is only in a few districts, chiefly in the East and the United Provinces, that disturbances are continuing. AXIS AGENTS SENTENCED (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 1 Ernest Weber, formerly of the German Army, Richard Freundt, formerly of the German Navy, and Peter Donay, formerly of the United States Army/ have all been sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for conspiring to transmit defence information to Germany.