BITE THE DUST

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24757, 3 December 1943, Page 3

BITE THE DUST

GRIM DAYS FOE JAPAN ISLANDS IN PACIFIC INTEREST OF NEW ZEALAND Weed. 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 2 Both in Britain and the United States the council of war between the three leaders is hailed as an historic event—a guarantee that Japan will be finally and irrevocably defeated. It is felt also that the conference took an important step toward establishing the post-war world. London newspapers give much space to the conference, as well as to maps of the Pacific area. These maps have huge areas inked in black and bear titles such as: "What Japan Will Lose" and "The Japanese Will Have to Give Up These Spoils." The Daily Mail says: "Japan will bite the dust. Her humiliation will be all the deeper by contrast with her present ambitious, overweening pride. The slogan is: 'Japan for the Japanese and not an inch more.' The fruits of 50 years' brutality and treachery will have to be given up." Mandated Territories The Times says: "The three-Power statement makes it clear that the enemy will be expelled from the territories he seized by violence; and ho must surrender the Pacific islands which ho acquired in 1914. The reference here clearly is to .the Marshall, Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands, placed under Japanese mandate after the last war. Several of them since have been converted into important Japanese air and naval bases in defiance of international agreements. "The statement contains no indication of the future destiny of the islets, but it is clear that the question, which particularly interests New Zealand and Australia, will have to be studied carefuly in the light of general requirements of Pacific security. An intimation to this effect might have been timely, though it is known that the Dominions were consulted before the conference." Meaning of Defeat The Daily Express says: "Japan has one privilege. For the first time among the enemy countries she is told what is in store for her, told not the whole story, but the broad outline of what defeat will mean." The point which the London Times raises concerning the Pacific islands is dealt with also by a reporter in Washington. He says everyone there assumes that the United States will have a predominant voice in the future of the islands, but they recognise that Australia and New Zealand and, indeed, all the United Nations also are vitally concerned. He-savs there is some support in the United States for a kind of mandatesome arrangement to see that the islands are held and administered in the interests of the United Nations as a whole. As Washington sees it the main thing is that Japan, having shown herself unfit to control an Empire, should be put back within her own borders and kept there with every chance of national existence, hut no chance to disturb the peace of the world. STOLEN TERRITORY FORMER CHINESE AREAS THE MANDATED ISLANDS Japan wrested Manchuria from China in 1931, occupying Mukden on September 18 and defeating the Chinese in a series of military operations. The three north-eastern provinces of China, Fengtien, Kirin and Heelungchiang, with Jehol, were, with the assistance of the Japanese army, proclaimed on February 18, 19.32, an independent State, to be known as Manchukuo. By March of last year Japan, Italy. Germany, Hungary, Rumania, Poland and San Salvador had recognised Manchukuo. It has a population of about 40.000,000 and an area of 503,000 square miles. The island of Formosa, <">r Taiwan, was ceded by China to Japan in 1895 by treaty after the Sino-.Tapanose War. and Japan quickly took possession. It lies between the Philippines and Japan, and a range of mountains running from north to south has a peak 14.50(1 feet in height. Its area is 13,890 square miles, and the population in 1935 was 5.212,0Q0, of whom 300,000 were Japanese. The Pescadores are a group of _l2 islands with an area of 50 square miles and a population of about 60,000. They lie between Formosa and the coast of China, and they were ceded by China to Japan in 1895. They are under the Government of Formosa. Under the Treaty of Versailles Japan was appointed mandatory to the former German Pacific possessions north of the Equator. These extend for 1200 mile,'; north of the Equator and for about 2500 miles from east to west, and they include the Marianne or Ladrone Islands, the Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands. The total area of these islands, which number 623, is only 829 square miles.