PACIFIC REVIEW

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24972, 15 August 1944, Page 6

PACIFIC REVIEW

JAPAN MAY CAPITULATE POSSIBLE BEFORE INVASION (6.1.1 p.m.) PEARL HARBOUR. Aupr. 13 Admiral C. W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, at a press conference, indicated his belief that Japan may capitulate ■without an invasion of the Japanese homeland. However, the occupation of Japan would ho necessary to ensure peace. . "This war is a new experience tor Japan," he said. "In recent have been on the winning side. We do not. know how much they can take before throwing in the sponge." Admiral Nimitz has just returned from a visit to advanced positions in "the .Marianas and Marshall?, lie said he was anxious to move his headquarters to the fighting area. He reported that the Japanese lost 62,323 dead and 8022 prisoners in the invasions of the Gilberts, Marshalls and Marianas. Americans killed totalled 6903. Admiral Nimitz said that because of the great distances involved, it hardly seemed possible to deliver the bomb tonnage on Japan that had been delivered on German-occupied Europe. Mr Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information, who was also attending the press conference after his return -from the Marianas, suggested that it was possible to starve the Japanese out. because virtually all their food was imported. Admiral Nimitz agreed that a sea blockade would go a long way toward bringing Japan down. He added: "We ■will "put the heat on as hard and as fast as we can."

PACIFIC CO-OPERATION REMOVAL OF THREATS (Rpccl, 0.10 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 14 President Roosevelt's broadcast lends the Times today to note that the ;war lias shown how the whole of the Americas can be imperilled by an aggressive control of certain strategic bases and routes. To remove this threat in the future, the paper says, the l'resi"dent looks to the co-operation of the peoples of the Pacific /one on a wide front. He lays down a policy not of cxclusiveness, but of joint effort and benefit, on terms which would be sure of confident and cordial assent from all the Powers concerned in the security and economic progress of the Pacific region. The affairs of the different nations with interests in the Pacific are bound to be more and more mixed up together for mutual and general advantage, the Times adds. BAKER ISLAND AIR BASE AMERICAN USE IN PACIFIC NEW YORK, Auk. KS Bricadier-Genera! Robert Douglas, commander of the I'liitcd States Seventh Air Force. states that Haker Island, near Hon land Island, an American naval station just north of the equator, and 2000 miles south-west of JI onoluFu, lias been an important American air base for almost a year, reports tho Associated Press correspondent at Seventh Air Force Headquarters in the Central Pacific. Au American task force moved to the island, which is within 700 miles of the (filberts, while the Oilbert= were still dominated by the Japanese. Knemy planes which attempted in pierce tho defence screen were shot down. SPANISH FOREIGN POLICY Madrid, Aug. i:t Ihe new Foreign .Minister of Spain, Pernor .lo.se Le Quieriea. in taking over Jiis post, stated that Spain's future policy would not suffer the slightest alteration from the lines laid down by General franco and developed by his predecessor, General .fordana, "except ■where required by the country's con ■yenience and by events." DANISH PATRIOTS SHOT idtrrrl. 0.10 p.m.) I,ON DON, Aug U (lie Gestapo iti Denmark has begun to shoot Danish patriots without trial, {•cording to tlie Danish press service in Stockholm. "This new technique aims at eliminating a.s many patriots as possible without arousing public indignation by publishing the death sentence," S.I vs the no .-sage.