TALKS WITH ENVOY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25286, 21 August 1945, Page 5

TALKS WITH ENVOY

BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND AUSTRALIANS NEGOTIATE (K.N.Z.A.F. Official War Corrcspodeat) BOUGAINVILLE, Aug. 19 An assurance was given by the Japanese envoy, Major Otsu, at yesterday's conference at ' Australian Divisional Headquarters that all the enemy army and navy forces on Bougainville were laying down their arms. The envoy told an Australian interrogator that Lieu-tenant-General Kanda, who commands the enemy forces, ordered all men under his command to cease fighting two days ago.

The order was issued by wireless 011 Thursday, stated Otsu, and it applied to all Japanese forces on Bougainville, Fauro Island and the Shortlands. This was the first step toward the termination of hostilities in the Solomons area. Be cause of difficulty in reaching isolated forces, this order will be repented until Wednesday. Small raiding parties in the Hari and Mamagata areas have not yet been reached but Kanda has promised to do his best to get word to them. Otsu said: "General Kanda has avowed his intention of making sincere efforts to implement the cease fire order." Talks In Native Hut ' The interrogation was held in a palm covered native style hut while rain fell in torrents. The noise of the storm frequently drowned voices while the parties were conferring. Otsu, who was unarmed, wore a gold braid lanyard and the badges of his rank. He said that Kanda was empowered to act For the Army and the Navy forces in the area. Vice-Admiral Samejima is senior naval commander and is at present with Kanda at the latter's Seventeenth Army headquarters in Muguai. Answering a question, Otsu said the Japanese held no prisoners of war here. He said the incidence of sickness and the number of casualties made it impossible to give an accurate figure of the number of Japanese still on Bougainville. The forces on the Shortlands and on Fauro numbered about 1000. It would take at least a month, he said, to concentrate all the Japanese troops in the Buin area, Numanuma, the Bonis Peninsula, Fauro and the Shortlands. Contact with all the parties was' difficult owing to the nature of the country and in communication facilities. Rendezvous Arranged Paving the way for the formal surrender by Kanda to LieutenantGeneral S. G. Savige, commander of the Second Australian ATni.v Corps. Brigadier R. Garrett. Senior Staff Officer of the Corps, who interrogated Otsu, told the latter that Kanda would have to leave his headquarters at Buin and go to sea. The time was stated and the rendezvous fixed for* an Australian ship to pick up Kanda and Samejima, who would be required to accompany him. The warship would take the two Japanese officers to Torokina for their formal surrender. Otsu disclosed the areas where the Japanese had laid mines and indicated them on a map. Brigadier Garrett told him that since a minefield lay in the path of the Australian warship travelling to meet Kanda, sweeping would be begun today (Sunday). Brigadier Garrett asked for a guar- ! antee that the ships doing the minesweeping would not be fired upon by Japanese naval guns at Buin, on the southern coast of Bougainville. Tim Japanese envoy hastened to give the guarantee and then mentioned that the wireless might not be working, in which case he might not ho able to reach Buin. "It will have to he working," Brigadier Garrett replied curtly. After the interrogation the Japanese envoy and the members of his party bowed and left to return to their base. BASE AT FREMANTLE

JAPANESE SHIPPING SUNK (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) PERTH, Aug. 20 It can now be revealed that United States submarines using Fremantle as a base claim the sinking of about 2,000,000 tons of enemy shipping and the damaging of 3,500,000 tons during the Pacific campaign. At one stage the Fremantle base reported the destruction of one-third of all Japanese merchant shipping sunk and more than 1,000,000 tons to December, 1943. Six or seven submarines working out of Fremantle in one month bagged some 130,000 tons, according to figures released by the United States Navy. At one time it was the only offensive force operating from Australia—in the grim days that followed the fall of Java. The submarines attacked targets north of Australia, the effectiveness of which was to be the first nail in Japan's coffin v , Fremantle became one of the biggest bases in the Pacific, so far as submarines were concerned, with .50 submarines carrying the war into the enemy's communication lanes. SOUTH EAST ASIA RADIO (Reed. 0.30 p.m.) NEW DELHI, Aug. 20 The headquarters of the South-east Asia Command has ordered the Japanese Southern Army to establish a radio station at Saigon, Tndo-China, for communication with Rangoon, Burma, by English transmissions. CHURCHILL HONOURED (Reed. 0.10 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 20 Mr Churchill has agreed to accept the freedom of Marlborough, the place from which his ancestor, John Churchill. Duke of Marlborough, took bis title during the end of the 17th century.