FIGHTING FOR FOOD

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25288, 23 August 1945, Page 6

FIGHTING FOR FOOD

STARVING JAPANESE MANY DEATHS ON ISLANDS SYDNEY, Aug. 22. Starving Japanese troops are fighting' to the death for scraps of food on small. Pacific islands by-passed by the-Allies,; according to reports received in Bougainville. The death-rates from starvation and disease on Millo and Wotje' Islands, in the Marshall Group, have been particularly high. More than 500 of the comparatively small garrison 011 Mille Island have died. No supplies have reached the island since December, 1943. Recently ■ one Japanese on Mille Island stole a coconut and 20 were killed in a fierce brawl that followed. On Wotje Island 25 Japanese are dying daily. The Japanese are trying to survive on weeds, papaw, tree pulp, lizards, crabs and wild potatoes. The garrison of about 5000 on Nauru Island is slowly dying of starvation. , 'LAND AT WAIOTAPU - REPORT TO MINISTER (0.C.) / ROTORUA, Wednesday In response to a request from the Minister of Lands, Mr Skinner, for an opinion 011 the value for farming purposes of an area of 12,000 acres in the Waiotapu Valley known as Butcher's block, Mr 11, P,. Ford, chairman of the l{otorua County Council, stated at a meeting of the council that he had submitted a report, recommending that the land be retained by the State Forest Service. "About three parts of this block of land is high, bleak, waterless country," stated the report. "The surface growth consists of tussock and stunted scrub. Taken generally, the land is quite unsuitable for economic agricultural farming. The remainder of the block, although showing more_ life in the surface vegetation, is stilly only marginal >land from a farming point of view, as it is waterless. "To conform to sensible regional planning the most practical firebreak boundary should be, as nearly as is workably possible, the present line dividing the Strathmore and Butcher's blocks. If this were done a great saving in firebreak work would be achieved, besides removing a distinct fire menace. At present this large block of scrub country, cutting right into the main body of the State forest, represents a serious fire risk. The protection of over 200,000 acres of planted trees is involved., I recommend, accordingly, that the block be retained by vthe State Forest Service."' JAPAN'S WAR CRIMINALS ATTITUDE OF NEW ZEALAND The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, is reported by the Labour newspaper Standard as stating that.the New Zealand Government upholds tl«? view that Japanese war criminals should be sorted out and punished. Mr Fraser also said that all the evidence the Government was able to obtain on the massacre of 17 Now Zealanders at Betio islet, Tarawa atoll, had already been submitted to the War Crimes Commission. Asked about the future of the Japanese prisoners of war :in New Zealand, Mr Fraser said the matter would be discussed immediately with the authorities (kmcerned. Meanwhile, these Japanese would continue to be prisoners until the peace treaty had been signed. Ultimately thev would be sent to their own country. PARIS CONDITIONS FOOD SHORTAGE PERSISTS That the ending of war does not necessarily bring with it a return to normal jconditions is shown in a letter received by an Auckland resident from a girl in Paris, written after Europo was again at peace. Writing nearly a year after the city had been liberated, she says: "I hope for better days in which we shall be able to oat according to our hunger, to buy what we desire and to go whore we wish, for now it is impossible. I am afraid it will last several years. "People who are too poor to buy food in the black market are starving, even now after our liberation. We have no transportation. Our trains, our stations, our rail-roads are completely demolished. Dressing is impossible if we have not plenty of money. Fortunately, my father has a good position, especially now, for lie is a builder and he has much to do in our country." This girl first began a correspondence with an Auckland pen-friend in 10-' i!). Then the war, with its censorship, intervened and the correspondence stopped. In .Juno of this year, after six years of silence, a further letter from her reached Auckland, resuming tho friendship. A noticeable feature of a comparison of the letters is tho surprising improvement in tho knowledge of English gained by the French girl during that period. This, she explains, has been duo to the assistance sue has recently received with her English lessons from an American soldier stationed in Paris.