LEAFLETS DROPPED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25566, 20 June 1944, Page 5

LEAFLETS DROPPED

SURRENDER CERTIFICATES (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW Y'ORK, June 18. The Americans dropped 150,000 pamphlets on Saipan printed in Japanese, Korean, and simplified Japanese intelligible to the natives, says the New York Times correspondent with the expeditionary force. One type of pamphlet contains a special message for Japanese soldiers warning them that there is no use holding out desperately in the hope that the elusive Japanese fleet will come to their rescue. The other type contains a "‘surrender certificate,” guaranteeing the holder’s life, fair treatment, food and cigarettes if he follows the instructions. According to observers, reinforcements which the Japanese attempted to bring to Saipan came from Tinian Island, a few miles below Saipan, or from the northern shores of Saipan itself, says the Pearl Harbour correspondent of the New York Times. The capture of Saipan’s principal airport, Aslito, the struggle for which has been going on since Friday, would give the Americans a 3600-foot runway from which fighters and bombers ceuld be launched for closer support of the American ground forces battling against 20,000 to 30,000 of Japan’s best men.