RUSSIAN MOVE WELCOMED

Southland Times, Issue 25747, 10 August 1945, Page 5

RUSSIAN MOVE WELCOMED

“War Practically At

An End”

(Rec. 9.40 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 8. The first Japanese radio reaction to the Russian declaration was a brief factual announcement by Domei in the English transmission to Europe. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mr W. L. Mackenzie King, in Ottawa said: “Next to the announcement of the atomic bomb, Russia’s entry into the war is the greatest news since VE Day. The combination of the two means an early end of the war or the complete destruction of Japan. It will be a relief for the world to know that the war is practically at an end. However, Canada is continuing her preparations to participate in the Pacific War.” „

The New York Times in an editorial says: “The Russian declaration of war is proof that Russia, as well as Britain and. America, has been redeploying her forces, and is now ready to meet anything Japan might send against them. This means the beginning of the end. Japan today knows that doom is closing in. It remains to be seen whether she prefers national hara kiri to surrender, which at least would save her as a nation.” The New York Herald Tribune in an editorial .says: “The atomic bomb and the Russian action provide Japanese militarists with ‘an honourable exit’ from the impossible dilemma to which they have brought themselves.” The Washington correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune says that the announcement of the Russian declaration produced scarcely more jubilation in Washington than did M. Molotov’s revelation that Japan asked the Russians to mediate peace. This confirmed reports current for many weeks that the Japanese made an authentic feeler. It was viewed as conclusive evidence that Japan’s leaders, even before atomic bombing, recognized that their cause was futile. Washington is optimistic that Japan will be brought to her knees witHm weeks, possibly days. The Washington correspondent of Tire New York Times says that congressmen received the news with satisfaction, tempered with a feeling that the declaration came rather late in the war. Military quarters shared this viewpoint. It is learned on high authority that although Mr Truman told the Russians that a new explosive was about to be used in the Pacific, he revealed nothing of its destructive potential. Thus, the Russian declaration came as a complete surprise to everyone in the Government from Mr Truman down. The first news reached Washington earlier in the day from the United States military mission in Moscow. Then M. Molotov cabled Mr Truman his Government’s intentions.

Military sources predict that Russia’s entry into the war will protect the northern flank of the American invasion of Japan and increase the dispersal of the Japanese homeland forces. It will bring from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 seasoned troops with modern armour into action along a border of more than 3000 miles against from 500,000 to 1,000,000 Japanese. A substantial part of tike Japanese forces is the Kwantung Army, described as Japan’s best trained and best equipped military unit in Manchuria. It has been heavily reinforced in the last few months by troops from China. _ ■ Washington officials considered that Russia’s greatest danger appeared to lie in the trans-Siberian railway linking the Far Eastern provinces and the equipment centres of European Russia. This barely skirts the border between Siberia and Outer Mongolia and Manchuria, although a more northern route has been under construction and may have been completed. An intensified Allied aerial campaign is expected to smash communications in order to impede the passage of Japanese reinforcements. The Japanese Air Force is expected to make a supreme effort to snap the Soviet railway lifeline to Siberia. The Washington correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune says that R'ussia has at least two battleships and three cruisers, but the strongest force in the Pacific is her submarine antisubmarine fleet, which can be thrown almost immediately into operations near Vladivostock. Officials pointed out that the American submarine and mine blockade around the Sea of Japan had already cut Japanese shipping to a trickle, and predicted that enemy shipping would now be completely paralyzed.