JAPANESE PEACE MOVES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23258, 20 July 1945, Page 5

JAPANESE PEACE MOVES

Move Made Through Stalin Report Denied :Sy Tehfraph —N.Z. Press A.ibn.—Copyriglr WASHINGTON. July 18. An oflh iai spokesman in Washington has defied reports that Generalissimo >ta!in brought Japanese p ice offers with him to Potsdam. Earlier, Mr W. Flcishcr, Far Eastern export of the New York "HeralclTribune,” stated that he had information that Russia might be acting as itermcdiary between the United States and Japan, ano that Generalissimo Stalin might present a peace proposal from the Japanese Governin' nt. “This might explain why President Truman plans to hurry back to Washington when the Potsdam conference ends,” he said. ‘ln Washington, State Department, sources emphasised tha the effort to define unconditional surrender for the Japanese sought a face-saving formula for a Japanese surrender without softening the Allied war aims,” states he correspondent of the New N■ rk “Herald-Tribune” in Washington. War Responsibility "An unnamed Congressman who conferred with Mr Truman before his departure for Per dam said that the President insisted that any surrender definition should not lessen the war responsibility o. the Japanese nor allow Japan to retain or regain military strength for another war. Nevertheless, Mr Truman expressed the hope that a formula could be cb -’sect which he Japanese would a ,pt. thereby making invasion unnecessary and saving upwards of half a million Allied casualties.”

The correspondent adds: “The ary has been pressing the White House to find a formula which might shorten the war without invasion. “Far East experts inside and outside the State Department were agreed that the Emperor's deposition should not be demanded, because the Emperor alone might be able to persuade the Japanese in China to accept unconditional surrender, and also because the Japanese would restore the Imperial system as soon as the Allies’ backs were turned.”