JAPAN’S PRIME MINISTER

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23323, 5 October 1945, Page 5

JAPAN’S PRIME MINISTER

Kuni May Have To Resign Yoshida Likely Successor By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright TOKIO, Oct. 3. Japanese newspapers report that the Foreign Minister, Yoshida, niight succeed to the premiership in the event of Prince Higashi Kuni being forced to resign. Yoshida, who is in the gendarmerie, was put in gaol for a month at the beginning of the year, and was free from all suspicion of being a war criminal.

Several members of the Lower House of the Diet have resigned because of their part in responsibility for tne war. Japan will soon ask the Allied command for permission to exchange silk and rayon for food from other nations to meet the current acute shortage, reports the Domei Agency. The Japanese Governmeht is already prepared to allot vessels to carry 70,000 to 75,000 tons of coal a month from Kyushu to Korea for the railways, and has asked if it could receive Korean rice and salt in exchange. Villagers in North Japan broke into a Government warehouse and seized rice, claiming that the ration was insufficient for subsistence. The police made arrests and recovered most of the rice. Thousands of women throughout Japan are sending letters to Prince Higashi Kuni complaining of the food shortage. Hands Off Korea General MacArthur has restricted Japanese overseas financial business conlmunications to messages he approves. He has warned the Government to keep its hands off Korea. This followed purported promotions of Japanese officials serving in Southern Korea. General MacArthur Warned that such purported promotions were ineffective, as the Allied Military Government was the sole authority in American officials reported that they are checking the activities of more than 100 former secret patriotic societies and other subversive groups. Particular vigilance is maintained for evidence that these groups might be going underground. The Japanese Government has askedGeneral MacArthur for permission to cohvert two former naval fuel plants to the production of fertiliser. It explained that farmers were short of 1,500,000 tons of fertiliser. The reconversion of naval plants would increase production by 200,000 tons a year.