AUSTRALIA DOES NOT LIKE PLAN TO REARM JAPS

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 September 1950, Page 6

AUSTRALIA DOES NOT LIKE PLAN TO REARM JAPS

SYDNEY, Sept. 19 (Rec. 6 pm).— 1 Implementation of a Defence Pact between the free countries in the Fa- ‘ cific area is uppermost in the minds . ot many Australians today. < Efforts ot >he External Affairs Ministzr (Mr. Spender) to interest the. United States in the proposition are| being watched extremely closely here ; and so far there has been no adversel comment on the proposal. The Australian press has noted with I appreciation the fact that New Zea-1 land is supporting the Spender plan.' Several important factors, however, affect Australians’ general attitude to j any proposal involving defence of the: Pacific on a wide basis. Under the. Defence Act Australia cannot con- j script troops for service outside her; own territory. During the last war this was stretched to allow conscripted military troops to take parti in New Guinea, but the entire De-1 fence Act would have to be redrafted ' to allow of recruiting of an Austra- 1 lian force to serve anywhere in the Pacific, or to be held as part of an international standing force for emergency service. To Australians, who have never favoured conscription in any form, and a strong minority of whom are opposed even to the Implementation of a national service scheme, any interference with lhe Defence Act as it stands would constitute a major political issue. The second factor is Australia’s hatred and distrust of the Japanese. During the last war many Australian servicemen and women were massacred on island beaches, or died on such infamous projects as the BurmaSiam railway. Australians have never forgotten these and other instances of Japanese militarism. Commenting on a statement by an unnamed American official Ihat the United States plans for lhe peace treaty with Japan contemplat il no limit on the right of the Japanese to rearm. Mr. Spender has reiterated the Australian viewpoint on th? necessity for a safeguard against the resurgence of Japan as a Power. The official American attitude is that: “No economic or other artificial re-

strictions” should be placed on Japan, whose importance as a counterweight to the growth of Communist, power in Asia has become predominant in American eyes. The spectacle of the Japanese army as part, of a Pacific Pact force is not pleasing to Australian eyes. A remark by the United States General Eichelberger that: “Japanese soldiers would be a commander's dream; they are the kind who stay on the ridgetop till they die,” was regarded in Australia as an over-simplification of the position. The Sydney “Telegraph” commented: “If we rearm the Japanese there is no guarantee that they will fight and die on our ridge-tops. Japan’s shrewd leaders well know their strong bargaining position, lying as they do, between Communist Asia and the American Pacific. Most Australians will be one hundred per cent, behind Mr. Spender in resisting Japanese rearmament.” Nevertheless, most Australians also realise that in any Pasific Defence Pact the United States should be the senior partner.—Special NZPA Correspondent.