KING’S GRATITUDE

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22690, 18 August 1945, Page 6

KING’S GRATITUDE

MESSAGES TO ALLIES VALUE OF CO-OPERATION COLLABORATION IN PEACE (United Press Assn.—Te!. Copyright) (Received August 18. 1 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 17 King George has sent messages to the Presidents of America, Russia and China and to Queen Wilhelmina. The message to President Truman said: “I desire to convey to you, Mr President, at this historic moment an expression of heartfelt congratulations and thankfulness that final victory has been achieved. All my peoples are proud to have been associated with the United States forces and people in the defeat of our enemies. “The co-operation which served ns so well in war will, I am convinced, continue in the days of peace.” To President Kalinin His Majesty said: “The significance of this moment does not lie in victory alone. The years of war have laid the foundations for lasting collaboration which will be as vital a factor in peace as in war. This comradeship is a promise that the ideals for which our peoples fought shall not be lost. Please convey to your people an expression of the British people’s friendship and admiration.” China Congratulated To the President of the National Government of the Republic of China the King cabled: “I send warmest congratulations on Japan’s defeat, which came quicker than we dared hope. I am proud to join in the victory with so gallant an ally.” “I and my Government and people will never forget that Your Majesty was the first voluntarily to join issue against the Japanese after Pearl Harbour,” he telegraphed to Queen Wilhelmina. “I greatly admired the gallant exploits of the Netherlands forces in the early defence of their Far Eastern possessions against superior forces.” GERMANS CLEAR MINES 52 KILLED DURING WORK PARIS, Aug. 17 German prisoners numbering 350 and commanded by their own officers are clearing mines from the Dunkirk coast. So far they have moved more than 200,000 mines. Fifty-two have been killed. The men all volunteered for the work, health prevented his contesting the last general election. Dr. Burgin was first elected to Parliament in 1929. He became Minister of Transport in 1937 after being Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. He later became Minister of Supply. His age was 57. Among his many accomplishments was proficiency in eight languages.

STRIFE IN CHINA

COMMUNISTS FIGHTING AIM TO CONTROL CITIES AMERICAN TO INTERCEDE (United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, Aug. 17 Chungking messages say there have been clashes between Chinese Communists and other Chinese troops. The Communists issued a communique, the text of which was not passed by the Central Government censors, that their troops near Peking unofficially reported that Government guerillas and Communists clashed at several points near Tsingtao and Tientsin, in Northern China. It is unofficially but reliably reported that the Communist forces are persisting in military operations north of the Yellow River. They are aiming at control of Tsingtao, Tientsin and other vital points. The Communists have infiltrated into Shanghai and are also near Peking. The Commander of the United States Forces in China, General Wedemeyer, announced that lendlease deliveries to China were ceasing when peace was formally proclaimed. The Yenan radio broadcast an appeal by Chu Teh, who called on the United States to halt lend-lease and to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to lessen the danger of civil war. It is authoritatively reported that the American Ambassador to Chungking, Brigadier-General P. J. Hurley, is prepared to fly to Yenan in an attempt to induce the Communist leader, General Mao Tzetung, to settle the differences between the Communists and the Chungking Government, says an Associated Press correspondent. USE OF ATOMIC BOMB ARCHBISHOP’S REASONING ROOM FOR DIFFERING VIEWS LONDON, Aug. 17 There was room for honest difference of opinion regarding the use of the atomic bomb, said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Fisher, speaking in the House of Lords. Some could argue that the use of the bomb had not hastened the end of the Japanese war, which was already in sight, but that it put into the hands of the Japanese people an excuse which they were already exploiting for accepting defeat, thereby preventing a real learning of the lesson of defeat which otherwise would have come upon them. But nobody could feel that the human conscience had not received a searing wound by the mere fact that half a million people in a moment were destroyed by such a weapon. It, on the other hand, had saved more lives and suffering in the end than were so desperately inflicted on the Japanese. Dr. Fisher added that the choice between life and death now lay before civilisation. The atomic bomb could be controlled ultimately by faith in the hearts of men. “Let me add.” he said, “that I give all power to the scientists who discovered the power. Let it never be said this disgraces the scientists.” DR. L. BURGIN’S DEATH MINISTERIAL EXPERIENCE LONDON, Aug. 17 The death has occurred of Dr. Leslie Burgin, former member for Luton, who held a number of ministerial posts in Parliament. 111-