BITTER ATTACK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22340, 27 May 1947, Page 5

BITTER ATTACK

BRITAIN_AND N.Z. PAPER PACIFIC ISLES’ CLAIMS NEW YORK, May 25. Commenting’ editorially on the reported dispute between New Zealand, Britain and the United States over the possession of at least 23 Pacific islands, the Chicago Tribune says “Most, if not all, of these islands were originally discovered, charted and claimed by American whalers, but were subsequently brought under British or New Zealand token occupation by commercial agents or natives from other islands of the Empire. ’ ’ “The atolls are small but many were important as staging points in American wartime operations or as rescue stations for shot-down airmen. Left America to Fight Japan “Britain and New Zealand left America to fight Japan with only the minimum exertion on their part. “Thus it is crazy for them to try now to assert territorial claims which have no justification in wartime accomplishments. “Britain and New Zealand could not hold their Pacific possessions during the war and cannot, hold them now or in the future. Only the United States can save both the claimant nations and the islands they claim. “We would be lacking in good sense to leave the disputed islands in ownership so weak as to invite some other nation to seize them as effortlessly as Japan did in its rout of the European imperialists.” The New York Daily News correspondent in Washington reported on May 10 that the United States, Britain and New Zealand arc secretly negotiating over possession of the islands, which are mostly in the Ellice. Phoenix and Union Groups. They arc not former Japanese mandates and are not coveiecl by the trusteeshio granted to the United States over other islands in this area.