SOUND FOUNDATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 5

SOUND FOUNDATION

DEMOCRATIC JAPAN

PRESENCE OF OCCUPATION FORCES PATIENT EFFORT REQUIRED Official News Service Rec. 9 p.m. KURE, Nov. 24. Nothing could be more important to the future of Australia and New Zealand than the determination of the two dominions to convince the Japanese that a State founded on democracy and a respect, for individual rights was far superior to any form of totalitarianism, said Professor D. B. Copeland, the Australian Minister in China, before he left Japan to attend a meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission on Asia and the Far East in Manila this week. The Australian and New Zealand forces had shown by their example how free men should behave to a conquered nation, he said. He had been greatly impressed with the troops he had seen and with the arrangements made for them. Discussing the occupation of Japan, Professor Copeland said a very good beginning had been made. The task had been to turn Japan’s industrial power, which in the past had been used as an instrument of aggression, into an agency for promoting general economic welfare. That could not be accomplished in a day. An early peace settlement was a basic condition of progress in the desired - direction, but it was to be hoped that it would not mean also the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces or a relaxation of the supervision of Japanese political and social development. At this critical stage a patient effort over a long period was required.