NO HITCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1942, Page 3

NO HITCH

OVER GENERAL MACARTHUR’S COMMAND EMPHATIC DECLARATION BY DR. EVATT. EARLY STATEMENT PROMISED IN WASHINGTON. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON. April 15. When asked regarding the confusion over the MacArthur command, as evidenced by reports which have been received from Australia today stating that an official spokesman at. General MacArthur’s headquarters had declared that the Allied command was not yet effected, the secretary to file President, Mr Stephen Early, said: “General MacArthur has complete communications with the War Secretary and the Chief of Staff. Any doubts whatever could be quickly clarified by the appropriate officials.”

At the Wai- Department an inquiry brought the response that an official statement would be issued in the next few days outlining the command in the Pacific and South-West Pacific.

Questioned by reporters after a meeting of the Pacific War Council in Washington today as to whether the difficulties regarding General MacArthur’s command, had been ironed cut, the Australian Minister of External Affairs, Dr. Evatt, replied: “They have been ironed out long ago. General MacArthur’s jurisdiction was settled in the course of a few hours between the Australian and American Governments.” He added emphatically that a suggestion that there was any trouble or hitch between the Australian and American Governments had no foundation.

The New Zealand member of the Council, Mr Nash, told reporters that the problem of General MacArthur’s jurisdiction had been adjusted between New Zealand and the United States. “We are in complete agreement —Australia, New Zealand and the United States,” he said. The New York “Daily News,” in an editorial discussing General MacArthur’s position, says: “We believe the war effort could be best served if the President would call off the uncertainty surrounding General MacArthur in the South-West Pacific by calling General MacArthur to Washington and making him Secretary for War.”