EDEN REPLIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1943, Page 3

EDEN REPLIES

TO AMERICAN CRITICISM OF CHURCHILL WAR AGAINST JAPAN PACIFIC DOMINIONS NOT TO BE LET DOWN. ISOLATIONIST INSINUATION REBUKED. (British Official Wireless.) LONDON, March 25. Mr Churchill's recent reference to a continuation of the war against Japan following the defeat of Hitler appears to have provoked some criticism and even stronger defence. It is reported by the Washington columnist, Drew Pearson, that Mr Anthony Eden, when lunching privately with Congressional leaders, emphatically rebuked an isolationist insinuation that the British are chiefly interested in the defeat of the Nazis and will leave America to fight Japan alone. "Australia and New Zealand have been in this war from the start,” he said. “Do you think we can let them down? Do you think Englishmen would desert these people? We will fight together till the Japanese menace is wiped from the earth. There is Singapore, too. Our pride demands revenge there.” Whether Mr Churchill’s reference to a partial demobilisation of British arms after the defeat of Germany coincided with the American views was a question which was put to the Secretary of State, Mr Hull, at a Press conference today. Mr Hull replied, “America stands for the defeat of both ends of the Axis—in Europe and the Orient. I do npt care to go into details.” i AMERICAN CRITICISM. The passage referred to in Mr Churchill’s recent speech has occasioned much comment in the United States. » The New York “Sun’s” Washington correspondent David Laurence, suggests that Mr Churchill has produced in some quarters an impression that Britain is weakening on her pledge to mobilise all of the Empire’s might after the defeat of Hitler for the war against Japan. The correspondent adds, “There is no use concealing the disappointment which is felt here that the British Government has not concurred with the American view regarding the necessity of all-out war against Japan. Here is Britain’s Prime Minister notifying Japan that he does not expect the United Nations to force Japan to surrender before Hitler, and that even when Hitler surrenders the entire strength of the United Nations will not be available for the second task. “The Japanese may be counting on such a contingency—their ability to obtain a stalemate by consolidaating their present positions so strongly that it would take America, with partial help from Britain, years to root them out. The American people are not likely to enjoy a continuation of the fight for British possessions if the British Government, which is now so instrumental in preventing proper American aid from going to the Pacific, looses interest in the continuation of the war against Japan. The better way would be to allocate more force to the Pacific so that Japan’s collapse may come contemporaneously with Hitler’s.” OPINION IN LONDON. The London “Times” says in an editorial: “Any fears that Australian opinion would be disturbed by Mr Churchill’s reference have proved groundless. The Australian Press, indeed, commended his realism. That Australia is committed to a long war is accepted as entirely justified by the situation on the Pacific, Burmese and Chinese fronts.” Reviewing Japan’s enormously strong positions, “The Times” says: “It is proper to remember that the enemy’s activities indicate his continued determination to cut off Australia and New Zealand from reinforcements and supplies from their Mother Country and America.” ■ . . - • The paper points out that, though it is impossible at present to open a heavy offensive aganst the Japanese outlying positions, it should still be possible to maintain and extend that superiority in the air without which India and Australia would have known the horrors of Japanese invasion, JAPANESE TRICKERY. In a speech today the formei- American Ambassador to Japan, Mr Grew, gave a warning that the Japanese might attempt a fake peace offensive when the Allied military offensive gains momentum and the selfconfidence of the Japanese is shaken by sue-, cessive reverses. He said the Japanese would set the stage by placing a Liberal statesman at the head of a puppet civilian Cabinet. They might even consent to withdraw from occupied territories in order to receive some of the United Nations peoples and render them lukewarm to further prosecution of the war. “But to accept anything less than unconditional surrender would be temporising with murder and negotiating with treachery,” declared Mr Grew. “The overweening Japanese ambition is eventually to invade and conquer the United States.”