CHARGE DENIED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1943, Page 4

CHARGE DENIED

JAPAN’S PACIFIC BASES MR. W. M. HUGHES REPLIES TO CHICAGO PAPER. DEMAND DURING LAST WORLD WAR. (Received This Day ,12.20 p.m.) (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, This Day. “The attack must emanate from troglodytes who still remain in the isolationist camp,” declared Mr. W. M. Hughes, replying to the assertion of the “Chicago Tribune” that he was responsible for Japan getting the Pacific islands which she has developed as war bases, “The statement is a string of blazing inaccuracies,” said Mr. Hughes. “The truth is the Japanese annexed these islands yzhen l^e 1914-18 War broke out, and forestalled an expeditionary force Australia had equipped, at the request of Britain to take possession of them on behalf of the Allied Powers. The Japanese subsequently delivered to Britain what amounted to an ultimatum, in which they made it clear that unless their permanent possession of these islands was assured, they would range themselves on the side of Germany. At that time I was not Prime Minister and had never heard of Japan’s demands.” Mr. Hughes added that if President Wilson had opposed granting Japan a mandate over the islands north of the equator she would never have got it. “For one thing I am responsible,” he said, “and that is the grant to Australia of mandates over New Guinea and other islands south of the equator. But for that, the Japanese would long ago have overwhelmed Australia from bases only a few minutes away from our mainland.” The “Chicago Tribune” accused Mr Hughes of having “insisted on a division of the Pacific islands spoils, so that Japan received all those north of the equator.