LASTING EFFORTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1943, Page 3

LASTING EFFORTS

ANTICIPATED BY DR. KOO CO-OPERATION IN WAR AND IN building peace. LONDON NEWSPAPER OPINION. (By Telegraph—(Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, December 2. The Chinese Ambassador in London, Dr. Wellington Koo, stated that the meeting of the leaders of Britain, America and China was an epoch-making events, and was bound to have farreaching effects in Asia! as well as in Europe. “It helps- again to stress that the complete defeat of Japan is as vital tu the cause of the United Nations as the defeat of Germany,” he said. “Tro agreements reached will not only reveal themselves in successive telling blows against the common enemy, but will also go far to ensure close cooperation and understanding among the Allies in the building of the peace.” “We fully agree with the aims expressed in the Cairo communique.” said members of the Netherlands Government in London. Commenting on the conference in North Africa, according to Reuter, they said that Japan had misused her islands in the- Pacific for purposes of usurpation and aggression, and it was obviously legitmate that the islands should be taken back from Japan, and a similar principle of legitimacy dictates the return to China of the territories Japan had taken from her and Japan’s expulsion from territories she had more recently occupied, such as the Netherlands Indies. It was' well known that the Netherlands were- firmly resolved to continue to persevere, together with the other United Nations, in the serious and prolonged operations which may be necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.

PLEASURE IN CANADA. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, commented that Canada would be particularly pleased that the people of China had been given such a definite assurance that their wrongs would be righted. The “Daily Mail" in a leading article says the North African conference is a guarantee that Japan will be finally and irrevocably defeated. Japan will bite the dust. Her humiliation will be all the deeper by contrast to her present ambitious, overweening pride. The slogan is ‘Japan for the Japanese, and not an inch more.’ The fruits of 50 years of brutality and treachery will have to’ be given up.” The “Mail” headlines its leader: “The Setting Sun.” It says the conference will bring rejoicing above all to the people of China, which was the first great nation to resist aggression, and the only one on our side that has been fighting for more than six years. “The Times” in a leader says the three-Power statement makes it clear the enemy will be expelled from- the territories he seized by violence, and he must surrender the Pacific islands which he acquired in 1914. The reference here clearly is to the Marshal, Caroline, Pelew and Marianas Islands, which were placed under Japanese mandate after the last war. Several of them were since converted into important Japanese air and naval bases in defiance of international agreements’ The statement, the paper says, contains no indication of the future destiny of the islets, but it is clear that this question, which particularly interests New Zealand, and Australia, will have to be studied carefully in the light of the general requirements of security in the Pacific. An intimation to this effect might have been timely, though it is known the Dominions were consulted before the conference. The “Daily Express” says: “Japan 'has one privilege. First among the enemy countries, she has been told what is in store for her—told not the whole story, but a broad outline of what defeat means.” COMING CONCENTRATION. Another commentator remarks that the American and Australian forces in the Pacific have shown what can be done even while we are engaged against Germany. Once Germany is beaten we can concentrate terrifying power against Japan alone. The Cairo correspondent of the 8.8. C. says that various names have been suggested for the conference, but he thinks it should be called the China Conference, because it stands as a splendid landmark in China's history, and it is the first time Gereralissimo Chiang Kai-shek has met Mr Churchill or President Roosevelt. The correspondent adds that everyone was disappointed that General MacArthur could not come because of the offensive he is commanding in the South-West Pacific. In Germany the newspapers have splashpd the news. It is the first time an Allied conference has been treated in this way.