THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW THE growing American demand for abandonment of the sterile doctrine of Unconditional Surrender and the substitution of affirmative Allied objectives in the war against Japan bore...
...Punishment of all war criminals, but a specific pledge that "we do not intend that the Iapanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation...
...The Potsdam proclamation and the accompanying hope for an early end to the war shared world headlines this week with the great triumph of Great Britain's Labor Party...
...Dr...
...The Kremlin authorized news reports from Moscow that the recent conversations between Stalin and Chinese Premier T. V. Soong "have paved the way for an understanding heretofore never achieved by the 2 nations...
...Other cabinet selections were: Hugh Dalton, chancellor of the Exchequer...
...Charles de Gaulle and his provisional government suffered a major setback last week when the French Consultative Assembly voted 210 to 19 against his proposals for a referendum as a means of obtaining a national decision on constitutional reform...
...The first official reaction was emphatically and unequivocally against acceptance of the Allied ultimatum, but subsequent statements were less sweeping...
...THE WAR IN REVIEW THE growing American demand for abandonment of the sterile doctrine of Unconditional Surrender and the substitution of affirmative Allied objectives in the war against Japan bore fruit last week when the Messrs...
...Among the important provisions were: The complete capitulation of all Japanese armed forces...
...A guarantee of "freedom of speech and religion and thought as well as respect for fundamental human life...
...Washington Observers expected a more aggressive Soviet policy in China as a result of this preliminary chatter from Moscow and Yrenan...
...2. The rehousing program must be greatly accelerated and present legal barriers to the purchase of private property for purposes of town and country planning will be removed by act of Parliament...
...There was another curious development at mid-week...
...Truman, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek signed an ultimatum to the Japanese Government which laid down a 13-point proclamation of the terms and conditions which we will impose if the Nipponese lay down their arms...
...It only remains for me to express to the British people, for whom I have acted in these perilous years, my profound gratitude for the unflinching, unswerving support which they have given me during my task, and for the many expressions of kindness which they have shown towards their servants...
...Murderous Assault Goes On The ultimatum, of course, was rejected by the Japanese in their first statements, but many a seasoned observer felt that Tokyo was fishing for information on •whether we would yield beyond the new conditions...
...Opponents charged that de Gaulle was seeking more personal power in wanting to go back to the 1875 constitution...
...Granting the Allies occupation zones at any point in Japanese territory designated by the Allies, but the victors promise to withdraw their occupying forces as soon as possible and "there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government...
...Significantly, the proclamation omitted reference to Emperor Hirohito, leading many a commentator to guess that the Japanese could conclude, if they wished, that the way had been left open for them to save their imperial throne by capitulating now...
...The Japanese Navy seemed to have been dealt a mortal blow by Anglo-American raiders, and it offered virtually no challenge to the high-riding Allied task forces...
...In the debate which preceded the vote, de Gaulle hinted he might resign if the Assembly deserted him on a fundamental point...
...The Potsdam proclamation, signed by Churchill just before he resigned in the face of an electoral landslide against the Conservative Party, by President Truman, and by the Chinese leader, who was not present in person at Potsdam, offered the Japanese people peaceful, productive lives, ultimate sovereignty in their home islands, the end of costly militarism, the opportunity to develop a prosperous civilian economy, and the democratic way of life if they surrender immediately...
...Under the British parliamentary system, the people do not elect their chief executive, as Americans do, but vote only for a member of Parliament to represent their district...
...Certainly the Japanese people were paying a frightful price for the refusal of their leaders to accept the inevitable...
...Winston Churchill's regime took a tremendous drubbing in its bid for power in peacetime, the great majority deciding that the .home front needed far more drastic and progressive action than was likely to be launched by the Conservatives...
...Herbert Morrison, Attlee's principal understudy, was named new lord president of the council...
...Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist radio at Yenan charged that American policy toward China had become "definitely imperialistic" and would reduce China to the status of "a colony or semi-colony of "the United States...
...Churchill himself was reelected to his old seat in the House of Commons...
...Vladimir Matchek, leader of Yugoslavia's famed Croatian Peasant Party, last week accused Marshal Tito of seeking to establish a complete Communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia...
...The party electing the majority of the House of Commons is invited by the King (who has no discretion at all, but must pick the dominant party) to form the government...
...Jn stepping down from his fateful and brilliant wartime leadership, Churchill said he regretted that "I have not been permitted to finish the work against Japan...
...I am fully satisfied and gratified there exists a strong confidence among our fighting forces...
...Attlee, leader of the British Labor Party, for a number of years, selected Ernest Bevin, hard-boiled union leader and labor minister in the coalition government, as Foreign Secretary, succeeding Anthony Eden, who was reelected to his seat in Parliament, but is now only another of the chamber's 640 members...
...Sir Stafford Cripps, president of the Board of Trade, and William Allen Jowitt, Lord Chancellor...
...For this, however, all plans and preparations have been made, and the results may come much quicker than we have hitherto been entitled to expect...
...Japanese military forces after being completely disarmed shall be permitted to return to their homes "with the opportunity of leading peaceful and productive lives...
...See Pages 5 and 12...
...In a press conference this week Premier Kantaro Suzuki of Japan rejected the Potsdam ultimatum, saying "there is no change whatsoever in the fundamental policy of our government in regard to the prosecution of the war...
...4. Surplus military forces will be demobilized promptly, but, the party promised, not at the expense of full prosecution of the war against Japan...
...In an interview last week in Switzerland, Charles Poletti, head of the Allied Military Government in Italy, predicted that Italy will soon return to a free economy...
...Alternative to surrender, the Japanese were warned, is "prompt and utter destruction...
...That victorious party, in forming the cabinet, picks its leader for the post of Prime.Minister., Tapped for the position last week was a quiet, colorless British barrister and moderate Socialist—Maj...
...China^s relations with both the United States and Russia were subjected to sharp analysis by Communists in Moscow and Yenan last week...
...Soong was removed from his position as foreign minister, but he retained his post as premier of China...
...Japanese sovereignty to be restricted to the 4 main home islands, but the terms of the Cairo Declaration will be observed...
...Clement Attlee—who was deputy prime minister in Churchill's coalition war cabinet...
...3. The coal mines, electricity and gas supply, the steel industry, and principal domestic transport lines must be nationalized...
...EUROPEAN MERRY-GO-ROUND Gen...
...What this "strong confidence" could be based on •wasn't very clear, for even as the Japanese premier was speaking, American naval and air forces continued their murderous assault on Nipponese cities...
...The significance of this move was not immediately known...
...The country's rebirth, however, is impossible, he said, unless the Italians help themselves and accept any work set before them...
...Arthur Greenwood, Lord Privy Seal...
...Elimination for all time of Japan's warmaking classes and leaders...
...The program for which the Labor Party contended is outlined in its pamphlet, Let Us Face The Future, in which the following key platform planks are stressed: 1. The Bank of England, foundation of the British banking system, must be nationalized so as to provide full utilization of the country's financial resources for control of unemployment...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 32
