Evening star., 1944-08-04
Leaders Of Britain
Reafirn Pledge 10
Help U. 5. Beat Japs
by JOSEPH H. BAIRD.

ny JOSEFh n. BAIRD.
Reasons OF national prestige,
Affronted dignity and common
wealth ties combine with the real
tstic need Of postwar trade with the
Far East in assuring that AZ soon rs
Germany Is defeated Great Britain
viii throw every available man, ship
and plane into the struggle against
Japan, the British Information
Services declared today In study
Of Britein's stake In the Pacific war.
The study was issued after Prime
Minister Churchill had told the
House Of Commons on Wednesday
that "our fleets in Eastern waters
will be greatly strengthened by the
end of the year."
Ample Reasons to Fight.
Apparently the British have be-
come disturbed by the charge oc-
casionally made in Congress and in
the press that London's primary in
terest is in defeating Germany and
that 1t regards the Far Eastern war
as a side show" which may be for
gotten once Hitler has been struck
down. The theme of the present
study is that Britain has suffered
as much at the hands of the Japs
as has America, and has equally
ample reason to destroy them.
National leaders such as Mr..
Churchill, Foreign Secretary An
thony Eden and Sir Oliver Lyttle-
ton, British minister of production,
are quoted In the study as pledging
Great Britain to an AL out" war
against Japan. Moreover, the study
declares:
mo British government which
showed the faintest signs of qualify
ing these pledges of Britain's de-
termination to fight Japan to a
finish would survive"
The reasons for this determine
ton are given:
Britain. it is explained, suffered
its own Pearl Harbor" with the
Japanese attack on and capture of
Singapore, built at great cost as the
empires bastion in the Pacific. and
Hong Kong, modern city with a
large British colony. The Japanese
conquerors publicly Inundated
British men and women, insults not
quickly forgotten.
On the same day that the Amer
lean War and Navy Departments
last winter revealed that thousands
of American and Filipino prisoners
had been tortured, starved and
neglected, it is recalled, Mr.. Eden re-
ported to the House of Commons
that the same indignities and mis-
treatment had been visited by the
Japs on British captives.
Moreover, the study says, genera
tions of work by Britons in bringing
education, sanitation and the demo-
cratic tradition to peoples of the
Far East in such lands as Malaga
and Burma has been wiped out by
the Japanese conquest.
From a commercial aspect, the
Japanese have Cancelled out more
than 81 900 ,0O0, 900 of British invest
ments in the Far East and have
ruined a trade which totaled the
same amount yearly.
Must Have Trade.
The 100000 people of the
British 1sles," it is stated, depend
for bread and butter on foreign
trade and the income from the
investments are vital to British pros
perity. And the area where about
one-quarter of this business is done,
the Far East, has now been seized
by the japanese"
Although facing Germany alone in
Europe and North Africa when
Japan attacked, the British recall,
the Australians in North Africa were
allowed to return home; ships, in
cluding the Prince of Wales and the
Repulse, both lost, we're sent to the
Far East; and stanch fights we're
waged against the Japs in Malaga
and Burma. Since, a large British
feet has been stationed in the
Indian Ocean and an aggressive
campaign has been carried on to
retake Burma.
When Germany is beaten, the
study declares, mo one can doubt
that she (Britain) will turn the
great power of her navy, army, air
forces and industries to Join with
those of America in defeating the
flnal enemy-Japan"