Evening star., 1950-06-05
Talks With Macarthur
May So|idify Views
On Japanese Treaty
BY John N. Hiehtower
Assoeiofed Press Stoff Write,

%ssoeiofeo rreSS Sfoff writer
Agreement between the STATE
and Defense departments on plans
for a Japanese peace settlement
is expected to result from a series
Of conferences in Tokyo.
Secretary Of Defense johnson
and Gen. Bradley, chairman OF
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. are
scheduled to leave next week end
on q Pacific tour that will take
them in about 10 days to Gen
Douglas MacArthur's Japenese oc-
cupation headquarters.
John Foster Dulles, Republican
adviser on Japanese policy, also
will be there about the same time
rs Mr.. johnson.
MIR. johnson is seeking to hear
exactly what Gen. Macarthur
thinks about the treaty and jap
anese security. He is thus assum-
ing a direct responsibility which
until recently he had delegated to
FORMER Army Undersecretary
Tracy Voorhees,, q firm opponent
of any Japanese peace treaty in
the near future.
Gen. Macarthur feels that an
occupation ceases to be useful
after about five years, that the
people turn against it and that
the Japanese have earned the
right to independence by a peace
settlement.
Mr.. Dulles is an adherent of
some kind of peace settlement.
But he is not necessarily welded
to the line advocated in past
State-Defense parleys by former
Assistant Secretary w. Walton
Butterworth.
Antagonisms Removed.
Mr.. Butterworth's recent assign
ment as Ambassador to Stockholm
removed him as completely from
the tangled japanese situation as
MIR. Voorhees, resignation had re-
moved him only short time be-
fore.
This elimination of antagonistic
personalities from a field of con-
troversy is one of the reasons,
along with the Tokyo conferences,
why many officials now believe
State and Defense may end their
nine-months-old feud.
There is no question among top
officials here that whatever course
is taken, American troops will have
to remain in Japan for a long
time.
The State Department contends
troops can remain there after the
occupation ends as front line de-
tenders both of unarmed Japan
and OF western security interests
against Russia in the far Pacific.
Prefers Occupation Status.
Defense Department officials
have taken a different line-that
American forces are better off in
Japan as occupation troops and
the United States has greater
freedom as an occupation power
than it could ever have as
garrisoning power.
The State Department and Gen.
Macarthur have privately argued,
however, that the military cannot
make sharp choice between oc-
cupation and garrison forces. The
reasoning is that the occupation
from now on will grow more and
more unpopular and eventually
Americas real security in that
part of the world might be jeop-
ardized by an unfriendly popula-
tion rebellious against "repres-
sive" foreign control.
Officials here think the Com
munists are already working hard
to create such an attitude. Their
recent general strike maneuver is
believed to be one of the initial
steps in a campaign to turn the
Japanese people against the occu-
patton.
Viewed here as something of
counter move was the announce
ment few days ago by the jap
anese government of it's Wiling
ness to sign a peace treaty with
any Of the World War II victors
willing to make such a treaty. In
effect this was a bid for sep
arate peace"-that is, for a peace
settlement between Japan and the
western powers without Russia.