Latest war developments on Manshukoku, Chosen fronts
Enemy forces checked by defending units
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Lingayen heroes
TOKYO (Domei, Aug. 12) – The War Ministry announced that a report has been submitted to the Throne that a citation had been granted by the Supreme Commander of the Nippon forces in the Philippine sector to 19 heroes, for their heroic action against enemy forces since they landed at Lingayen on January 9 this year.
More U.S. casualties
LISBON (Domei, Aug. 9) – A Washington dispatch today reported that total casualties suffered by the United States forces since the outbreak of the war now total 1,068,000, or an increase of 7,000 over the past week.
Salzburger Nachrichten (August 13, 1945)
Salzburger Festspiele eröffnet
General Mark W. Clark Ehrengast bei der Eröffnungsfeier
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U.S. State Department (August 13, 1945)
740.00119 PW/8-1345: Telegram
The Minister in New Zealand to the Secretary of State
Wellington, August 13, 1945 — 2 p.m.
[Received August 13 — 6:12 a.m.]
401
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Legation informed by officer of Deputy of External Affairs that viewpoint of Department on surrender terms imposed on Japan is that commitments should not be made which would perpetuate Emperor in power but that whole structure of feudalism of which throne is capstone should be eradicated.
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This official declared that British interest in Pacific extended primarily to recovery of prewar colonies with no desire to assume heavy military commitments in postwar control of Japan. Consequently British approve retention of Emperor as easy solution.
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Secretary of External Affairs, while expressing appreciation of his Department’s views as stated in paragraph 1, said that he personally unconvinced that elimination of Emperor will provide proper solution.
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Other contacts seem to confirm that general attitude in New Zealand is opposition to retention of Emperor.
PATTON
740.00119 PW/8-1345: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland
Washington, August 13, 1945 — 9 a.m.
2520
The Swiss Legation in Washington early this morning inquired whether the Swiss Government should send in code or in clear any reply that may be received from the Japanese Government to our proposal of August 11 for Japan’s unconditional surrender. Please immediately inform the Political Department that if the reply should be a simple unconditional acceptance of our proposal it may be sent in clear. If on the other hand the Japanese reply should involve conditions it should be sent in code. I desire you to request the Swiss Government to show you the message immediately upon its receipt and to let you determine on the basis of foregoing considerations whether the reply need be coded or not.
BYRNES
740.00119 PW/8-1345
The Swiss Legation to the Department of State
[Washington,] August 13, 1945
Memorandum
With regard to the inquiry which Mr. Joseph Grew, Under Secretary of State, made by telephone with Mr. Max Graessli, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of Switzerland, on the morning of August 13 in respect to a Domei News Agency dispatch according to which the American reply to the Japanese offer of surrender was received in Tokyo only on Monday morning, August 13, 1945, Japanese time, the Legation has received the following details from the Political Department in Berne:
It is stated in a cable from the Political Department that the Domei News Agency report is false in two respects; first, the American answer was not relayed to the Japanese Government through the intermediary of the Swiss Legation in Tokyo, but was sent by way of the Japanese Legation in Berne, and second, the time schedule given by Domei Agency is incorrect.
The cable from the Swiss Legation in Washington containing the American reply was received at the Political Department in Berne on August 11 at 21.00 Swiss time. It was communicated to the Japanese Minister at 21.30 Swiss time, and the Japanese Minister’s cable to Tokyo was dispatched on the same day at 23.24 Swiss time. The station Osaka on the morning of August 12, at 08.00 Swiss time, requested a repetition of the cable and at 09.35 Swiss time confirmed that the cable had been duly received.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (August 13, 1945)
Eisenhower, Stalin see Soviet athletes parade
40,000 take part in Russia’s first mass festival since war began
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Alcoholics in Congress are menace, doctor says
State Department and diplomatic corps ‘stuffy with drunks,’ psychiatrist avers
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TIME (August 13, 1945)
INTERNATIONAL: Mary & the Prince
Prince Mohamed Ibn-Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia performs his princely functions in a princely manner. With his brothers, he attended the San Francisco Conference in long white robes and created an impression of stateliness and dignity, called on the U.S. State Department, inspected U.S. factories and Niagara Falls, dined with countless Arab-American groups, bought new automobiles, radios, phonographs and typewriters, lived splendidly in an eighth-floor suite at the Waldorf-Astoria.*
But, like Haroun al Rashid, Prince Mohamed occasionally doffed his princely garb and mingled with commoners.
In Detroit, the bearded, 32-year-old Prince had been introduced to a comely 22-year-old Moslem-American stenographer, Mary Mohammed. Mary Mohammed said that she met the Prince at a banquet, added that he took her home and stayed until 5 a.m. Later she came to New York, with a chaperon.
“He took me everywhere,” said Mary Mohammed. “I stayed at the Waldorf, and we went to nightclubs, shows, on boat rides, and even to Coney Island. I loved every minute of it, and especially the times when we could slip away from the Prince’s bodyguard. But as for romance, that’s just plain silly. He was attracted to me because I can speak Arabic…” The Prince, mindful of his one wife and six children in Saudi Arabia, said that he did not remember Mary Mohammed. He then departed for England and home.
*The Arabian-American Oil Co. (owned fifty-fifty by Standard Oil Co. of California and Texas Co.) paid a lot of the bills. Washington heard that Arabian-American’s advances to the royal Saudi Arabian party ran well into six figures.