insidious Allied propaganda.
Your Petitioner respectfully
suggests that reference to the local authorities will certainly
elicit the opinion that this course was not only a difficult
course in view of the autocratic bullying methods of the
Japanese authorities and gendarmerie, but that it was one beset
with considerable personal danger to Your Petitioner throughout
the whole of the occupation period.
9.
The paper had to be published along certain lines which
had to appear outwardly pro-Japanese and anti-allied, especially
as the editorial staff was from time to time premptorily handed
articles and news items with orders for insertion without change,
but Your Petitioner attempted and succeeded by clever journalism
in having the paper made up in such a manner as to give a
discerning reader a true picture of Allied successes and of
certain ultimate Japanese defeat.
10. This was done so cleverly that the Japanese authorities
had had nothing definite upon which they could proceed to
seizure of Your Petitioner's newspaper, though Your Petitioner
was very frequently in personal danger of arrest. Your Petitioner
was actually arrested and detained on one occasion. Further, by
reason of the paper's wide circulation and popularity, the
Japanese authorities did not dare to suppress the paper altogether
for fear of the propagand value of this course to the Allies,
but in view of the revealing nature of the paper's general
editing, the Japanese authorities always looked upon it as a
hostile paper.
11. The fact that this newspaper was banned from P. 0. W. and
Internment Camps is surely an indication that it did not serve
as a Japanese propaganda organ. On the contrary, the Japanese
took strong steps to stop its entering the camps but notwith-
standing such action, copies were smuggled in thereby giving
prisioners and internees news of Allied progress. After the
30
Ind.