EVACUATING JAPS GIVEN DEADLINE

All Japanese who intend to evacuate voluntarily, from Seattle and Western Washington must be on the move by Sunday or await Army supervised removal, under orders issued yesterday by Lieut. Gen. John L. De Witt in San Francisco.

The new order, preceding by one day the effective date of a curfew order requiring all enemy aliens to remain in or near their homes after dark, affects all other portions of Military Area No. 1, including the Western portions of Oregon, California and Southern Arizona.

The order, announced for the Western Defense Command and the Fourth Army's civil affairs division by Col. Karl R. Bendetsen, assistant chief of staff for civil affairs and head of the wartime Civil Control Administration, is "to insure an orderly evacuation and partly to protect the Japanese."

Japanese, Public Assured

"The 'freezing order' prepares the way for an Army-regulated program of removal and does not alter curfew regulations, nor any other existing regulations except movement from Military Area No. 1," Colonel Bendetsen said. "The Japanese are assured of the resources of the government behind the movement; the general public is assured of a job followed through by the Wartime Relocation Authority, under Milton Eisenhower."

The colonel said several Japanese groups planning voluntary evacuation "have been fearful of starting, through the reports of threats in other states."

Neglect of Crops Sabotage

"Meantime, General De Witt has warned the Japanese they must settle their affairs immediately," Colonel Bendetsen added. "Any neglect of crops is sabotage."

Col. Walter J. DeLong, state draft administrator, said that persons who take over operation of Japanese farmers lands will be eligible for review of their selective service classification, but no blanket deferments will be made.

Although experienced farmers are given occupational deferment under existing rules, each case will be treated individually by local draft boards, Colonel DeLong said.

Assembly centers, to house evacuees while they are moving from their own homes to resettlement areas, will be set up in Washington, but the sites have not been announced. California centers to accommodate 16,000 evacuees will be in Merced, Tulare, Marysville and Pinedale.

W.L. Cline, field representative of the Farm Security Administration's wartime control organization, arrived in Seattle today in an effort to prevent loss of the $250,000 Bainbridge Island strawberry crop and other produce from farms to be evacuated by Japanese.

Cline said he believes there will be little loss, as most of the Japanese are arranging for operators to succeed them or canneries are arrnaging [arranging] to find proper management, with the assistance of the Seattle alien-custodian office at 808 Second Ave.

Bainbridge Island had 33 Japanese strawberry growers last year, with a yield of 3,000,000 pounds of strawberries.