Tell Us, W.R.A. Chief, How You Answer This One

When the War Relocation Authority took its place on the list of tax-supported alphabetical agencies, popular understanding was that its duties were to arrange for transfer of Japanese from military zones to such temporary quarters as Puyallup and thence to quarters which would be permanent until war's end. Also the W.R.A. was understood to have responsibility for just and fair handling of such properties as might be left behind by the Japanese.

Such was the popular understanding at that time. And it still is.

But now, without restraint from high places, the W.R.A. is taking unto itself the job of moving some of those Japanese out of the "duration" quarters. Thus another agency bids fair to perpetuate itself beyond the time when taxpayers had the right to assume it had passed the peak of its assigned job.

If there is legal justification for such broadening of its work, information to that effect should be forthcoming from official sources. If the agency is running out of bounds, it's high time for a halt to be called.

This week-end, the national director of this agency is to be in Seattle and Tacoma. Ostensibly his visit is part of a tour in which he is reviewing the disposal of business and property interests of Japanese formerly resident hereabout.

But such of his activities as have caught the public eye and ear in recent months seem more devoted to helping along the propaganda turned loose in an attempt to convince America that these Japanese are being terribly treated. The design seems to be creation of a popular sentiment in favor of releasing the so-called "loyal" Japanese-Americans from the centers where they are now housed and fed at taxpayers' expense.

Here's a question that The Times has been urged to ask this visiting W.R.A. director: How many instances have there been of any of these "loyal" Japanese-American reporting acts or suspicions of disloyalty among their fellow countrymen?

It has been some time since the charge was made by a national speaker of more than passing prominence that not one such instance had been reported. That charge has never been effectively challenged.

Until Americans can be satisfied that those so-called "loyal" Japanese place loyalty to this country ahead to loyalty to their racial kinfolk, we'll thank the W.R.A. to refrain from stepping outside the bounds of the job for which it was hired.

For, after all, the national director of W.R.A. and all his too-numerous aides were hired by the American people to house and provide for the Japanese in a manner in best accord with American interests in wartime. They were not hired to change American thought so as best to conform with Japanese interests.

Nor were they hired to try to shake our faith in our military leaders. The Army men say the Japanese belong right where they are until war is finished. It would seem to be in order for someone to build a fence around the W.R.A. boys, too.

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