Evening star., 1942-02-26
Korean Conference
On Liberty Hopes 10
Help Crush Japan
Dr.. Rhee, Longtime
Exile, to Preside at
Session Here

DR.. Syngman Rhee. venerable
exile from Korea on whose head
the Japanese once set price of
100000, will be in the chair to-
morrow when the Korean Liberty
Conference opens at the Lafayette
Hotel for three-day meeting.
For % years DIR. Rhee has been
working for American recognition of
Korea's right to be free of the Jap
anese control established in 1910,
but for the present he says simple
considerations of independence are
secondary.
"Our aim right now" he report
ed in an interview today at his
home, 1855 Hobart street NV, "is
not so much Korean freedom but to
crush the Japanese and drive them
back to their islands. as the Ko-
reans drove them back for CEN
turtles.
'What we want Is a chance to
help in this war against Japan. We
know that we will have to fight for
independence. But of course Amer
lean recognition would be encour-
aging"
Dagger" for Japan.
DR.. Rhee's Korea, where he was
born in 1875, Is almost the forgot
ten land in this war. but for hun
dreds Of years 1t fought and fought
again with the japanese. 1t hangs
on a peninsula falling out OF North
China athwart the most natural sea
path from Japan to the Asiatic con-
tinent.
Mature made Korea a dagger
pointing at the heart OF Japan"
DR.. Rhee said in discussing the geo
graphical position of his native land.
"Why don't the Allies fighting Japan
use that dagger?"
DR.. Rhee has been in Washing
ton since November, 1899, as chair
man of the Korean Commission,
which represents the Korean gov
ernment-in-exile now in China.
Gen. Chang Kai-shek not only
has recognized the Korean right to
independence, but has recognized
the Korean forces fighting for him
In China as an allied army instead
of a force within the Chinese Army.
The whole membership OF DR..
Rhee's household knows what 1t Is
TO be without a country. Mrs. Rhee
Is a Viennese, the former Francisco
Donner, whose Austrian homeland
was swallowed by Nazi Germany.
Conference Opens Tomorrow.
The Liberty Conference will open
at 2:3O pm. tomorrow with an
address from Paul F. Douglas. presi-
dent of American University. The
afternoon session will go on until
6p.m. There will be an evening ses-
sion tomorrow from to 1890.
The delegates to the conference
will be entertained at tea at Amerl-
can University Saturday afternoon,
before the Saturday evening ses-
sions. The final sessions will be held
at the Lafayette at pm. Sunday.
The Foundry Methodist Church
has arranged a Korean night serV-
Ice for Sunday after supper.
The date of the closing sessions,
MdTCH 1, ID coPCSAaAAS oA6oAAAAAAS 49,
the history of the Korean fndepen-
dence movement because on March
l. 1919, organized Koreans in exile
issued a declaration of indepen-
dence.
Two years later DR.. Rhee had
an opportunity to test the other
powers reaction to the declaration.
6nlnOotinn fn
the Washington Arms Conference,
but active protests by the Japa-
nese, who were an important party
to the conference, helped keep the
Rhee group from receiving a for
NAL invitation to be seated at the
meeting.
Pro-Japanese in 1905.
DR.. Rhee thought in 1905 that
Japan was plotting the disap-