Evening star., 1950-12-18
Is Negotiation Possible?

In view OF Saturdays statement to the press
by WI Hsiu-chuan, chief of Red ChnaS special
delegation to the United Nations there seems
virtually no reason to hope that any good can
be accomplished by the Arab-Asian proposal for
ceasefire in Korea.
Under the proposal-adopted by vote of
81 to in the General Assembly (the Soviet bloc
alone dissenting There has been created a.
three-man committee made up of Assembly Pres
1dent Nasrolla Entezam of Iran, Foreign Minister
Lester B. Pearson of Canada and Sir Bengal NJ
Rau of India. The first objective of this COM
mittee is to determine whether common ground
can be found for the negotiation of peaceful
settlement of the grave crisis caused by Com
munist China's criminal intervention against the
U. N. in Korea. But the WI statement-describ-
Ing the cease-fire plan an American made
"trap"-strongly suggests that the search for
such ground will prove to be altogether futile.
Thus, wholly apart from the fact that it
turns truth and reality upside down and accuses
the overwhelming majority of the Security Coun-
Gil and General Assembly of being manipulated"
by Britain and the United States, the statement
plainly implies that the Chinese Communists will
continue to wage their present war unless and
until the U. N. capitulates to the terms already
laid down by Peiping and Moscow. These terms,
though still vague in some respects apparently
mean that there can be no ceaSe-fire without
prior agreement Cd to bring about the immediate
withdrawal of all the u MS forces in Korea,
CD to hand over Formosa to Red China and 90
to reward Red China for its crime by recognizing
1t as member of the United Nations.
AS for the Chinese Communist armies-still
braZenly described as "volunteers"-the Peiping-
Moscow position appears to be that they must
not be expected to leave the Korean peninsula
until they have insured the triumph of their
ood ni1ofo o1lx,y do
their minds as to when they should return to
Manchuria. w. of course, has been at pains to
declare that Red China ardently desires peace,
but its troops meanwhile continuing to
launch murderous attacks on the u. MS forces
attacks accompanied by fre-breathing propa-
ganda about how it intends to "annihilate" those
forces and drive them into the sea- Needless to
say, given this situation and the enemy's impos-
sble terms, it seems absurd to hope for peaceful
and honorable settlement.
Yet Mr.. Pearson as one of the members Of
the General Assembly's cease-fire committee has
said that he has found the WI statement very
interesting" that it has not shattered all hope
and that the committees work is just beginning.
Presumably, this relatively optimistic view is
based on Wu's assertion that Peiping, despite
being Indignant" over the way the U. N. has
treated it, will still do its utmost to strive for
peaceful solution to the problem of the Far East"
and that it is "also willing to try to advise the
Chinese volunteers to bring to early conclusion
the military operations which they have been
forced to undertake :. against the United States
armed forces of aggression
Conceivably, as Mr.. Pearson has implied,
these words may be example of Oriental
subtlety suggesting that peaceful negotiation is
still possible. But we had better not kid our
selves 1t is possible only if Moscow and Peiping,
instead of being irrevocably committed to war,
are prepared to retreat substantially from their
present position If there is to be such retreat
then we must steel ourselves for a titanic strug
gle that will call for far more than the economic
sanctions we have just imposed on Red China.
Certainly, although hope is wholesome human
trait nothing could be more foolish than to be
blindIy wishful about the nature and magnitude
of the thing now threatening U.s.