Evening star., 1951-09-16
New Charges by Reds
Further Dim Chances
Of Armistice Talks
By the Associated Press

TOKYO, Sunday, Sept. 16.-
Red propagandists today charged
new Allied violations of the Kae-
song neutrality zone, further dim
ming prospects of any resumption
of the suspended Korean armis-
tice talks.
The Peiping radio broadcast an
allegation that since September
IL, date of an admitted mistaken
Allied air strafing of Kaesong,
"puppet South Korean troops have
invaded this zone three times and
fired into it once"
The broadcast, heard in Tokyo,
was attributed to Alan Winning
ton, correspondent Of the commu-
mist London Daily Worker.
wilmington went on to assert
that September Is 81 watched an
American fighter plane circling
low over Kaesong city in such
threatening manner that many
civilians took cover"
No Reply to Admission.
There still was no official Com
munist response to the Allied
headquarters Acknowledgement
that an Allied plane. through a
navigational error, strafed Kae-
song in the darkness September II
but caused no damage.
This is the only one of the
many Red charges that has been
confirmed in any particular.
All of the others. dating back
to August %. have been dismissed
by Gen. Ridgeway as falSehoods
or too flimsy to merit a reply.
The Reds called off the talks
after the August % subcommittee
meeting, charging that an Allied
plane had tried to murder" their
delegation at Kaesong. Gen. Ridg-
way rejected this as complete
frameup.
Although not official, Winning
tons blasts have thus far accu-
rately foreshadowed the POSITIONS
taken by the Communist leaders.
Van Fleet Also AsSailed.
''It needs to be understood, he
said today, that Ridgway is not
in a position to make concessions.
but only to make more apologies
of a more convincing nature and
take satisfactory measures to guar
antee that no more incidents oc-
cur. so that talks can resume.
Nothing less will suffice after
the Americans record of reckless
perf1dy throughout the whole
talks"
The Red propagandist added an
attack on Gen. James A. Van
Fleet, United States 9th Army
commander.
Alleging that the Allies had
Thrown away almost 5000 men
IN one month for no gain" and
that Air Force losses averaged 1912
daily, Wilmington said Gen. Van
Fleet "is now back on his old ner-
vouS formula, I would welcome a
Communist offensive"
He concluded by calling Gen.
Ridgway a liar and buffer and
saying, Koreans and Chinese do
not bluff"
The Allied command, ignoring
the flood of Red propaganda,
stood by its position that the next
move was up to the Reds, since
they have not yet replied Off
cially to the Acknowledgement of
the Strafing.
Reporters efforts to identify or
interview the pilot involved were
rebuffed on grounds that it would
embarrass him.
However, an unofficial back |
ground statement issued by Gen.
Ridgway's public information Of
flee last night said, THE strafing
was an unfortunate occurrence
and of course steps will be taken
by the United Nations command
to avoid repetition. But it should
drive home to the Reds and to
those people in their propaganda
sphere that the honesty and in
tegrity of the free world is the
one guidepost that can be counted
on in the rush of violations that
have been charged since the talks
began"