Evening star., 1951-05-30
By Cecil HoIIond and
GEORGE Beyeridoe

HoIIlli dl rOTEcSL r. sherman
declared today Communist China
us Vulnerable" to an effective
naval blockade. but that such a
course by the United States alone
might not be respected by the
Russians and they might oppose
it by force"
"The blockade could not be
tight without Allied cooperation, p"
the Chief of Naval Operations
said. "The fact is that our Allies
have been unwilling to join in a
naval blockade of China, and have
been slow to establish a tight eco
nomic blockade.
IF the United Nations should
declare a naval blocade, the Rus
slams probably would respect it.
as they did the United Nations
blockade of Korea"
Admiral Sherman gave the tes-
timony as he went for the first
time before the joint Senate COM
mittee investigating the MacAr-
thur controversy.
Russian Mines Swept Up.
AS the sixth witness in the in
quiry. Admiral Sherman also tes-
titled:
/. Several thousand Russian
mines have been swept up in the
Korean waters and a naval land
ing party on Monday destroyed
several steel-deck sampans which
|propably were designed for mine
laying.
2. American naval losses in the
Korean fighting have been largely
mine sweeperS-four such craft
having been lost and three or four
others of this country's allies have
been damaged.
3. There were numerous COM
plications" about the imposition of
a naval blockade. as advocated by
Gen. Macarthur, last December
after the Communist Chinese on
slaught in Korea since the Navy
then faced the possibility of hav-
ing to evacuate U. N. ground
forces.
Would Strain Soviet Output.
4. An effective blockade would
force Communist China to turn
to Russia for supplies. with con-
isequent increased strain on Rus
sian production" But such a
blockade could not stop the flow
Iof supplies to the Red armies un-
less Russia remained neutral.
Admiral Sherman first took up
the question of why no blockade
was imposed last fall when the
Chinese Communists intervened
and rapidly pushed U. N. forces
back into South Korea.
mot the least" of the compli-
cations in imposing a naval block
ade last winter, the admiral said,
was the fact that such an action
would have reduced strength of
naval forces then giving all prac-
ticable support to the local situa-
tion in Korea, including cover and
support OF the Hungnam evacua-
ton operations :"
The admiral recalled that in
the latter days of December, Gen.
Macarthur urged the Government
to recognize the state of war;
with China and impose the naval
blockade. A REORGANIZATION" of
that possibility was carried out by
the Joint Chiefs in December and
early January in light of the rec
concentrations, he said.
Chinese Economy Unstable.
In support of his contention
that China is vulnerable to an
reflective" blockade, Admiral
Sherman said the Red Chinese
economy is lone weakened by
internal strife. 1t is basically un-
stable, depending particularly for
material of war on the import of
many commodities and upon ex-
port trade for foreign credit"
Among commodities essential
to China's war economy" which
would be interferred with by a
naval blockade, are rubber, pc
troleum, petroleum products. in
dustrial chemicals, pharmaceuti-
Gals, machine tools, machinery
industrial and automotive spare
parts, metals and electrical and
electronic equipment.
The admiral cited shipping sta
tistics to show the extent to which
China must rely on imports fol-
its capacity to make war. Cut
ItinU 0ff trade &c for &c l1rho r