The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-07-18
Club Women Taken
 On Trip 10 Korea


 A trip to pre-war Korea was giver members of the Business and Pro.
 fessional Women's club Monday b, Mrs. T. E. Roberes, in Alaska will her husband Col Roberts, selectivt service representative here on sr auditing assignment.
 At the club luncheon meeting ir
 the Baranof Terrace, Mrs. Robert: was introduced by Mrs. John Mo Cormick and found a former frieno in club President Hallene Price whose former home was in Missouri home state of the Roberts. i one of the 186 Army wives whc were the first group to go to Korea to join their husbands in 1946, Mrs Roberts told of 13 months in that land = an experience she would not have missed for million dollars but would not go through again fer another million"
 The people of South Korea are lovely people" she said. They are underprivileged and so poor that one wants to help - but it is almost impossible to provide any real helr in city like Seoul where mill lion and half people live in an area of -four square miles liter ally on top of one another"
 She told of the 12-room block long house in which she and Col Roberts lived, condemned because of lack of facilities, and later Oc- cupied by 96 adult Koreans and nu- merous children.
 It was difficult for the Koreans to realize that the Americans had not come to take over their gov ernment, according to Mrs. Roberts That is what the Russians did in North Korea where in a few months the Russians had trained over 500,- 900 Communists"
 Life under the Russians is diff cult for a free people to believe, Mrs. Roberts said, as she told of the imprisonment and torture of an anti Communist North Korean who voted against the one-party Com munist ticket at the first election in North Korea.
 Because of the constant threat of imprisonment and torture many of the North Koreans are said to be like an apple fred outside and white inside" Mrs. Roberts said.
 Ten below zero weather was not unusual in winter, and the poverty of the people = many of them ref ugees coming across the border from the north was heart-breaking The condition of children, shivering in winter, without clothing and with only papers or rags for covering was difficult for the Americans to ac- cept.
 Yet children attended schools in unheated buildings, shivered as they learned their abacus, and mOthcrs broke ice in frozen streams to wash clothes without soap. Poor Lealth has resulted in an average age for man to reach of 38 and, of wo- men, fl.
 Fascinating costumes women's styles have not changed for hun dreds of years = were described by Mrs. Roberts. Primitive methods of washing, ironing and the difficul- ties encountered by the American wives in housekeeping when the appliances we take, for granted were not available.
 Mrs. Roberts told of the Christ mas party she gave for 56 emp!oyes in her husbands office. There was a Christmas tree, some small gift for everyone. Though all were Christians, I think this was their first experience of western Christ mas spirit and it was the first time the wives had ever broken Korean custom and eaten with their husbands" she said.
 The Roberts brought back with them six Korean girls to be edu- cated in the United States. Three are still in this country, Mrs. ROD erts said, two married and returned to Korea and one, too homesick to remain, returned home.
 Mrs. Roberts, active in Democratic party politics in her home state, was candidate for the Missouri state Senate to replace her husband when he entered the service in 1940.
 Guests at the meeting Monday were Helen Rolf, Helen Stutte Mungie Rudolph, Catherine Knox and Dolores Pidgeon.
 Plans for an all-day club outing by boat were discussed for early August and a meeting of the pro gram coordination committee was announced for July 25 at the apart n,ent If Mrs. Edna LOmen.