Evening star., 1952-07-01
Text Shows Acheson
Did Not Apologize ID. /.
Britain for Bombings.

Secretary Of State Acheson told
British legislators In London last
week that the United States recog-
nizes IAN error" in not consulting
Britain before bombing powerl
plants in North Korea.
A text Of his remarks made pub
lie by the State Department last
night shows he did not use the
word apology" however, in blam-I
ing q Government miSunderstand-
ing here for the error.
Dispatches from London that
Mr.. Acheson "apologized" raisedl
q flror in Congress and brought
q demand for publication Of hisI
"od the record" remarks by Sem
ator Knowland, Republican Of
California.
: Defends Action.
The Secretary described the
power plant bombings as an '.es-
sential' military action because
the plants were supplying power
for radar which was directing Red
fighters against American planes.
Text Of the departments an
nouncement follows:
During the course Of an in
formal private talk to members
|of the British Parliament on June
as. Secretary Of State Dean Ache
son covered q variety Of subjects
concerning various areas Of the
world.
"At one point during his talk
the Secretary made some remarks
about the bombing Of power plants
in Korea. There have been con-
fiicting reports of what the Eecre-
tary actually said on this subject.
In view Of this misunderstanding \
Mr.. Acheson today authorized the
publication Of the verbatim text
of his remarks concerning these
bombings. His remarks follow:
@'If I may digress for q moment
I shall make some remarks about
a matter which is one Of con-
troversey and which I would not
speak about in England were it
not for the fact that this Is OF
the record. I shall restrict my re-
marks to what I think it is my
duty to say to you at this time.
This Is about the matter you have
been debating the last two or three
days.
"'You would ask me. I am sure,
IL I did not say this. two ques-
tions. and I should like to reply
very frankly to both OF them.
"One question you would ask
is: Shouldn't the British govern
ment have been informed or con-
suited about this; to that my an
swer would be yes. It should have
been: indeed, it was our intention
to do it.
att is only a result Of what I'M
the United States is known as al
'snafu' that you were not con-
suited about it.
"'I am sure that you are wholly
inexperienced in England with
government errors. We unfortu-
nately. have had more familiarity
with them, and due to the fact
that one person was supposed to-
do something and thought an
other person was supposed to do
something. you were not consulted.
Therefore, you should have
been. We have no question about
that.
"'If you ask me whether you
had an absolute right to be con-
suited, ] should say no, but Il
don't want to argue about ahso-
lutte right.
Error Recognized.
What I want to say is that
you are a partner Of ours in this
operation, and we wanted to con-
suit you: we should have, and wei
recognize an error.
Now you ask me whether
this was q proper action. To that
I say: Yes, q very proper action,
an essential action. It was taken
on military grounds. It was to|
bomb i've plants. four Of which
were far-removed from the from
tier. one Of which was on the
frontier.
eve had not bombed these
plants before because they had
been dismantled. and we wished
to preserve them in the event Of
unif1cation Of Korea. They had
been put into operation once
more: they were supplying most
Of the energy which was used not
only by airfields which were op-
Grating against us. but by radar
which was directing fighters