Evening star., 1952-12-04
Not Futile

With Nationalist China abstaining and the
Soviet Union and its four satellites alone dis
senting, the United Nations General Assembly
has now adopted Indias modified prisoner -of-war
proposal by the overwhelming vote of 54 to 5.
However, even though it is thus supported by
virtually the entire u. N. membership, the pro-
posal has no perceptible chance Of achieving its
objective, which is to bring about an early break
in the Korean truce deadlock.
This is so because the men of the Kremlin,
obediently echoed by their Pyongyang and
Peiping puppets, have fatty rejected the plan.
Speaking through Foreign Minister Vishinsky In
typically vitriolic language, they have rejected
it for the ostensible reason that 1t is based on
the principle of voluntary repatriation-a princi-
pie designed to protect the tens of thousands
of Chinese and North Korean captives who are
desperately afraid of being handed over to their
Red masters and who have declared that they
will violently resist any effort to return them
What the Kremlin has demanded, and still
demands, is that the U. N. Command expose
itself to all sorts of BOBBY traps by meekly
agreeing among other things, to subject every
one of those prisoners to forcible repatriation
driving them back, if need be, with whip, gun
and bayonet. The Soviet leaders, of course, are
we'll aware that such a demand is totally unac-
ceptable, but they nevertheless continue to insist
upon it even in the teeth of a 81 to 5 vote in
which they and their stooges have been the lone
nay-sayers. So the truce deadlock remains, and
the suspicion grows stronger than ever that they
do not really want an armistice at this time but
instead are deliberately exploiting the POW issue
in order to prolong the war.
In such circumstances, in terms of pro-
noting near-future peace agreement the great
and resounding vote for the Indian proposal may
seem to be altogether futile Yet its potential
significance ought not to be underestimated. For
here is Korean action in which the Arab and
Asian powers have lined up solidly with the
West-against the Soviet world-for the first
time since that historic day of June 27, 1850,
when the U. N. Security Council recommended
the use of military force to repel the Communist
aggressors. This overwhelming unity of view,
more than two years later, is a fact Of con-
siderable Importance, and it may we'll have
SOLDERING effect on the Kremlin and its Cocoon
spirators.
At any rate the Soviet leaders can hardly
feel comfortable about the 81 to S vote against
them It is vote that has placed them in the
position of torpedoing the trucepromoting efforts
of practically the whole u. N. membership. Thus,
with their four satellites in the Assembly, they
stand out-off by themselves like lone wolves-as
the sole blockers of an armistice, and that fact
is likely to work against them among Indians,
other free Asians and "neutralists" elsewhere who
have had doubts about where the real blame
lies for prolonging the war in Korea.
Accordingly, looked at in this light, the vote
for India's proposal even though it probably
will have little or no immediate effect on the
Korean deadlock, amounts to more than just
futile or wasted effort. It serves for one thing,
to put the men of the Kremln on the propaganda
defensive. Beyond that, it marks them with
moral stigma that can do them no good in the
long run. After all, they can scarcely hope to
win anything enduring by persistently playing
the role of world pariahs.