Evening star., 1953-11-17
A Reporter Browsing at Ponnnunjom
By EorI H. Voss
Star Stoff Correspondent

Sfor Stoff Correspondent
PANNUNJOM-Th focal point in
the cold war between communism and
the free world is bleak, barren wilder
ness of scrub thicketS, bare knobs, and
gray, baked sand. Even the shrubs are
ghostly pale.
In few places there are fallow fields
that used to be rice paddles, but these
are few. In the starving Orient scar
city of rice paddles is unusual-an un-
mistakable indication of the hopeless
infertility of the land.
Violent death has visited this place
recently. as many mothers and fathers
in China, Korea and the United States
well know. The scars and wreckage of
war are every place. But you get the
feeling as you bump miSerably along
the chuck-holed road through the de-
militarizeo zone to Panmunjom that
this place has known death for CEN
turies. Even Mother Nature is in a
coma here.
When we approached the shallow
Imjin River, a murky gray stream
scarcely able to move for all the mud
it carries. thought of Hades and the
Styx and decided the Greeks must
have had in mind just such a place
as this.
There was brilliant sun in cloud
less sky, but somehow it didn't get
through to the countryside. The cool
air had snap to it that should have
been bracing for man and landscape,
but all living things were sodden and
silent.
The crippled bridges stretching gro
tesquely Skyward and shoreward are
narrow and tedious to cross A one
way crossing system is supervised by
Marine guards. You wait at one end
while jeeps and trucks rattle slowly
toward you across the loose boards.
You wonder abSent-mindedly If the
giant green tanks. parked under
camouf1age at the extremities of the
bridge. could make enough noise to
- wake this place up.
Almost the only people to be seen
along the road are nom -OrientalS, most
of them Swiss or Swedes. heading back
in the direction we came from. MY es-
cort Speculated they were on their way
to the post exchange on a shopping
spree.
Most interesting event along the way
was the Spotting of two Korean women,
working in field They seemed to be
trying to salvage rice. / was told that
these were North Koreans who had
drifted down across the demarcation
line from the Communist side. The
United Nations allows no natives N its
half of the demilitarized zone. The
Reds, on the other hand, are "coloniz-
iY1np fhn Io1
Rhee would put it.
Finally the Indian camp, adminis-
trative headquarters for the Neutral
Nations Repatriation Commission,
came into view. This was Panmunjom,
half an American tent city, half a Chi
neSe and Korean hut city. 1t. Gen.
K. S. Thimayya, the Indian chairman
of the NNRC, has his headquarters in
a quonset hut there, atop wind-swept
knoll in the American half Of the vii
lage. From his reception room window
you can look half mile northwest be-
yond this camp to Freedom Village,
where the willing prisoners were ex-
changed. The bright green and orange
Indian flag waves prettily IN the breeze
above the corrugated hut.
Since the hot war stopped, the Reds
and U.N. troops have been trying to
outdo each other in snappy military
bearing and f1ashy facilities. The Com
munist attempt to keep up with the
Joneses-a thoroughly capitalistic ap-
proach to life-is pathetic.
On my first visit the United States
Army'S provost marshal general was
HF0 HcYI1 nvNn inc %nivN
Naturally, the United States guards,
military police, were especially well
decked out They wore new-style win
ter obs with white gloves and shiny,
brown leather paratroopers' boots. Uni
forms were smartly pressed. Brass
sparkled. Helmet liners were painted
brilliant blue, with white lettering.
Chinese and North Korean guards
wore buff f-colored, sacklike uniforms
with red trimmings-very attractive in
an Oriental way-but far behind the
American boys in polish.
There was also a most striking diff
ference in manner. The American boys
were bright and confident. The Chinese
and North Koreans were Stolid and SuS-
picious. They turned and walked away
when I tried to take their picture. I
tried to surprise them but they were
too fast. smiled what thought was
a good-natured smile. But they Slinked
off still farther, eyeing me sidelong
over their shoulders without changing
expression.
AS we drove into camp unused that
I had seen my first Chinese Communist
and North Korean soldiers. They looked
mean, but not very formidable. re-
membered, of course, that it was not
their individual fighting qualities that
had given our boys so much trouble, but
their numbers.
I went to the Indian public relations
tent where made final arrangements
for an interview with Gen. Thimayya
The chief ''P. r." man, a Col. Spriniva-
san, told me his tent lay astride the
demarcation line between the north
and south demilitarized zone. looked
out the back window, UP a completely