Evening star., 1953-10-14
Testing Their Good Faith


United Nations Command, the United States
has made concession Of sorts, but limited
one, in agreeing to the Communist proposal for
a meeting at Panmunjom to work out arrange
ments for the projected political conference on
Korea.
When they submitted this proposal last
Saturday-in reply to three prodding messages
from the United StateS-the Peiping and
Pyongyang regimes declared themselves ready
to send representatives to Panmunjom to meet
with an American representative for discussions
aimed at expediting the peace talks called for
by the truce agreement They declared, fur
ther, that the discussions not only should
settle the questions Of place and time of the
political conference, but, what is more essential
should settle the question of composition of the
political conference"
In response, again speaking for the u N.
Command as a whole, our Government has af-
frmed it's willingness to have representative
at Panmunjom on october ga representative
who would be empowered to agree on time
and place for the political conference and to
exchange views" on such related questions as
the conferences composition. In other words
the United States would be prepared at this
preliminary parley not merely to make firm
commitment as to site and date but also to
discuss the Communist demand that the peace
talks instead of being limited to the belligerents
from both sides, be broadened to include the
Soviet Union, India, PakiStan, Burma and
Indonesia as neutral" participants
The concession here consists of our Gov
ernment'S readiness to let this demand have
place on the Panmunjom agenda: But it is
qualified concession. Thus, for one thing it
does not assent to the Communist assertion that
the preliminary meeting should settle" the
IN T. I'D ~1.Is
will be prepared to Exchange views" on the
matter. Further than that, our message to
Peiping and Pyongyang makes clear that the
exchange of views can be carried out only "to
the extent consistent" with the August % de-
ciSion of the u NJ General Assembly-the de-
cison not to invite "neutrals" to the conference,
but to limit the participants to the belligerents,
with the Russians eligible to take part If the
North Korean and Chinese Reds so desire.
The Communists may seize upon these
qualifications as an excuse to withdrawn their
proposal for a Panmunjom meeting. But un-
less they are acting in complete bad faith,
unless they are seeking to put off the Korean
negotiations indefinitely, they will reply aff1rma-
lively to this latest offer from the United
States. For the offer, although it does not
concede that they have the slightest right to
expect the U. N. to redebate and reverse it's
August % decision, at least gives them an
opportunity for discussions that could lead to
compromise acceptable to all parties concerned.
American spokesmen have already sug-
gested one such compromise-namely an agree
ment under which the issue of inviting
"neutrals" might be settled favorably by the
belligerents themselves after the political con-
ference gets underway. Certainly, if the Com
munists really want to stage the conference
they will raise no new distractions to it. The
proposed Panmunjom meeting, if it takes place,
will be revealing test of their good faith.