Evening star., 1953-12-27

plainerS," backed to the wall by the
prisoners attitude, finally called off
the explaining sessions.
Thousands OF miles from Korea,
at the head of the Adriatic Sea,
things were coming to a crisis in
the matter of Trieste. The seaport
city, an Italian enclave in a Yugo-
slav countryside, had been a free
territory under Joint British-Amer-
lean admipistration, with Yugoslavs
controlling part of the Triestine
hinterland Italy and Yugoslavia
had been unable to get together on
permanent status for Trieste. Early
in October, the United States and
Britain attempted to settle the issue
by announcing their intention to
pull out of Trieste's Zone A, allowing
Italy to take over that region
Yugoslavia retorted that war might
result. The inherently unstable
government of Premier Pella, in
Italy, was less irreconciliable to the
plan, but looked on the British
retreat from a 1948 agreement. At
that time, the United States and
Britain favored eventually giving
Trieste to Italy-but back in 1948
Tito'S YugoSlaVia was still on the
wrong side of the Iron Curtain.
With Trieste in an uproar, the
two reluctant occupiers decided to
remain in occupation.
Arob- IsroeI CIosh
Another border region, the unnat-
ural frontier between Israel and her
hostile Arab neighbors, became a
trouble spot in October. The most
serious incident was an Israeli raid
on the Jordan village of Kibya, in
which so persons died.
In South America, a quiet little
Red revolution had been brewing
for years, carefully supervised by a
Chicago blond named Janet Rosen-
berg Jagan and her East Indian
husband, Cheddi Jagan. The pair
brought the affair to bubble when
Cheddi, chief minister of British
Guiana, demanded complete inde-
pendence from the crown. Britain
responded with time-honored gam
bit: She sent ships and men to
show the flag. Order was restored
in a hurry and Cheddi Jagan was
depOSed.
In Washington, meanwhile. some
thing called Operation Confusion"
got under way. 1t got its name from
Operation Candor," the plan where
by the President would take the Ma
ton into his confidence on the sta
tus of our atomic and hydrogen
weapons. The confusion arose when
a number of Government leaders
made conflicting statements, and
abated only after the President
warned every one to clear atomic
statements with Atomic Energy
Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss.
New Labor Secretary
Also in the Capital, the Labor De-
partment vacancy was filled with the
appointment of James P. Mitchell
as secretary to succeed Mr.. Durkin.
Labor, predictably, expressed no
great joy over. the choice of man
whose labor relations experience had
been gained largely on the manage
ment side of the bargaining table.
And at Fort Monmouth, N. j., the
Nations busiest Red hunter, Senator
Mccarthy, opened series of hear
ings into reported subversion at the
Army's Signal Corps center. Though
the doors of the hearing room were
closed, Senator McCarthy's mouth
was not. He briefed the press regu-
larly-and his brief1ngs made the
Army look very bad indeed.
The first congressional election of
President Eisenhower'S term was
held in Wisconsin in october. In a
strongly Republican district, Dem
ocrat won special race to succeed
the late Representative Merlin Hull.
Democrats leaped on the result as
proof of an anti-Republican trend.
Less partisan observers noted, how
ever, that the Democrats position
on most issues had been closer to
Mr.. Hull's than the Republicans
had been. The vote, if anything,
seemed to be an Endorsement of Mr..
Hull, rather than a reputation Of
Gen. Eisenhower.