Evening star., 1954-01-17

11pVOV @A1AAGoS 01O kNOEtkk SAOS
reans next Saturday, on
schedule as provided for In the
POW agreement. Fewer than
5000 Of the men have heard
Communist explainers.
The Reds used only 10 Of
the 80 days provided for ex-
plantations to the men who
went over to the United Ma
tions side. They could not
stand the propaganda beating
they were taking when SO few
prisoners tonly 3 per cent?
decided to come home. The
United Nations victory would
be more clear cut, Of course,
II all the men could be exposed
to the Communists. But who
knows how long the Reds
could stall before that could
be accomplished?
That Is the bind the United
Nations Command foresaw
all through the long truce ne
gotiations. The UNC took
special care to insert safe
guards against indefinite in
generation for the unfortu-
nate prisoners involved.
Now, despite Red protests
and obvious Indian discom-
future at having to pull out of
this important assignment
with the work only one-fourth
completed. the United Nations
Command Is adamant. All
prisoners must be released by
next Saturday. they say. no
matter by whom
The Red Attitude
How were Peiping and Mos
COW taking it? They didn't
like it. They passed out yelled
threats that this might force
a renewal of the fighting.
United States Army Chief OF
Staff Gen. Matthew B.. Ridg- .
way told the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee that he
was concerned" about what
the Communists might do.
But the State Department re-
garded these threats as mere
bluff.
The world will know who is
right next week end. For by
Sunday Omitted States time)
the U. N. Command should
have released most Of the Chi
nese and North Korean pris-
oners turned over to them by
the Indians. Gen. Maxwell D.
Taylor has warned the Com
munists not to interfere.
Thus India closes out its
valiant but thankless attempts
at supervising the unique pris-
oner-of-war squabble which
has bedeviled the Korean truce
so long. In effect. Prime Min
ister Nehru has decided to
sidestep the issue as laid out in
the prisoner agreement in or
der to preserve what to him
are two much more important
detectives: The peace and In
dian neutrality.
Mr.. Nehru and all India be-
lieve their primary mission in
world affairs is to serve as a
bridge between East and West
which will. at all costs, pre-
vent World War III.
A New Principle ...
BY the method of her with
drawal from the prisoner con-
f1ict India did, however, give
the United Nations an oppor-
tunity to establish still more
firmly a new principle on
treatment Of prisoners of war,
Even the Communists have
been forced to agree-under
the armistice terms - that
prisoners should be given a
choice of returning or spurn-
ing home at the end of the
conflict.
This principle is likely to
work to the advantage of anti
Communist forces in any fu-
ture war. There are droves of
malcontents in Communist
countries who feel no allie
glance to their authoritarian
rulers. In World War II many
Soviet soldiers deserted to the
Germans and later came under
American control. According
to then existing rules of war,
they were returned to torture
and death inside the Soviet
Union. With the new princi-
pie now established, there
would be hope in any future
war that mass desertions to
the anti-Communist side would
be more attractive.
In effect, the new doctrine
puts q premium on treason,
providing q soldier deserts to
q flrmly-established enemy.
The 81 Americans who took
advantage of the new rule will
be classed as deserters if they
have not returned by next Sat-
urday. Most free world OBJ
servers think they will have
more occasion to rue the day
than their Chinese and North
Korean opposite numbers.
ILL.,