tn ecetertan ct neneeiaens OO OE

pore tht te rh tte tn me tt A A

“1 HAVE become acquainted

with death in many previously
unimagined forms... 1 remem-
ber so well . . . macabre ‘confusion
Lin the death pits . . . men roasting
alive, or starved fo grotesque:
caricatures. . . .

“There is no more war. It is
old-fashioned . The illusion
is gone... The writing is on the
wall in letters of blood and bits,
and this is the latest message from
Korea.”

HIS is not a ‘Communist

speaking, nor even a sup-

porter of the World Peace
movement. It is Reginald
Thompson, a London Daily
Telegraph war correspondent

writing of American warfare
as he has seen it, pouring out
the horror which the could not
keep back. :

He went with the American
troops in their crazy dash to
the Chinese frontier ‘and back
‘with them in their headlong
flight to south of Seoul. And
he has written a book, Cry
Korea!, every page of which
is an indictment of modern

America, the more damning be-
“cause the has swallowed the
American tales of the origin of
war and he stresses his friend-
ship with the Americans he
met. ;

He lays down one sure guide
to the understanding of Ameri-
can warfare. That is:

Never believe American offi-
cial» handouts, whether of the
American Army, the American
Navy, or, especially the Ameri-
can Air Force. And never he-
lieve reports from the Ameri-
Can news agencies.

This is how the describes the
official American headquarters
news department in Tokyo:

“The briefing conferences had
become frankly ridiculous.
Headquarters, having known
nothing, now knew everything.
The ‘Chinese hordes’ were swol-
len to nearly a million in a few
days though they (the Ameri-
cans) were everywhere out of
contact.

“Piles, of ‘handouts’ pats
t the da,
stacked throughow pone be

i f
and nights, and few 0
were worth the paper they oe
written on. They were ne
military documents, but fill
with the phrases of advertising
copy-writers.”
Again:
“Unfortunately, U.S. stone
Intelligence seemed as inacc
ate as Military Intelligence - : :
reports were almost’ entirely
wrong.” : é
But ‘his greatest scorn 1S a
served for the much-boost

Cry Korea.

warfare is that advertising copy
takes the place of information,
its second law is that the mass
obliteration of human beings
takes the place of fighting. To
this Thompson repeatedly re-
turns. Writing of American
warfare as he saw it on the ad-
Yvance to Seoul and then in the
mad rush to the Chinese fron-
tier, he, says:

“The business of troops ‘was
to follow in the path of desola-
tion the long-range Weapons
should clear for them. It was
our lot to watch this ‘rehearsal’
against an almost unarmed
enemy unable to challenge the
aircraft in the skies, or to bring
counter-fire to bear upon the
great mass of artillery.

“Jt is far from certain wheth-

er these methods save the lives
of soldiers, for their lack of
soldierly training and _  road-
bound. habits lead them fre-
quently into death traps. It is
certain that it kills civilian men,
women and children, indiscrim-
inately and in great number,
and destroys all that ‘they
have.”

So the American invasion
rolled on, leaving in its wake a
ruin of burning towns and vil-
lages, making millions thome-
less, with its armoured columns
held up for hours whenever
half a dozen heroic Koreans
held a valley with nothing
heavier than a machine-gun.

American troops were over
the 38th Parallel even before

the American delegate in the

A British war correspondent discloses
part of the story behind headlines
In the daily press

United Nations had secured per-
mission for thém to cross it.

Then in the wild mountain
ranges along tthe Yalu River,
the Korean People’s Army,
strengthened by Chinese volun-
teers, turned on the Americans.
Thompson writes:

“It is an undisputed fact that
the total enemy forces did not
outnumber the United Nations,
and. if air, artillery and the
great naval power deployed
around the coasts with many
vital targets well within range
of its heavy guns, is taken into
account, there could be no com-
parison in fighting strength.

“Up forward,” he ~ writes,
“there was no talk of ‘Chinese
hordes’ and there weren’t any.”

Here is Thompson’s descrip-

nation of the Commonwealth.

The Blood Loan.

This poem, by a writer identified only by his
initials, first appeared in the 7vibune, progressive
weekly published at Sydney, Australia.
stituting “Canada” for “‘Australia’’ its theme is $
as true for our own country as for our sister

By sub-

Tax them and drain-ihem and rob them,
Rule them with fist of mail,

But while the people are listening,
Steal their butter and bread.

$ $

They gave him millions of dollars

_ If any would stand against you,

Send them io rot in jail.

tion of the American Second
Division in retreat.

“Firing wildly in all direc-
tions, the column had driven at
full speed under the murderous
fire of Chinese machine-guns.
Jeeps and trucks careered on
over their dead and dying, leav-
ing them on the freezing road.
Searcely a vehicle came through
unscathed.”

As they fled, the American
tanks and trucks mowed down
the Korean refugees made
homeless by the American
bombers. In Seoul, the Syngman
Rhee troops were turned loose
upon the people. Earlier there
had been plenty of massacres
and murders of the Korean peo-
ple, but now:

“Round Seoul the execution
squads of Syngman Rhee had
begun to work so feverishly and
ferociously at their murderous
tasks that a great wave of in-
dignation swept through all
those who saw and heard.”
®

He sums it all up, this war.

In the past years he had called
himself a “war reporter.” Now,

-“it would be more accurate to

call myself a reporter of death.”

For all its weaknesses. its
swallowing ‘here and there of
American propaganda against

Acreiinan. Air JROrce: They promised him millions: more, the North Koreans, this is a

“From the outset. these gran-
diose statements had been re-
grettably unreliable and gross-
ly inaccurate. They now be-
came a joke, ridiculed on all
sides ... Already many reports
had proved, on examination,
more than 90, percent wrong,
even in regard to such large
objects as tanks... .” :

“Repeating the gist of all this
stuff, were submerging sub-
editors’ desks, and all we could
do was to try to give our editors
a measuring rod of value to sort
it all out.”

And of the war correspon:
dents:

“There were few who dared
write the truth of things as
they saw them in their cabled
stories,”
®

‘If the first law of American

To fight in a dollar war.
$ $

$ $

Use the methods of Hitler,

They made a‘secret agreement,
They muttered it under their breath.
They didn't. think of our youngsters $
They were sending out to death.

He talked with the dollar warlords
He learnt in the dollar school.
Then they sent him back to Australia $
With. orders how to rule.

And they talked of sending our youngsters ‘ $

And the young shall feed our~cannons
$ Whilst the old grow thinner and die,
That Wall Street may reap its profits

And the atom smoke rise in the shy.

The dollars clinked' in his pochet,
$ He swelled with the lust of power.
He cabled his ‘Wall Street masters:

“This is my glorious hour.”

But the people are waking and rising,
$ Their forces gather and grow.
And their voices swell in a chorus: - :

As Australia answers NO!
Rave ‘of the “wicked Red,”

$ $

$ $

$ $

—L.N.

\

mighty book. ss

It is a smashing indictment
of General Douglas MacArthur,
but it is very much more’ than
that.

It is an indictment of the
whole American war machine
and those who direct it.

No one can read it without
being filled with hatred of the
American war.

When he returned to Japan,
atom-bombed Japan, he wrote:
“The atom bomb is the ultimate
expression of towardice, the
ultimate affront to human dig-
nity.”

This shadow hung over him
every day in Korea. It still
hangs and it will continue to

‘hang until the war is ended

and every Canadian, British and
American soldier ‘brought ‘home.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 21, 1951 — PAGE 5