reed British

‘s
orror

debunk

stories

By FRANK GULLETT and LEON GRIFFITHS

LYNEHAM, England

\

Home after nearly three years in North Korean prisoner-of-war
‘amps, 23 British soldiers last weekend nailed for all time U.S.-con-
Cocted trocity stories. Thep stepped from a white and silver RAF

astings aircraft here and, laughing and weeping, waving wildly,
Waiting relatives surged forward to meet them.

For them and for the men who
Waved through the portholes of

€ hospital plane it was the great
moment. is

Eight men on the plane were
Stretcher cases. But like the
Others they were grinning happily
aS they were carried down the
Sangway through the crowd of
Telatives, press photographers and
Teporters,

After a hasty reunion with their
Telatives in the airfield hospital
€ soldiers told their stories.
All scoffed at the suggestion
of bad treatment or atrocities
'n North Korean prisoner-of-war

Camps,

All paid tribute to their captors’
Teatment and the food and con-
ditions,

Propped up on a stretcher in the
Smal] hospital ward, 32-year-old
‘Pl. William Greenaway, a Gloue-
rter captured at; the battle of the
Mjin River, said:

‘Thad good treatment. There
Was plenty of food.

The morale of the boys still out

there in the camps is high. But
they are fed up with the Korean
war. They all want to get home.

Cpl. Greenaway, who is suffer-
ing from an ulcer, smiled at his
wife as he recalled some of his
experiences. As an example of
good treatment he, cited the work
of a Chinese woman surgeon at
the camp.

“Whenever she operated on any-
one she would sit up all night with
them,” he said.

On the next stretcher sat 21-
year-old Trooper Arthur Calveley,
from Birkenhead, who was Cap-
tured at Death Valley. His. mother
and sister stood beside him with
their arms round him.

How did it feel to be home? aa
feel I am floating on air,” he said.
And his sister Vera joined in: “He
looks marvellous.”

Trooper Galveley said: “We
were treated fine in North Ko-
rea, they treated us to the best
of their ability.” :

Walking arm-in-arm around the

China’s trade expands - but not with Canad

This is the New Taugku, one of China’s new merchant vessels.

But although the Chinese

People’s government is constructing new ports and building new ships for her expanding trade with
Asian countries, the USSR and the People’s Democracies of Europe, and such Western countries as
Britain, Canada has followed the U.S. in barring its vessels from the China trade.

ward with the fiancee he hopes to
marry soon was 21-year-old Lance-
Cpl. Robert Guest, of Luton. He
spoke for most British soldiers in
Korea when he said:

“This war has gone on too long.
Everybody out there longs to come
home.”

During his imprisonment Lance-
Cpl. Guest was treated “pretty
well.” He had no feeling of bit-
terness towards the North Koreans
or Chinese.

For Pte. E. Hartland; of Wolver-
hampton, this was the second
homecoming from a POW camp

in eight years. During the last
war he was captured at Casino.
Today he talked about the lads he
has left behind in POW camps. .

“They were all glad to see us
go and are all hoping that they
will soon follow us,” he said.

Rfmn. George Pollard, of Horn-
sey, was emphatic about the alleg-
ed atrocities.

“The stories are completely
fictitious,” he said.’ “Things were
pretty poor at first but after-
wards we were given good treat-
ment.”

Bitterly he continued: “The war

out. there is just a waste of time.
In the camps morale rose and fell
according to the progress of the
truce talks. Sometimes when the
talks looked good spirits were high

and sometimes when the talks

looked black spirits sank.”

Another Gloucester, 23-year-old
Pte. Donald Larg, of Cheltenham,
said: “The food they gave us was
pretty good. We got just as much
as their own troops.”

And he added: “The Korean
wer is a useless war. Nobody
is gaining anything and every-
body back there feels that.”

Strugele against French conducted by Laotion Liberation Army

‘Invasion’ of Laos pretext for securing U.S. aid

ft Admiral Arthur Radford, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander,
Tequent calls for the bombing of People’s China,
.. He talked with the French commander, General Salan,
Ivasion” of Laos, one of the three states com-prising Indoc
Peoples of both Viet Nam and Laos.

cs

vottnetican propaganda is now de-
the &, Considerable attention to
fa, i8vasion” of Laos, but, in
act the only invasion forces in

80s are the French troops.

f The fight against these French
Tees today, as formerly, is con-
Ueted by the Laotian Liberation
hen and their People’s govern-
®nt, and not by anybody else.

Frecntrary to American and
of ach reports there are no troops
cae Vietnamese People’s Army
og ich the French refuse to rec-
ese as an army but call it by

Old anti-Japanese resistance
€ of Vietminh) on Laos.

Nam
There are, however, reports of
Me volunteers from the neigh-
gon Ng state of Viet Nam who have
Liha. Laos to help the Laotian
‘a ‘ration “Army because the
“tech bases in Laos are being

Useq for 4
Viet Slee French war against

font? Present Laotian Liberation
oly Were organised some 12
nya: 28° to meet the Japanese
an ae and their, gallant resist-
ee to
Wibutes °° Japanese earned many

theron August to October 1945
Thai People’s forces freed every
nec, Wn in Laos from the Jap-
their’ and in October declared
Minis 2 Overnment in the ad-
‘Strative capital, Vientiane.

count French troops entered the
tion.” 2nd destroyed the revolu-
dle.” Sovernment and the peo-
Up, armed forces were broken

Many of the resistance fighters,

ARTHUR CLEGG

LONDON

who has achieved notoriety with his

i th.
isi Indochina towards the end of last moni
cae with a view to using the US. hoax of the

hina, to intensify the war against the

however, took to the hills, and in
1948 guerilla warfare against the
French was widespread through-
out Laos.

By 1950 some one-third of Laos
in all had been liberated, mostly
in scattered hill districts.

By last year, however, the guer-
illa forces had formed themselves
into a regular Liberation Army,
and freed many small towns from
the French.

This year, encouraged by the
victories of the Vietnamese Peo-
ple’s Army, the Laotian Army has
come down from the hills and be-
gun the liberation of the whole of
Northern Laos.

* * *

far, in a three-week cam-
Bd it has advanced without
meeting much resistance and even
the New York Times has spoken
of the “almost bloodless” nature
of the campaign.

This is because the French
force of 35,000 men in Laos Is
mostly composed of puppet troops
— some 16,000 puppet Laotian
troops and roughly an equal num-
ber of Vietnamese.

The Laotian puppet troops: have
either crossed over to the Libera-
tion Army or just gone home,
while many of the Vietnamese
have also deserted, leaving the
French garrisons, which fled long
before they were attacked, to
withdraw to the Plain of Jarres.

Thus, of the present advance of
the Laotian Army to the royal cap-
ital of Luang Prabang, French re-
ports admit that “organised ODp-

position apepars to have collaps-
ed.”

The ridiculous nature of the
American propaganda trying to
represent this liberation as a great
offensive “threatening” every
country in oSutheast Asia is ex-
posed when one recalls that the
population of the whole of Laos is
little more than a million.

Yet the Paris correspondent of
the New York Times, working up
the propaganda fever, solemnly re-

ported recently that in Laos “an- |

other million reservists had been

called up. Provided money was
forthcoming new classes would
be called to the colors.”

This would put even the babes
in arms into the armed forces.

The population of a million or
a million and a half is spread out
over a country twice as large as
England and Wales whose towns
in England would be called vil-
lages. | :

The slopes of the high moun-
tains, and the deep river valleys
are so thick with forest that
French airmen report they can
see nothing on the ground — so
the French command in Hanoi is
not hampered by accurate on-the-
spot reports in conducting its
propaganda campaign.

Laos has an independent history
going back to the seventh century,
though at various times parts of
its present territory were held by
Siam, Carfibodia or Annam.

It was conquered by the French,
only 60 years ago, but its people
have not lost their desire for in-
dependence.

In the struggle against both the
Japanese and the French the peo-
ple of Laos have learnt to look on
the people of Viet Nam (as An-
nam is now called) as friends and
allies.

At the end of 1950 the people’s
movements in the three countries
of Indochina — Viet Nam, Laos
and Cambodia — formed an alli-
ance to help each other in their
liberation struggles.

Communists win 28 percent of
ballots in French municipal vote

PARIS
Results of the recent French
municipal elections show consid-
erable increases in the vote ob-
tained by Communist candidates
compared with the last municipal
ions in 1947.
saccns in Paris itself the Com-
munist party has emerged as the
party with’ by far the largest per-
centage of votes, . while the De
Gaullists showed big losses.

In the new Paris council, the
Communists, with 293,272 votes,
will have 28 seats, the next larg-
est group being the Independ-
ents with 274,564 votes and 26
‘seats. The De Gaullists were
cut from 52 to 10 seats.

The Communist party increased
its percentage from 27 percent in

1947 to 28 percent, while the Gaul-
lists dropped from 55.7 percent to
16 percent,

Many of the De Gaullist votes
went to the so-called “moderate”
—but, in fact, extreme right wing
—party of former French Premier
Pinay. Voting in the suburbs of
Parish also showed an increase in.
the Communist vote from 41.7
percent in 1947 to 44 percent.

In Marseilles, the Communist
vote increased by 4,000 over 1947
to 99,051, but because of the meth-
od of apportioning seats in the
city council, Communist represen-
tation remains at 24 seats.

The De Gaullists dropped ‘to
19,570 votes and four seats, losing
21 seats they formerly held most-

ly to the Pinay coalition which
polled 66,327 votes and got 16
seats and the Socialists who polled
64,229 votes and got 15 seats, an
increase of six.

Out of an electorate of nearly
25 million, about 20 million voted
in the elections for municipal
councillors in 37,983 municipali-
ties throughout France.

In Ivry, one of the municipalities
in the famous Paris Red Belt, the
Communist vote increased by five
Percent, and was more than 60
percent of the total votes cast.

In Bonneuil, also in the Seine
region, the Communists polled an
absolute majority of the votes
cast, compared with 48 percent in
the 1947 municipal elections.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 8, 1953 — PAGE 3

Se ae Boe en eer ete

eel ans - ea valve