“Seoul should be a dead London Times relates atrocities committed in Seoul by Rhee LONDON city. Large areas have been devastated with a thoroughness that equals the bombing of Hamburg and Coventry. Public services. such as transport, light and power no longer exist. Water trickles from the few remaining taps but its consumption could be as deadly as bombs and rockets. It is believed that 300,000 of Seoul’s population remain unac- counted for.” This is how a correspondent of the London Times describes Korea’s largest city since its destruction and occupation by American troops. _ The Korean capital, he continues, ts under a reign of terror which is the more terrible because the murder/and rapine are a continua- tion of “the accepted methods” of the Syngman Rhee regime. While “impotent United Nations Officials are preparing reports, per- secution and murder by the South Korean police continues,” he de- Clares, His report continues: - “In the police station of Poop- yang, flying the United Nations flag, only a few miles from Seoul, the crimes committed within its walls are not the outcome of bit- ter strife but the accepted methods Cf the South Korean police sent from- Pusan to eradicate commu- nism, “On the day I visited this police Station, 290 men and women and Seven babies were detained in there. They were removed from the cells only for interrogation.” “Interrogation means _ beatings with rifle butts and the insertion Of splinters under the fingernails. No attempt was made to hide these methods, “During that morning a rifle butt Was shattered on the back of one Prisoner, and two women, one of them a mother suckling a baby, Were also interrogated. The mo- ther confessed to having joined the Communist party a month before, While two men denied any sympa- thy or formal affiliation. However, they were beaten into insensibility. A police sergeant said that the in- terrogation would proceed when they regained consciousness.” This scene, the Times correspon- dent points out, “is still being re- peated throughout Korea.” He Concludes: “Most of the non-Kore- an members of the United Nations forces are aware of this but feel Cither too helpless to intervene or believe the attention drawn to the Yeprisals would be excellent ma- terial for Communist propaganda.” Britain drives ’ lo war economy LONDON Indicating Britain’s drive to- Ward a full war economy, a recent Meeting of the National Joint Ad- visory Council, composed of indus- trialists and trade union leaders, decided to mobilize another quar- ter million workers for the arma- ments industry. There are already 234,000 workers employed in war industries, Since relatively few workers are available, married women, ‘retired Workers and foreign labor will be called upon and more workers will be switched from civilian to war Production, The government has decided to Continue in force the anti-strike law introduced during the war and Supposed only to be operative in-wartime. , Lord Tenyham recently revealed that the government intends to Spend $20 - 24 million on air taid Shelters and‘to construct more air fields, although it is slashing ex- Penditures on housing, new schools and hospitals. Py ee ee Peasants exchange Red Army currency hidden for 20 years PEKING People in parts of Kiangsi province are happily exchang- ing bank notes issued 20 years ago when the province was lib- erated for a time by the Chinese Red Army. When the Chinese Red Army went on its famous long march to fight the Japanese in 1934, the peasants, who firmly believed that the Red Army would come back, concealed the notes, des- pite the fact that they would be killed if found in possession of them. A woman in a village near the former Red capital of Juikin declared: “Seeing these notes is like seeing our Red Army and our - Chairman Mao Tse-tung.” She hid the notes in the sole of her shoes and preserved them for 15 years. PA ee Chinese ireeoe march at ross Tibet SEER ENDED OSMENNCT AOS ALO wet eeeeeo We 0 The city pictured above is Shigatse, second city of Tibet, some 150 miles southwest of Lhasa, the capital. of the remote territory by large sections of the population. Chinese People’s troops this week were reported to be nearing Lhasa, aided in their liberation Reports made by Tibetan delegates who travelled long distances to attend people’s conferences in South China in recent months have had a profound impact on the Tibetan people. Vietnamese inflict 10,000 casualties ‘End dirty war’ say French people French routed by Vietnamese French troops, were in full retreat before in rec cut off by land. like -those shown above fighting a rearguard action against advancing Vietnamese, the Vietnamese People’s Army this week, after suffering 10,000 casualties ent fighting. Even the French-occupied port city of Hanoi in North Viet-Nam was virtually ! 1 WAR IN KOREA ‘MADE TO ORDER’ U.S. monopolies reap huge profits WASHINGTON American monopolies are reaping enormous profits from the war in Korea. Aircraft companies have more led their profits since the than dou gaministration authorized expansion of the air force to 48 groups last year, and as a result of the decision to expand the air force to 69 groups—announced after out break of war in Korea—it is esti- mated that aircraft companies will squeeze another eight billion dollars out of American taxpayers. One of the biggest monopolies, the Morgan-controlled General Electric, which makes jet engines, reported a $36,800,000 net profit for the first quarter of 1950, 38 percent more than the corresponding period in 1949. Preparations for atomic warfare and chemical orders enabled the Dupont de Nemours Company to make 25 percent more profits in the second quarter of 1950 than in the first quarter, Profits from $30 billion appropri- ated by the U.S. Congress for sup- plementary military expenditures will send the monopolies’ profits still higher. Of the $30 billion, more than $14 billion will go on “hard goods, planes, ships, electronic equipment, tanks, guns, ammuni- tion, etc.,” it is reported. It is little wonder that U.S. News and World Report, big. business journal describes American inter- vention in Korea as a “made to order situation.” : PEKING French troops are continuing to retreat before the Vietnamese People’s.Army while in France. it- self popular pressure on the govern- ment for an end to the “dirty war” is being intensified. Voicing the demand ‘expressed in demonstrations and resolutions by millions of French working people, L’Humanite recently re- peated its oft-stated editorial warning, that “this is a war with- out issue which is lost in advance and into which young Frenchmen are. being thrown, Does not Ameri- can intervention, which is becom- ing more and more open, prove that is not in the interests of our country that young Frenchmen are being sacrificed? On the contrary, peace in Viet-Nam is in the inter_ ests of France.” On the other hand, right wing French papers received here urge greater American intervention. L’Aube recently claimed that “the defense of Indochina is not simply a French affair,’ and maintained that “what is at stake in Indochina is not different from that in Korea.” Extent of the victories won over past weeks by Vietnamese People’s forces in which they have frust- rated French plans for seizing or destroying the rice crop and forced French troops to evacuate strong points all along the Chinese border, are indicated by reports received here. In one month, from mid-Sep- tember to mid-October, the Viet- namese People’s. Army liberated four towns and 23 districts in North Viet-Nam and _ inflicted 10,000 casualties in killed, wound- ed and captured or defeated French mercenary troops. French forces routed in a series of battles along the Vietnamese- Chinese border included several crack battalions, among them Nazi mercenary troops. In Central Viet-Nam, the people of Thuathien province succeeded in harvesting 97 percent of the rice crop despite French efforts to seize or destroy it. Successes in North vViet-Nam are matched by increasing guerilla activity in South Viet-Nam where Freneh communications are cons- tantly. being cut by the Viet. Minh (People’s Militia). PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 10, 1950 — PAGE 8