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