Cease-Fire Rumors

THE DIPLOMATIC FRONT Cease-Fire Rumors

Radio Peking's last word on the war: "The outrageous U.S. imperialists [must be] completely driven out of Korea."

Nevertheless, wishful rumors of an impending cease-fire kept bobbing up last week. Colorado's Democratic Senator Edwin Johnson proposed 1) that the opposing armies in Korea accept the 38th parallel as a dividing line, and 2) that the U.N. call for a truce at 4 a.m. on June 25, the first anniversary of the Korean war. Johnson spoke of the Korean war as "a hopeless conflict of attrition and indecision . . . needless human slaughter." He implied that the U.S. ought to pull out, leaving "Asia for Asiatics."

In the U.N. General Assembly, India's Sir Benegal Rau gleefully scooped up the Johnson idea, also recalled a recent statement by General Matthew Ridgway: "It would be a tremendous victory for the United Nations if the war ended with our forces in control up to the 38th parallel." The Kremlin seemed interested, too. The Moscow press printed the full text of Johnson's proposal. So did New York's Daily Worker; it commented significantly: "Why wait till June 25? End the killing now . . . Stop the war . . . Start talking with China and Korea."

The comrades would obviously like to gain at the conference table what they seemed unable to win on the battlefield.

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