Cease-Fire Talk

The air was thick with talk about a truce. Echoing Dean Acheson (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie said in a speech at Ottawa: "The time has come for a new effort to end the fighting in Korea." Now that the aggressors had been thrown back, said Lie, a truce might be arranged at the 38th parallel. "The way is open for a cease-fire if the North Koreans and their supporters . . . are ready to join with the United Nations in stopping the bloodshed." (He added that if the Communists refused, U.N. members would have to contribute additional forces for continued war.)

The pause in the Eighth Army's pursuit in Korea (see below) underlined Lie's words. London eagerly approved; Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison declared that a "psychological moment" had arrived for a truce. Into this flurry of wishful activity Ambassador Ernest A. Gross, U.S. delegate to the U.N., dropped a timely reminder. "Peace efforts," he said, "thus far have been entirely from one side--the U.N. side."

At week's end there was no sign that the other side--the aggressors' side--was ready to call a halt in Korea.

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