The Charlotte News

Tuesday, November 11, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that a Chinese infantry and artillery attack lasting five hours, involving 1,500 enemy troops and one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war, had driven South Korean defenders from the main allied position on "Sniper Ridge" this night, the 13th time U.N. forces had been driven from "Pinpoint Hill" since the battle for the Kumhwa ridges had begun on October 14. Associated Press correspondent John Randolph, reporting from the central front, stated that the Communists had fired 1,000 rounds of mixed mortar and artillery fire during the first few minutes of the hour-long initial artillery barrage. The enemy infantry then launched a three-pronged attack which hit the ridge on the north, east and west. Violent fighting followed in almost pitch darkness under a low cloud cover which limited the effectiveness of U.N. flares. The South Koreans began withdrawing to their base positions, which they had always been able to hold during the twelve previous withdrawals from "Pinpoint". Earlier in the day, U.N. infantrymen had repulsed enemy attacks on the eastern and western ends of the battle line, as well as a company-size attack on "Sniper Ridge". On the western front, allied infantrymen had repulsed a second attack by 350 Chinese troops on "Porkchop Hill", four hours after the enemy had broken through barbed wire and entered U.N. trenches on the hill. U.S. Eighth Army troops had engaged in hand-to-hand midnight fighting to repel enemy troops in the first battle and the second had lasted less than an hour.

The Eighth Army reported that U.N. troops had inflicted 579 casualties in the 14-hour battle on "Anchor Hill" the previous day.

A cold, heavy rain began in the early morning hours and continued through most of the Armistice Day on the Korean front.

In Washington, the war dead were honored on the 34th anniversary of the Armistice ending World War I, an event hardly noticed at the Korean front, as not more than a fourth of the U.S. troops fighting there had been born when the Armistice had been signed. In France, U.S. soldiers joined with the French in joint services in Orleans, Verdun and Nancy. In Germany, troops were urged by their commanding officers to rededicate themselves to the principles for which 126,000 Americans had died in World War I, but Armistice observances were subdued because Germans did not like to be reminded of their defeat in 1918.

General James Van Fleet, Eighth Army commander, announced at Seoul headquarters that two additional divisions of South Korean troops had been activated and soon would be ready for combat, with the addition of six new South Korean infantry regiments activated the prior Saturday, to constitute a combined total increase of 55,000 men in the U.N. forces. He said that the additional forces should enable the South Koreans to take over more of the fighting at the front, though he had no particular assignment in mind for the new troops. He said that it should allow some American divisions presently at the front to be pulled back into reserve. South Koreans presently had the majority of front line assignments. General Van Fleet also said that he believed that the enemy would not launch a major offensive, though they had the capability and had possessed such ability for some time. He said that he believed the reason for the increased attacks against allied positions during the previous three weeks was for continuing training of the enemy army in battle. He indicated that the Eighth Army was in better shape than it had been in a very long time and that the Communist armies were in much worse shape than they had been for some time, that the recent battles for "Sniper Ridge" and "Triangle Hill" had cut the combat efficiency of two Chinese armies in half and diverted Chinese plans for attacks elsewhere. He also said that the Eighth Army would be "delighted and honored" to welcome President-elect Eisenhower to Korea, stating that he had no approximate date of the General's arrival and did not know of the planned route of the General. He said that he had no orders regarding a change of status of his command within 60 days, as had been recently reported in the press.

At the U.N. in New York, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden set forth four principles for settling the deadlocked prisoner of war issue on voluntary repatriation in the Korean War truce talks, and asked Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky for his acceptance of them, turning down the latter's proposal for a new commission to end the Korean War, for it being of "no help over our present difficulty". The Soviet Foreign Minister the prior day had told the Political Committee of the General Assembly that the Soviets would not budge on the Communist demand that all prisoners be repatriated, regardless of the claimed wishes of many to remain in South Korea. Mr. Eden had said that he was encouraged by Mr. Vishinsky's lack of precision, however, in making his statements on the issue of repatriation by force. The four proposed principles by Mr. Eden included that every prisoner of war had the right, upon the armistice, to be released, that they had the right to be speedily repatriated, that there was a duty on the detaining side to provide facilities for such repatriation, and that the detaining side had no right to use force in connection with the disposal of prisoners, that there was no right either forcibly to detain or forcibly to repatriate. The issue of voluntary repatriation remained the only roadblock, as it had been for many months, to resolution of the truce negotiations.

Secretary-General Trygve Lie resigned his post this date, stating his hope that it would help to "save the peace". He had been intensely disliked by the Russians, with the delegates from Russia referring to him as "the man who thinks he is Secretary-General". He told a reporter this date that he believed his resignation would be accepted and that the Russians would agree to someone else. Mr. Vishinsky said that the Soviets would await the selection of the successor candidates before taking any stand. The leading candidates were Foreign Secretary Lester Pearson of Canada and the Philippines Ambassador to the U.S., Carlos Romulo. Russia had opposed Mr. Pearson in 1945 when Mr. Lie was chosen for the post.

In Augusta, Ga., President-elect Eisenhower and his fiscal advisers were taking a cautious approach to the problem of reducing Federal spending and cutting taxes as soon as possible. Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado, who would be the chairman of the new Senate Finance Committee in January, said that he would like nothing better than to see taxes reduced, but added that it would be foolhardy to do more than hope until Congress had a chance to see the new budget to be submitted by President Truman in January before the inauguration. The Senator was present to consult with and advise the incoming President. He appeared not to be optimistic about the possibility of large-scale cuts which would open the way for tax reduction. Joseph Dodge, Detroit banker who would represent the President-elect at the Budget Bureau until the inauguration, expressed a similar note of caution, refusing to speculate on what the new Administration might be able to do regarding taxes and spending. General Eisenhower was planning to end his vacation at the Augusta National Golf Club on either Sunday or Monday, and was scheduled to meet at the White House with the President early the following week for a discussion of peace.

Governor Stevenson was planning to take a vacation at an Arizona ranch owned by an old friend, 60 miles south of Tucson, beginning the following day through the weekend.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson told Congressional investigators this date that as chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, he had never received American documents blaming Russia for the 1940 Katyn Forest massacre of 15,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in western Russia. A special House committee was investigating whether U.S. officials, in an effort to avoid disruption of wartime relations with the Soviets, had suppressed information regarding the massacre. Justice Jackson said that the tribunal had been reluctant to charge Germans with the massacre, indicating that no usable evidence had been discovered in American possession. He said that he had not learned anything during the trials of reports of three American officers, who had officially told Washington that the Soviets were responsible for the massacre. Upon Russian insistence, evidence regarding the massacre, seeking to blame it on the Nazis, had been received on July 1 and 2, 1946, with each side limited to three witnesses, and the tribunal refusing to hear further evidence, with the matter concluded without convictions on the matter. The committee had reported to Congress that its investigation proved that the Russians were responsible for the massacre. The committee was planning to end its work during the week, but would cooperate with the 83rd Congress to continue the investigation, including that of Communist-claimed American atrocities in Korea.

Three hundred police the previous morning raided seven Kikuyu settlements on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, in the first anti-Mau Mau move in Tanganyika. The raid followed high-level conferences in which a blacklist of 78 suspected members of the Mau Mau terrorist group was prepared, and resulted in 120 arrests, of whom 31 were on the list. Expulsion orders against those arrested had been put into force by the Governor of Tanganyika, Sir Edward Twining. A drive, spearheaded by British troops, in neighboring Kenya had also been undertaken recently against the Mau Mau, a black terrorist group dedicated to forcing all whites to leave the British colony.

In Pontiac, Michigan, a 16-year old boy, whose parents had been killed a year earlier in an automobile accident, had prayed that he and his 10 brothers and sisters would be able to remain together, but only he and his 14-year old sister and 13-year old brother had been able to do so, as new foster homes had been found for the remainder of his siblings, assigned to homes over Michigan and Pennsylvania. He and his sister were regarded as too old by the probate judge to be adopted and so remained under the care of the court. They had initially all been allowed to remain under the care of their maternal grandparents, but when the health of the latter failed, other arrangements had to be made. Benefactors across the country had provided $21,000 in donations to the children after the accident.

In Bound Brook, N.J., twice during the previous six months, cars driven by a man had suffered crashes at a particular railroad crossing, the second time, occurring the previous night, each time resulting in demolition of the man's car. The previous night, his car had stalled as it was crossing the tracks and an eastbound train struck it, flipping it onto the westbound tracks, but the driver had jumped to safety prior to the collision.

In Fernandina Beach, Fla., the sheriff and others in the community were wondering what had become of the barefoot hermit of Crane Island, a woman about 70 years old who had packed a pistol to ward off intruders. No trace had been found of her, a native of England, since fire had destroyed her home the prior Friday night. The woman had lived there alone since the beginning of 1924, when her father had died. The sheriff found some charred bones in the smoldering ruins and sent them for analysis. There were also fresh footprints near the house, presumably made by the woman, who never wore shoes. She had lived primitively on the island retreat and rejected modern ways. Once in a while, she would come to town for provisions or to attend to matters concerning her property, but most of the time kept to herself, cultivating a small garden and raising a few animals. She maintained a small arsenal of firearms to keep away uninvited guests. Once, a member of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey sought to land on the island to conduct studies, at which point the woman had taken one of her sidearms and routed the whole group.

In the Eastern half of the nation, there was generally cool weather but some warming appeared on the way. Temperatures early this date were generally 10 to 18 degrees below the previous day along the Ohio and Central Mississippi Valley. In Brownsville, Tex., the high the previous day had been 52, a drop of 33 degrees from the high on Sunday. Warmer weather was reported in the Central Plains states, with readings 15 to 25 degrees above the previous morning. Only light rain was reported in certain areas. The rain caused hunting bans to be removed in certain areas, but remained in effect in Virginia and Oklahoma as a precaution against forest fires.

In Baltimore, confessed former Communist spy and courier Whittaker Chambers had been removed from the critical list following his heart attack at his rural farm in Maryland a week earlier, but remained seriously ill.

Send him another get-well pumpkin.

On the editorial page, "29 Per Cent of the Way" tells of the first-report luncheon of the United Appeal having taken place the previous day, and it having become evident that there had been a heart-warming response to the new unity of the charities, combining their solicitation programs annually under one umbrella organization. With only ten days left in the campaign, the major job remaining, with 29 percent of the $738,000 goal having been raised or pledged, was to provide information and education to the community. To meet the goal would require a lot of hard work. The goals set for Savannah, Ga., and other communities in the region already had been met. It suggests that contributions were up to the conscience of the individual, with the Appeal suggesting donation of one hour of pay per month. The piece believes that to be a reasonable donation and hopes that the community would meet the goal by November 20.