Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎11r] (21/978)

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dissolution of non-Government military
formations as undue interference in Korean
affairs. On the 5th November the political
committee voted in favour of this resolution
by 46 votes to none with 4 abstentions.
The members of the Commission are to be
^stralia, Canada, China, Salvador,
i-ance, India, the Philippines, and Syria.
The Ukraine was also elected to the Com
mission but the Ukrainian delegate gave
notice that his Government would not par
ticipate.
In Korea itself a Korean Chief of Police
who has crossed from the Russian to the
American zone reports that the army of the
north has completed detailed plans for
overrunning the south. His report indi
cates that the Communists expect their
disarmament eventually to be ordered by
the United Nations. When they consider
this order imminent they intend to strike
first and their proposed tactics are believed
to include the deprivation of south Korea
of electric current, the slaughter of all
police and prisoners taken, and, ultimately,
the setting up of the eighteenth Soviet
Republic. In the south meanwhile Dr.
Rhee Syng-man and his right-wing follow
ing are attempting to ride to power on the
wave of reaction against the Communists—
a reaction caused by last week’s disclosures
of the details of the rising planned by the
left-wing in the summer of this year, but
prevented by the occupation forces. An
anti-Communist demonstration of 100,000
persons on the 26th October with charac
teristic Korean intransigence, not only
denounced the South Korean Labour Party
as traitors but similarly stigmatised the
centre parties, demanding elections in the
American zone before the end of the year
without supervision by the United Nations.
There seems no doubt that the majority
of Koreans do not wish to come within the
Soviet orbit. It is not to be expected, how
ever, that the United States will keep troops
there indefinitely to prevent this, especially
since their presence is endured with such
a bad grace by their proteges. It has been
estimated that it would cost America some
500 million dollars to enable the Koreans
to equip themselves economically and mili
tarily to meet the offensive prepared
against them with any chance of success,
and this is more than Congress can be
expected to approve. If, however, as has
been suggested, America should give
correspondingly greater help to China,
there is at least a possibility that in the
end Korea would find herself between an
anti-Communist south Manchuria covering
her western gate at Antung, and an anti-
Communist Japan covering her southern
gate at Pusan. These two between them
might be expected to influence her destiny
more than the Soviet Union which is con
tiguous with her only along a narrow front
in the extreme north-east.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Preparations are now being made in
Washington for the special session of Con
gress on European aid and the price
problem which opens on the 17th November.
At the moment the Administration’s time
table appears to be particularly crammed
and complicated—in fact “ hell week ” is
how Acting Secretary of State Lovett
describes the current period as far as his
Department is concerned. The reports of
the various committees of experts have to
be digested, and the requests of the Paris
economic conference have to be re-examined
in the light of these and of what is known
of the findings of Congressmen recently
returned from Europe, before the final case
for both interim aid and the broader
Marshall proposals can be presented to the
Senate Foreign Relations and the House
Foreign Affairs Committees on the 10th.
Nevertheless, the Administration has been
at pains to show that it has the situation
well in hand. On the 28th October, the
President was stated to be already working
34480
on his forthcoming Message to Congress.
(In delivering this message on the 17th,
Mr. Truman will be in the somewhat un
usual position of recommending action
upon a matter already considered, and pre
sumably waiting to be reported upon, by
the appropriate Congressional Com
mittees.) On the 31st October the interim
aid section of the Administration’s pro
gramme was submitted to the Bureau of
the Budget, which is required to examine
requests for appropriations before these
are presented to Congress. Meanwhile
Mr. Marshall has returned to Washington
from the United Nations meetings in New
York in order to be able to devote his
undivided attention to foreign relief
problems.
Both the actual size of the programme
likely to emerge under the long-range
Marshall offer and the methods of admini
stering it have been the subject of
considerable speculation. The perennial
question of whether assistance is to take
D