Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎27r] (53/978)

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a Government with its own security forces
and with complete control over all arms
and armed forces in the peninsula. When
Soviet and United States forces were with
drawn no military equipment of any kind
should be left behind which was not under
t T *J^ effective control of the Korean Govern
ment.
The Soviet Union, supported by the
Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Poland, main
tained that the question should not be dis
cussed by the United Nations and held that
the United States were unwilling to imple
ment the Moscow decision. Australia ex
pressed the view that the question should
await the Japanese Peace Conference and
should be dealt with only by those Powers
which had actually fought for the inde
pendence of Korea. Dr. Evatt agreed, how
ever, that if unsuccessful in securing
approval of certain suggestions he was
proposing to make, he would support the
Resolution in principle.
The Chinese and United Kingdom dele
gates spoke in favour of the American pro
posals. The Soviet representative however
urged that his motions for the withdrawal
of troops and for invitation to representa
tive Koreans to form a government should
be taken first, and the Chairman ruled that
they should be placed first on the agenda for
the 29th October.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
President Truman has now decided that
it will be necessary, after all, to call a
special session of Congress to deal with
the twin problems of high prices at home
and the mounting need for emergency aid
abroad. His decision was announced at a
news conference on the 23rd October, after
a meeting with Congressional leaders of
both parties. He had, he stated, informed
the meeting that he considered it necessary
to convene Congress on Monday, the 17th
November. By that time he would be ready
to recommend “ suitable measures for
dealing with inflation, high prices and the
high cost of living.” As far as the crisis
in Western Europe was concerned, it was
clear that Congressional action could not
be delayed until January. The minimum
needs of France could be met with present
funds only until the end of December while
Italy would require ” substantial assis
tance ’ ’ before the end of this year. Addi
tional funds would also have to be provided
for the occupied areas. At the same time
the convening of Congress would furnish
‘ ‘ an opportunity for it to speed up its
consideration of the part to be played by
the United States in the long-range Euro
pean recovery programme.” Explaining
his decision to the American people in a
nation-wide broadcast on the following
evening, Mr. Truman insisted that the
United States economy was still basically
sound, but something more than a volun
tary approach to the price problem was
now called for. Since the middle of 1946
food prices had risen 40 per cent., and
“ adequate measures enacted in time ”
were necessary to correct the situation.
Abroad, where the Marshall offer held out
“ a great hope for economic security and
peace,” help had to be provided at once to
enable Western Europe to ” get through
this winter without being crippled by
economic paralysis and the resulting chaos. ’
Now that the plunge has been taken, the
great problem will be to see that Congress
confines its attention to the main business
in hand. Senator Taft, the Chairman of
the Republican Policy Committee, has
made it plain that he considers the special
session to be “ wide open ” for the intro
duction of any legislation, and Repre
sentative Harold Knutson, Chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee, has
stated that, if the Republican leaders give
him “ the green light,” he will have one
of his favourite tax-reduction bills on the
agenda “ even before the President’s relief
programme is ready.” According to
Senator Alben W. Barkley, the Democratic
minority leader in the Upper House, the
present intention of the Administration is
to give the relief programme priority over
measures to deal with inflation. “ Tenta
tive figures ” released by the State
Department indicate that the President
will ask Congress for about 650 million
dollars to tide France and Italy over until
the 31st March, when it is hoped that the
full Marshall “ plan ” will be in operation.
The assumption seems to be that Congress
will have given full consideration to this
request by Christmas.
The experiences of the hundred and
twenty-five Congressmen who have made
£ ‘ on the spot ’ ’ investigations in Europe,
no less than the recent exhortations of Mr.
Stassen and other internationally-minded
Republicans, are expected to militate in
favour of quick, although not necessarily
over-generous, action. Even Representa
tive John Taber (Republican, New York)
now grudgingly concedes that the United
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