Under the White Flag
The truce talks at Kaesong seem to be going about as well as was to be expected. They were broken off last week, when Communist guards turned back a convoy of United Nations cor- respondents on the road to Kaesong, where Chinese and North Korean reporters had circulated freely ever since the talks began. Fresh proposals regarding protocol within the neutral zone were then put forward by General Ridgway and accepted by his opposite numbers in a manner which did nothing to modify the original impression that the Communists are sincere in their desire for a truce. Although the censorship (which appears to have been somewhat ineptly enforced by the Eighth Army Staff) has not permitted the disclosure of the matters dis- cussed by the delegates, the atmosphere of their meetings seems to have become slightly less frigid than it was at first. But the real test will be whether it can keep this temperature in the face of the rumoured disagreement over the withdrawal of troops from Korea. Meanwhile, the front is quiet, save for patrol actions, and this week, for the first time since last July, a day passed in which the American forces suffered no fatal casualty. Overhead, however, the Fifth Air Force continues its offensive operations, and pilots' reports suggest -that there has been no slackening in the flow of men and materials into the forward areas. In the background the intransigent attitude of the South Korean Government remains an obstacle whose full nuisance value will probably not be felt until a later stage of the groping advance towards peace.
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