The Han River and Beyond
Unless Communist resistance stiffens, it may not be many days before General MacArthur will have to show what he meant when he said this week that he will not " Lrbitrarily execute his authority " to cross the 38th Parallel. The 8th Army. throwing back fierce but sporadic local counter-attacks, has made slow but steady progress, and the enemy, ceaselesily harried from the air, is being given little opportunity to regroup and hit back in strength. He may yet do so, but since General Ridgway took it over, the 8th Army has gained notably in staunchness and resource, and though its fortunes may change they are unlikely to undergo the sudden and startling trans- formations which were disconcertingly possible last year. Air supremacy is asserting an ever more decisive influence upon the battlefield. and both the North Korean army and the Chinese expeditionary force have lost more men and material than either can afford. At the moment, in short, the United Nations' fcrces have the initiative. Will they, or should they, be required to surrender it when they reach the 38th Parallel ? To lose contact with a retreating enemy is a cardinal error in war, and to halt an army on a long, inhospitable and not easily defensible front would be on purely military grounds totally unjustifiable. But of course much more than purely military considerations are involved.. To drive north across the Parallel would almost cer- tainly reduce seriously the chances of a-settlement. But if there is to be a settlement, it must come quickly. Prompt action by the Good Offices Commitee at Lake Success is called for. It may fail. In that case the war, with all its ultimate dangers, will go on. But some peace move must be attempted first. It is, incidentally, worth noting that Peking's original insistence that the Chinese forces in Korea are volunteers to a man is- , potentially—something more than a contemptuously transparent pretence ; it could, one day, be an expedient for saving face if it seemed desirable to withdraw from a costly and profitless adventure.
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