In No–man's Land The question of an armistice in Korea
has long been outside the province of hope and fear. Negotiations concerning the resumption of negotiations have now been concluded, and the armistice talks have been resumed at Panmunjom, the new agreed meeting-place between the opposing lines. The Communists retain some sort of flimsy initiative by virtue of the fact that nobody ever knows what they will do next, but the United Nations keep a solid military initiative by maintaining a constant pressure against the Communist forces and slowly but steadily taking ground from them. This hard-won advance is thought to have strengthened the hands of the United Nations negotia- tors and secured the removal of the talks from the unsatisfactory Fite at Kaesong, within the Communist lines, to the slightly less unsatisfactory cross-roads at Panmunjom in no-man's land. Such an assumption is difficult to prove, and even if it has some truth In it the price paid in lives, ammunition and aircraft was cer- tainly too high. Signs of possible success for the talks are as completely lacking outside Korea as they are inside. The out- come of the recent exchanges in Moscow betwee'n the American Ambassador, Admiral Kirk, and Mr. Vyshinsky, is that the Russians are as willing as ever to make propaganda out of any :American statement but are not prepared to take any new steps it..) ensure the success of the Korean armistice talks. The main *Pints in the speech which General Mao Tse-tung addressed on Tuesday to the People's Political Consultative Conference in Peking were that China wants a peaceful settlement in Korea but Will continue to reinforce the North Korean forces, and it was the second point that the conference endorsed with most enthusiasm.
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