NEWS OF THE WEEK
ADETERMINED counter-attack, launched against the centre of the United Nations* front in Korea and pre- sumably aimed at the communication-centre of Wonju. has made a lot of ground in a short time. But IX Corps, who bore this onslaught, seem to have pulled back in fairly 'good order, and from the fact that X Corps. on their left, are not yet being required to conform it does not appear that the commander of the 8th Army feels his whole front to be threatened. Seoul and Inchon have both been entered by patrols, and the ruined capital, in which Communist resis- tance is stiffening, has been under artillery fire for several days. On the east coast a series of contradictory reports gives the impression that South Korean troops have probably crossed the 38th Parallel on reconnaissance but that no lodgement has yet been made to the north of it. The landing at Wonsan eighty miles north of the Parallel is not to be regarded as having any political significance. Meanwhile General MacArthur, in a characteristically rotund pronouncement, has made clear his resolve—based on sound enough military considerations—not to commit the 8th Army to anything in the nature of " positi- tional " warfare ; the implication is that he does not see the war ending with his own forces strung out in defence of an arbitrary line across the peninsula. One factor in the military situation which, though a negative one, is encouraging is the comparative unimportance of guerrilla activity in the rear of the 8th Army. Although this favourable state of affairs may not last long into the summer—when life in the mountains will become oasier and cover more plentiful—it is satisfactory that General Ridgway has so far been spared what might have been a major source of worry.
