Small Mercies in 'Korea
The Communist commanders in Korea have been informed that the United States Government agrees to the reopening of truce talks and suggests that prisoners refusing repatriation should be looked after by the Swiss. At the time of writing it is not clear how the thorny problem of where the men under neutral supervision are be kept is being tackled, nor how, once they have been concentrated in an agreed locality, they are to be kept there, save by imposing much the same restraints on their liberty as affect them in their present camps. Still, a small step forward has been made; and meanwhile arrangements for the exchange of siek and wounded prisoners are going ahead
without a hitch. Three road convoys from the extreme north of Korea are converging on the Communist base at Kaesong, six miles from Panmunjon. At Kaesong the prisoners (who include 155 non-Koreans, twenty of them British) will have a two-day rest, which many of them will need badly after their journey. ourney. Early next week, if all continues to go smoothly, the process of handing them over in batches will begin; it is scheduled to last six days. Roughly similar arrangements by the United Nations staffs are being made for the transport and exchange of the 5,800 Chinese and _North Korean Prisoners included in a bargain which has been worked out on a percentage basis. Meanwhile anxiety has returned to many homes, both in these islands and in other of the Queen's dominions, with the news that the Commonwealth Division. is back in the line, holding its old sector north of Seoul.
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