Towards the Yalu
The cautious United Nations advance towards the Manchurian frontier continues against mainly climatic opposition. Mystery still surrounds the purpose and scope of the Chinese intervention across the Yalu, but the interrogation of prisoners has revealed that the units of the Chinese army so far committed were regular troops, not volunteers. Precautions—fairly elaborate but obviously futile— were taken by their high command to dissemble their nationality when they arrived on Korean territory ; and it is clear that the adverse effects of air attacks on their morale is greater than it seems to have been in the case of North Korean troops. In the slowly dwindling area still under enemy control bombing is causing much havoc. The destruction of towns and villages is, for com- batants and non-combatants alike, a much more serious business now that winter has set in, for in those regions some form of shelter against the cold is essential for survival, and only darkness and bad weather offer concealment for the movements of large bodies of troops. There is, therefore, some sort of practical limit on the extent to which North Korea can be reinforced from Manchuria ; although when the Yalu freezes, the bridges, or what is left of them, will cease to be bottlenecks, the deployment of major forces. will be partly governed by the accommodation they can find or, in the form of tentage, bring with them. But there is still ground for hope that if, as announced, the United Nations troops, after reaching the Yalu, retire for three miles, the Chinese will decide to make no move.
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