WHITE HOUSE CENSORS GENERAL MacARTHUR

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26204, 30 August 1950, Page 7

WHITE HOUSE CENSORS GENERAL MacARTHUR

Withdrawal Of Statement On Formosa Ordered (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 28. President Truman on Saturday ordered General MacArthur to withdraw a statement on Formosa which the General had prepared for a war veterans’ conference in Chicago.

General MacArthur’s subsequent request to the Veterans* of Foreign Wars—for whom the statement was prepared—prevented its being read at their conference, but it had already appeared in several newspapers.

It amounted to a declaration that the United States, in its own interests, must defend and hold Formosa, which General MacArthur called “an unsinkable aircraft-carrier and submarine tender ideally situated.”

Mr Truman banned the statement “to avoid confusion as to the United States position.”

The President took the extra precaution of again stating America’s policy in a letter to the American delegate on the United Nations Security Council, saying that the sole United States commitment in Formosa would be to Mock any invasion attempt during the Korean crisis.

Asked if General MacArthur might lose his post, the White House Secretary (Mr Charles Ross) said the incident was now closed.

But Republican Party leaders are accusing the President of gagging General MacArthur “to keep the truth from the American people,” and are using the incident as heavy ammunition in their attack on the Administration.