TRUCE TALKS HITCH

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27040, 15 May 1953, Page 9

TRUCE TALKS HITCH

Enemy Rejection Of U.N. Plan

(NX. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 830 pan.) SEOUL, May 14. The Communist armistice negotiators today rejected as “absolutely unacceptable” the plan presented by the United Nations yesterday for the disposal of prisoners of war refusing repatriation. “We resolutely reject it,” General Nam 11, head of the Communist delegation, said at a meeting of the negotiators at Panmunjon today. General Nam II said that the Allied proposal “tends to overthrow the basis of negotiations of both sides.”

Then turning to Lieutenant-General William Harrison, the chief United Nations delegate, General Nam II said: “Your proposal is absolutely unacceptable.”

The Allies had proposed yesterday that the projected fivenation commission should supervise non-Korean prisoners only—meaning the Chinese Communists. They also said that the commission should function for only 60 days instead of the four months proposed by the Communists. This, they laid, was more in the spirit of the Geneva Convention on war prisoners and would prevent prisoners being coerced into returning home out of fear of remaining in custody indefinitely.

The Allies had also proposed that India should head the commission and should be the only country to send armed forces and administrative personnel to Korea. The other nations—Sweden, Switzerland. Poland and Czechoslovakia—would have only staff assistants. When rejecting the Allied move, General Nam II told General Harrison that the Communists had made a preliminary study of the United Nations proposal, and found it unacceptable. After today’s meeting General Harrison said: “Their proposal of May 7 is completely unsatisfactory to us, and they said that burs of yesterday is completely unsatisfactory to them. That's where we stand now.” The United Press said that Allied hopes for an early armistice have now plunged. The blunt and formal rejection of the Allied plan has left the future of the current truce talks in doubt, the news agency said. Churchill Speech “Influence" Some American observers said that the Communist attitude followed Sir Winston Churchill’s statement to the

House of Commons that he could see no reason why the Communist eightpoint plan could not serve as a baste for agreement if the Communists were sincere. The Americans speculated that the Communists had taken Sir Winston Churchill's statement as an endorsement of their plan and were hoping that British pressure would force the United Nations negotiators to give in. At today’s meeting both the Communists and ttie United Nations negotiators called for “reconsideration" of their respective proposals. i At the request of the Communists, the talks went into recess until tomorrow.