U.S. ROLE IN TALKS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27051, 28 May 1953, Page 9

U.S. ROLE IN TALKS

“Free Hand” For America Urged

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 27. Senator Robert Taft last night urged that the United States abandon the United Nations in the Korean negotiation and conduct them on its own. He said that the United Nations was ineffective in preventing aggression and as such “might as well be forgotten for the moment.’* Senator Taft, who is the Republican leader in the Senate, made the statements in a speech read for him at the silver anniversary dinner of the National Conference of Christians and Jews at Cincinnati. He is at present in hospital at Cincinnati under observation for a hip pain. Senator Tait, who also holds an influential post as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: “We should do our best now to negotiate this truce and if we fail, then let England and our other Allies know that we are withdrawing from all further peace negotiations in Korea. “I believe we might as well abandon any idea of working with the United Nations in the East and reserve to ourselves a completely free hand. “I still believe in the United Nations myself, but not as an effective means to prevent aggressions. “ft does have many methods by which, through peaceful persuasion, it can deter and prevent war. “Even the best truce in Korea under present conditions will be extremely unsatisfactory.

•‘Would Create Instability” “It would create an unstable condition by dividing Korea along an unnatural line and it would release 1,000.000 Chinese soldiers for possible combat against Chians Kai-shek and against the French in Indo-China.” Senator Taft continued: ‘‘lt seems to me that from the beginning we should have insisted on a general peace negotiation with China, including the unification of Korea under free Koreans and a pledge against further expansion in South-east Asia. “If we once make this present truce, no matter what we put xn the agreement about further negotiations for a united Korea, it is no more likely to occur than a united Germany.” He termed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation the “complete antithesis” of the United Nations Charter while perhaps not a violation of it. Apart from the United States’ “abortive attempt” to rely on the United Nations in Korea he said that the American Government had followed consistently a policy of military alliance in containing Communism.

Senator Taft said: “I am no military expert, but I have never heard an argument that impressed me attempting to show that United States ground forces could effectively defend Europe. “I have always felt that we could »ot attempt to fight Russia on the ground of the Continent of Europe any more than we should attempt to fight China on the Continent of Asia. “I have always felt that defence must be undertaken by those who occupy Western Europe.” Senator Taft said he believed that the United States should call a conference for an amendment of the United Nations Charter. He said that the veto right in the United Nations, which was available to each of five nations, made it impossible to prevent aggression through the organisation. He added .that there seemed to be Bo satisfactory solution to any foreign golicy problem facing the United