NEW THREAT BY RHEE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27075, 25 June 1953, Page 9

NEW THREAT BY RHEE

Army Will Leave U.N. Command

<N.Z. Pr eM Association— Copyright) '(Rec. 10,45 p.m.) cdattt t 'ri... c A. J SEOUL, June 24. S ?, uth K° re an President (Dr. Svndman Rhee) said officially today that he haA „L-fi j o Bman .V? e 7 Clark that he would Mark from the United Nations command army signed now with the armistlce was

Clark To^V’read 0 ; * lctter he had Sent to Gencral

considered S S n a n fi na °l f Jn h a e £ e ?T! y mistice . as it is, will be in the relationship which

unde? \° W S ° Uth K ° rean forces can remain unaer your command, however regrettable to us.

as friend to friend «h y I PF omised I would let you know, forces from the TT^ited^ 1 haVe decided to withdraw our stm holds L a . Nations command, that understanding and as I sIFd in u y T OU rm ,n u See V* my last letter “> ?««. that directive of Withdrawal h ° Pe 1 nOt haVe ‘° isSUe fused T Wwh P 7haf ler u ° f War Ue is ’ however > not to be confacf d when h rh ® ometh, ?B unrelated. As a matter of fact when I made that promise you referred to I had no idea I was going to release loyal Korean prisoners.”

Dr. Rhee’s letter continued: “I did not issue the order of their release as part of any unilateral action on my part. “I would have consulted you beforehand under ordinary circumstances, as I always did on any of the military measures. But if I did consult you in advance, it would have. been only an embarrassment to you. “You may call it an act of violation on my part, but did the United Nations ever raise the question as to what the Communists did with our prison-ers-of-war? “We know what they did with them,” he said. Dr. Rhee said the change in attitude towards the Communists “has not come from you or me, but from the statesmen of the United Nations.” “In spite of our repeated protests and your promise to comply with them, now I know they are planning to bring another force friendly to the Communists into our backyard in

order to overawe our loyal citizens and enable Communist indoctrinators to brainwash them with communism.

“Some of the peace advocators say they will use no force or threat, but what more coercion will be needed than an armed force from a proCommunist country to surround antiCommunist prisoners?” Dr. Rhee said that the United Nations had been influenced by “other members of the United Nations, some of whom are communistically inclined, some who don’t know where they stand in their global struggle between communism and democracy, and some who are bitterly anti-American.” Dr. Rhee said the United States was changing “its policy of unifying Korea and punishing the Communist aggressors” and was “slowly but surely playing into the hands of the aggressors.” Dr. Rhee told General Clark: “I am very anxious to make sure we do nothing to drive the Korean people, and consequently the rest of the anti-Com-munist people of Asia, to turn antiAmerican. It will be a great tragedy. “In many places in the world where America has done so much for the people the natives have, strange to say, turned unfriendly to America. “This is a sad event which we must do all within our power to counteract.” Dr. Rhee said he did not consider General Clark’s letter to him as a threat of coercion, but as a friend’s warning.

He also said he considered President Eisenhower’s letter, which he had just received, in the same spirit. “We Have no Choice” “Nothing is farther from my intention than to flout any requests from Mr Eisenhower if I can help it, but when it comes to the imposition of what we have so long been imploring our Allies not to ask of us, not merely for Korea, but for the entire free world, we have no choice but to say ‘No.’

“We say ‘No’ now with deep humility, not out of defiance. “I hope you may not take my refusal as an attitude of stubborn defiance. I locked up myself a whole day and night to reason and argue against myself, and I prayed over it, but my clear conscience and sense of duty direct my path, and that is the only path I must follow.”