FRENCH NOTE OF PROTEST

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

FRENCH NOTE OF PROTEST

RELEASE OF KOREAN PRISONERS (Rec. 8 p.m.) PARIS, June 24. The French Government has sent a Note to the South Korean Government protesting against the release of North Korean prisoners. The Note said: “The French Government has learnt with pained surprise of reports that the Korean authorities, in violation of their undertaking on the unity of the command exercised by the United Nations, have allowed a considerable number of prisoners to escape from the camps where they were detained.

“The French Government wishes the Korean Government to know it disapproved this action, which threatens to prevent the stopping of bloodshed, and compromises the restoration of peace.” Australia’s View

Dr. Rhee today also received a letter from Mr R. G. Casey, Australia’s Minister of External Affairs, protesting against the release of the prisoners without United Nations consent. The Australian representative on the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, Mr Thomas Critohley, handed the letter to Dr. Rhee.

Naval Post in West Indies.— ViceAdmiral John Felgate Stevens has been appointed British Commander-in-Chief of the America and West Indies station. The appointment also carries with it the post of Deputy-Supreme Allied Commander in the Atlantic.— London, June 24.