Eisenhower’s View

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 11

Eisenhower’s View

WASHINGTON, January 19. President Eisenhower said today that he would like to see the United Nations try to arrange a cease fire between the Chinese Nationalists and Communist China. Mr Eisenhower told a press conference that he did not know whether the United Nations would be able to do anything about halting the shooting, but he said he would like to see the organisation use its good offices to see a cease fire. The United States Secretary of State (Mr John Foster Dulles) said yesterday that the United States would offer no objections to the United Nations' seeking a cease fire. Mr Eisenhower also said that the mission to Peking of the United Nations Secretary-General (Mr Dag Hammarskjold), in an effort to win the release of the 11 imprisoned American airmen, could not be regarded ar a failure so long as negotiations are continuing. Mr Eisenhower said today that he knew of no military authority who considered either Yikiangshan, the island outpost now reported all but overrun by the Chinese Communists, or the nearby Tachen Islands, as essential to the defence of Formosa. He said he did not know what was going to develop in the region and so he would not speculate on what the United States could do. He did not even know the intentions of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, Mr Eisenhower added. He said he would like to see the United Nations attempt to exercise its good offices in the Formosa situation because open fighting was always a powder keg for greater trouble. Mr Eisenhower was asked what adherence to a Formosa truce could be expected from the Chinese Communists in view of their violations of the Korean armistice. He said he thought there was always a problem of that kind in dealing with people who showed that a solemn agreement meant no more to them than a scrap of paper.