Peking "Warlike And Tyrannical”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29235, 20 June 1960, Page 11

Peking " Warlike And Tyrannical”

(Rec. 10 p.m.)

TAIPEH, June 18.

President Eisenhower today denounced Communist China as “warlike and tyrannical.” He pledged before an estimated 300,000 Nationalist Chinese that the United States would stand firm behind Nationalist China in resisting any Communist Chinese aggression.

“You may be assured,” he said in a speech, “that our continuing search for peaceful solutions to outstanding international problems does not reflect the slightest lessening of our determination to stand with you, and with all our free neighbours. of the Pacific, against aggression.” Earlier, the President was reported to have termed the Communist Chinese shelling of Quemoy as “a deliberate, aggressive act.”

The President’s comments were reported by his press secretary, Mr James Hagerty, at a press conference. They came after Mr Eisenhower’s arrival, where after a greeting by nearly 300.000 cheering Nationalist Chinese, he was informed that the Communist barrage of about 86.000 shells had killed seven persons and wounded 47 others.

Mr Hagerty told reporters Mr Eisenhower said: “The indiscriminate shelling of civilian establishments and hospitals should make it obvious that the Communists are not interested in world peace. “I would think that the people of the world and world opinion would characterise this for just what it is—a deliberate, aggressive act by the Communists.”

Mr Hagerty gave no indication whatever that the United States intended to do anything about the Communist Chinese action.

“History has ~ repeatedly shown,” Mr Eisenhower said, “that the quest for peace is not served by yielding to threats or by weakening defences against potential aggressors. Indeed, such weakness would increase the danger of war.” He said that free China “stands in sharp contrast to the brutal regimentation of your countrymen on the mainland. There they are often herded into the souldestroying labour brigades of the commune system. “You can blaze a trail of progress here on Formosa,” Mr Eisenhower said, “that may ultimately shape the destiny of all your fellow countrymen, or nearly one-quarter of the human race. Your success in this field can sustain and guarantee your secure standing in the community of nations.

“And it will become, for your own fellow countrymen on the mainland, an even more insistent refutation of the false Communist thesis that modern economic development can be purchased only at the price of freedom,” he said.