WELCOMED AS LIBERATORS

Evening Star, Issue 25620, 22 October 1945, Page 6

WELCOMED AS LIBERATORS

AMERICANS IN KOREA COUNTRY DETERMINED 10 BE INDEPENDENT ' NEW YORK. October 20. Dr Syngman (Rhee, former president of the Korean Provisional Government, who has returned to Seoul after 33 years of exile in the United States, voiced publicly for the first time the Koreans’ determination to resist the country’s present division into (Russian and American zones. Dr llhee, addressing 50,000 Koreans during a welcome celebration for American troops, said: “ We remained uucouquered and undivided under Japanese oppression, and will fight t.q remain so at the cost of our very lives. The Allies may as well know this now. Are we going to have the whole of our country back or shall we remain divided? This question is being asked me day and night. It will get an answer if we co-operate with each other and also w-ith the United States forces. I hope befpre very long we will show the world/the United States Government, and the American army that we are quite able to run our own affairs.” Dr Rhee spoke spontaneously. Lieutenant-general Hodge paid a high tribute to Dr Rhee’s work. Dr Rhee welcomed the Americans as liberators to whom Korea would be for ever indebted. fn Tokio. General MacArthur announced that all Japanese military forces in Korea will be withdrawn on November 1. The repatriation of 470.000 Japanese civilians depends on shipping.