BRITISH LABOUR CRITICISM OF POLICY IN KOREA

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1950, Page 5

BRITISH LABOUR CRITICISM OF POLICY IN KOREA

LONDON, Dec 10 (Rec 1 p.m.).— The Minister of Works, Mr Stokes said today that he did not see how it could have been expected that the .Chinese would remain quiescent with foreign troops, of whatever nationality, reaching up to the ManchurianSoviet frontier. He accused both the United States and Russia of making a “mad rush” for raw materials. Mr Stokes’s criticism came exactly a week after the Defence Minister Mr Shinwell said it appeared that General MacArthur had gone beyond the United Nations’ objectives in going up to the Manchurian border. Negotiated Settlement Mr Stokes said Mr Attlee must be congratulated for getting the Americans to agree to a negotiated settlement in Korea. “All the authorities who have written even at this early stage about the last war says that without doubt the idiotic declaration about ‘unconditional surrender’ kept the war going at least an extra year.”

Mr Stokes said he believed it a great mistake that America did not follow Britain’s example in recognising the Chinese Communists as a de facto Government. “I cannot understand that they did not see the inevitable consequences must be that the men of the Kremlin would welcome the chaotic position that would inevitably arise both in the Far East and the west,” he said. Press Comment The newspaper Reynolds News said today that China’s terms for peace in-

clude the compete evacuation of Korea and the control of Formosa.

Another pre-Labour newspaper, The People, said that members of Parliament remain dissatisfied with General MacArthur’s handling of the Korean war and will continue to press for closer political control. They will demand, The People said, some kind of supreme council in which “the nations actually fighting the war shall have a direct voice in vital decisions.”

Both newspapers are regarded as speaking for a strong body of backbench Labour opinion in the Commons and their comments may reflect the mood which Mr Attlee will face when he returns.