LIGHT & DARK SHADES IN WAR PICTURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23316, 27 July 1950, Page 7

LIGHT & DARK SHADES IN WAR PICTURE

(11 a.m.) NEW YORK, July 26. There were encouraging signs that the Soviet Union is strictly limiting its commitment in Korea to a “shooting war” but they are not conclusive, says llnnson. Baldwin lit the New York Times. There are also some discouraging indications.

“The hour of crisis will come when and if our troops face an Asiatic Dunkirk or when we have concentrated in Korea the maximum possible strength we feel we can commit there.” he says. "It will be logical if communism is bent upon extending the area of the shooting war to strike at other soft spots at a time when we are busiest and most heavily engaged in Korea. Encouraging Signs

Baldwin lists as encouraging signs:— 1. So far no reinforcement of North Koreans by forces drawn from Manchuria or elsewhere in Asia has been detected.

2. No conclusive evidence of the participation of Soviet-type jet planes in the Korean fighting has been found. 3. There has been no overt interference by Russian submarines.

4. Despite preliminary indications that Chinese Communist plans for the invasion of Formosa are complete, little evidence of any immediate invasion attempt has been gathered. 5. The status quo in Persia has not been changed.

6. Greece and Yugoslavia are still potential objectives of another Communist aggression but there are few signs that such is imminent. So far as we can tell, there has been no increase in Russian troop garrisons in the occupied countries. 8. In all diplomatic manoeuvring following the Korean fighting, the Russians have been careful to keep the door open for negotiations, Discouraging Points

Baldwin tabulates as discouraging signs:—

1. Weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union are being supplied to the North Koreans.

2. Equipment, training and advice already supplied to North Korea before the fighting started, plus the equipment now being supplied, obviously have been sufficient to turn the "police action” into a large campaign. It has forced us to commit sizeable forces which are constantly growing to a strategically unproductive area. 3. The sabotage of British munitions announced by Mr. Attlee is probably the first fruit of a world-wide sabotage campaign by the communists. Despite the fact that the encouraging signs appear to more than over-balance the discouraging ones and despite the conviction of some Washington observers that a general conflagration is not imminent, there is no disposition towards over-confidence. “Our intelligence has been wrong in the past,” he says. “It could be again. In any case all agree that the real test of Soviet intentions has not yet arrived in Korea.”