South Korea Mobilises Man-Power For Forces

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23343, 28 August 1950, Page 5

South Korea Mobilises Man-Power For Forces

(10 a.m.) TOKYO. Aug. 27. The South Korean Government is conscripting all able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 35 in preparation for a break-out from the United Nations’ defence box, the South Korean Prime Minister. Mr. Shin Sung-mo, told Reuter’s correspondent in Korea. He added that the Government had begun a great man-power drive to reinforce the existing South Korean divisions and build up mountain battalions to hunt down Communist guerrillas and form fresh platoons to fight alongside the Americans.

Mr. Shin and his advisers estimate that even when the United Nations ■% a vces have liberated Korea it will take IT year to clear the wild mountain of isolated Communist bands. Mr. Shin, who was a former captain in the British merchant marine, said that considerable man-power reserves had been compressed into the United Nations’ bridgehead. Nearly 500,000 refugees from Com-munist-occupied Korea had moved south into camps around Taegu alone. About 25 per cent of these are young men of military age who fled to escape conscription by the Communists. These men are being drafted for a swift 15 days’ basic infantry training. The training centres would be turning out ' 1400 men daily by the end of August. The output would help tip the manpower scales in favour of the United Nations' forces. Mr. Shin said that the Communist morale was bad. It was important that the Korean war should be finished as soon as possible not only to deny the Communists the October harvest in the south-western “rice-bowl" but also because occupied Koreans were suffering so much under Communist rule. The Communists were living off the land and looting indiscriminately.