“WILL TAKE TIME”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27447, 21 July 1950, Page 7

“WILL TAKE TIME”

Overthrowing Forces Of Aggression

WASHINGTON, July 19. Reviewing the history of the Korean crisis during his address to Congress, President Truman said that reports from the United Nations Commission on Korea “ make it unmistakably clear that the attack was naked, deliberate, unprovoked aggression without the shadow of justification. The attitude of the Soviet Government towards the aggression against the Republic of Korea is in direct contradiction to its often-expressed intention to work with other nations to achieve peace in the world.”

The President held out no immediate hope that American forces could soon begin advancing up the Korean Peninsula. He said the United States was moving as fast as possible to send in larger forces, heavier equipment, and to increase its naval and air superiority, but it would take time to slow down the forces of aggression, to stop them, and throw them back.

“Army troops,” he said “have been conducting a very difficult delaying operation with skill and determination. Outnumbered many times over by attacking troops spearheaded by tanks, our troops, in spite of bad weather, have been valiantly supported by the air and naval forces of both the United States and other members of the United Nations.”

Stating that it was important that the nature of the military action in Korea be understood, President Truman said it was undertaken “as a matter of basic moral principle.” “ The United States,” he said, “ was going to the aid of a nation established and supported by the United Nations and unjustifiably attacked by an aggressor force. Consequently we were not deterred by the relative immediate superiority of the attacking forces, by the fact that our base of supplies was 5000 miles away or by the further fact that we should have to supply our forces through port facilities that are far from satisfactory."

President Truman said that it was to meet the possibility of aggression elsewhere that he had ordered the strengthening of American forces in the_ Philippines and the speeding of military aid to the Philippine Government and to South-east Asia. He said it was for the same reason that he had ordered the United States Seventh Fleet to prevent an attack on Formosa and had asked the Chinese Nationalist Government to stop all air and sea operations against the Chinese mainland.

“ Our action in regard to Formosa,” he said, “was a matter of elementary security. The peace and stability of the Pacific area had been violently disturbed by the attack on Korea. Attacks elsewhere in the Pacific area would have enlarged the Korean crisis, thereby making much more difficult the carrying out of our obligations to the United Nations in Korea.”

The President declared that the United States had no territorial ambitions whatever concerning Formosa, nor did it seek any special position or privilege on the island. “ The present military neutralisation of Formosa is without prejudice to political Questions affecting that island. Our desire is that Formosa should not become embroiled in hostilities disturbing to the peace of the Pacific, and that all questions affecting Formosa should be settled by peaceful means as envisaged in the United Nations Charter,” Tie said.