MEETING IN PACIFIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27518, 12 October 1950, Page 7

MEETING IN PACIFIC

Truman And ■ Mac Arthur To Confer On Korea NZPA Copyright WASHINGTON, Oct. 10. President Truman announced today that he will confer with General MacArthur in the Pacific this week-end to discuss the “ final phase of the United Nations action in Korea.” The President said he would also discuss “ other matters ” with General MacArthur. He did not say what these were. The .President will be accompanied by General Omar Bradley chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mr W. Averell Harriman, special assistant to the President on foreign matters, Dr. Philip Jessup, the state department ambassador-at-large, and Mr Dean Rusk, assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs.

It was not announced where the meeting with General MacArthur will take place. The Associated Press said the meeting possibly would review the whole Pacific situation. This will be the first time that the President and General MacArthur have met. General MacArthur has been out of the United States for more than 10 years. Disagreement Over Formosa General MacArthur and the Truman Administration have disagreed over the policy towards Formosa. General MacArthur has taken the position that it is essential to the United States Far Pacific defence line that Formosa be kept out of unfriendly hands. The Administration’s attitude is that it is a matter for the United Nations to decide. President Truman, several weeks ago, directed General MacArthur to withdraw a letter the general had sent to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Chicago setting forth his views on Formosa. The trip will be the President’s first out of continental United States since 1948, when he visited the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. The President has left the United States several times since he assumed office in 1945. Later that year he attended his only “Big Three” meeting at Potsdam. He visited Brazil in 1947.

It i s understood that the entire trip will be made by plane. He expects to be gone for about a week. General MacArthur has been in close communication .with the White House, as well as the Defence and State Departments through frequent telephonic conferences, but there have been no face-to-face talks between the President and the general.

Sudden Decision

There are indications that the decision to arrange the meeting came suddenly. There had been no hint in Washington that it was under consideration until about two hours before the President’s announcement. Republicans in Congress have been urging for months that General MacArthur be called home for consultation on Far East policy, and particularly to give his views to the Senate and House Committees concerned with defence and foreign affairs. The President, in his statement, said that in the final phase of the United Nations action General MacArthur s command “will be working closely with the United Nations Commission, which has just been created by the General Assembly and given heavy responsibilities for the establishment of a united, independent and democratic Korea." He added: “We must proceed rapidly with our part in the organisation of the United Nations relief reconstruction programme in order to give the Korean people a chance to live in peace.” Wide Range of Problems

The United Press qu<?tes State Department officials as saying that President Truman intends to thresh out with General MacArthur the whole range of United States anti-Communist strategy in the Orient, including the controversial Formosa issue, relations with Nationalist and Communist China, the growing Communist successes in Indo-China and also the question of an early peace treaty with Japan. • The White House said that President Truman and General MacArthur will meet “ somewhere west of Hawaii.” The President will fly to Hawaii, arriving there early on Friday. The White House would not announce the itinerary beyond there. The White House said that President Truman would deliver a foreign policy speech at San Francisco next Tuesday on his return from the meeting.