Another Appeal To Chinese Communists To Cease Fire

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 December 1950, Page 5

Another Appeal To Chinese Communists To Cease Fire

U.N.O, Committee Says Such Would Greatly Facilitate Settlement

NEW YORK, December 21 (Recd. 11.30 p.m.).—The United Nations has sent a second ceasefire appeal to Chinese Communists. It said that a halt in the Korean fighting would greatly improve the prospects for talks on a general settlement of Far-

Eastern problems. The message was sent by the three member Ceasefire Committee headed by Sir Benegal Ran (India). It pointed out that the Asian and Middle East proposal for negotiations was awaiting General Assembly action. The committee said the resolution was certain to receive greater consideration if a cease fire was in effect. Frontline reports from Korea said that Chinese shock troops captured a vital height commanding the heart of the beachhead at Hungham. They held this strongpoint for a tense hour until it was taken by counter-attack-ing Americans. United States warships yesterday ringed the Hungham area with gunfire. Carrier-based planes also prevented Com < mists from massing for attack on the perimeter. One Russianbuilt M.I.G. 15 was damaged when two of them clashed with American Sabre jets near Sinuiiu today. North Korean troops yesterday probed an American ring of steel and gunfire around the Hungnam beachhead, spearing at one point within a few miles of the final defence line. Air scouts reported the enemy to be building up strength on all sides of beleaguered Hungnam.

I The enemy siege army threw its first rounds of artillery fire into the 1 United States 3rd Division lines. It also moved up mortars within range of American positions, but no major assault developed. An intense bombardment of artillery, massed wheel to wheel around the defence arc, the big guns of American warships offshore, and swarms of Allied planes shattered enemy concentrations as soon as they were seen massing for possible attacks. Reports from both the Hangnam beachhead and the Seoul front, in the west, indicated that the Chinese had turned the front-line battle over to the resurgent North Korean army, and were providing equipment to rebuild its 15 divisions. The United States Bth Army announced that North Korean troops strongly resisted a South Korean limited assault on a 30-mile front along the 38th parallel. The fighting along the parallel was the first stirring on the front above Seoul since the Sth Army fell back to the old border. The only American contact was reported eight miles south of Honchon, 36 miles north of Seoul and seven miles north of the parallel. A United States patrol ran into enemy troops and scattered them with small arms fire.