KOREA: Blood & Bayonets

• Share

(2 of 2)

Message from the Mount. The Seoul government seemed momentarily taken aback by the new resolution of its opponents. In the National Assembly, Home Minister Hong Chin Ki solemnly declared: "I promise to see to it that the police do not secretly dispose of bodies in the future." Instructions were also sent to the Masan police not to fire on demonstrators, particularly schoolchildren, "except when absolutely necessary."

But before the week was out, the government's new mildness proved just another tactical maneuver. After a meditative two-hour stroll on the slopes of the azalea-bright mountain above his presidential palace, Rhee himself came up with the predictable conclusion that the Masan riots were the work of Communist agents. The Masan police arrested so many violators that the city jail overflowed and some prisoners had to be held in railroad freight cars.

At week's end, even as the police were busily breaking up attempted new demonstrations in Masan and three other southern cities, pro-government papers played up President Eisenhower's unexpected decision to stop off in Korea on his way home from Moscow as an evidence of Rhee's prestige abroad. But in Washington, government officials said privately that Eisenhower's real purpose was to inform headstrong old Syngman Rhee politely that his roughshod methods were becoming an embarrassment to his allies and a danger to his republic.