TRUCE TALKS: Safeguards

The U.N. truce team got set for a double-barreled showdown, and both barrels were loaded. While the Communists mulled over the latest U.N. proposal, South Koreans attacked it (see above). The negotiators could take comfort in one thought: except for the Koreans, all the U.S.'s major allies had okayed the plan.

The proposal was still officially secret, but last week some details began to leak out. The U.N. no longer insists that all North Korean prisoners who refuse to go home must be released as soon as an armistice is signed, but the new plan still guarantees that no prisoner will be forced home against his will.

Under the U.N. proposal, North Korean and Chinese prisoners who refuse to return to Red rule—48,500 altogether—will be placed in the custody of a five-nation neutral commission* and guarded by Indian troops. For 90 days, Communist officials will be permitted to circulate among the prisoners to explain away their "apprehensions," as the Reds call them, about going home. If any prisoners state that they want to go home, they will be repatriated, unless the U.N. Command suspects that they have been coerced into changing their stand. The U.N. can appeal dubious cases to a post-armistice political conference. The Communists, for their part, will have the right to challenge the statement of any prisoner who still refuses to go back to Red rule. If the conference reaches no decision in one month, the prisoners will be set free. An alternative in the U.N. proposal would leave the final word on disposing of the P.W.s to the U.N. General Assembly.

Further safeguards against forced repatriation: the Communists would be permitted only one "explainer" for each 1,000 prisoners, and the U.N. press would be allowed to observe the "explaining." India's Prime Minister Nehru, frequently critical of the U.N. Command's actions, thought the plan splendid. Said he: "There is no reason why there should be any further differences."