News from Never-Never Land

With sleepy-eyed cordiality Ed Pauley greeted the six U.S. correspondents who clambered aboard his train at Kaesong, a U.S.-occupied town just south of Korea's 38th parallel. The reporters poised pencils for a walloping expose of conditions in the Soviet never-never land. But President Truman's special reparations representative just smiled his warmest smile, and, like a well-behaved guest, paid the kindest compliments to the Russians who had been his hosts for five days.

His trip had been "well planned." He had seen 60% of the zone's heavy industry, "speaking in terms of value," and had found it reasonably intact. He had received assurances from the Soviet Commander, Colonel General Ivan M. Chistiakov, that Moscow policy opposed withdrawal of factory equipment from North Korea. "General Chistiakov did everything . . . to assist us."

Then Pauley retired to a Seoul hospital to be treated for dysentery. Army leaders in Korea read Pauley's report, let out an outraged howl. For nine months they had been gleaning information about North Korean factory removal from stories told by refugees. Much of their data dovetailed and had been checked and rechecked. How, they asked, could Pauley's report, after five days of guided wandering, be accepted in the light of their carefully prepared evidence? They remembered that, while Pauley was still in the Russian zone, his mission headquarters in Seoul had complained he "was operating under heavy restrictions imposed by local Soviet authorities."

Members of the Pauley mission were not optimistic about Soviet political (as distinguished from industrial) policy in Korea. Said one: "It looks as though the Russians are there to stay." In Pyongyang, the Soviet capital, street corners, schools and shops were literally plastered with banners proclaiming the virtues of the Soviet system, the Red Army, and "General" Kim II Sung, the Soviet puppet leader. At night Pyongyang streets rang with rifle shots.

No member of the mission could tell how the people of Korea felt about their Russian overlords, but a G.I. who had gone along with Pauley got an inkling. Said he: "I took a short walk one night. Suddenly a Korean jumped out of the shadows and kissed my hand. I felt like a damned fool."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.