1951-03-22 — Page 1

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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST,

The

Hongkong Telegraph

VOL. VI NO. 55

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1951.

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CHUNCHON IN INCREDIBLE RUIN

COMMENT

With little in the Budget for Unofficial Members of Legislative Council to

seize upon for serious at tack, it is not surprising that yesterday's debate on the Colony's finances and the outlook was chiefly

noteworthy for

Vital Junction Town Occupied By U.N. Forces

Devastation On A Scale: Unequalled In Korea

Tokyo, Mar. 21. Chunchon, the city

south of the 38th Parallel sound constructive most vital to its defence, may safely be regarded as fallen to the United Nations forces, as the result of the abandonment of the city by Chinese Communists without offering a fight.

criticism directed more towards Government

policies, with their bear ing on the welfare of the

mass of the population, than against individual items in Estimates. Endorsement must, for instance, be immediate of

SHOCKING

CONVENT

TRAGEDY

Milan, March 21. Thirteen girls aged three to

eleven were killed and 28 others including one mother gravely

injured when a courtyard wall of the school of the Sisters of Mercy collapsed here at the

lunch recess, today. WAR OFFICE

Mr Terry's contention TOUCHY ON

that the Government has been too complaisant in

survey of the rising levels FARGIE

of commodity prices. In general, when an attempt at control has been instituted, it has lagged too far behind the need, or, alternatively, has been applied without full con- sideration of pros

and

cons.

(Our Own Correspondent)

London, Mar, 21.

The War Office is very of touchy about the case Driver Robert Fargie, who was released from prison in Japan last week and is now in Hongkong where, reports The plea for stronger and

more determined say, he is held up awaiting measures to curb manipu- permission to proceed on his

home.. lators who unwarrantably way. increase the cost of neces- I asked the War Office today sities needs no emphasis. whether it. was their respon- Nor does

sibility to give the word that Mr Terry's

would send Fargie on the next further attractive recom- stage of his journey home, mendation that a trial be

"We don't know where Far- made closely associating gie

is at the moment,' the the resources of the spokesman said. Equalisation Fund with

←

31

It took me a moment or twoj

"planned losses." The to gel over the surprise of belief that discreet "loss" learning that the War Office operations could compel are the only people in London who didn't know that Fargie cuts in the competitive was in Hongkong.. I asked about 'field and add up to that.

general gain is backed by sound knowledge of market sensitivity.

The key junction town is only nine miles south of the 38th Parallel in the centre, and although under continuous bombardments it had already ceased to exist as a city, its capture represents an

rtant strategic gain.

Allied patrols and tanks today probed into this main Chinese Communist base in South Korea, and were quickly followed up.

The victims had just been session and were taking shelter dismissed after the morning

against the wall from violent

gusts of wind, when it toppled on them.

Rescuers pulled 20 girls from the debris alive, 17 of whom

John Colless, Reuter's corres- and shattered fragments of the were badly injured. pondent cabled that Chunchon city's buildings.

had ceased to exist. "Once it. "They waved Republican was the main city of the central flags which were noticeably old borderland, prosperous

kept in hiding during the Com- and and looked as if they had been

munist occupation."

heavily populated. Now, acres of it had been transformed into an expanse of rubble earth and of iron timber and steel-pitted an infinite number of fragments bomb-craters."

WAY STRAFED AHEAD the Allied tanks moved in an On their approach to the city "What was once a large fac-apparently leisurely pace along tory is now five white chimneys engineers on foot and under a the main highway, preceded by rising from the bare ground. A

flight of jet aircraft which reinforced

concrete, wall' of a three-storey building hangs over (Continued on Page 5, Col, 4)

heap of ruins like an old moth-caten tablecloth. Not one building is left standing along the main street, where the bedraggled poplars are the only traces of what was once a wide tree-lined avenue."

a

NO SMOKING!~

Incongruous notes werie a sign planted on a Battered steel cabinet among the ruins of દ garage reading: "No smoking." and a wooden belfry tower. standing alongside a heap of "We have an idea that he is bricks that was once a church. in Hongkong," the spokesman The devastation of Chunchon. confessed. "We're completely had not been equalled in Korea, "It is a tribute to the grim - Mr Cassidy's expression of in the air."

power It seems that authority for destructive

of United' amazement a t the

Fargic to continue on his journey Nations' bombing. moderation and patience home must come from the GOC, "And yet, out of the incredible of the local trading Far East, whose headquarters ruins of the city, small groups Korean civilians, mostly community in the face of are in Singapore, and not from of

the War Office. Next stop on women, children and old men, the inclusion, without

Fargie's flight home is Singa-managed to welcome our tanks. prior warning, of Hong-pore.

as they rolled cautiously through kong in the American

I asked what would happen littered with tangled cable lines

the smoking, cratered sanctions zone, too, will to him after he got home. "He said the be widely shared. Some will go on leave," -modification has been en- spokesman. "There's no ques- tion of sacking him as one news- ticed out of the American

paper has suggested. After he authorities but more returns from leave he will prob- stubbornness than under-ably be posted to another branch

of his, Corps. We don't know

street

The Same Old

Allegation

San Francisco, Mar. 21. Peking Radio tonight alleged that the authorities in Hongkong

Dutch Planters continued to suppress" Chinese

Murdered

standing still dominates it's rather an unusual case." the situation, and when local industry faces severe Japanese competi- tion, American sponsored, Washington refusal to release raw. materials needed to keep our

machines turning, views: of local indus-planters in West Java on Mon- The Radio also reported the trialists are naturally dim. day but allowed their wives to lodging in Canton of a vigorous Apart from this, as Mr go free, the Aneta news agency protest against "British perse-

Cassidy

cution of overseas Chinese in insisted, the reported today.

They forced the two planters Malaya", by Chen Chi-yu,

the

Djakarta, Mar. 21. Terrorists killed two Dutch

educational institutions.

This followed the "forcible closing down" of two establish- ments, one of them "on the pre- texit of violating the educational ordinance," the broadcast said.

Colony's free trade status to leave their car and follow Chairman of the Party of Over-

must itself be jeopardised

them to their "headquarters." | seas Chinese, The women, left behind un- The protest alleged that there

had been harmed, escaped from the car..

if Government leans over backwards to satisfy American conditions. later found one planter dead. many people had been thrown Make haste slowly must! The other, who was wounded, into "concentration camps."- be today's dictum.

died shortly after.-Reuter,

an intensification of Indonesian Army patrols the "persecution" during which

Reuter,

Mothers and other members

of the children's families were horrified eye-witnesses to the tragedy. They were waiting for the children at the school gate. Some mothers were able to snatch their daughters a split second before the wall crashed.

The brick wall was rebuilt only two months ago after it collapsed previously. - United Press,

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