L.1'. -P&O. Mon day , Janu a r y 22 , 1951 . RE D CHINA -------- ( Red Ch i ns h s acce p ted t h e •ce a se-fire• pro osal. But w ith reserv g tione. uoes t i s mean th a t the fightin g in Korea is likely t o be ha l ted? Your gue s is s g oo d a s mine, rob Bec a use I have j u t been re a di n t h e despatches r e latin g(th is lat e st pro p osa by the Chinese Communists, a ~ ab o ut as bewildering s maze of words es I have ever seen ) l The one thing clear is that the Peking Govern- ment agrees that a Far Eastern Conference on Iorea be held, and that, as the parley begins, the fighting would be halted, The condition is made th a t the truce would have -- a time limit. That is, the •cease-fire• would go into effect for a given number of days, or weeks. This Peking offer w a s announced in the U.I. today by Indian de l egate Sir Benegal Rau, who explained that the pro p osa l h a d been m d e to the Indian Ambassador to Red China, Sardar P annikar. It w a s made in re p ly to tw o q uesti o ns nd e underst a3 d t ha t t hes e w ere j formulated by Canadian Prime Minister St. Laurent. These two questions asked for a clarificati o n of a previous communication from Red China -- which was interpreted in this country as an outright rejection of a truce. The Canadian Premier and the heads of the Indian Government, however, did not consider the rejection to be complete, and asked for a couple of points to be cleared up. As for the answers given by the Chinese Reds, they are so com p licated you can hardly figure out what they mean. Bere is an example. In reply to question one, Peking states: •If the principle that all foreign troops should be withdrawn from (ore~ bas been ccepted and has been put into practice, the Central People's Government of China, will assume the responsibility~ advise the Chinese volunteers to return to China.• We note that the massive Chinese armies thrown into Korea are still called -- •volunteers.• formulated by Canadian Prime Minister St. Laurent. These two questions asked for a clarification of a previous com m unication from Red China -- which was of a interpreted in this country as an outright r:e :-r: e ~ c ~ ~ - Tbe Canadian Pre ■ ier and the beadsof the Indian Govern- aent, however, did not consider the rejection to be coaplete,and asked for a couple of points to be cleared up. As for the answers given by the Chinese Reds, they are so coaplicated you~ n hardly figure out what they aean. Here is an example. In reply to question one, Pekin g states: "If the principle that all foreign troops should be withdrawn fro ■ lorea has been accepttd and bas been put into practice, the Central People's Government of China, will assuae the responsibility to advise the Chinese volunteers to return to China.• We note that the massive Chinese araies thrown into lore a are still called -- •volunteers•. The answer to the second question goes on_.. with the matter of a "ce as e-fire" and ca l ls for vari us measures t o be t a en by a p e a ce confere ce. One -- an end to the kmerican protection t ha t is now bein g given to Formosa. Another -- t e admission of Red China into the United Nations. That is phrased in the following words: •Definite c o nfirmation of the legitimate status of the People's Re j ublic of China in the U.N. must be ensured.• The verbiage is all so complicated, not to say elusive. that re can only conclude -- that while verbiage is slippery in the diplomacy of the west. it is even more slippery in Chinese. Perhaps the best interpretation is that given by the British delegate to the U.S .• Sir Gladwyn Jebb. Referring to p revious Chinese replies to proposals of •cease-fire' he says that this one -- •comes closer to saying 'yes•.• But bow close does it come to saying •yes•? That is the q~estion now. The United States tonight calls it an effort to divide the free world. ADD CHINA ----------- The latest. Despite vigorous opposition by the U.S., the eneral Assembly's Political Committee tonight voted a forty-eight hour postponement of meetin This to give meabers time to studJ , he s11rprise offer by Peking. The vote twenty-seven to twenty-three with six abstentions. KOREA Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway today paid a flying visit to the Korean front, where he described the situation as "perfect - getting ') etter all the tiJlle." ~n central and west Korea today, five powerful U.N. columns - troops, tanks and artillery · , carried out the biggea hit-and-run scouting sweep or the war. Their mission - to search out and engage the enemy, who again seems to have bee 111,JBterious].y elus1ve)Prob1ng far into the lo Man 1 s Land with little Gr no opposition, they · : seized WonJu airat11p, and thre~P". "111-to the southeast, dispatches tell or the U.S. ,, Seventh Division and R.O.K. forces waging a "sprawling tluid battle against enemy divisions, more than torty 11ile1 behind the tront 1n the mountains." At one point a spearhead or four Horth Korean divisions today probed into the Andong area - thirty miles from the old Pusan beachhead, where it overran and chopped up a south Korean battalion. The Reds seem to have shifted their power to the east. big air battle over the Yalu Bi••r today, r-84 Thunder Jet Fighters shot down •at lea1t three enemy MIG-15 Jets.• The fifth Air Force eeacribed the fight as •possibly the argest and greatest of the Iorean ca■pai1n.•) BIG FOUR From London today, we lPirn that the U.S., Britain and France will each hand similar notes to the Soviets tomorrow, on the proposal to hold a Big Four Foreign Ministers• conference. The notes make it clear that the Westem Allies will agree to a tour-power meeting only if the program includes a wide range or European problems - not Germany alone, aa ftJlaata originally proposed. If the Soviets agree, a preliminary meeting ot deputies will be held in Paris during the next few weeks, to draw up a program for the talks. RUSSIAJf ROTE ~-· -;-_/j.~ ~ In Par~ :-C,. ta that France will probably not reply A. ,/\ to R ussia's latest note. 1he note which accuses Prance, ' Great Britain and ouraelvea or creating "a serious threat to peace" by reanaing weatem Oel'lll.ny. A French Foreign Ottice apokeaaan said today that thrRuaatan note contained "absolutely nothing new - •rely repeated the aaae old arguaent." MEDITERRANEAN FrOffl Athens tonight oomes word that the United States and Britain may b lining up an over-all defense plan tor the ~ Mediterranean,AMiddle East and~Suez Canal. Thia powerful anti-Soviet alliance to be linked with oeneril Eisenhower'• Atlantic Pact al'IIIY.1f0baervers 1n Athena point out that Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries can at preaent provide 1111ch greater torcea than western Europe. 1111111 TbirtJ d1vis1ons , in Turkey, nine 1n Oroece, and another thirty -iiJ-~-+tt- . • divisions 1n Yugoslavia, already add up to a powerful aray. A lot to 118nt1on Br1t1ah troops 1n the Suez Canal Zone and other Sllllller al'lliea - Iran, Iarael, Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan. Adll1ral Robert C&r!Wtf, ooaander or our lortheaat Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets, is at present tourtng this wlloi,a. area. He will report on his trip at next ■onth'a ~ A.-« conference or u.s. diplomata in Istanbul. There~ word, too, or a Military pact between Greece and Turkeyj an~slavia and Greece will excha~m~~attaches next month. All factors to support the~~,<.of a new Mediterranean and Middle Eastern alliance. EISENll)Wmt In Frankfurt, ~General Eisenhower, despite a cold and sore throat, this evening met Conrad Adenauer and other German leadera, at the home or High Co11111s1ioner John~ Mccloy, "He was yery friendly and sympathetic," one ot the Germans said. "We were much impreaaed." a so po ed --.,J fr0111 waah1ngton tonight 111 tha~neral , _ . . _ , will be asked to make hie report to a joint session ot Congress. PROOOCTIOH The National Production Authority today ordered the nation's steel lll8kers to set aside more production tor guns, planes and tanks. Which means, or · course, less steel tor aut011ob1les, refrigerators and other conawaer gooda. Under today's order, the Ooverrnent can take up to thirty-five per cent ot the noraal output ot steel - an increase or ten per cent on the I.P.A. 1 s earlier ruling. Today the Oove1'11118nt alao 1.Jlpoaed strict rationing on tungsten - that vital metal uaed tor hardening steel, and whoae •1n aourc• 1a China and JCorea. CONTROLS In Washington today, the President tormally named r.fic Johnston - Director or Economic Stabilization, to take the place or Alan Valentine. Word . 1• that Eric John1ton, or movie rue, haa not yet aet the deadline tor hia price treeze. But it 1a believed controls will COIie betore th11 week 11 out. Prices to be t1xed at Januar1 levels - on an 1.ndustry-b7-1ndu1try baeia. Wh1oh would ••n greater price roll-back• 1n aOM 1ndu1tr1e1 tban others. Word 11 that Jobnaton will• aowe quickly on pegging was•• alao - probabl,J within "a tew da71" ot the price treeze. The Swiss Institute of Avalanche Research states that the p resent disaster of snowslidea is the worst in the history of the Alps. For days one giant avalanche after another has been roaring down he hillsides, bringing devastation to the valleys. The casualties are high, ninety-five lives lost in Austria, seventy-five in Switzerland, eleven in Italy, three in France. But that only tells part of the story. Hundred• upon hundreds are missing! -- either isolated in village• and hotels, or maybe they are victims of the anowa that have 1one hurtling down the ■ ountain aides. In Austria American and French troops of Occupatio have been ordered to help Austrian rescue teams. The ~wi•• Govern-. ment has started an airlift to bring relief to the communities cut off. In some places the masses of snow that thundered down the mountain sides are thirty-feet deep. One avalanche, nine hundred feet across, took fourteen lives, burying farmhouses. Switzer and reports thehugest cataclysm of all; when a giant snows ide covered the entire region around the Oberalp Pa••; where today •n• bil re1ort hotel couldn't eYen be found. The fate of th• hotel people there - and the gueat1 i i no known. But that hotel does haYe an aYalancbe cellear; 10 they aay all be aafe. Great and faaous reaorts, like St. lorita, are i ■ olated tonight. Swi•• official• e1ti ■at• that ten thouaand t urista are ■ arooaed. The cause? -- a freak of weather. for da71 there••• a recordbreaking 1nowfall, the •oft kind ot 1now, . heaY7 and ■ cut, pilin& up in the mountaia1. Then caae a sudden war■ 1pell that relea1ed a•alancbea bJ the thousand ■• This occurred o•er the •••tend, and ~ wa1 atill going on today. They call it -- the •white bell•; and 1ay -- it'• the greate1t !lpin• di1a1ter since the ti••• a-hundred-and-fifty year• ago, when fi•• hundred aountain people were lost in a giant aYalanche. loris there aucb they can do about it, 1aYe try to force their way through to the re1cue. The word tonight ia that the•• aTalancbes will continue until th• ma•••• of 1now in the high aountaina ha•• either de1oended - plun1ed into the •alley• - or until the weather chan1••• and there ia a heaY7 fr••••· -- VOLCANO In New Gu i nea's r1 h gold mining area, disaster has struck at an Australian settlement high i n ~ e n Stanley S• ~ ~ ~ 16 ~•'i a.~-v~.-,.. ~ Mountain~ A. Last Thurs . day we had word or Mount Lamington_,t a volcano long thought extinct, belching s oke and flame. l Yesterday, an airline pilot brought back word that he had .. ., 4--11. seen the Spirit Mountain, ••t, the natives call it, I-'- blow its top. Sending giant m ushroom shaped clouds of fire;' steam and smoke fifty thousand feet 1ntotle air. Today that i' [ \ - &BIie pilot again flew over the are::1,roug'nt back a deacription of utter devastation - the whole area for ten miles around the mountain scorched, burned out, the earth pocked wtth giant cracks. On the slopes of Mount La1.ngton was the Higatutu Settlement - thirty-four white prospectors, all of wh0111 are believed to have perished. The latest - two tiny planes with government doctors and nurses aboard have succeeded in landing on an ash covered airstrip eight miles from the volcano. -4. . There"discovered the bodies of twenty-two natives, and an Australian missionary. Relief and medical supplies e ~ °"'9IL- • ~ are being rushed . to the area. The world would see• to haTe lost -- the greatest crook. That is, it John Bloomfield Wood of London, could be believed. Be haa died in London at the age of eighty-three. A legendary figure - a nefarious hero of the theft ot the A1cot Gold Cup thirt7-tiTe years ago. John Bloo■tield food related that~t~•• a••• of a British cl r11aan, and••• aent to Jaerica, to Yale, to study for the ainiatry. lever ha• a . theological atudent @nded ao badl7. Be beca■ e a ••f•- cracker, ••1ndler, original of Jiaaie oldti ■ e ■ elodra ■ a. forger -- and eaid he waa the / bank-burglingl falentine,Al-lllla-.111••'1\Aiero of But the one thing that b~i~ed the Br~i•h the most was the affair of the Ascot Gold Cup. lbe British regard for horse-racing being what it is, the sensation was huge - when, in 1905, thieves broke in and stole the treasured, glittering trophy· awarded to the winner of the racing classic. Jn outrage exceeded onl7 by the thett of the Boyal Crown of England in the da7s of Iing Charles II. Exceeded aince then, only by ~ the recent theft of the Stone of Scone froa the loyal " Coronation Chair. The robbery was never solved, the Ascot Gold Cup never found. In l a ter years John Blooafield Wood declared that he pla7ed a leadin& par\, and hid the Ascot Gold Cup. lhich thereafter went through variou1 vi1iaaitudes, finally disappearing. So the a1ed rogue beeaae a legendary fi1ur• around London -- the ■ ore ao aa be told how, durina a 1ort ot vacation froa felony, he••• a Sunday School Superintendent in ~anada 1 • taught bible cl••••• -- t/.PJJust by wa7 of a little Tariety. To all of which•• J-. can ■k only translate fro■ · the Itali~~'A\}it i i not true, it is well invented.• ~~~-~~~ ~~-u~~.