OCR Text |
Show KVWW ii iM f ) v.j Dj rff Korea a Sore Spot in Far Eastern Politics By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNC Service, 1G16 Eye Strept.N.W., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. "Reveal the secret clauses in the Yalta agreement agree-ment and the American people viU demand a free and independent inde-pendent Korea." That is what you hear from the earnest group of Koreans and Americans who will be waving a tearful but hopeful hope-ful farewell to their beloved leader and friend the venerable t ! Dr. Syngman Baukhage Rhee as he departs de-parts for "the land of the morning calm" for the second time since his exile 40 years ago. Dr. Rhee's followers fol-lowers consider him the legitimate head of the provisional Korean government gov-ernment set up by those leaders for-1 for-1 tunate enough to escape when Japan dealt Korea its final, crushing blow in 1905. Presidents of the United States since Theodore Roosevelt's time, state department and other government govern-ment officials have been consistently consistent-ly sympathetic and stubbornly uncooperative un-cooperative with the effort of this unflagging patriot to obtain recognition recogni-tion of his country. They did not frown on his return to Korea when it was "liberated" by the defeat of Japan. They put no obstacles in the way of his choice as head of the group which set up a provisional government of Korea. They permitted permit-ted that group to send an observer to the U. N. but when Dr. Rhee returned from Korea in December 1 of last year his efforts to make his voice heard before the international body were blocked by the state department de-partment ukase, "No official standing." stand-ing." Today Korea is a nation bisected by the 38th parallel. The North, under Russian control, is separated by the Asiatic model of the Iron Curtain and no real Korea government govern-ment exists in the Southern half. followed their activities so closely through all these years. Then Dr. Rhee went on to explain that with cooperation of the military government, gov-ernment, at least five attempts had been made to set up a national government; gov-ernment; that each time the Communists Com-munists had blocked it by refusing to join and because of the directives under which the military government govern-ment was forced to operate no government gov-ernment was permitted in which the Communists did not participate. "They (the Communists) claim they have 20,000 members in the southern area what right have 20,-000, 20,-000, if there are that many (which I doubt), to interfere with the rights of 18 million Koreans in the southern south-ern zone?" asks Dr. Rhee. In the secret agreement at Yalta, Dr. Rhee asserts: "President Roosevelt agreed that Manchuria and Northern Korea be placed in the zone of the Soviets. This was contrary con-trary to the spirit of the Atlantic Charter and the other agreements up to that time. When the American people realize this, I am sure sentiment senti-ment will develop that will make it possible for Korea to become a nation na-tion again. I am going back to Korea with that hope." Senate Bathed in Mutual Admiration There is a distinctive brand of political po-litical humor often buried in that remarkable and largely unread (and frequently turgid) document, the Congressional Record. The Republican recommendation that senators meet in formal session ses-sion only three times a week, Monday, Mon-day, Wednesday and Friday, devoting de-voting the other two days to committee com-mittee work recently touched off a typical exchange between Republicans Republi-cans and Democrats on the senate floor. Both parties conjured lightly with the names of founding fathers. Majority Leader Wallace White of Maine began by opining that an exception ex-ception to the Monday-Wednesday-Friday rule should perhaps be made for Lincoln's birthday (which falls on Wednesday this year) so that Republican senators could, as he put it, "have opportunity to go to their homes and elsewhere to make their customary, and I think, proper, prop-er, speeches on Lincoln's birthday.' He added that provision, too, might be made for Washington's birthday. Senator White then recalled that the Democrats usually have either a Jackson Day or Jefferson Day dinner, for which they might want to be excused from the senate. Minority Leader Barkley was agreeable. Said he: "So far as Lincoln Lin-coln Day absenteeism is concerned, we have no objection to any deviation from this program (the MWF rule) that would permit our friends to get back to Lincoln."' The Record records as follows: Mr. Barkley: I think the closer the party gets back to Lincoln the nearer it will come to Jefferson. I think there will be no difficulty about arranging arrang-ing for Washington's birthday and for Lincoln's birthday. So far as Jackson is .concerned, the Democrats have always celebrated Jackson Day on the 8th of January, today, which is the day of the Battle of New Orleans. Mr. White: I think the senator from Kentucky is celebrating it now. Mr. Barkley: But in April I think it is planned to have a number num-ber of Jefferson Day celebrations celebra-tions throughout the country and I am sure that Jefferson and Lincoln and Washington and Jackson will all be maintained main-tained upon an equal footing. Mr. Tobey: I'd like to say for the benefit of my friend the senator sena-tor from Kentucky that I hope his statement which I shall designate as Exhibit A, is evidence evi-dence that the great party to which he belongs, of which he has been majority leader in the senate for so many years, and so successfully, will be bound to return to the principles prin-ciples and teachings and tenets ten-ets of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Barkley: I will say to the senator that we have never departed de-parted from them, because Jefferson was the outstanding liberal of his day, and we have always adhered to the liberal policies which were advocated by the original liberal, Thomas Thom-as Jefferson, which were not altogether dissimilar to the liberality of the founder of the Republican party, Abraham Lincoln. Syngman Rhee Wants to Tell Secrets still administered by the U. S. military mili-tary government. This is due, Dr. . Rhee says, to the same lack of official of-ficial sanction from the state department depart-ment which the aging doctor has sought since Pearl Harbor. "All we ask is that we be allowed to hold elections to set up in the American zone of Korea a national government just as the Russians have set up what they call a 'democratic 'demo-cratic government' in their zone. We only ask that the United States do for us what they have already done for Japan. "The other liberated countries have been given this privilege. We never fought against the Allies. For more than 40 years we have carried underground work against our Japanese Jap-anese oppressors." Natives Advanced in Democratic Processes I asked if he thought the people were ready for a democralic government. gov-ernment. He pi. ised a moment anl said: "You may be surprised, as I was, to learn how familiar the Koreans are with the democratic system." The Japanese, it seems, when they made their various levies upon the Koreans found they had to deal with a system that had already been set up, based on the democratic democrat-ic choice of a leader for a group of perhaps 20 homes which, in turn, chose their representatives for larger larg-er groups. Dr. Rhee said he found his people were much more familiar with these processes than he thought they could be even though he had |