The Charlotte News

Thursday, August 6, 1953

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Far Eastern supreme commander General Mark Clark had said at a Pentagon press conference this date that the Communists might have between 2,000 and 3,000 more American prisoners of war than the 3,313 which they had indicated they would exchange. He indicated that when the sick and wounded prisoners had been exchanged in April and May, there had been reason to believe that the Communists had held back many of those disabled prisoners. The U.N. negotiators had demanded an answer to questions regarding those beliefs, but the Communists had denied that any disabled prisoners had been withheld. Many U.S. prisoners of war, said the General, remained unaccounted. He also said that there were no plans at present for any of the troops currently stationed in Korea to return home in large combat units, though there were plans to allow troops in Korea a chance to rest in Japan. General Clark additionally said that he had applied this date for retirement from the Army, effective at the end of October.

At Freedom Village outside Panmunjom, the Communists had returned another 392 allied war prisoners this date, two of whom had already died and others were gaunt and haggard, while many returned to freedom laughing and shouting. Of the total, 70 released this date had been Americans, the same number as in the prior day's first group of released prisoners. Forty-two of the Americans were sick or wounded. The Communists stated that the following day they would release 400 additional allied prisoners, of whom 81 would be Americans. Of those released this date, the 25 British and 25 Turk prisoners all appeared healthy. Some of the Americans told of torture in the North Korean camps, of hunger and beatings, and the deaths of some of their buddies.

An American Army corporal freed this date said that he had seen more than 1,500 of his fellow American prisoners buried in the frozen ground of North Korea during the two months of the bitter winter of 1950-51, and that he had helped to bury most of them, at a notorious camp, known as "Death Valley" among the American prisoners. An American Indian, the corporal told of the brutality of the North Korean captors, that almost every day of the burial detail, there were 25 to 30 American soldiers who had to be buried after dying of their wounds without medical treatment or starving or freezing to death, transpiring for two months, after which the treatment improved and the deaths subsided. They received a handful of grain every day and had slept in cold houses, from which the guards had removed the doors, "just for the hell of it", and would stamp out fires when the prisoners tried to build them. They would also get a kick out of kicking around the prisoners. Only three of the eight men with whom he had been imprisoned survived. After treatment had been improved, two of his friends had been thrown into a tiny underground dungeon for stealing food, and one of them had been beaten to death, according to the other. The food consisted of beans and rice, except on holidays, when they received chicken, which was photographed for the sake of publicizing the good treatment.

Many of the Communist prisoners released this date howled, screamed, ripped off their clothing, returning to Communism nearly naked, while two had failed in an attempt to escape. One of the Communist prisoners had hit an American ambulance driver in the nose, as others threw boots, clothing and other gear at U.N. personnel, with one officer having been hit in the mouth, suffering a split lip. The U.N. Command protested against the behavior, and one U.N. officer said that the Communists had assured that they would take measures to see that such incidents did not repeat. It was obvious that the demonstrations were set up for waiting Communist photographers and journalists. An American ambulance driver said that they had orders not to take any action against the demonstrations. In response, some of the ragged South Korean released prisoners tore off their clothing and shouted at the Communist personnel, but did not attack them. One South Korean had spat at a nearby Communist officer. Another said, "May God damn the Communists!"

Language...

In Berlin, the Communist blockade of rail traffic to West Berlin to obtain the free food provided by the United States, was cracking under the pressure of East Germany's hungry millions. Thousands of East Germans were lining up again for the food packages, many reporting that they had been able to obtain railroad tickets to Berlin for the first time since the previous Saturday when the blockade had gone into effect. There was no announcement by East Germany's Government that there was a lifting of the blockade, and, according to reports, there were still no tickets available in many places. But at several places at the farther reaches of the Soviet Zone, railroad employees had sold the tickets quietly. Some 40,000 East Germans had been able to slip through the blockade the previous night in the Brandenburg province, which ringed Berlin. Others were able to circumvent the travel ban by bicycling, hitchhiking on trailer trucks or catching a bus to stations near Berlin, with the final destination achieved on foot. Railroadmen had also smuggled through many parcels for their families and friends. At the close of the distribution the previous night, nearly 160,000 parcels had been dispensed, despite bad weather and the travel bans, bringing the ten-day total to 1.6 million parcels. A record 51 men had deserted from the Eastern people's army and gendarmerie the previous day and night, eclipsing the previous daily record of 46, set on June 23, a week after the East Berlin worker riots. Confiscation of the food gifts appeared to be easing, despite the continuing press and radio propaganda campaign against the "beggar parcels".

The President vetoed this date a bill which would have repealed the 20 percent Federal tax on movie tickets, the first major piece of legislation which the President had vetoed, accomplished by pocket veto. He said in a memorandum that he was taking the step because the Government could not afford the loss of the revenue, and that it was unfair to single out one industry for relief at the present time.

The President would provide a radio report to the nation this night on the work of Congress and his Administration thus far in 1953, set to air for a half hour beginning at 8:30, to be carried by the four major radio networks.

Near Hydro, Okla., a Greyhound bus and a car pulling a house trailer had collided on a bridge on U.S. Highway 66 this date, killing five persons and injuring at least 20, one of the dead being a child.

Actor-singer Dick Haymes was arrested this date for deportation to his native Argentina, with Attorney General Herbert Brownell announcing that the arrest was effected on a deportation warrant based on Mr. Haymes having, during World War II, filed a certificate for exemption from military service as a citizen of a neutral nation, making him ineligible for naturalization under the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, thus automatically deportable, his previous certification having come to light in June when he returned from Hawaii. He had been born in Buenos Aires in 1918 and had entered the country as a permanent resident in 1937. He was presently married to a former wife of Errol Flynn and had been frequently observed of late in the company of actress Rita Hayworth. Perhaps, Frankie had something to do with his coming trip south.

In Raleigh, Governor William B. Umstead this date announced the appointment of the Milk Commission, created by the 1953 General Assembly, whose members were to have broad powers to regulate the state's milk distributors.

In Nantucket, Mass., Richard J. Reynolds III, of Winston-Salem, paid aggregate fines this date of $220 in district court after being convicted of a series of early morning offenses, one for willfully breaking windows in a home, another for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, a third for using a car without authority of the owner, and the fourth for breaking and entering a home with intent to commit a misdemeanor. He had pleaded guilty to the first three offenses but not guilty to the breaking and entering charge, saying that he was only looking for his relatives, though not clarifying whether they had broken and entered the residence in question afore him. In the latter instance, the doctor who resided in the house had called the police during the wee hours of the morning, saying that a youth was tearing screens from his windows and that his wife and small child were terrified. Dickie has been a bad boy. He had rejected initially an opportunity to communicate with members of his family aboard his father's yacht in Nantucket Harbor but later apparently conjoined rhyme with "Nantucket" and obtained money from his daddy to pay the fines.

On the editorial page, "The End of a Dream for N.C. Cities" discusses the end of the local effort for slum clearance and redevelopment because of an act passed by the 1951 General Assembly which had stultified the effort, prompting the current local Redevelopment Commission the previous day to tender their letter of resignation to the City Council, which had recommended that the letter's recommendation be adopted and the Commission abolished. The problem had been a clause in the law limiting the power of eminent domain to those tracts which clearly fit the definition of blight, meaning that any standard structure or vacant lot within a blighted area had to be excluded from acquisition as not fitting the definition, thus making slum-clearance virtually impossible of achievement.