Stymied

One fact hung like an autumn storm cloud over Panmunjom last week. The Communist explainers would not give the 14,600 Chinese P.W.s another chance to humiliate them (TIME, Oct. 26). They insisted on talking to the 7,800 North Korean P.W.s, who wouldn't talk to them; the Communists hoped thereby that the onus might be shifted to the other side. All week the Indians urged the Communists to get on with questioning the now triumphant Chinese, who laughed in their compounds, "Where are the esteemed explainers? Do take us to see them." Meanwhile, all five members of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission argued the question: Should they force the North Koreans, by tear gas, bullet and bayonet, to listen to the Communist explainers, and thus break the deadlock?

In emergency session, the commission divided. The Communist Poles and Czechs said yes, force should be used. The Swiss and Swedes said no, it should not. The Indians discovered a formula that suited their neutralism and their nonviolence: they would not use force unless the commission unanimously told them to, which they knew the commission would not. The Indians called for a formal vote. Redfaced, knowing they were beaten, the Poles and the Czechs stalked out.

Two days later, Peking radio needled the Indians for the first time since they came to Korea; they called upon them to "implement the armistice agreement." The Indians were finding the Communists "almost incredibly unreasonable," and an Indian general charged Pekin radio with at least seven "distortions of truth." General Thimayya, the commission's able chairman, was apparently convinced that the Communist refusal to see any more Chinese P.W.s showed that they meant to wreck the explanations altogether. His on-the-scene appreciation of Communist tactics meant nothing to New Delhi, where Nehru's government refuses to believe evil of the Communists.

This week, throwing up its hands, the neutral commission decided to refer its troubles back to the belligerents. Presumably, the clock will continue to run out on the Chinese Communists: explanations are due to end Dec. 24. A month after that, all prisoners who do not want to go back are supposed to be turned loose.

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