dated August 22, 1951: American plans to protect Japan

Mr. Michael McDermott of the State Department in Washington denied that the U.S., would sign any secret treaties with Japan during or after the Japanese Peace Conference due to be held in San Francisco in September, 1951. He termed as nonsense, a foreign report of `impending secret treaties'. Referring to a proposed mutual security treaty with Japan, he said the matter was still under negotiation. It was not certain whether it would be ready for signature soon after the Frisco Conference. As and when the treaty got ready, it would be made public. Sources close to the State Department said terms of that treaty were being discussed in Tokyo between the Japanese Government and Gen. Ridgway's Supreme Headquarters. President Truman's Foreign Policy Adviser, Mr. John Foster Dulles, had mentioned some days earlier that the U.S. was anxious that Japan should not become a power vacuum on the Pacific seaboard. Hence the U.S. Government would prefer stationing its armed forces, retaining vital air and naval bases in Japan. While it was not known what commitments Japan would undertake under the mutual security agreement, Washington officials recalled an earlier statement by the Japanese Premier, Shigeru Yoshida, that the circumstances and scope of Japan's contribution would be determined by the extent of her economic and industrial recovery.

Fighting re-erupts in Korea

On the 21st, thousands of Communist reinforcements thrust back a four-day-old South Korean offensive on the east coast. A full- scale battle was raging there for the first time since the ceasefire talks began six weeks earlier. Allied war planes, artillery and naval guns slaughtered the Communists who poured over the crest of a vital hill after recapturing it in a dawn attack. Shells and bombs tore the sides of the hill to make time for South Korean infantry units digging new defences positions on the southern slopes. The Communists replied with fusillades of small-arms and mortar fire, and then surged forward through the clouds of cordite smoke and rain of steel. A U.S. Eighth Army briefing officer said the South Koreans were fighting back strongly from their new positions, after being driven from the hill-top at daybreak.

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