Memorandum of Conversation with F. S. Tomlinson and U. Alexis Johnson

DECLASSIFIED Pow E.O. 10501 10582 A.W DEPARTMENT OF STATE J Memorandum of Conversation ES LO Telephone DATE: Hay 29, 1952 RB SUBJECT: Recrientation of Prisoners of War in Korea PARTICIPANTS: Mr. Tomlinson - British Embassy FE - Mr. Johnson OPIES TO: FE P UMA IPO FE/P Army G-3, Colonel Matthews EUR GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 In response to an inquiry received from Mr. Tomlinson today, I gave to Mr. Tomlinson the following statement for use in Parliament with respect to the use of Chinese Nationalists in the reorientation of prisoners of war in Korea: In accordance with Article 38 of the Geneva Convention re- lating to the treatment of the prisoners of war, of August 12, 1949, the UN Command attempted to carry out a program assisting and encouraging prisoners of war held by it in the practice of vocational, intellectual, educational and recreational pursuits. Accordingly, a civil information and education program was established by the UN Command. The ability of the Command to carry out this program was, particularly among Chinese prisoners, severely handicapped by its inability to obtain qualified Chinese- speaking personnel. Maximum use was made of the very small number of qualified personnel in the UN Forces who could be spared from more vital military duties. Every effort was made to obtain additional personnel in the US and in Japan. However, the UN Command found it impossible to obtain all of the required personnel from those sources and in the Fall of 1951 recruited a few additional persons in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The total number of such personnel who have been used in the program is less than 50, of which less than half came from Hong Kong and Taiwan combined. All of these personnel have been employed in entirely RESTRICTED