International: Across the Table

In a straw hut near Panmunjom, Special U.S. Envoy Arthur Dean, who had flown in from Washington, this week met the Communists to set the time and place for the Korean Peace Conference. Under the terms of the armistice, both sides were to meet by Oct. 28 to discuss “the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, etc.” The table at which the envoys sat to discuss arrangements had been put down astride the exact Panmunjom demarcation line, with Dean sitting on the U.N. side, the Communists on theirs.

Before the parley, Dean told U.N. newsmen that he hoped to reach agreement within ten days or two weeks, but “if it becomes apparent they are just stalling, then perhaps we will have to call the talks off.” Dean added one word of comfort for his audience: the conference would definitely not be held at Panmunjom.* The newsmen gave him a big hand.

*”The very name of Panmunjom,” said a U.S. colonel, “has become synonymous for ruin and trouble and crashing confusion.”