NEWS OF THE WEEK
xCORPS has successfully completed the evacuation of the Hungnam bridgehead, taking much of its heavy equip- ment with it. It has been disembarked again at Pusan, and is now—or very shortly will be—available to support the 8th Army. This is a most encouraging development, and it is also satisfactory to note that command of these two formations has been integrated. General Ridgway, a popular and aggressive Soldier who has succeeded the late General Walker, unluckily killed in a road accident, will now command all the United Nations field forces in Korea, and the anomalous arrangement whereby the operations of X Corps were controlled from Tokyo will cease to have the prejudicial effect which such arrangements always do have. There has still been no large-scale fighting on the 8th Army front in the region of the 38th Parallel. General MacArthur's communi- qués—which sometimes appear to be a form of psychological warfare directed against the morale of his own troops—continue to speak of the enemy's, massive strength and sinister purposes ; but judged simply by what they have done so far the Chinese have not shown themselves to be masters of the arts of war. They did not press their attacks on the Hungnam perimeter, nor did they bring up the artillery and armour which might have made things really awkward for X Corps and would almost certainly have prevented it from getting a lot of its equipment away ; and further west they have given their opponents a breathing space which—if the main Chinese forces were held up by administrative difficulties—they could usefully and economically have disturbed by harassing activities. They still have the advantage in numbers and in stamina ; but they have lost the advantage of surprise, and unless bad generalship gives them another chance of making an unpluggable gap in a thinly held line, they and the North Koreans ought not to have things all their own way when they pass to the offensive.
