Mounting Chaos

Communists worked overtime to raise chaos last week in Korea's southern zone. Purpose: to prevent U.S. military authorities from carrying out plans for the popular election of a Korean legislative body and the organization of a national administration.

Railroad workers struck first, tying up every railway in the zone. They demanded 100% wage increases and "labor reforms" along lines said to be in effect in Russia's zone. Next the Communists threatened a strike of all public utilities, including power plants. Knowing that southern Korea has no rice reserves, they demanded that the U.S. authorities release "hoarded stores" for distribution among workers. They also spread rumors that the U.S. authorities had confiscated all rice for shipment to Japan and the U.S.

Non-Communist Koreans found it hard to understand U.S. tolerance of Communist troublemaking and Russian interference in the U.S. zone through propaganda and financial aid from the Soviet zone. U.S. prestige was seriously damaged. Cost to U.S. taxpayers of the first year of Korean occupation: $322,000,000.

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