Repressive Influence

South Korea's caretaker government rescinded martial law one night last week, and the move proved premature. Hundreds of students marched through the streets of Seoul shaking down pedestrians for American cigarettes ("Our politicians live in luxury--foreign cigarettes will burn the fatherland!"), seizing Japanese records from tearooms ("Japanese swords are hidden in these melodies!"), and dragging civil servants out of cars bearing blue, official plates ("Why are you using official transport after office hours? Who do you think you are--Syngman Rhee or somebody?"). The puritanical demonstrators lit big bonfires of cigarettes and records and then swept through Seoul's biggest kisang (geisha) house, the White Cloud, to drive male customers and indignant, silk-gowned "hostesses" into the street. "Only rotten people visit kisang houses!" the students cried.

Behind the demonstration lay the students' puzzled anger that their April revolution had brought no immediate, sweeping changes in the national life. Police were mostly too intimidated to interfere.

But private citizens, remembering that students recently beat one defiant pro-Rhee villager to death, were worried about the trend. Said one: "The repressive influence formerly wielded by police is now exercised by the students."

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