Germ Warfare "Confessions"

When the armies of Mao Tse Tung first swept down from the north of China, there was a sentiment akin to satisfaction in many non-Communist, liberal circles. Favored among the terms describing the revolution were "agrarian reform" and "the real will of the Chinese people." Supposedly, the Chinese communists were fairly decent reformers who were completing China's fight against Japanese domination by ending the joint rule of Chaing Kai-Shek and corruption.

This picture of simple, but civilized, Chinese communism became the subject of Peiping's propaganda, and fared even better in Asia than it did here. Then, during the Korean fighting, there came hazy stories of brutality that did not jibe with the earlier picture.

In a clear and documented report last week, Doctor Charles W. Mayo, United States delegate to the United Nations, shattered all remnants of the illusion about the decency of the Chinese communists. His speech exposed the Communist "germ warfare" charges by telling how the "confessions" were obtained.

Summing up their torture techniques, Dr. Mayo charged the communists with exploiting not only physical pain, but also intense psychological pressure. He said, "The total picture presented is one of human beings reduced to a status lower than that of animals' filthy, full of lice; festered wounds full of maggots; their sickness regulated to a point just short of death . . . isolated, faced with squads of trained interrogators, bullied incessantly, deprived of sleep and browbeaten into mental anguish." But always, in return for signing a confession of having conducted germ warfare, the prisoners were promised an end to torture, good treatment, mail from home that been withheld, and often a reprieve from a death sentence passed by a communist court.

The United States Information Service is printing copies of Doctor Mayo's report for distribution abroad. But that is not enough. The pamphlet should be the backbone of our propaganda campaign for the next few months. It will show the people of Asia what those who cross the aims of communist regimes can expect. Governments that are responsive to the will of a civilized people do not carry on wholesale programs of terror and torture. An army that beats its captives into false admissions of guilt is no high-minded band of reformers, merely seeking justice.

At the same time, Dr. Mayo's report should be the army's guide to deciding the future of the men who did sign confessions. Some high ranking officers have argued that the signers have displayed a lack of moral strength that should disqualify them from still holding posts of any responsibility in the service. But these men have not been cowards. The report stresses the inhuman program of horror which they underwent, and points up the extreme heroism of those who did not sign, rather than attaching any special blame to the men who broke under the strain. After days of beatings and starvation, the Communists would make a victim dig his own grave, then they put a pistol to his head, and gave him a final chance to sign a confession. It is not difficult to understand how a man could convince himself that it was all right to sign.

The heroes who held fast during the torture should receive official citations. And, if their sacrifice is to have any real value to the nation, their story should be heard and read throughout the world.