Comfort Mission

THE ENEMY Comfort Mission The Chinese equivalent of a USO troupe at the front is a wei lao tuan, or "comfort" mission. Last week a Peking broadcast reported that one of the Korean war's biggest comfort missions, composed of more than 400 "people's delegates" from all classes and areas, had just visited the battleground below the Yalu. To boost Red soldiers' morale, the mission's poets and actors put on shows. Other delegates distributed food parcels, gave pep talks. Most important, the mission circulated a letter among the troops. Its theme:

The "great victories" of the Communist armies (including, of course, the Chinese "volunteers") have thrown the U.S. into "panic and unrest." But the U.S. has not yet abandoned "its wild ambitions of conquering Korea, attacking China and expanding the war of aggression." Red soldiers must, therefore, "annihilate the evil invasion . . ." The Chinese home front and "all other peace-loving peoples" will give every support to the thorough defeat of "American imperialism."

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