"A Personal Question"

During a noon recess in the Kaesong peace talks last week, a group of United Nations correspondents got a surprise as two Russian jeeps came screeching up. Out jumped two Westerners in slacks and white shirts, looking as if they had just come from an afternoon of punting on the Thames. One was 41-year-old Alan Winnington, British correspondent for the Communist London Daily Worker, who has been denounced in Parliament as a traitor (TIME, May 21); the other was Australian Wilfred Burchett, 39, a reporter for Paris' Communist daily, Ce Soir. They are the only Western newsmen covering the war from the Red side.

"We just came down from Peking," said Wilmington, through a puff of pipe smoke. The U.N. newsmen crowded around to find out how things are in Communist China. They got a rosy report.

The trip from Pyongyang, said Winnington, was a "very pleasant drive." Were they bothered by planes? "I didn't notice it," said Winnington cheerfully. How about Mao Tse-tung? "Mao looked extremely well the last time I saw him on May 1." And what about the purges in Red China? "Purges? There are no purges. Gangsters, murderers and hangers-on of the old regime are being winkled out by the people themselves."

How is the food in China? "Excellent --really excellent. It's no problem and never will be. They've solved the transportation problem and that's solved the food problem and the harvest problem. The freight and passenger service is really marvelous. Incredibly efficient. I was on the Peking-Mukden train not long ago. It was a beautiful train and on time for 24 hours. Not one minute ahead and not one minute behind." Could Winnington write stories critical of the Red regime? "But why on earth should anyone want to write criticisms when there are so many really wonderful, good things to write about?"

"How do you feel," asked Reuters' Ross Mark, an Australian, "when you see your own chaps being brought in as prisoners?" Answered Winnington: "My first feeling is that they are only unfortunate people."

"What about your second feeling?"

"That's a personal question."

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