GERM WARFARE, KOREA (Hansard, 23 October 1952)

§ Mr. S. O. Davies (Merthyr Tydvil)
The subject which I wish to raise in the short time at my disposal is not unrelated to the subject which has been discussed in the Order dealing with Civil Defence. I propose to say something about germ warfare in Korea. I know that the charge that germ warfare has been carried on there by United Nations forces is usually answered by the cry that it is not true—and that in a voice affecting horror at the thought that the United Nations could resort to such a vile practice. It is, however, well known that in the last 10 or 12 years America has built up huge organisations for developing and prosecuting bacteriological warfare.
Some of us remember the report of Mr. G. W. Merck in 1946. He became chairman of the United States Biological Welfare Committee. He spoke of large laboratories employing about 4,000, at Camp Dettrick, Maryland. We also know that the United States Navy had its own germ warfare plant at the University of California. It is important to note, remarked, Mr. Merck, that the development of agents for biological warfare is possible.. without the vast expenditure of money on construction of huge production facilities. At about the same time the chairman of the United States Naval Appropriations Sub-Committee boasted that the United States was in an enviable position by its progress——

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Sir Charles MacAndrew)
At this point may I ask whether there is any Ministerial responsibility? I should like to know what the Minister has to say.

§ Mr. Emrys Hughes (South Ayrshire)
On a point of order——

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I should like to know whether there is any Ministerial responsibility.

§ Mr. Davies
I wish to raise a point of order on the objection which you are making, Mr. Deputy-Speaker.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I want first to find the answer to my query.

§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Anthony Nutting)
There is no Ministerial responsibility.

§ Mr. Hughes
I submit, with great respect, that whether there is Ministerial responsibility cannot be decided by an Under-Secretary.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I understand that there is no Ministerial responsibility. Therefore, this debate is out of order.

§ Mr. Hughes
I wish to put this point for your further consideration, Mr. Deputy-Speaker. The question of bacteriological warfare is going to be discussed at the United Nations Assembly in a few weeks' time and if we have a Minister there, he will have to speak on this subject. I submit, therefore, that you, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, ought to be guided by that consideration, and not by the casual decision of an Under-Secretary of State.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I cannot see, in regard to the point raised now, that there is any possible responsibility at the moment from our Government's point of view. That is my point. If it has not responsibility, then this debate is out of order.

§ Mr. Davies
If there is no Ministerial responsibility——

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I understand that there is no Ministerial responsibility and therefore this debate is out of order.

§ Mr. Hughes
May I put another point of order? There is a bacteriological station under the control of the Minister of Supply, and I submit that there is a Ministerial responsibility.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
There is no Ministerial responsibility for what is being raised at the moment.

§ Mr. Davies
May I put a further point of order, because I am extremely sensitive at an attempt on the part of Mr. Deputy-Speaker, or anyone else, to suppress discussion in this House on a matter of paramount importance to the people of this country.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I really cannot let that be said. I am only carrying out my duty, and the hon. Gentleman must withdraw that remark. He has no right to speak to me like that.

§ Mr. Davies
I will withdraw. You will probably forgive me, Mr. Deputy- 1434 Speaker, but I feel strongly about this matter. I will withdraw any statement which has caused you umbrage.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
It has not caused me umbrage. I do not care in the slightest. But it is not the right way to address the Chair.

§ Mr. Davies
Will the Chair accept my withdrawal? Further to the point of order, some of us have not a shadow of doubt that bacteriological warfare is being carried out in Korea at this moment. There are British personnel engaged in the Korean war. This Government is responsible for the Korean war—[Interruption.]—this Government assumes its responsibility within the United Nations—and surely one is entitled to raise any matter relating to the Korean war, where young British lives are being lost and being ruined at this moment. Is the Chair telling us that we cannot discuss the details and the methods of warfare being carried on in Korea at this moment?

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
The Chair is going to tell the hon. Member and to insist that there is going to be no discussion where there is no Ministerial responsibility.

§ Mr. Geoffrey Bing (Hornchurch)
If I may follow on this point of order, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, as I understand it, the question upon which my hon. Friend is addressing the House is this: that there exists a United Nations organisation which is engaged in prosecuting on behalf of the United Nations a conflict in Korea. Without going into the merits either one way or the other, there must surely be some collective responsibility on behalf of the nations engaged in this matter, and if there is any allegation against the manner in which that war is conducted, surely that is a matter on which each of the individual countries participating in that war has some degree of responsibility.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
That is a very clever point, but it does not make it any more certain that there is any Ministerial responsibility.

§ Mr. Nutting
May I rise to that point of order? With respect, I entirely agree with the point made by the hon. Member for Hornchurch (Mr. Bing). The question I was asked was whether there was any Ministerial responsibility where the 1435 allegation was made by the hon. Gentleman that the United States Government were carrying on bacteriological research. The answer which I gave to that was, of course, that there was no Ministerial responsibility there at all. But there is Ministerial responsibility where charges are made about the conduct in the Korean war for which conduct we are jointly responsible with the participating nations.

§ Mr. Deputy-Speaker
I beg pardon.

§ Mr. Davies
I am quite prepared to leave the United States out of the discussion, but I cannot help wondering, and I am entitled to express it, as to how we are progressing in the interests, may I say, of a higher civilisation at our own germ warfare plant at Porton on Salisbury Plain, and whether or not we have as yet used our knowledge in this awful business in contributing to the mass destruction of the Korean people. I admit we have signed the 1925 Geneva Protocol against the use of bacteriological weapons in war, but I also know, too, that another nation did not sign, and has refused to sign that Protocol. In view of my being absolutely convinced that germ warfare has been carried out in Korea, I must tell the Government that they must share the blame for that kind of warfare, and the fact that we have signed the Geneva Protocol makes it far more ignominious on our part that we have not protested against that kind of warfare in Korea.
Hon. Gentlemen, however sensitive they may feel about it, must know that the carrying on of germ warfare in Korea has now become very well known, and is backed by evidence that cannot be honestly challenged. I have to admit that the British Press in all matters relating to the abominations of the United Nations in Korea has, during the last two to two and a half years, wallowed in the most cowardly and reckless mendacities, and deliberately refused to give the people even a part of the truth of what has been going on. I am sorry I have to say that about the Press of my own country.
I shall be asked how do I know germ warfare has been carried on in Korea, and I shall be reminded that I have not been there. I was not at Hiroshima, nor at Nagasaki, when the atom bombs were dropped. But I happen to know that the 1436 bombs were dropped there. I did not see Hitler's gas chambers at work, but we all know they were used with dreadful consequences. We know because we have relied on the word and evidence of men and women whose integrity we have no reason at all to doubt. And evidence equally reliable, I contend, has come to us from the Far East, proving beyond all shadow of doubt that germ warfare has been carried on in North Korea and China.
But why should we have any doubt about it? No one questions the use of the napalm bomb in Korea—infinitely more brutal and horrible in the mass killing and maiming of the civilian population than even the germ warfare has been. I saw no pictures from Hitlerite Germany at the end of the last war more terrible and sickening than those of the victims of indiscriminate napalm bombing in Korea, and it is pictures of women and children largely that I have seen. Nothing that my Celtic imagination can conjure up of the horrors of hell can ever equal the sadistic, ghoulish horror inflicted on the Korean people. United Nations for peace and freedom—what absolute hypocrisy in the face of these happenings in that remote part of the world.
Why pretend that those responsible for these crimes against humanity could ever have any scruples about germ warfare? We know that, at the time Japan capitulated in the last war, a cargo of bacteriological agents was on its way to the Marianas to be used against the Japanese. We also know that the Japanese carried on germ warfare against the Chinese in the last war, but it is also known that, on the instructions of the last Commander-in-Chief in Korea, Shiro Ishii, Jiro Wakamatsu and Massajo Kitano, Japanese bacteriological war criminals arrived in Korea from Tokyo in the winter of 1951 to take part in the planning of bacteriological warfare to be launched by the United Nations, including Britain, against the Koreans. What information has the Under-Secretary of State on that hideous fact about Japanese bacteriological war criminals being brought to Korea? It is no use the Government telling me they do not know about it.
There was a telepress despatch from Rangoon dated 5th December, 1951, and 1437 a Reuter despatch of 9th December, 1951, both giving identical reports that this was being done. We know that evidence of germ warfare has been forthcoming from the intelligence officers and other serving American airmen who are prisoners of war and held in North Korea. They have admitted—and I have here with me photostatic copies of their confessions in detail and in their own handwriting—they have admitted that they did take part in this criminal business. I know it will be said that these statements taken from prisoners of war were extracted from them under pressure, but it so happens that all the reports that have come from the prisoners of war in North Korea show that they have been well treated. They are well-fed, well housed and well clothed.
It may also be of some significance to us in this country that there has not been a single massacre of United Nations prisoners in North Korea, a somewhat common practice, we must admit, in South Korea. Nor have the North Koreans introduced the game of taking pot shots at prisoners of war, as has been done in South Korea and where it is euphemistically described as "accidentally shot." This is the war that we are supporting in Korea. From the character of the evidence of these prisoners of war, I am absolutely convinced that it was given quite freely. This evidence showed that they profoundly objected to being used in that wicked business of germ warfare.
I wonder whether the Under-Secretary of State has seen the reports of the International Scientific Commission for the investigation of the facts concerning bacteriological warfare in Korea and China? It has presented evidence that cannot be gainsaid, and I am confident it will not be disputed by any competent scientist in this country. I would ask that copies of the report be placed in the Library of this House. This Commission was composed of distinguished scientists, all well-known and respected in their own countries. They came from Sweden, France, our own country, Italy, Brazil, and the U.S.S.R., and in their report these scientists give not only their findings, but also a description of their methods of investigation, entomological data, and a most detailed account of the infected creatures 1438 disseminated, and the manner of their dissemination. There are facts about outbreaks of plague in North Korea and Manchuria, and how the germs of anthrax, cholera, encephalitis, dysentery, and smallpox were scattered in those countries.
In the light of the great mass of evidence examined by this Scientific Commission, it could only come to one conclusion. In the members' own words, they say: The people of Korea and China have indeed been the objective of bacteriological weapons. These have been employed by units of the United States forces, using a great variety of different methods for the purpose some of which would seem to be developments of those applied by the Japanese army during the Second World War. The report goes on to say: The Commission reached these conclusions after passing from one logical step to another. It did so reluctantly because its members had not been disposed to believe that such inhuman technique could have been put into execution in the face of its universal condemnation by the peoples of all nations. Finally, the Commission adds: It is now for all peoples to redouble their efforts to preserve the world from war and prevent the discoveries of science being used for the destruction of humanity. What an appalling commentary on the prostitution of the art and science of medicine.
The truth of the charges I have made tonight will not be contested on any factual grounds, but feeble excuses will be made, and feeble questions asked, such as, for example, why did not the North Koreans and the Chinese invite the International Red Cross to investigate the charges of germ warfare? The reasons are obvious. When ghastly massacres were taking place in Nazi concentration camps, Red Cross investigators were issuing reports that all was well. Have we forgotten their report on the notorious camp at Auschwitz, of gas chambers fame, that murder camp which——

§ Mr. Speaker
If the hon. Member desires any reply from the Joint Under-Secretary of State, I would remind him that he is leaving very little time. I merely give that reminder in case he is oblivious of the passage of time.

§ Mr. Nutting
Would the hon. Gentleman allow me to interrupt him, because he is obviously not going to give me 1439 enough time in which to reply? May I ask him, having made these accusations against the Red Cross relating to the last war, why, in August, 1949, the Soviet Union and its Eastern satellites all endorsed a report and signed a convention at Geneva in which there was a resolution describing the Red Cross as an impartial humanitarian body?

§ Mr. Davies
I shall answer the question when I have had time to study the conditions under which such a report was made, and not before.
May I finish on this note? May I quote from the book of Hanson W. Baldwin, military expert of the "New York Times" who, in his "Great Mistakes of the War," writes: That blinding flash above Hiroshima wrote a climax to an era of American expediency. On that date we joined this list of those who had introduced new and horrible weapons for the extermination of man.… The use of the atomic bomb, therefore cost us dearly: we are now branded with the 'mark of the beast' … We have embarked on total war with a vengeance. But the foul business goes on, with germ warfare, bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid, small pox, tetanus, with mass killings of men, women and children; and on, like the Gadarine swine, we go into an abyss of moral and spiritual degradation.

§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Anthony Nutting)
The hon. Gentleman has left me precious little time in which to answer the outrageous charges which he has so wantonly bandied about. It is an old story, an old Communist story, and not one shred of the evidence which the hon. Gentleman has produced has added anything to substantiate the charges.
Let me deal with the Scientific Commission to which he referred. In the first place, I noticed on 17th September that the "Daily Worker" admitted it was sponsored by the Communist-controlled World Peace Council, and secondly, that all its six members are known to be Communists or Communist sympathisers.
It is true that Dr. Needham, who led the delegation, is a scientist, but I find it curious that the only bacteriologist 1440 on the deputation was a Russian, a M. Zhukov. What is more, on 28th April, Dr. Needham, the leader of the delegation, publicly supported the germ warfare charges before he had investigated them. This showed that he accepted the charges and that his mind and the minds of the other members of the delegation were made up before they went to investigate. If this does not bear out that the whole of their report bears the mark of a Communist fraud, I do not know what does.
The evidence they have produced is all third-hand. It was received through Chinese interpreters from Chinese scientists working on reports from Chinese peasants. If the hon. Gentleman does not believe that, let him read the report. No attempt was made by this delegation to check or cross-check the evidence, all of which has been taken at its face value without any regard whatsoever for the inevitable partiality of the people through whom it has passed.
Let me quote one thing from what Dr. Needham said at a Press conference after his return. He said: The Chinese replies were vague. If the Chinese did not want to give us permission to investigate these things we could not force them. … Cases had already been thoroughly worked out by the Chinese and they were the ones which they (the Chinese) wanted us (the Commission) to study. That is a clear admission of the fraudulent nature of this report.
I will only say this in conclusion. The whole of the evidence which the hon. Gentleman has produced and the whole of the investigations that have been referred to have not produced one shred of real evidence that bacteria have been used by the United Nations forces in the Korean conflict. Most of all, the fact that up till now every endeavour to secure an impartial investigation has been vetoed by the Soviet can only show that they themselves know perfectly well, as does the hon. Gentleman himself, that their charges would not stand up to independent or neutral investigation.

§ Mr. Davies
I will send the hon. Gentleman a copy of the report.