Editorial Note
On March 30, 1953, the New China News Agency broadcast a statement by Premier Chou En-lai which was also sent as a cablegram to Lester B. Pearson, President of the United Nations General Assembly, with a request that it be distributed to all member states, “except the so-called ‘delegation’ of the remnant Chinese Kuomintang clique.” Chou En-lai, on behalf of the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, proposed that negotiations should begin immediately on the exchange of sick and wounded and should then proceed to an overall settlement of the prisoner of war question. To this end, the Chinese Premier proposed “that both sides to the negotiations should undertake to repatriate immediately after the cessation of hostilities all those prisoners of war in their custody who insist upon repatriation and to hand over the remaining prisoners of war to a neutral state so as to insure a just solution to the question of their repatriation.” For the complete text of this statement, see the Department of State Bulletin, April 13, 1953, pages 526–527.