Son of Korean Farmer Studies at Business School; Returns Next Year

"My countrymen want a unified Korea and a democratic government," Hahn-Been Lee, the only Korean in the University said yesterday. He predicted that elections for a unified Korean parliament will be held by May, and that democratic candidates will win a large majority.

Lee, whose father is an "obscure farmer" on the outskirts of Seoul, graduated from the National University at Seoul and won a scholarship to the Business School in June 1949. He has been here for a year, studying public finance.

"Many of my friends at the National University were North Koreans, and I know that Communism is not a popular doctrine in the North," says Lee, who thinks that Americans fail to distinguish between the situation in China, where Communism is being accepted, and North Korea. He points out that over two million Koreans left the Red zone for the South between 1945 and 1949, and that students throughout the Russian area demonstrated against the changes in the educational system introduced by the Communists. "In fact," he adds, "Many students fled the country entirely."

Russia and Korea

North Koreans have reasons for disliking Communism, Lee explains. The Russians stripped the section of plants, machinery, and ration-scarce rice. Also the Russians intend that Korea should not be independent, but belong to the Soviet Union, as one of its republics. Such a Kremlin policy was publicized by the present North Korean foreign minister.

"Democracy is suited to Korea because literacy is high, 70 percent, according to a U.S. military government estimate," says Lee. Elementary education is universal and there are 13 colleges in South Korea. Koreans can understand political affairs and are avidly interested in them. In Seoul alone, there are 20 newspapers, many of them mouthpieces for one or another of the variety of parties.

Lee asserts that Koreans have already proved they want and can run a democracy. "In 1948 we elected a parliament, which chose Synghman Rhee, president. He has proven a wiser choice than the official U. S. military government authorities who were picked to succeed him. The American choice was an opportunist, who welcomed the Communist army when they entered Seoul. Our democratic government was gaining strength, last spring it succeeded in balancing the budget and Curbed the inflation felt by the Japanese."

Unification is Prime Goal

Lee believes that the U.S. press has influenced Americans to think there is a distinction between North and South Koreans. He emphasizes that this is not so. "There is no difference between North and South Koreans. A few Koreans strongly indoctrinated with Communism led the attack against the South, the others followed zestfully, fighting only for the unification, which is the primary goal of all Koreans."

He says he notices particularly pictures in the papers of "boys from the North who grin when they are captured and news reports that Koreans north of the 38th parallel are rejoicing at the arrival of the South Korean army." He explains that the vanguard of the South Korean invading army is composed of exited boys from the North who are now going home.

North Koreans will vote for a democratic regime, headed by Synghman Rhee, because no propaganda can destroy Korean allegiance to Rhee, a legendary figure, who has fought for his country's independence for more than half a century. March 1, 1949--a date celebrated as Independence Day ever since--Rhee led an unsuccessful revolt against the Japanese who dominated his country from 1905 to 1945. Then Rhee set up a provisional government at Shanghai, which became the official Government when Japan fell.

The return of the 2,000,000 people who escaped from the North, and a fair election--with the candidates black-listed by the Reds campaigning--will also favor a democratic victory in North Korea, Lee thinks.

Balloting in May

Both the North and South Korean states appointed provisional governors for the provinces in the other's control. Exiles in South Korea also formed specific associations representing each county in North Korea. Lee expects that these men will return to the areas from which they came and set up temporary governments until the time of the first all-Korean elections. Lee hopes that balloting will take place May 10, 1951, the 3rd anniversary of the first free election in South Korea.

Lee intends to return to Korea when he graduates in June. "I will go to the budget bureau or the ministry of finance and work up from the bottom," he says. Asserting he planned from boyhood to study in the U. S., he says he never learned economics until he came to the Business School. "At the National University I majored in English, minored in philosophy, and had a diversity of interests, including Greek. Most of our professors, like the administrators, were Japanese trained in Japan. Today there is a lack of men trained in public administration." To help remedy this situation, he is taking a course at Littauer in administrative processes.

Although a compatriot who studied at the Medical School last year and another who was at summer school have left Cambridge and none of the several hundred other Korean students in the United States are at Harvard, Lee is not lonely. The men at the Business School testify that he is a "great guy." He likes Harvard and states, "I could not find a better place to study fiscal policy."