Reds Open Offensive; Army Steps Up Draft For Manpower Need

Eight Chinese Communist divisions massed in northwest Korea were reported this morning in a large-scale offensive bearing down on the east flank of the United Nations defense line. Six Communist armies of 240,000 men aimed a powerful attack at the U.N. flank in an effort to drive the regrouping troops back to Pyongyang, the former North Korean capital 30 miles south of the defense line.

Meanwhile in Washington, President Truman assailed the Chinese Reds, saying they had attacked United Nations troops "without a shadow of justification" and in "naked, deliberate, and unprovoked" aggression.

From England came the report that Premier Clement Attlee would arrive in Washington Monday and ask that the United States avoid was with China.

In Korea, U.S. pilots killed more than 2,000 Red troops yesterday. Swarms of U.S. Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers strafed and rocketed the southbound columns, inflicting heavy casualties. Impeding the Red push toward Songchon, B-26 bombers bombed a hillside and caused a landslide which blocked the main road to the town.

The abated Communist offensive, which already has rolled to U.S. Eighth Army back 40 miles, appeared developing against Songchon. It guards the flank of U.N. defenses 30 miles north of Pyongyang.

However, British informants said yesterday that Prime Minister Clement Attlee will urge President Truman, in their Washington talks starting Monday, to avid war with Red China at all costs. Associates said Attlee believed that this is the only way to preserve western unity.

In his speech before Congress yesterday, Truman said that Russia is to blame for the aggression in Korea and the shaky state of world affairs. "The only explanation," he added, "is that these Chinese Communists have been misled or forced into their reckless attack--an act which can only bring tragedy to themselves--to further the imperialist designs of the Soviet Union."

Vote of Confidence

France's coalition government was a vote of confidence last night in a parliamentary storm on the eve of Premier Rene Pleven's flight to confer with Attlee. Communists and extreme right-wingers attacked the administration but were defeated when Ploven's government received a comfortable margin of 347 votes to 184 on alleged irregularities in their Indo-China defense.

Attlee will confer with the French premier today and will probably take to Washington with him the support of the Paris government for a moderate western policy in Korea