first visit I was more than mildly surprised that the lounge could boast so mildly many attractive, and unaccompanied, young ladies of an evening, particularly since the entrance restrictions were so severe. It must have taken all of ten minutes to discover that the cocktail lounge was a "concession," with the Korean concessionaire paying a pretty price (to whom, I was never sute) for the privilege of having his "merchandise" entered and displayed for the exclusive enjoyment of the field-grade officers who were quartered there. There was a price list, depending on whether company was desired for a short-time or all night, in the rooms upstairs. I was tempted to request another type price list, but thought better of the idea and let it pass. Now, lest you think the enlisted men were getting short shrift, we turn to the U.S. Army Aircraft Center at Ascom City, a large military supply complex in central Korea. The men there had worked long hours in building and equipping a clubhouse for themselves. And a rather nice job it was. Conveniently, it was located fairly near one of the gates to the base. After conferring with the proper base authorities, the club leaders were given permission to construct what later became affectionately known as the "moose-chute." (The word "moose" itself is anglecized from the Korean word for "girl.") The moose-chute consisted of a fenced-in walk-way from the reservation gate directly to the back entrance to the clubhouse. Young Korean ladies might present themselves unaccompanied to the outer gate, receive a metal identification tag, and proceed into the club through the chute. When in the club, each was fair game for any GI who took a liking for them, and the GIs would in turn escort them to the base theater, or to the barracks, depending on which suited their respective fancies at the time. Once the evening was over, the young lady left the base by the same route and returned her little metal tag, and security reigned once again. This proved an exceedingly popular 'device to get acquainted, and was in full swing when I saw it last.

An even-more direct technique for getting acquainted was authorized at the security gate leading into the main billeting area for the Eighth U.S. Army Headquarters, on the fringes of the city of Seoul. There of an evening, rain or shine, summer or winter, would cluster dozens of young Korean ladies. Those officers and men who were quartered inside and who wanted to "get acquainted" any particular evening, would come through the gate with flashlights, go down the ranks of the waiting ladies, use their flashlights to make their choice, and once decided, would escort their partners through the gate with a knowing glance at the military policemen on duty. My research does not cover whether they also escorted them back through the gate once the "getting-acquainted" was over, but presumably, since they were all American gentlemen, they did.

mattachine REVIEW

So much for casual acquaintances in Korea. I have given you only a few instances; these could be multiplied many times all ober Korea. Let's turn for a moment now to mistresses. No self-respecting ranking U.S. Army officer in Korea would be without his mistress. Her appearance and youth were his status symbols within the American military community there. She was decked out in, the finest finery which American mail-order houses or the Post Exchanges could provide, and was escorted to all officer social functions in grand style. It was humorous, at the very least, to witness these pompous, elderly, ranking officers, all, no doubt, with wives just as pompous somewhere back home, squiring their very young Korean mistresses, and clucking over them like mother hens. These mistresses lived, of course, in their masters' billets on the military reservation, and perhaps to be really useful, stirred up a plate of kim chee on occasion. If a mistress was especially well-recommended, and her present master was due to leave Korea for another assignment, she would be reserved for the field-grade or general officer who was his replacement, unless someone else of equal or superior rank put in his bid earlier. No doubt some of these very same ranking officers now sit in judgment on the "moral turpitude" discharge cases which are processed into the Washington military personnel bureaus. Another Korean custom I found rather intriguing. Korean contractors who were bidding on expensive U.S. milftary contracts, many in the millions of dollars, were quick to provide incentives in the form of lavish entertainment. These were not only fine meals, but expensive gifts, and expensive girls as well. Any contracting officer and his cronies could count on a never-ending supply of the good things of life while his approval and signature were needed on the contract form. In justice, there were a few conscientious officers who made their awards based solely on contractor competence. But of the others?

Now if these were harmless peccadilloes, we might dismiss them with a "boys-will-be-boys" shrug. But the fact stands that the "professional" women in South Korea, and to a lesser extent in Japan and Okinawa, have been reportedly organized into a tightly integrated spy network which filters every tidbit of information into North Korea, and from there into Red China. My report indicates that these women are instructed to keep their ears open, particularly when their masters have overimbibed, and to report every scrap of information, no matter how trivial, to designated local intelligence points, from which it is correlated locally and fed into a master collecting point in North Korea, where all the pieces of the mosaic can be fitted together. It is certainly possible that classified information may have been discussed in the alcoholic fog surrounding the bar in the officers' club at Eighth Army Headquarters in South Korea, with the smiling Korean lad-