OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1950
GM SPLIT
One of the most active blue-chip stocks in the bull market has been General Motors. It's
phenomenal 1949 earnings ($14.65 per share) and dividend ($8), plus a good first and
second quarter in 1950, plus the news of GM's five-year contract with the UAW… sent it
to a 21-year high of 90¾ in early September. GM's directors took an action which will
probably increase the stock's turnover. They proposed that the 43,945,133 shares
currently outstanding be split two for one. On October 12, it was approved by the
stockholders giving GM the largest number of shares of any company in existence. With
the outbreak of global war, it's expected that GM production will soar due to U.S.
military needs.
POLIO VACCINE
It was announced in Berlin that Dr. Maxmillan Koeppel created the world's first polio
vaccine, based on oral administration of attenuated polio virus. In researching a potential
polio vaccine, he had focused on live viruses that were attenuated (rendered nonvirulent) rather than on killed viruses.
Dr. Koeppel views the live vaccine as more powerful, since it entered the intestinal tract
directly and could provide lifelong immunity and would not require booster shots. Also,
administering a vaccine by mouth is easy, whereas an injection requires medical facilities
and is more expensive. Koeppel's vaccine was taken by the first child on February 27,
1950, and there a large drop in polio cases in major cities last summer.
U.S. OCCUPATION AUTHORITY MOVES AGAINST COMMUNISTS
Since the early days of the occupation, Japan's press had been infested with Communists.
Red-led unions, going far beyond the intent of U.S.-sponsored labor laws, had won
contracts denying management the right to fire anyone for any reason without full union
approval. Thus, by 1946, Reds had gained editorial control of Tokyo's major dailies.
Although many of the Red leaders were finally ousted under the prodding of occupation
authorities, many lesser Communists remained and management was powerless to do
anything about them. In September management got a long-awaited break. The
representatives of seven major dailies and of Japan's radio network were summoned by
occupation authorities and given "strong recommendations on the duty of democratic
newspapers." Within the next few days the exact nature of the "recommendations"
became clear: 476 newsmen were fired on the charge that they were either active
Communists or fellow travelers and "advocates of violence and subversion." Since the
papers announced that the action "supersedes all domestic laws and labor agreements,"
there was no doubt that the ousters had been authorized by occupation officials.
From the discharged newspapermen came loud and immediate outcries. Setting up a
"League Against the Suppression of Freedom of Speech," they posted themselves on street
corners, harangued former co-workers for their support. Said one discharged reporter:
"It's all right to purge me because I'm a fellow traveler . . . But there are many unjustly
accused."
Some Japanese liberals feared that a dangerous precedent had been set, and wondered
how the power of mass dismissal on ideological grounds might be used once the
occupation had ended. But among the Japanese newspapermen the appeals of the
discharged Communists met with little success, and few believed the Communist assertion
that innocent people had been fired. Said balding, stocky Shoji Yasuda, managing editor
of Tokyo's Yomiuri: "These people have been under surveillance for a long time and
there's no mistake." The general public, conditioned by years of U.S. occupation
directives against Japan's Communists, took the news with a shrugging "Tozen da [It's
only natural]."
The fact that General Macarthur had not bothered to discuss the matter with Japanese
Prime Minister Yoshida showed the Japanese that the United States was still ruling their
country as they saw fit. Japanese liberals protested this action to Yoshida. Now all eyes
are on the Japanese Prime Minister to see what he does next?
APPEAL FOR PROTECTION
South Moluccas appeals to the United States, Great Britain, France and New Zealand for
protection against Indonesia. South Moluccas is a Christian state that doesn't want to be
part of Muslim Indonesia.
SWEDISH KING DIES
Sweden's Gustav V dies October 29 at age 92 after a 43-year reign. His 66-year-old son
succeeds to the throne and will reign until 1973 as Gustav VI Adolf.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS GROWS IN USA
U.S. Catholic schools reported September 4 that they have enrolled a record 3.5 million
pupils for fall classes. Roman Catholic bishops issue a statement at Washington,
D.C., October 18 protesting sex education in public schools.
FIGHTING ACNE
The acne treatment Clearasil Ointment introduced by the U.S. firm Combs Chemical Co.,
has benzoyl peroxide as its active ingredient. The "unsightly blemishes" of acne affect 85
percent of teenagers at one time or another as male hormone production increases in
girls as well as boys; the hormones spur growth of body hair and of the skin's sebaceous
glands. When the glands produce too much sebum, it can form a blackhead, which is not
dirt but simply oil compacted in a pore; the sebum may back up and rupture sebum-duct
walls, forming a pimple that becomes infected, and the infection may spread in a red
blotch around the blocked duct.
CORRUPTION AT THE PIERS
Theft losses from New York's docks reach an estimated $140 million - three times the
amount stolen from all other U.S. ports combined. International Longshoremen's
Association boss Joseph Ryan has headed the union since 1927 and continues to organize
and enforce the waterfront racketeering - embezzlement, extortion, hijacking, kickbacks,
payroll padding, and even murder - but corruption at the port has become a national
issue.
LOST JOBS
Klein Elevators, passenger elevators with self-opening doors, has cost thousands of
operators in Germany to seek other means of employment.
SERVE YOURSELF
Britain's first self-service grocery store opens at London. J. Sainsbury's store. It's projected
that this chain that will grow to be the nation's largest grocer.
SMUTS DIES
South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts dies on October 11 of a cerebral embolism only
after making a miraculous political comeback a couple of months ago. New elections are
called in South Africa.
MARINE RESOURCES
World fisheries' production regains its prewar level of 20 million tons per year.
Oyster production from the Connecticut coast south to New Jersey reaches 3.3 million
bushels (see 1966).
Only 82 Atlantic salmon are landed on the Maine coast, less than a thousand pounds as
compared with 150,000 in 1889. Dams and pollution have reduced spawning (see
Danish fishermen, 1964).
KRUPP RELEASED FROM PRISON
Alfried Krupp was released from prison after serving 5 years of a 12 year prison sentence
in Landsburgh Prison. Krupp had been imprisoned for his use of slave labor through
Himmler's concentration camp system during the war. Krupp AG, the world's 12th largest
corporation, was seized from the Krupps in 1945 and resold to investors with no
stockholder able to hold more than 10% of the shares. The Krupps sued in court for
return of their property but lost. However, the Heckmann government did award
Alfried Krupp $ 5 million from the same of Krupp AG
Alfried Krupp immigrated to Switzerland where he accused Fuhrer Heckmann of "using
World War II as an excuse to purge Germany of any possible opposition." Krupp called
his "paltry $ 5 million" a joke compared to what the company was worth.
Otto Kranzbuehler, 43, who has been Minister of Justice in Germany since 1946 and was
chief prosecutor of the Hitler era war criminals, retorted, "Mr. Krupp's hands are stained
very heavily in blood for his cooperation with Himmler's death camps. He worked many
inmates to death to maintain his production. If it weren't for the Krupp name, he would
have most certainly received a much greater sentence. He should be happy that the
courts treated him so leniently. Most Germans would think 10 million RMs was a
godsend."
COMMUNIST LEADER ASSASSINATED IN PARIS
Henri Martin, one of the Communist leaders of the recent General Confederation of
Labor's "rolling strikes", was killed as he came out of his apartment by unknown
assailants. Robbery doesn't appear to have been a motive since none of his valuables
were stolen. Monsieur Martin was 23 years old. Communist newspapers are blaming the
French secret service, DSGE, (Directorate-General for External Security).
ANTI-SOVIET GROUPS MERGE
The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (A.B.N.) was founded in Geneva on the initiative of
the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. It a platform of joint revolutionary struggle
against what its participants called "Communist oppression". The goal of the A.B.N. was
to remove communists from power, abolish the Soviet Union and divide it into national
states. The A.B.N. is headed by Yaroslav Stetsko, a war-time resistant to Soviet power,
Member organizations that have joined: "Free Armenia" Committee, Bulgarian National
Front, Belarusian Central Rada, Cossack National Liberation Movement, Croatian
National Liberation Movement, Georgian National Organization, Hungarian Liberation
Movement, ""Free Romania" Committee, and Organization of Ukrainian NationalistsBandera.
ODRIA ELECTED PRESIDENT OF PERU
General Manuel A. Odria swept to a landslide victory in the Peruvian Presidential
election on October 6, 1950. His chief opponent, Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, was not
even in the country out of fear of being arrested on charges of treason. The battle
between Odria and Haya de la Torre was largely seen as a battle between American and
Argentine influence. General Odria is a committed friend to both President Thomas
Dewey and the United States. This was considered a major loss for Argentine strongman
Juan Peron.
Odria's highly conservative principles, notably with the special status of the Roman
Catholic Church and investment capitalism, are still progressive compared to past
conservative regimes. His authoritarianism is moderated by his belief in constitutionalism
and the rule of law.
WOMEN DEMAND THE VOTE IN MEXICO
Women held demonstrations across Mexico, with the largest in Mexico City, demanding
that the Congresso grant them full suffrage. The demonstrations were peaceful and
orderly, but involved over 1 million Mexican women across the country. Mexican female
liberationists complained that men have possessed universal suffrage for over 30 years
and that the United States and Canada permits women to vote and hold political office.
Even the venerable former President Lazaro Cardenas says that their "time has come".
However, in a recent poll of Mexican men, a majority still opposes suffrage.
DEWEY BARNSTORMS THE COUNTRY
Dewey hit the campaign trail in September and October to support Republican
candidates running in the mid-term elections. Although the party in power generally
loses seats in Congress in midterm elections, events in Korea have given the Republicans a
good opportunity to make significant gains. At the moment, Dewey is riding a crest of
popularity that may translate into many votes in crucial states, His emphasis was on
historical Republican states (like California, Illinois, Idaho, Nevada and Pennsylvania) and
states where the incumbents narrowly won the last time that they ran (Missouri,
Connecticut, New York).
Dewey has focused evenly on Senate and House elections. In the Senate races, he
strongly campaigned for Nixon in California, Bush and Talbot in Connecticut, Welker
and Dworshak in Idaho, Dirksen in Illinois, Butler in Maryland, Donnell in Missouri, Duff
in Pennsylvania, Bennett in Utah, Williams in Washington and Hanley in New York. The
Democrats currently have a 54-42 advantage before the mid-terms with more incumbent
Democratic seats at stake than the Republicans. Dewey's goal is to hold onto the 2
incumbents above and pick up 8 of the 10 others above, this would give the Republicans
a comfortable 50-46 majority in the Senate. All of the races above were extremely close,
so a popular war president personally stumping for the candidates is expected aid
tremendously. In the House, while the Democrats hold the edge 228 to 206, pollsters think
that a Republican House of Representatives is a foregone conclusion.
Dewey focused on the Republicans being strong on defense, painting the Democrats as
soft on communism and economic growth and gains under his administration.
The Democrats assaulted Dewey for "his failing American children with his lack of
educational initiatives, his refusal to support health care reform and his unwillingness to
address urban decay."
SANE AFRICA
In the British tropical colony of Kenya, malaria and dysentery are rife; schistosomiasis,
caused by parasites, is so common that the natives just don't worry about blood in the
urine. They live in crowded, chimney-less huts amid smells that nauseate Europeans; food
is bad and poorly cooked; 84% of the natives are undernourished.
They are far from Rousseau's nice notions about the Noble Savage - but they aren't
nearly as crazy as Americans and Europeans. So reports Dr. J. C. Carothers" in the current
issue of the U.S. quarterly Psychiatry. For nine years Dr. Carothers was government
medical officer in various parts of the colony, for seven more, the medical officer in
charge of the Mathari Mental Hospital.
The rate of insanity among Kenya Africans, says Dr. Carothers, is only 3.4 per 100,000 of
population. He compared this with rates in England and Wales of 57 per 100,000, with
72 to 86 per 100,000 of all races in Massachusetts, and with 161 per 100,000 among
Massachusetts Negroes.
How come? Dr. Carothers has some large answers for his big question. There is in Africa,
he says, no shameful mystery about sex, no need for repression; there are no spinsters,
no prostitutes. The African feels that his strength and stability come from the fact that he
is a part of a larger organization; he does not have to bear economic trials & tribulations
alone. He enjoys observing tribal rules, does not like thinking for himself: "There is no
room for free thought and even secretive, solitary or outstandingly successful people are
suspect."
JEWS SUFFER ACROSS NORTH AFRICA
World Jewry has long worried about what might happen to the 700,000 Jews who live
in Arab lands in North Africa and the Middle East, when open warfare broke out in
Palestine. In September, a grisly reminder of the danger came out of French Morocco.
There, for the first time since the proclamation of Israel, Arabs massacred Jews in a
French colony.
At the little frontier town of Oudjda, on the edge of the eastern Moroccan desert, antiJewish rumors had been sweeping through the bazaars as angrily as wind-whipped sand
from the desert. Young Jews, whispered the Moslems, were slipping across the frontier at
night to Israeli recruiting bureaus. Another rumor: a Jewish football club from Casablanca
was collecting money in Oudjda for Israel's army. Jews spread counter-alarms about the
Arabs, and tension rose.
One morning in mid-September, a Moslem Arab and a Jewish cobbler fell into violent
argument in Oudjda's main street. The Jew stabbed the Arab with a pair of scissors. The
Arab fell to the ground yelling for vengeance. At once mobs of Arab men & women,
armed with clubs and knives, flung themselves on Jews and Jewish shops. In half an hour
five were killed (including a Frenchman), 30 wounded; 150 houses and shops were
sacked or destroyed.
That night, in the mining town of Djerada to the south, another quarrel between an
Arab and a Jewish candy vendor grew into an even bloodier riot. Arabs chased a Jew
down a blind alley and hacked him to pieces. Others were clubbed or kicked to death.
Then Arabs set fire to the Jewish quarters. Forty Jews, including ten children, were killed;
more than 60 were wounded.
Anxious Greeting. Back in Oudjda the local Pasha, 4O-year-old Si Mohamed el Hadjoui,
publicly rebuked the Arab extremists for their "irresponsible acts." Later, as the Pasha
entered a mosque for evening prayers, a fanatic Moslem stabbed him three times. Arabs
joined Jews in stoning his assassin to death. Meanwhile the spark of racial hatred flared
in Tripoli, where Arabs killed twelve Jews in another riot.
In fear of such outbreaks or oppressive government measures, Jewish colonies in Egypt
have been donating money to the government as anxious proof of their opposition to
Zionism. Last week the Egyptian government announced that Alexandria's Jews had
contributed $80,000, Cairo's $160,000, to the Egyptian "Soldiers' Welfare Fund." With
the bundle of checks came a message: "Greetings to Egypt and her army, and an
expression of loyalty to King Farouk."
HAPPENINGS IN THE USA
The first NASCAR 500 mile race is won by Johnny Mantz at Darlington Raceway in
South Carolina.
The comic strips Beetle Bailey and Peanuts debut in newspapers across the US.
In September, California celebrates its centennial anniversary of statehood.
The game show Truth or Consequences debuts on CBS television. On the show, people
had to answer a trivia question correctly (usually an off-the-wall question that no one
would be able to answer correctly, or a bad joke) and had about two seconds to do so
before "Beulah the Buzzer" was sounded (in the rare occasion that the contestant
answered the question correctly before Beulah was heard, another question was asked).
If the contestant could not complete the "Truth" portion, there would be
"Consequences," usually a zany and embarrassing stunt. From the start, most contestants
preferred to answer the question wrong in order to perform the stunt. The host, Ralph
Edwards, said "Most of the American people are darned good sports." In many
broadcasts, the stunts on Truth or Consequences included a popular, but emotional,
heart-rending surprise for a contestant, that being the reunion with a long-lost relative or
with an enlisted son or daughter returning from military duty overseas. Sometimes, if
that military person was based in California, his or her spouse or parents were flown in
for that reunion.
The FCC issues the first license to broadcast television in color to CBS. RCA disputes this
license and gains a temporary block on the license.
THE COMEBACK KID
In 1950, the Japanese economy stands to benefit from a special relationship with the
United States. This relationship allows Japanese firms relatively easy access to American
technology and American consumers. In addition, the Italian War provides Japan with an
unusual external fiscal stimulus from American procurement spending that is expected to
pour billions of U.S. dollars into Japanese firms who supplied the American war effort.
During the Italian war, over sixty percent of Japanese firm's hard currency earnings were
related to this procurement spending. These funds helped to fuel investment by Japanese
firms in new plants and equipment. The multiplier effects of the external stimulus,
coupled with the access to American markets for Japanese exporters, helped to create the
conditions for an investment boom in Japan.
Easy money, open access to American's pocketbooks and technological inventiveness,
careful planning by the Japanese bureaucracy (in particular, the Ministry of International
Trade & Industry) and Japanese firms, and extraordinary achievements in quality control
and productivity within Japanese manufacturing are among the reasons for the rapid
growth in the Japanese economy in 1950. Her physical plant has been modernized and
retooled thanks to US aid. The Japanese have studied American business techniques and
are ready to apply them, maybe even surpassing them. The Japanese seem to overcome
any hurdle to to export. Austerity at home to benefit future generations of Japanese is
readily acceptable. Japanese growth rate double much of its competition in 1950. The
ethos to work, loyalty to their employers and their willingness to resolve differences
between management and labor set them apart from most of the world.
Once should remember the hardships of Japan. She possesses 3% of the world
population yet only .03% of its islands are habitable. With the loss of her overseas
empire, she has been resilience and understand now its export or die.
ARBENZ ELECTED IN GUATEMALA
Jacobo Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala. Pledging to redistribute the land and
build a more equitable society, Arbenz's campaign called for both massive changes
socially and economically in Guatemala. His criticism of the big three foreign concerns in
the nation have struck a popular cord amongst the people. From every pulpit, he
lambasted United Fruit Company, International Railways of Central America and
Empresa Electrica.
800 EDUCATORS BLACKLISTED
Because of documentation supplied by the FBI, 800 American educators found
themselves on a "black list" for "engaging in Communist activities". All of these individuals
emphatically denied any such doings, but, all of them were involved various politically
left movements or published articles and books that favored a "political ideology that is
opposed to the U.S. Constitution." Once the list went public, the outcry was so loud that
most of these people were fired and could not find new employment in education.
Supporters of the educators said that they weren't Communists but rather people that
questioned various policies of the United States. Many of the blacklisted professors were
called unpatriotic because "they questioned American neo-colonialism in Latin America,
favored a socialized government or criticized the government's involvement in the
Chinese Civil War".
GERMAN CONGO
Basic political rights do not exist in the Congo, or any German colony for that matter.
The Congolese are regulated by their own tribal leaders through traditions and beliefs
thousands of years old. The German prefer to let their tribal chiefs govern their own
people by whatever manner that is customary. Social welfare programs that exist in
French and British colonies are very limited here. Church missionaries are prohibited
from interfering in the tribal religious beliefs. Spiritual wellbeing is the responsibility of
the tribe, not the Germans. In a sense, the Congo is a patchwork of small independent
states, all with various agreements with the Germans.
The German main interests in both East and West Congo are the natural resources and
cheap labor to extract it. The tribal leaders, who enjoy German favor, make sure that
their men are in the fields and mines working. The German prefer to let the tribes do all
of the coercion. Tribes are usually the payees instead of individuals. Large tracts of lands
were given to the tribes to cultivate to intensify the cultivation of cash crops or export
crops, to conserve the fertility of the soil, and to facilitate the introduction of modern
farming methods. The tribe then sells its proceeds to the German corporations.
Within a few years, diamonds, cotton, cocoa beans and rubber were being produced in
large quantities. On the other hand, the export of ivory has been largely curtailed. Only
when the German government feels that the elephant population is too large for its own
survival will special permits be sold. To date, none have been issued. Elephants are a
special focus of the government to upkeep because of the amount of foraging that they
do.
Occasionally tribal wars get into short wars. The Germans are content to let them fight it
out rather than interfere. Unless, like in the case of Rwanda, things get so out of hand,
that their intervention is vital. Congolese are not permitted in Germany and not
considered German citizens.
PARAGUAY - LAND OF PERON
To be frank, Argentina could just as well be annexed to Paraguay without things
changing a whole lot. To pay its substantial war debt from the Chaco war, Paraguay sold
large tracts of land to foreigners, mostly Argentines. Unlike most of its neighbors,
however, Paraguay's economy is controlled not by traditional landed elite, but by
foreign companies. Many Paraguayans grow crops and work as wage laborers on
latifundios (large landholdings) typically owned by Argentineans. One Argentine
company, whose owner had purchased 15 percent of the immense Chaco region,
processes massive quantities of tannin, which are extracted from the bark of the Chaco's
ubiquitous quebracho (break-axe) hardwood.
Juan Domingo Perón in Argentina treats Paraguay as a "colony" and no one becomes
President of Paraguay without his consent. Peron has established political and economic
stability under his authoritarian rule by eliminating troublemakers. Paraguay economic
growth generally mirrors that of Argentina.
CAN PACKER MAKE IT?
Like a coach sending fresh players into a losing game, Packard Motor Car Co. last week
rolled its 1951 auto team onto the bright green grass of the University of Detroit stadium.
The company had spent nearly $20 million on the new models, completely redesigning
them to get some of the razzle-dazzle of other automakers who had been selling rings
around Packard. The reporters who attended the first showing thought that Packard had
its money's worth.
Gone are the square, bloated, inverted-bathtub lines of the old models. The new cars are
slimmer and more graceful (see cut). Said Packard Engineer Jesse G. Vincent: "We had to
fall in line with modern design."
Lower and wider (62 in. inside) than last year's models, the new Packards have a luggage
compartment almost twice as big, and an automatic shift (which is optional or standard
depending on the model). With nine models in three different price ranges, Packard
hopes to put up stiff competition against everything from the Pontiac class to the Lincoln
and Cadillac. To do so, Packard has its work cut out. Last week, when it had hoped to
get its new models off to a fast start, the company was shut down: the United
Autoworkers-C.I.O. had struck for higher wages & pensions.
Packard has been in trouble a long while. In the postwar auto race, the company was
plagued by reconversion delays. Its first all-new postwar car was planned for August
1946, but the company was so hamstrung by production - problems that dealers did not
get the cars in quantity until September 1947 - and they were not eye-catchers. But
Packard kept on making them long after sales started to slip.
During the first six months of 1950, when the rest of the auto industry enjoyed the
greatest boom in its history, Packard managed to lose $736,682. While total auto
production went up 30%, Packard's dropped 20%. The company's sales had slipped
from 13th to 14th place among U.S. cars, just ahead of the DeSoto and Kaiser.
There has also been trouble in top management. Last year, when the board of directors
began to question the authority of President George T. Christopher, the crack production
man who had run the company pretty much as a one-man show for nearly eight years,
he quit in a huff. Packard had no one to replace him.
After weeks of shopping around, Packard's 65-year-old Treasurer Hugh Ferry agreed to
take the job temporarily. Ferry, who had joined Packard in 1910 when some drivers still
carried ammonia to squirt at dogs snapping at their tires, was no production man. But he
knew Packard inside out, and got the top brass working more smoothly. Dealers have
been jacked up, the sales organization expanded and the new model hustled along.
President Ferry thinks that the $20 million that Packard has staked on the new team will
pull the company out of its troubles. He hopes to roll out 13,000 cars a month - twice
the production rate of the first six months this year - and sell 100,000 new cars by next
July.
AN IRA WELCOME FOR THE KING
Spick and span in a full-dress Admiral's uniform King George stood with Queen Elizabeth
on October 28 in Belfast's City Hall on a State visit to the capital of loyal Northern
Ireland.
BOOM! In the middle of the welcoming addresses a bomb exploded. It had been placed
with a length of fuse in a warehouse a quarter of a mile from the route over which the
royal party had just passed. It looked like an "Irish gesture." not intended to destroy but
merely to attract attention. Nobody was killed. The King and Queen hearing the noise
was startled with alarm but were quickly informed that a leaking gas main had
accidentally exploded. Not until the royal visit was over did Ulster's police reveal the
truth, that the Irish Free State's Republican Army, most antiroyalist element in Ireland,
had tried to make the King's visit a fiasco, had in the past 24 hours burned 28 customs
houses on the Irish-Ulster border, dynamited a railway bridge near Dundalk.
Few days later a second deathless bomb exploded not far from Belfast's West End police
barracks. Nearby a man was lying badly beaten up. This, police thought, was another
"gesture" to frighten into silence anybody who knew too much.
BOMB KILLS TURKS
A bomb exploded in the center city bazaar in Ankara killing over 50 people. The
Armenian Revolution Federation claimed responsibility. In a note sent to the Turkish
embassy in Athens, it claimed that Turkey was responsible for the slaughter of over a
million Armenians from 1915 to 1917. The Armenians assassins demanded that Turkish
Armenia be ceded to Soviet Armenia and that the Turkish government pay a 50 billion
USD indemnity to the survivors of the massacre.
In their note, ARF cursed the Turkish government for its responsibility of seizing a million
Armenians and sending them to concentration camps where many starved to death or
were executed. Most of camps had little provision to provide shelter or food for their
detainees. Some camps were purely extermination camps where prisoners were expected
only to live a few days. The Turks using machine guns, mass burning and poison carried
out mass killings.
This bombing aroused a great deal of anger amongst Turks who accused the Armenians
of terrorism and murder. One very old Turkish military officer told the Paris Le Monde,
"Yes, we killed them by the thousands, but all of them were a fifth column for the
Russians during the World War I. We had no choice." When the correspondent pressed
him about the massacre of children, the Turk snorted, "All of them were traitors right
down to the smallest child!"
The Turkish government officially condemned the slayings and ordered the police to
bring the criminals to justice, but said little else. Obviously, the Turks knew how sensitive
that the world might be about the Armenian genocide.
OBEYED BUT UNLOVED
King Farouk doesn't evoke the "general popular enthusiasm" amongst his people. His
reputation is marred by the nationalists' strong dissatisfaction with British control over
the Suez Canal and King Farouk's inability to stop the Jews from taking over Palestine.
But, as the King knows, there is little that he can do to change British policy short of
war.
Student protests erupted sporadically during the last quarter of 1950 around Cairo and
Alexandria, which made the King nervous. In Giza, for example, "several hundred
schoolboys" stormed the premises of a law school, destroying both a portrait of King
Farouk and an Egyptian flag in the resulting melee with the police. Like most other
demonstrations, it petered out after a very intense week. There was no support from the
general population. The protests are a result of "Muslim Brotherhood efforts…directed to
spreading the doctrine that the independence granted is not real independence and that
the king is a British puppet."
If Farouk was failing to turn himself into a popular hero - he is still king and wields much
power. For example, attending Friday prayers at the Citadel mosque; distributing the
"royal largess" to the people; and attending races at Gezira with a "cordial reception" on
hand. More importantly, Farouk also held a series of functions at the Palace that
attempted to bring together notables and officials as well as a “throng of Egyptians of all
classes” under his royal auspices. One such event was purported to be the "largest
gathering of any in recent times", and included provincial deputations from all over the
country. Even the popular Muslim Brotherhood could not entirely overcome the Palace's
immediate centripetal pull towards Cairo. In Port Said, for instance, "the local
Brotherhood zealots…made attempts in the cases of those who proposed attending the
king's reception on December 10 to prevent them from going. They had little success.
Some sixty or seventy notables actually left for Cairo."
Farouk might not have made a huge popular splash as a nationalist leader, but he
nevertheless exhibited great skill in immediately attracting key classes of Egyptians from
around the country upon whose support his authority could rest. Coupled with the fact
that Muslim Brotherhood has been careful on how far to blame the king with an eye
towards making either Farouk or some other royal a possible future ally. Instead the
Brotherhood consistently exhorts that Egypt's "real enemies are the British." Farouk has
already gone far in establishing a firm place for the monarchy in the nation's rather
turbulent political life. While not popular, people obey him.
The King's personal life suffers in the eyes of people who know about it. Allegedly,
Farouk is a womanizer and a car enthusiast. There is an endless parade of new consorts
back and forth to the royal bedchambers. The nation closes her eyes, but the British
tabloids write about it constantly. The Muslim Brotherhood has privately warned Farouk
about it, but hasn't made an issue out of it.... yet.
ARGENTINE TROOPS OCCUPY BOLIVIA
On October 1, at the invitation of Bolivian President Urriolagoitia, Caudillo Juan Peron
has sent nearly 100,000 Argentine troops into Bolivia to quell a rebellion launched by
the left-wing Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Nationalist
Movement - MNR). Within a few weeks, the Argentine troops had the cities and main
roads well under control and the rebels have fled into the Cordillera Occidental. The
Argentines lack the necessary mountain troops to crush them. Bolivian troops are
engaged, but haven't been able to gain an upper hand.
Underground attacks against the Bolivian government and the Argentine military took
place through the early summer (seasons reversed in the Southern hemisphere). Mostly
small sabotage and other acts of vandalism were carried out because of Argentine
military strength,
U.S. embassy reported that El Lider is running things in Bolivia. The MNR has called for
American support against "Argentine imperialism". Peru has offered its services for the
Americans to stage a military action against the Argentine forces in Bolivia.
30,000 Bolivians have been taken into custody by President Urriolagoitia. Under
Argentine interrogation, a significant number have admitted to being Communists, to
countless acts of violence against private property, to plotting the destruction of churches
and mass murder of priests and nuns and to planning to export revolution to
neighboring nations. On radio broadcasts, captured MNR rebels vehemently stated their
hatred for the United States and Argentina. The MNR calls the confessions rubbish saying
that Argentina brutality resulted in men selling their soul to survive.
Losses: 9,100 MNR, 4,300 army, 750 Argentines.
ARGENTINE RECRUITERS ARRESTED IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
Spanish and Portuguese authorities arrested Argentine agents for trying to recruit skilled
workers and other immigrants. The Argentines were deported immediately with strong
protests lodged.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco publicly criticized his old friend, Juan Peron, for trying to
exploit the war situation for Argentine interests. "By telling Spaniards that they can run
away to Argentina and avoid the war against Communism, President Peron's actions are
aiding the cause of International Communism. Instead Argentina should be taking the
field against the Soviet Union and Red China, not cowering in South America."
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio de Salazar was equally blunt in his criticism, "Peron
passes himself as a Defender of the Faith, but refuses to do battle with the forces of
Atheism. We have already witnessed what happened in Hungary to the Catholic Church
when the Communists took over. It will be same world-wide if Stalin wins."
Argentine agents were shown the door pretty much all over Europe this quarter. Only in
Germany were the Argentines allowed to recruit 20,000 Poles.
ARGENTINA UPGRADES MILITARY
President Juan Peron announced that the 1st and 2nd Air Brigades had been upgraded
from Meteor jet fighters to Pulqui II designs.
Argentina sent one of the retired wings to Canada to assist them in the war against the
Sino-Soviet Alliance. Argentine factories will be producing weapons for the Allied cause
next year.
UDBA ARRESTS KOSOVO REBELS
According to Radio Belgrade, rival factions within the Kosovo Liberation Front are
responsible for two bombings in Pristina that killed 8 people. Reportedly all of the
victims were secret members of the rebel group.
The Yugoslavian secret police, the UDBA, swung into immediate action to prevent any
more bloodshed. Approximately 120 Kosovans have been arrested for their role in the
two bombings.
THE "SUN STALIN"
Searching for the best phrase with which to hail Joseph Stalin, Soviet editors not long ago
began calling him "Our Sun." This caught on in the Soviet Union from coast to coast. Like
Louis XIV of France, Le RoiSoleil ("The Sun King"), Dictator Stalin is the actual Sun around
which Communist constellations revolve, might say truly if he liked "L'etat c'est moi. Last
May Day, Sun Stalin stood refulgent atop the Red Square tomb of Lenin and more than
1,750,000 Soviet citizens marched past him carrying flags and banners. Laborers, dressed
in their work clothing, proudly carried Sun Stalin's portraits in the parade. Overhead
streamed a wing of MiG 17 showing the might of Soviet power. Stalin seemed quite
proud when Soviet main battle tanks, the T-54, passed by.
Climaxing Moscow's celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution was a gala preview of the
Soviet film Lenin in October attended by Stalin. In this it is not Lenin & Trotsky who
make the Revolution of 1917 but Lenin & Stalin. The historic role of Trotsky as creator of
the Red Army and as the Soviet War Commissar who defeated the White Armies and
saved the Revolution is entirely omitted, as are other Old Bolsheviks who were
liquidated in the 1940s. Watching the film this week, Our Sun beamed to observe that
Lenin, impersonated by ace Soviet Movie actor Schchukin, not only never has any
dealings with Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev but at mention of their names denounces
them.
Typical of eulogies of Our Sun in Communist prints in September was the following, said
to have been penned by a Soviet poet in the Kazak Republic:
I wanted to compare thee to a prophet, but prophets told lies.
I wanted to compare thee to the ocean, but ships can run aground on hidden reefs in the
ocean.
I wanted to compare thee to the mountain, but the summit of every mountain can be
seen.
I wanted to compare thee to the moon, but the moon only shines at night.
I wanted to compare thee to the sun, but the sun only shines on, bright days.
Sun Stalin's likeness was plastered up not only all over the Soviet Union, Soviet editors
front-paged portraits of Sun Stalin above eulogistic articles. Stalin's childhood home has
become shrine for pilgrimage. His very name brings long applauses with most people
unwilling to be the first to stop clapping. Music, poetry, film, opera, radio and television
all glorify him. In place of God, the Soviets have Stalin.
POPE CANCELS TRIP TO BRAZIL
With the outbreak of World War III, Pope Pius XII abruptly ended his tour of South
America and flew back to Rome. He gave his apologies to Caudillo Donaldo Octavius
about cancelling his trip to Brazil.
Upon reaching Rome, His Holiness held a special mass held at St. Peter's Basilica calling
for world peace. It was televised across the world. Sending appeals to all of the warring
parties, he offered Vatican mediation to stop the violence.
VARGAS ARRIVES IN LISBON
Amidst fear in Montevideo that Brazil might invade Uruguay, former President Getulio
Vargas was hustled on a plane and sent to Portugal. Portuguese dictator Antonio de
Salazar, an old friend of Vargas, gave him sanctuary and promised round the clock
protection against all enemies.
WORLD COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF DENMARK
Citing that the war in Europe has been over for six years and that the United States has
no legal reason to hold Greenland, the World Court on December 21 ordered that
Greenland be handed over to Denmark immediately. There was no immediate reaction
from the White House.
SATYAGRAHA CONTINUES
Peaceful noncooperation continues in the Portuguese colonies in India. Portuguese trade
off 30%; taxes collected drop 35%.
Prime Minister Nehru of India said in a radio, "It is wonderful to know our brothers and
sisters heard our call. They must hear, too, that they must not succumb... carry on with
the resistance and the Imperialists from Lisbon will give in. JAI HIND!"
In the same speech, the Prime Minister stated that he "will not tolerate any violence
against the Indians in the Portuguese colonies". Government sources indicate that Nehru
is ready to send troops to defend the Indians under Portugal's rule, if it shows necessary.
The Indian Foreign Ministry has announced it is preparing the shipment of medicine and
food to the Satyagrahi.
Portugal has said that if India attacks its colonies, it will ask its allies, the United States
and Great Britain, for military assistance.
MOVE TO GENEVA?
With the outbreak of war, neutral members of the United Nations are nervous about
New York City possibly being bombed by the USSR. As a safety precaution, Norway,
Denmark, Finland, Egypt and Syria have called for the United Nations to temporarily
move to Geneva. It was felt that both warring alliances would respect Swiss neutrality.
THE THEFT OF THE STONE OF SCONE
A group of four Scottish students (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson, and Alan
Stuart) took the Stone from Westminster Abbey for return to Scotland. In the process of
removing it from the Abbey, the students discovered the stone was broken and probably
had been for hundreds of years. After hiding the greater part of the stone with travelers
in Kent for a few days, they risked the road blocks on the border and returned to
Scotland with this piece, which they had hidden in the back of a borrowed car, along
with a new accomplice John Josselyn. The smaller piece was similarly brought north a
little while later. This journey involved a break in Leeds, where a group of sympathetic
students and graduates took the fragment to Ilkley Moor for an overnight stay,
accompanied by renditions of "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at." The Stone was then passed to a
senior Glasgow politician who arranged for it to be professionally repaired by Glasgow
stonemason Robert Gray.
A major search for the stone had been ordered by the British Government, but this
proved unsuccessful. Perhaps assuming that the Church would not return it to England,
the stone's custodians left it on the altar of Arbroath Abbey, in the safekeeping of the
Church of Scotland. Once the London police were informed of its whereabouts, they
demanded that the Stone was returned to Westminster. The Scots refused.
The Stone of Scone also commonly known as the Stone of Destiny or the Coronation
Stone is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the
monarchs of Scotland, the monarchs of England, and, more recently, British monarchs.
\
\Traditionally,
it is supposed to be the pillow stone said to have been used by the Biblical
Jacob. According to one legend, it was the Coronation Stone of the early Dál Riata Gaels
when they lived in Ireland, which they brought with them when settling Caledonia.
Another legend holds that the stone was actually the traveling altar used by St Columba
in his missionary activities throughout what is now Scotland. Certainly, since the time of
Kenneth Mac Alpin, the first King of Scots, at around 847, Scottish monarchs were seated
upon the stone during their coronation ceremony. At this time the stone was situated at
Scone, a few miles north of Perth.
Another tradition holds that, in gratitude for Irish support at the Battle of Bannockburn
(1314), Robert the Bruce gave a portion of the stone to Cormac McCarthy, king of
Munster. Installed at McCarthy's stronghold, Blarney Castle, it became the Blarney Stone.
A contemporary account by a canon of Gisborough Priory in Yorkshire says. "In the
monastery of Scone, in the church of God, near to the high altar, is kept a large stone,
hollowed out/concave as a round chair, on which their kings were placed for their
ordination, according to custom."
In 1296 the Stone was captured by Edward I as spoils of war and taken to Westminster
Abbey, where it was fitted into a wooden chair, known as St. Edward's Chair, on which
all subsequent English sovereigns except Queen Mary I, Queen Mary II and King Edward
VIII have been crowned. Doubtless by this he intended to symbolize his claim to be "Lord
Paramount" of Scotland with right to oversee its King. Underlining this symbolism, he
once referred to the Stone contemptuously as a 'turd'.
Some doubt exists over the stone captured by Edward I. The Westminster Stone theory
posits that the monks at Scone Palace hid the real stone in the River Tay or buried it on
Dunsinane Hill, and that the English troops were fooled into taking a substitute. Some
proponents of the theory claim that historic descriptions of the stone do not match the
present stone. If the monks did hide the stone, they hid it well; no other stone fitting its
description has ever been found.
In The Treaty of Northampton 1328, between the Kingdom of Scotland and the
Kingdom of England, England agreed to return the captured Stone to Scotland. The Stone
remained in England for another six centuries. In the course of time James VI of Scotland
came to the English throne as James I of England but the stone remained in London; for
the next century, the Stuart Kings and Queens of Scotland once again sat on the stone —
but at their coronation as Kings and Queens of England. Since the Act of Union 1707, the
coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey has applied to the whole of Great Britain,
and since the Act of Union 1801 to the United Kingdom, so the stone may be said to
have returned, once again, to its ancient use.
Now the question confronting the newly elected Prime Minister Churchill is do you force
the return of the Scone? Do you arrest all of the parties involved in the theft? Do you
antagonize the Scots? Do you look weak before the English? Quite a dilemma.
INTERCONTINENTAL AIR TRAVEL
Lockheed unveiled its new "Super Constellation" on November 13. The "Super
Constellation" was a stretched version of the C-69. The Tourist Class section grew from
69 to 92.
GREEKS MAKING MONEY SELLING CIGARETTES
Greek tobacco companies are non discriminating; they are selling cigarettes, chewing
tobacco and cigars to both Allied and Soviet bloc soldiers. Cheap cigarettes are available
in Rome, just like they are in Belgrade and Budapest. Because of the anxiety, nervousness
and depression caused by war, smoking had risen dramatically in the war zones. This is
music to Greek ears as they count their drachmas.
SAINT OR DEVIL?
Eva Peron, depending on who you ask, is either a devil or a saint. To the oligarchs and
bourgeois, she is so detested that to speak her name was a social faux pas. She is referred
to by them only as "that woman". On the other hand, to the poor of Argentina she is the
embodiment of their hopes, dreams and ambitions. Among many incidents and events in
her life are those which show Evita as a humorless, ruthless, vindictive, brittle tyrant with
a single-minded quest for power. However, there are just as many incidents which
demonstrate her tireless, self-destructive efforts to help the impoverished, to gain some
emancipation for Argentine women, as well as her devotion to her husband, and her
efforts at international charity. Evita is an extremely complex and enigmatic woman
whose life is fascinating.
Maria Eva Duarte began life in the year 1919 in a one-room house near Los Toldos in the
Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was the fifth and final child of Juana Ibaguren
and her married lover and financial supporter, Juan Duarte. Her father died when Eva
was seven years old. The years after this were very lean for Juana and her children and
they worked in the homes of local estancias. This was little Eva's first good look at the
opulent lives of the rich and powerful of Argentina.
Life improved when Juana found another benefactor. He moved Juana and her family to
Junín, a much larger town. Juana found husbands for all of her daughters except Eva. No
one expected much from little Eva Duarte - or rather, no one but Eva. She had decided
to become Argentina's leading actress.
Eva left home at the age of fourteen with a traveling tango singer, Agustin Magaldi. In
Buenos Aires, she played the starving actress bit for a while but gradually began to work
her way up the ladder of success through a series of affairs with men who could benefit
her. When Eva had Colonel Anibal Imbert, the Minister of Communications, as her lover,
she persuaded him to stage a huge variety show to benefit a town nearly destroyed by
an earthquake. At this show was Colonel Juan Domingo Peron. Their affair began that
same night in 1944.
Eva's new paramour was twice her age but was also the power behind the president. In
each other, they had found the person who could take them straight to the top. By
October 19, 1945, two amazing things had occurred: Peron was returned to power after
an attempted coup and he had married his mistress. Little Eva from Los Toldos had
achieved the unthinkable in Argentina - she was the wife of the most powerful man in
the nation.
Her next step was to become First Lady of Argentina. She accomplished this with her
husband on June 4, 1946. She re-defined her position by taking an active stance in
politics. Together the two were political magic. Juan Peron handled the day-to-day
political business of being a despot while Evita courted her "descamisados" whose votes
were plentiful enough to keep them in power despite the hatred and fear they incurred
from the oligarchs and bourgeois.
In April of 1947, Eva Peron accepted an invitation from Generalissimo Francisco Franco
to go to Spain and receive the Cross of Isabel the Catholic, the highest decoration
bestowed by Spain. In Spain she received an exuberant welcome. However, when
Franco tried to pretend that his starving country didn't need Argentina's offer of a huge
shipment of wheat; he got a first-hand taste of just how frank the first lady of Argentina
could be when annoyed. When Franco attempted to dissemble and ask "what would we
do with it", Evita snapped sharply back with the reply "...why not try putting it in the
bread." Her next two stops were Italy and Paris; these stops were less enjoyable than
Spain, but were nevertheless successful in making Evita an international figure. Evita's trip
was followed by the international press with a breathlessness and intensity usually
reserved for royalty and movie stars. The blonde, well-coifed, well-dressed and highly
bejeweled lady of Argentina made for glamorous headlines.
Sometime after returning home to Argentina, Evita began something of a metamorphosis.
Her clothes became more subdued as did her hair style. She seemed to dig in to her
charity works with a new intensity and sincerity. It seems that perhaps after her European
trip, Evita began to gain a sense of purpose that directed her ambitions more towards
those who believed in her and less towards simple self-aggrandizement.
From some accounts it seems that Evita was almost solely in charge of the fate of
Argentina within two years of her husband's election. Whether this is true or not, is all up
to one's perspective on how much Evita de facto power has. Many believe that she will
run for vice president in the 1951 elections.
Evita truly believes that she has been born with the mission to help the impoverished and
exploited workers of Argentina. She is force behind Juan Peron in his drive to make
Argentina the premier country of South America. Like her husband, she detests the
Americans. Her drive for social equality for women has led to laws allowing women to
love and for divorce. She helped put a social system is in place to aid those that live in
poverty and to make sure that all Argentineans have universal health care.
In November, she began a program to fight littering and dumping in Argentina, "Keep
Argentina Clean". Argentineans are taking responsibility to make their homes look neat
and respectable. Litter is punishable by high fines, but, out of deference to Evita, many
Argentineans have stopped doing it anyway. Evita is also working at expanding the Girl
and Boy Scouts in Argentina. Even in a tight budget, she has found money to aid the
organizations.
Whether you hate Juan and Evita Peron, or love them, no one can deny that they are
greatest political team in the world today.
HARVEST OF FEAR
A Ukrainian émigré in the United States, Alexis Zharov, a former journalist for Pravda,
wrote a book titled, "Harvest of Fear" that is on its way to being a best seller in the
states. It's a semi-fictional story about a family in southern Ukraine that suffered horrors
under Stalinism in 1933. The passionate story claims that Josef Stalin had deliberately
engineered the famine and millions of lives, mostly in Ukraine, were sacrificed for his
madness. The saga takes a family through the forced collectivization of farms and the
arrest and deportation of the family to the gulags of Siberia. One of the family members
emerges from captivity only because bodies are needed in the war against Hitler. The
sole survivor of this holocaust eventually escapes to freedom in the West to tell his story
to disbelieving Westerners who wish to close their eyes to the evilness of Communism
because of their recent alliance against Nazism.
CONSTRUCTION BOOM IN UNITED STATES
The US Department of Labor and Industry said that American companies were making
on the order of 2 million houses, new starts per year, and about 95 percent of them are
fully detached, single-family houses. Most of them were quite affordable. Quite literally,
you could buy a house in 1950 cheaper than you could rent it. Compared to the rest of
the world, the single-family house is being made much more available and affordable for
the average person. Only Canada and Germany have sought to follow the American
model in the housing industry.
The GI bill has been the principal engine of this boom. It allowed veterans to buy a
home with no money down. What's more, it guaranteed the loans, removing the risk for
lenders. Nationwide, housing starts soared from a low of only one per 1,000 people in
the war year of 1944 to a high of 12 per 1,000 in 1950. In 1940, only two Americans in
five owned their own homes. By 1950, it was more than half.
However, with the war, it's not known how this will affect the housing industry. In
World War II, construction materials were rerouted for military use and home
construction slowed to a snail's pace.
OLYMPIC SITE FOR 1952 - GERMANY
The International Olympic Committee decided with the war that the Olympics couldn't
be held safely in the United States. As a result, the IOC awarded the 1952 Olympics to
Germany, which is the only neutral nation that has the necessary existing infrastructure to
hold the event.
JAPANESE SAVING RATE HIGHEST IN WORLD
The average Japanese national save almost 30% of their pay for retirement, purchasing
homes and other "rainy day needs". The Yoshida government encourages this type of
savings since it increases the amount of capital available for business investment and
holds down the costs of social programs. The flipside of this savings rate is that consumer
demand is very low in Japan and Japanese businesses must export often to show a profit.
PASSENGER PLANE DOWNED BY BOMB IN ISRAEL
A bomb planted on board brought down a passenger plane en route to Tel Aviv. All
crew and passengers, 60 total, were killed. The Arab Liberation Organization claimed
responsibility. Mossad is investigating. This marks another month of elevating terrorism
in Israel by dissident Palestinians.
MEXICAN IMMIGRATION UNWELCOMED
Drought in the Mexican states of Durango and Coahuila has impoverished local farmers
and caused an increase in immigration to the United States. This immigration has been
most unwelcome in southwestern United States. The new immigrants are willing to
work for much less than Anglo Americans and, therefore, have driven local wages down.
Some Americans have called for tight immigration quotas for Mexicans.
MT. ETNA ERUPTS
As if things weren't bad enough in Italy with the war, Mount Etna erupted on the eastern
coast of Sicily on December 3, 1950. It is the most active volcano in Europe and has
repeatedly erupted over the centuries, most violently in 1669, when the lava flow
destroyed villages on the lower slope and submerged part of the town of Catania. It was
still spewing ash at the end of the year.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON DEWEY
On November 9, two Puerto Rican Nationalists, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo,
attempted to kill President Thomas E. Dewey. The assassins arrived in Washington D.C.
the day before from the Bronx in New York City, where they were active in the Puerto
Rican Nationalist Party. They thought the assassination would call attention to Puerto
Rico and advance the cause of Puerto Rican independence.
The Dewey family had been staying in the Blair House during the renovations at the
White House. The assassins stormed the house and traded gunfire with White House
policemen and secret service agents. They wounded three White House policemen but
never reached the interior of the house. One of the wounded policemen, Private Leslie
Coffelt, managed to fire one bullet and hit Torresola in the side of the head, killing him
instantly. Coffelt died later that day at the hospital. Two other policemen, Donald
Birdzell and Joseph Downs, were each hit more than once but recovered from their
wounds. Collazo reached the steps of Blair House before collapsing with a gunshot
wound to the chest.
President Dewey was taking a nap upstairs in Blair House when the shooting began. He
rushed to a window and saw Collazo below on the front steps. A White House guard
saw the President in the window and shouted to him to him to get down. Collazo was
taken to the hospital where he recovered and will stand trial for the murder of Coffelt.
STALIN THE WARLORD
So, as war breaks out again, Stalin once again dons his iron mask to the world. He wore
that iron mask with amazing fortitude and self-mastery in World War II. Perhaps, indeed,
that mask was his most powerful weapon. It gave his will to victory a heroic, almost
super-human appearance.
Stalin knows that he is fighting very formidable adversaries. Hesitation or weakness could
mean an inglorious end. Italy has become a symbol of the eventual success of Socialist
Revolution. The many Communists the fate of Marxist-Leninism seems to depend on the
nerve of its leader, whose break-down or effacement would create a void which hardly
anyone could fill.
In the last war, many allied visitors who called at the Kremlin were astonished to see on
how many issues, great and small, military, political, or diplomatic, Stalin personally took
the final decision. He was in effect his own commander-in-chief, his own minister of
defense, his own quartermaster, his own minister of supply, his own foreign minister, and
even his own protocol chief.
Once again, the Stavka, the Red Army's headquarters, has been recreated in his offices in
the Kremlin. From his office desk, he is in constant and direct touch with his commanders
in Italy; there he is directing the campaign. From his office desk, too, he is also managing
the reorganization of Hungary into a more "perfect Communist" state. No detail in
central Europe is too small for attention.
Diplomats say that Stalin's days are filled with military reports, operational decisions and
the latest dispatches from the front - a prodigy of patience, tenacity, and vigilance,
almost omnipresent, almost omniscient. His favorite generals have been sent to Far East;
Zhukov, Vassilevsky and Rokossovsky.
On the 1st of November, Stalin stood at the top of the Lenin Mausoleum to take the
parade of troops and volunteer divisions of the people's guards, marching in the Red
Square in support of the troops in Italy. Stalin appealed to the soldiers to draw
inspiration from the memories of the Great Patriotic war. "We are fighting for right of the
Korean people to live freely, without fear and in social equality. South Korea was ruled
by a bloodthirsty maniac who is killing people like Hitler did in the last war. May the
victorious banner of the great Lenin guide you."
Stalin's leadership is by no means confined to the taking of abstract strategic decisions, at
which civilian politicians may excel. The avid interest with which he studied the technical
aspects of modern warfare, down to the minute details, shows him to have been
anything but a dilettante. He views the war primarily from the angle of logistics. To
secure reserves of manpower and supplies of weapons, in the right quantities and
proportions, to allocate them and to transport them to the right points at the right time,
to amass a decisive strategic reserve and to have it ready for intervention at decisive
moments--these operations made up nine-tenths of his task.
Stalin has accorded his generals their freedom of movement, to encourage them to speak
their mind, to embolden them to look for the solution of their problems by way of trial
and error, and to relieve them from the fear of the boss's wrath. He punishes his officers
with draconian severity for lack of courage or vigilance; he demotes them for
incompetence, and he promotes for initiative and efficiency.
It is nevertheless true Stalin always takes the final decision on every major and many a
minor military issue. How then, it may be asked, could the two things be reconciled:
Stalin's constant interference with the conduct of the war, and freedom of initiative for
his subordinates? The point is that he has a peculiar manner of making his decisions, one
which not only did not constrict his generals, but, on the contrary, induces them to use
their own judgment.
Stalin has no strategic dogmas to impose upon others. He does not approach his generals
with operational blue-prints of his own. He indicates to them his general ideas, which are
based on an exceptional knowledge of all aspects of the situation, economic, political,
and military.
But beyond that he lets his generals formulate their views and work out their plans, and
on these he bases his decisions. His role seems to be that of the cool, detached, and
experienced arbiter of is own generals. In case of a controversy between them, he
collects the opinions of those whose opinion matters, weighs the pros and cons, relates
local viewpoints to general considerations and eventually speaks his mind. His decisions
do not therefore strike his generals on the head--they usually sanction ideas over which
the generals themselves had been brooding. This method of leadership was not novel to
Stalin.
In the early twenties he came to lead the Politburo in an analogous way, by carefully
ascertaining what the views of the majority were and adopting these as his own. This is
not to say that Stalin simply follows the majority of his commanders. Even that majority
was, in a sense, of his own making.
TOWARDS THE WELFARE STATE
The advent of Volker Heckmann has created a new type of state - the welfare state. In
the last seven years, Germany has acquired cradle to grave health insurance, full pension
at age 60, free university education, governmental subsidies to families with children,
guaranteed vacation and holidays, accumulative sick leave, disability insurance and full
workman's compensation. The welfare state is expensive, but it's what makes Germany
distinct.
The welfare state has broken up the cartels, established compulsory labor safety laws and
has made industry responsible for the quality of its product. Private enterprise is
encouraged and protected. The government arbitrates labor contracts to make sure that
the worker is treated properly and the business can afford the new wages. But the unions
can't strike; there is mandatory arbitration by the Labor Front. Workers can't be
terminated without just cause
The German middle class has grown sizably. It doesn’t have number of millionaires in
Germany like the United States does, but nor does it have large numbers of poor people.
The German system is paternalistic; the government does manage German lives far more
than Great Britain or the United States.
American economists say that the German system subsidy and regulation is economically
inefficient and inequitable. "It takes away the system of choice". The Americans insist that
a welfare state makes citizens dependent and less inclined to work. "Less governmental
programs, less taxes". The United States also has led Germany in the ownership of
consumer goods. For example, it has more TVs per capita, more automobiles per capita
and more radios per capita than Germany. Americans also insist that overhead expenses
in Germany for their social programs are much higher.
The Germans point out that medical care is much better in their country then in the
United States, per capita income is higher, higher taxes are just a malicious capitalist game
with statistics consider all of the benefits that Germans get and Germans prefer public
transportation to automobiles.
Who is right? Who’s telling the truth? The welfare system is not new. Sweden, Denmark
and Norway moved into the area earlier than Germany. The Germans have taken it to a
higher degree. The question is which system is better - Capitalism or the Welfare State?
PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA ASSASSINATED
Venezuelan President Carlos Delgado Chalbaud was assassinated on November 13, 1950.
He was kidnapped and assassinated by a group of unidentified assassins. He was 40 years
old.
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud was a military man and a Venezuelan politician. He studied
Engineering in France; after finishing his studies he returned to Paris and joined the Army
with the rank of captain. As one of the brightest officials of the Armed Forces, he was the
center of a revolt that overthrew General Isaías Medina Angarita because he had enacted
a law to tax oil companies up to 60%, and reserved for the government the right to
raise taxes as needed. Rumor has it that revolt was supported and financed by the CIA.
However, it must be noted that Medina Angarita as president was a military man who
respected human rights and freedom of expression, allowed the free activity of the
political parties, promoted constitutional reforms which granted for the first time the
vote to women, instituted the direct election of deputies and legalized the Communist
Party
The next President, Romulo Bentacourt, soon developed into another populist problem
who wanted to nationalize the oil industry, but Chalbaud and the military vetoed
it fearing the loss revenues from foreign oil companies that would have fiscally ruined
Venezuela. There was no revolt, but the army engineered the election of Rómulo
Gallegos in 1948 to replace Bentacourt, who they thought would be more
manageable. Chaulbaud was Minister of Defense during both presidencies. Gallegos
proved too troublesome on the subject of human rights, so Chaulbaud, along with
Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Luis Llovera Páez, gave him the boot and ruled as junta. The
Chaulbaud government was very Pro-American and cooperative with the U.S. oil
companies. However, all reform seemed to stop with the Gallegos removal.
Although it has not been possible to confirm, for many people, the mastermind was
Pérez Jiménez, who certainly desired to rule on his own. Others believe that it was a hit
squad from Argentina that killed Chaulbaud believing that Jimenez would be more
favorable to Peron. Still another theory is that the Communists knocked him off because
he recriminalized their party. Rumors abound that Stalin himself ordered the murder to
destabilize the U.S. oil supply.
How this would all effect Venezuelan politics is too soon to tell.
GREAT APPALACHIAN STORM OF NOVEMBER 1950
The Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 was a large extra-tropical cyclone
which moved through the Eastern United States, causing significant winds; heavy rains
east of the Appalachians, and blizzard conditions along the western slopes of the
mountain chain.30 to 50 inches of snow, temperatures below zero were recorded in the
mountains. Power was out to more than 1,000,000 customers during this event. In all,
the storm impacted 22 states, killing 353, and creating $1 billion in damage. At the time,
U.S. insurance companies paid more money out to their policy holders for damage
resulting from this cyclone than for any other previous storm or hurricane.
In New York, sustained winds of 50-60 mph with gusts to 83 mph were recorded at
Albany, New York. A wind gust of 94 mph was recorded in New York City. Extensive
damage was caused by the wind across New York, including massive tree fall and power
outages. Coastal flooding breached dikes at LaGuardia Airport, flooding the runways.
Flooding extended to New York City's Office of Emergency Management on the Lower
East Side, in Manhattan
In Ohio, on the storm's west side, nearly a foot of snow fell on Dayton, Ohio, which
combined with the wind and cold temperatures, became their worst blizzard on record.
Nearly the entire state was blanketed with 10 inches of snow, with 20-30 inches being
measured in eastern sections of Ohio. The highest report was 44 inches from
Steubenville. Snow drifts were up to 25 feet deep. Winds exceeded 40 mph with gusts as
high as 60 mph (96 km/h). Bulldozers were used to clear roads. Despite the high winds
and snow, the annual football game between the University of Michigan and Ohio State
University went on as scheduled in Columbus and was nicknamed the Snow Bowl. When
the snow melted during the first four days of December, river flooding occurred in
Cincinnati
The south reports the lowest temperatures on records. Alabama: Birmingham (5˚F),
Mobile (22˚F), and Montgomery (13˚F). Georgia: Atlanta (-3˚F), Columbus (10˚F),
Augusta (11˚F), and Savannah (15˚F). North Carolina: Asheville (-5˚F) and Wilmington
(16˚F).
During the reign of the storm, record to near-record flooding occurred along the eastern
side of the Appalachians across eastern and central sections of Pennsylvania.
The Schuylkill at Fairmont Dam reached its highest stage since 1902. In Pittsburgh,
30.5 inches (77.5 cm) of snow accumulated from this cyclone. Tanks were used to clear
the resultant snow. When a warm spell visited the region during the first four days of
December, river flooding struck Pittsburgh.
ASSUMPTION OF MARY
Pope Pius XII announced that he witnessed the "Miracle of the Sun" in the Vatican
gardens on November 1, 1950. After a downfall of rain, the dark clouds broke and the
sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly less
bright than normal, and cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the shadows on the
landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The sun was then, according to the
Pope, to have careened towards the earth in a zigzag pattern. Pius XII said that he saw
the distant image of the Virgin Mary dressed in white. Everything was exactly like the
event witnessed by thousands of people in Portugal on October 13, 1917.
After the event, Pope Pius XII ended the theological debate about the "Assumption of
Mary" in which she was taken into the heavens at the end of her life. Hence forth, it
would defined as dogma within the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII declared, "By
the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our
own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma:
that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course
of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."
In this dogmatic statement, the phrase "having completed the course of her earthly life”
leaves open the question of whether the Virgin Mary died before her Assumption, or,
whether she was assumed before death; both possibilities are allowed. Mary's
Assumption is said to have been a divine gift to her as the 'Mother of God'. Pope Pius
XII's view is that, as Mary completed her life as a shining example to the human race, the
perspective of the gift of assumption is offered to the whole human race.
This was accepted by all Catholics based upon the dogma of Papal infallibility. According
to this belief, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility
of error when he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic
teaching on faith or morals as being contained in divine revelation, or at least being
intimately connected to divine revelation. It is also taught that the Holy Spirit works in
the body of the Church, as sensus fidelium, to ensure that dogmatic teachings proclaimed
to be infallible will be received by all Catholics. This dogma, however, does not state
either that the Pope cannot commit sin in his own personal life or that he is necessarily
free of error, even when speaking in his official capacity, outside the specific contexts in
which the dogma applies.
Of course, there were as many believers and disbelievers.
RUNNING UP A DOWN ESCALATOR
The National Coal Board's chairman, Lord Hyndley, concluded after almost four years of
nationalization that mining coal in Britain was "like running up a down escalator. You
have got to run hard to stay where you are. You have got to make superhuman efforts
to advance."
In October, he announced plans for the N.C.B.'s most strenuous effort to date: it wanted
to spend $1,778,000,000 in 15 years to raise coal output 40 million tons, using 80,000
fewer miners. The alternative: continuing decline of Britain's key industry.
Centuries of British mining have exhausted promising seams, extended tortuous runways
miles underground, forced workers away from the dull, dangerous pits to other work. So
archaic and complicated is the system that only 25% of Britain's mine workers directly
dig coal, against 70% in the U.S. In the time it takes one British miner to haul five tons of
coal to the surface, one German hauls 45 tons, one American 50 tons.
Nationalization slowed the decline at first, but the drop is accelerating again. In three
successive October weeks output fell below the same period in 1949. Last year Britain's
mines had produced 24 million fewer tons than in 1938. The work force slumped to
687,000 men, lowest in the century, and it is falling off by 1,000 men weekly.
Absenteeism has doubled since prewar.
In October, as cold weather hovered only a month away, stockpiles were 1,000,000
tons under the 16.5-million-ton safety mark. Exports had to be pared to 17.5 million tons
instead of the planned 19 million to 22 million tons. Finally, with no choice, the British
had to resort to importing American coal a month later.
The N.C.B. planned drastic surgery during the next 15 years: scrapping half Britain's
present mines or linking them with other pits; opening 70 new mines; rebuilding 250
collieries; dieselizing the 19th Century haulage system; mechanizing coal cutting.
PHILIPPINES
The Communist Huks fought Filipino troops inconclusively in Nueva Ecija, Pampanga,
Tarlac, Bulacan, and in Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Laguna, Bataan and Quezon.
Causalities were very light.
CHINA LACKS POWER
The balances of power show that the size and population mean little in measuring GNP.
Red China is a prime example, in 1950, it's responsible a little over 1% of the world
manufacturing production and has the total industrial potential equal to 70% of Great
Britain in 1899! It's population, leaping upward by tens of millions every year, consists
overwhelmingly of poor peasants whose per capita income is dreadfully low. The
disruption of the warlords, the war with Japan and the Mao-Chiang duel for power has
taken its toll. China is no better off than it was in 1900.
U.S. MID-TERM ELECTIONS
Riding a 78% approval rating, President Thomas E. Dewey led his party to victory on
November 7, 1950.
The Republicans gained 22 seats from the Democratic Party, gaining a majority in the
House of Representatives and making Massachusetts Representative Joe Martin the new
Speaker of the House. The Republicans now had 221 seats to the Democrat's 213
In the Senate, the Republicans won 7 seats that had previously belonged to the
Democrats giving them 49-47 edge. Congressman Richard M. Nixon won an upset
victory in California, Governor James Duff took another crucial seat in Pennsylvania,
Wallace F. Bennett soundly defeated Senator Elbert Thomas in Utah, Democratic Senate
Majority Leader Scott Lucas lost to Everett Dirksen and the biggest surprise of the night
was the Charles Dawson photo finish victory in Kentucky.
While the Republican majorities may seem slim, one should remember that the party in
the White House traditionally loses seats in Congress. President Dewey led his party to an
upset victory. Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft became Majority Leader in the Senate.
The Democrats have pledged bi-partisan support in the war with the USSR.
CARNIVAL IN SCOTLAND
Since World War II, Edinburgh has taken the place of Germany's Salzburg as the music
capital of the world. The rift between Germany and the world has made many tourists
avoid it.
In September, Edinburgh's second annual festival ended. For three weeks thousands of
music lovers had heard the greatest of music, from Bach to Bartok, played by such
orchestras as Amsterdam's superb, 65-year-old Concertgebouw and Rome's famed
Augusteo. They had heard the Mozart piano concertos, performed unforgettably by their
finest living interpreter - Pianist Artur Schnabel. They had seen Mozart's operatic
masterpieces, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tutti, given with polish by a company that is
fast becoming the best in the business - Britain's Glyndebourne. They had heard
superlative choral works, including Bach's B Minor Mass, sung by a chorus with few peers
- the Huddersfield Choral Society.
And there was drama. The Scottish Repertory's production of Ane Pleasant Satyre of the
Thrie Estaitis, a Scottish morality play written in 1540 and last performed in 1554, was a
high point of the festival. There was a production of the André Gide Hamlet. ("A moving
experience," reported the New York Times's Dyneley Hussey of the famous soliloquies,
though Hamlet in French, played by Jean-Louis Barrault, kept his voice pitched at "a tart
oboe rather than the rich clarinet of English.") And for trimmings there was Highland
music, bagpipe parades and dancing in West Princes Street Gardens, below Edinburgh
Castle.
The man who blueprinted the festival could relax. With justifiable pride, Rudolf Bing
could say: "We have sold a quarter of a million tickets in three weeks, not for a sporting
event, but for Mozart operas, a Greek tragedy [John Gielgud's production of Robinson
Jeffers' Medea], Hamlet in French and high-class orchestral music."
A tall, pale, olive-skinned man, Bing got his start 28 years ago managing concert artists in
Vienna, his native city (he is now a British subject). He learned a bit more working with
state and municipal opera houses in Germany, then went to England in 1934 as a director
and general manager of John Christie's fledgling Glyndebourne company. When war
came, Glyndebourne folded up for the duration. Bing got a job managing a chain of
department stores.
But music was still in his head. A few years ago, he went up to Edinburgh with an idea
for a festival. The Lord Provost, Sir Jon Falconer, liked it. Bing wrung pledges for
£60,000 from Edinburgh merchants, the Art Council of Great Britain and the City of
Edinburgh. Then he wrote to Bruno Walter: "If we can get the Vienna Philharmonic to
come, will you come to conduct it?" Walter quickly said yes. "After that," says Bing, "it
was easy. When artists were diffident, it was only necessary to tell them Bruno Walter
was coming."
Prying the Vienna Philharmonic loose took some doing. The Germans are sore about the
lost tourism. They offered Bruno Walter all types of deals to return home and he turned
them down flat. Rudolf Bing isn't too popular in Berlin neither since he is hurting
Saltzburg's annual festival. But the Jewish émigrés won't forgive the Germans and the
Germans still grumble about the Jews. Chancellor Heckmann finally allowed the Vienna
Philharmonic to go as a "goodwill gesture towards the British people."
Edinburgh's Festival Society now plans to continue its festivals for at least five more years,
with Bing signed up to manage the next three. There are no specific plans yet for 1951.
Says Bing: "We simply cannot afford American orchestras yet, but I am not giving up
hope." And he did have some other gratifying news. Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham,
who six months ago said the Scots were "damned fools to throw away £60,000 on a
festival," cabled from South Africa that he would be "delighted" to take part next year.
VON SCHULENBERG TO ROMANIA
German Foreign Minister Count Von Schulenberg visited Bucharest and met with
Romanian dictator Ion Gheorghe Maurer to discuss the return of Germany's oil assets.
Count Von Schulenberg reminded the Romanians that they were under treaty obligation
to do so. Germany promised extensive economic investment in Romania in exchange for
Maurer's cooperation. Reportedly, Maurer said that he would refer the matter to
Moscow.
BOATING DISASTER IN GERMAN CONGO
The German Broadcasting Network reported at least 90 people are confirmed dead after
a logging boat sank on a lake in the Congo.
A survivor, Ewiya Mukana, told Berlin correspondents that dozens of corpses were
spread on the sand along the shores of Lake Maindome, 250 miles northeast of the
capital, Kinshasa.
The GBN quoted Colonial Minister Viktor Von Huff as saying the logging boat had no
authority to carry passengers, which is prohibited for logging boats.
The German Red Cross told the station that more than 250 survivors had been rescued
following the sinking Wednesday night.
Congo is a vast country of jungles and huge rivers in Central Africa with little more than
300 miles (480 kilometers) of paved road. Many people prefer to take boats even if they
do not know how to swim
TRAFFIC LAWS ARE FOR THE PEONS
Motoring procedure in Moscow is for small-shots to obey the traffic lights. A big-shot will
occasionally stop for a red light, usually goes through it at about 20 miles per hour, while
small-shots who have the green light with them jam on their brakes. A bigger-shot, his 8cylinder car followed by a 4-cylinder containing five secret police in caps and leather
overcoats, takes the red lights at about 40 miles per hour, horn screeching as he nears the
intersection.
J. Stalin, as the Biggest of the Big Shots, travels between his Kremlin office and suburban
home over streets and roads on which 24 hours per day no car is permitted to park or
make a U-turn, not even in the country after Moscow has been left behind. The
Dictator's motorcade consists always of three cars, generally enclosed 12-cylinder
Mercedes-Benz W-186. The cost in Germany, where they are made, is as high as 20,000
RM for each chassis alone, rank as Europe's fastest car. In Stalin's case, the tonneau
windows of the three Mercedes-Benzes are fitted on each side with blue glass, concealing
the occupants and making it a guess in which car is the Dictator. There is no rear window
and the construction suggests that a shot fired after one of these cars would simply
bounce off.
To see J. Stalin go home, Russians have only to stroll about the Red Square almost any
evening between 10 p. m. and midnight. As the Kremlin gate opens the three MercedesBenzes, already traveling fast, enter the Square and before they have crossed it are doing
well over 50. They speed out in the Arbat, then speed out the new military highway,
turn off right and climb a twisty macadam road through dense woods to the estate of
onetime Prince Galitsin.
Approaching this estate by car, Stalin glimpses the high, ornate red brick walls and arched
brick gate. Buried deep in the woods is the Galitsin Palace, where healthy bouncing
Georgian relatives of Russia's Dictator make his home a restful place of relaxation amid
strong garlic cooking smells.
WORKER SHORTAGE
All over the German manufacturers were hiring more workers in the 4th quarter of 1950.
Unemployment had dropped to 1%, and in many a city there was a significant shortage
of skilled technicians; the Reich Employment Service huddled with provincial officials to
find ways of easing the manpower squeeze. The Economic Ministry's index of industrial
production rose to an estimated 204 for December, the highest in history and a fivepoint rise in a month. Prices were creeping up, too. The Economic Ministry reported that
in the 4th quarter its cost-of-living index rose 1.4%
.
Well warned of shortages and higher prices ahead, businessmen were buying frantically.
Prize example: ZVEI AG received 140% more orders for generating equipment this
quarter than it had in the preceding nine months.
Despite rapid industrial expansion, the Heckmann government has not lifted immigration
restrictions. Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor Heckmann's economic adviser, told the Berlin
Morgenpost, "The problem is that most of the immigrants that would come here would
be unskilled and not provide any help to our work force. Drawing the needed workers
from other industrial countries is very tricky. Paying foreign workers more than their
German counterparts won't fly so then we would have to raise wages cross the board.
Der Fuhrer wants to train our own unskilled workers for those jobs and that may cause
some shortages and slowdowns in the short term."
SERVE YOURSELF
Britain's first self-service grocery store opens at London. J. Sainsbury's store. It's projected
that this chain that will grow to be the nation's largest grocer.
FAMINE IN CHINA
"That people pull down their houses, sell their wives and daughters, eat roots and
carrion, clay and leaves, is news nobody wonders at. It is the regular thing . . . The
poorest people are dependent on willow and elm leaves, elm bark, and the various
weeds . . . All the elm trees about many of the villages are stripped of their bark as high
as the starving people can manage to get; they would peel them to the top but haven't
the strength . . ."
So wrote the Rev. Timothy Richard, a Baptist missionary, in 1878. At the end of
December, with famine abroad in the land again, China's Communist masters feared that
the famine of 1950's death toll has already equal of 1878's, when 9,500,000 died.
In the Red capital of Beijing, Communist Vice Premier Tung Pi-wu bluntly told a U.N.
commission: "We are faced with a serious war against famine. There may be as many as
20 million famine refugees." Then Tung quoted a proverb: "It is the tail of the famine," he
said, "rather than the head, that should be dreaded." Tung was warning his hearers that
the next six months would be crucial. After that, the June harvest of winter wheat and
the first rice crop would bring food.
The famine of 1950 crept inexorably across China's traditional "hunger belt," some
200,000 square miles of fertile flatland that stretches from the Yangtze River to the Great
Wall. The Last summer, droughts had parched the flatlands; in the fall the Yellow River
went on a record rampage to destroy still more farmlands. Farther south, a secondary
hunger front was in the making in the normally rich Yangtze delta, hit last summer by the
worst floods in 18 years. Rare in China's history have been years when famine struck in
both the Yellow River and Yangtze valleys at the same time. All of this coming at a time
when China still had millions of people dislocated from the civil wars and farms not yet
rebuilt.
To combat the famine, Comrade Tung outlined some measures. "By the mountain, eat
from the mountain. By the river, eat from the river." Tung told the refugees put to work
rebuilding the dikes of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, promised loans for seed grains,
sent soldiers to work in the fields. Government workers and soldiers were exhorted:
"Save an Ounce of Rice." Tung claimed that the "head" of the famine had been dealt
with, but admitted that the job had been botched in places. Refugees had been permitted
to slaughter or sell irreplaceable work animals. "Mistakes have been made," said Tung,
"but China is still strong."
China's last big famine years were 1931 and 1932, when 2,000,000 died despite some
500,000 tons of food shipped in by the U.S. This year, cut off from the West by war,
there is no relief in sight.
CANADIAN FORCES SENT TO OKINAWA
Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent dispatched 1 aircraft carrier squadron, 1 destroyer
squadron, 1 armor division, 1 engineer brigade and 1 jet fighter wing to Okinawa and
placed it under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur's command.
This action provoked worriment in Canada over the possibility that the Soviet Union
might invade Alaska in order to knock Canada out of the war. In an effort to intimidate
Canada, Moscow has warned it that this option is on the table.
Canada is in the process of raising international brigades to fight against Communism.
The goal is to have 2 units ready by spring. So far, recruitment in Europe and Latin
America has raised 7,000 soldiers.
The Canadian people are overwhelmingly behind the war. Public opinion shows that the
pro-war sentiment is 76%.
TRADE PLUMMETS BETWEEN GERMANY AND GREAT BRITAIN
The fallout over the asbestos dispute between Germany and Great Britain has been
dwindling trade. Not since the war has there been so much hostility between the two
countries. Germany has held its ground that it will not release funds belonging to British
asbestos companies pending disposition of liability lawsuits. The British retaliation of
seizing an equal amount of German assets in Great Britain set off a public firestorm in
Germany where it became a matter of national pride not to buy anything British or to
hold any investments in their empire. The Germans announced that they would seek to
expand their trade with the Soviet Union in compensation for their losses.
IMMIGRATION CONTINUES TO CANADA
Prime Minister St. Laurent said that 14,000 Eastern Europeans arrived in Canada between
October and December seeking entry into the country. Many of them were skilled workers,
educated and ardent Anti-Communists. The Canadian legislature eased their admission and
helped them find new homes and jobs.
CANADA SUFFERS FROM SURGE OF US EXPORTS
The United States corporations, taking advantage of the liberal trade agreements with
Canada, have started to export heavily to that country. Since many of these US
companies are producing quantities much larger than their Canadian competitors, their
products are starting to devour the Canadian markets. Manufacturing has been especially
hurt. Factories in more remote parts of Canada have been forced to lay off workers and
cut back shifts. Prime Minister St. Laurent is under great measure to renegotiate his trade
agreement with the United States.
UN MEMBERSHIP
Members of the United Nations:
Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Chile, Nationalist
China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El
Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India,
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway,
Oman, Panama, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Trucial States, Turkey, United States of America, USSR,
Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen and Yugoslavia
Not Members of the United Nations:
Albania, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, Communist China, Finland, Germany, Hungary,
Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea,
Romania, Qatar, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam.
PAKISTANI MUSLIM STATES ASK FOR BRITISH AID
Princely states in Balochistan (Kalat, Kharan, Las Bela and Makran.) have broken with the
republican regime in Islamabad, which plans to strip them of titles, lands and power that
their families have held for centuries. The Princes have united in common cause and
mobilized their forces to fight the Pakistani army. The Balochistan have asked for British
protection.
Recently, the Pakistani army subdued Sadeq Mohammad Khan V of Bahawalpur and
brought his principality under control. Not long before that, the Pakistanis smashed all
opposition in Amb, Phulra and Swat. The republic controls most of north and central
Western Pakistan. Eastern Pakistan is unquestionably republican.
The Princely states of the Northwest (Chitral, Dir and Dir) also refuse to yield and have
asked Afghanistan for aid.
The question now is will Pakistan become one unified country or become Balkanized.
UFO
The Imperial Iranian Air Force said that it detected an unknown aerial phenomenon over
Tehran on December 6. Iranian jets attempted to intercept the intruders but were
unsuccessful with pilots reporting that the objects behaved in an unrecognizable manner
and moved at speeds impossible for jet aircraft to attain. SAVAK also received reports
from citizenry of strange lights in the sky
GUAM ORGANIC ACT
With the Republican victory in November, the southern Democrats dropped their
opposition to the Guam Organic Act. Under pressure from President Dewey, it became
law shortly before Christmas.
Below are the provisions of the new law:
1. An executive branch would be continued to be headed by a governor appointed by
the President of the United States.
2. A unicameral legislature with 21 members was created that would be elected by the
residents of Guam. (This was the first time Guam residents were given the right to vote
for the body that created the laws that governed them, for the most part. The ultimate
laws that govern Guam are still those of the U.S. Congress, a body in which Guam
residents still have no vote)
3. A court system was established with judges appointed by the Guam governor and reelected by Guam voters.
4. United States citizenship was granted to the residents of Guam. (Prior to this, Guam
residents were citizens of no country, except those who were naturalized in the U.S.
mainland or who had served in the U.S. military).
5. A limited Bill of Rights.
Citizens of Guam still adamant about obtaining the right to elect their own governor and
possessing the same Bill of Rights as all Americans. However, there seems to be no
interest Guam for statehood as there is in Alaska and Hawaii.
JAPANESE LEFTISTS DEMAND THAT US LEAVE
With unflagging fanaticism, Zengakuren, the tightly disciplined, Communist-led student
federation, mobilized its forces for a supreme assault on December 15 against the
government of Japan's Premier Shigeru Yoshida and the US occupation administration.
Against the 4,000 steel-helmeted cops guarding Tokyo's Diet building, Zengakuren threw
in more than 14,000 students who charged with cries of "Yankee go home. No war in
Japan." Pulling away a barricade of parked police trucks, 3,000 of them finally thrust
their way into the Diet compound, beating off police counterattacks with volleys of
stones and pointed sticks wielded like spears. Meanwhile, those who remained outside
set fire to 17 police trucks by stuffing burning newspapers into their gas tanks.
Not until after 1 a.m. - while the students were dancing around the flames and singing
the Internationale, the cops get the order to use tear gas. Eagerly, Tokyo's police
complied, then sallied forth and chased the half-blinded Zengakuren diehards away from
the Diet area. By dawn, the city's hospitals had treated 600 police and 870 students, and
for the first time since the anti-war demonstrations began five weeks ago, Zengakuren
had a martyr - a 22-year-old coed killed when she was hit by a police bobby stick.
Next day, as thousands howled their rage outside his residence, weary Shigeru Yoshida
met with his Cabinet for the second time in 24 hours. After a brief session, he emerged to
tell the Zengakuren that Japan would remain neutral in the war, but that the United
States would remain in Japan as per the surrender conditions of 1945.
The youths weren't satisfied; they said as long as Japan was occupied by the Americans
that it would be a target for Soviet atomic attack. So the demonstration continued for
the rest of the year, but less violently. Even the students became concerned when
General MacArthur talked about turning the U.S. army loose on them.
DEWEY CREATES SPECIAL COMMISSION ON ASBESTOS
U.S. President Thomas E. Dewey established a special commission to study any health
hazards posed by asbestos. The commission would begin holding hearings in the spring.
STATE OF THE EMPIRE
Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps strode briskly into a crowded House of
Commons one afternoon in early November to discuss the Labor government's budget
for 1951. Boyishly, Cripps slapped his battered red leather dispatch case onto the table,
grinned as he began a long review of Britain's economic position. He spoke steadily for
two hours and 17 minutes, pausing only twice for bird-like sips from a glass of orange
juice and honey. At the end of the first hour the drama had been squeezed out of the
annual rite; some members' heads were nodding. Winston Churchill fidgeted fretfully,
first slumping down in his seat, then drawing himself bolt upright to peer dully at the
green carpet between his feet. When Cripps finished, there were only two cheerful men
in the chamber—Cripps himself and Tory Chief Lord Woolton, who smiled down
blandly from the gallery.
Actually, Sir Stafford's report on the state of the Empire contained small cause for cheer.
"We have many commitments and are short on cash. To finance the war, I would
recommend an increase in business and personal taxes to 40%, a 10% tax on alcohol
and a 7% sales tax." Even Prime Minister Clement Atlee was stunned by Cripps' proposal
since he was hearing it for the first time. "We are facing a long war with the Soviets,
unrest in Malaysia, troubles in the Suez, growing hostility in Iran, possible revolt in
Cyprus and then...there is always Germany," Cripps continued. "Already we have a much
greater demand for foreign aid from our allies. For example, Iraq has asked for 310
million GBP (50 RPS) to protect them against an increasing hostile Iran. How can we
refuse when our oil supply is sitting in the Middle East?"
Cripps did report on the favorable progress on several governmental programs. In
particular, he especially touted the National Health Service, which is paying the medical,
hospitalization and prescriptions for all Britons. "There is no other program that this
house has passed that is more popular with people and beneficial to their well being."
Winston Churchill complained vociferously about wasted expenditures in foreign
countries that could have been spent on developing the Empire. "His Majesty's
government invests in Argentina's ports while its people besiege our embassy in Buenos
Aires demanding that we cede them the Falklands. No doubt, in the near future, our
investments there will be nationalized and the Falklands seized. If Peron can march into
Bolivia, he can do it to the Falklands. I propose that the government not throw good
money after bad in 1951."
BRITISH DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
The following Labor projects were approved by the House of Commons this year. This
list only reflects a portion of the government expenditures.
1. Aid to the British Film Board. The Atlee government has started to subsidize film
making for domestic and international release. (Original intent was to foster a private
film industry through loans. This was largely unsuccessful so far, so the government has
taken this project on itself.)
2. National Health Service. (This has been Britain's most successful program for the year.
However, its costs have been double the original amount allocated for it.)
3. Good Parenting Assistance Program. Every British parent with children under the age
of 18 is required to take a state paid course on "good parenting". (The Conservatives and
Liberals fought this bill "tooth and nail" saying that the government had no business
telling people how to raise families. Some parents have avoided or refused to participate
in the program. However, it has been fully implemented.)
4. National Sports Clinics. The purpose is to allow the child to exercise in a structured
environment, build teamwork and encourage healthy competition in a controlled
environment. (Although only a small portion of these centers have been built so far,
they seem to be popular with parents and children.)
5. Police Act of 1950. This law has provided Scotland Yard with additional monies to
hire more policemen in each district and to provide for regional crime laboratories.
(Scotland Yard is accelerating the war against crime.)
6. BBC Television. (Although the Conservatives were opposed to a state owned
television network, the bottom line was that the private sector wasn't interested in the
venture. Production is underway and its quality is fairly good, but many Britons don't
own televisions.)
7. Science and Math Focused Curriculum. In a technology driven world, the Atlee
government felt that school systems had to focus on science and mathematics. (Most
education experts agreed to a point. With 50% of the nation's children dropping out
before high school graduation and effort needs to be made just to keep students in
school with more vocational style training. The feeling amongst educators was Physics
wasn't for everyone.)
8. The M1 Motorway. When completed in 1954, it will be the first limited access
motorway in the UK. It has been started in the London outskirts and will be build to
York. (The nation is enthusiastic about the idea and feels that more roads like this should
be built.
9. Urban Renewal. A project has been started to remove slums in the cities and replace
them with government provided low income housing. (It was opposed by landlords who
said that the government was "robbing them of their livelihood". Slumlords are stalling
the project in court demanding high values for the property that the government is
seizing. The program is very popular with the poor.)
10. Railroad Modernization and Upgrade Project. This project is modernizing the British
rail network; to be finished sometimes in 1955.
SOVIET/CHINESE ASSETS SEIZED
The United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and their allies seized all Soviet and
Chinese properties in their countries and territorial waters.
PANAMA AWAITS US OFFER
The Panamanian Foreign Minister visited Washington in December hoping to open
negotiations with President Dewey over the future of the Panama Canal. Secretary of
State John Foster Dulles met with him several times, but the Panamanians insist that
Dulles was giving them the run around while avoiding the issue.
Panama has publicly asked that the Panama Canal be turned over fully to their nation by
1955 and the next four years would a transition period as Americans turned over
responsibilities to Panamanian replacements. There was no response from the White
House on that proposal.
The new Republican Congress is adamantly against turning the canal over to what it
terms an "unstable nation without the financial capacity to keep the Canal in good
working order." To many Congressmen, it's unpatriotic that another country would
control a waterway so important to American security.
Demonstrations occurred more frequently in December as US-Panamanian talks went
nowhere
TITO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY
Yugoslavian strongman Josef Tito knows the evil of war all too well having fought four
long years to liberate his country from the Germans. He knows full well that the new
world war is only in its infant stages and that Yugoslavia must prepare for the worse.
Putting his army on emergency alert, he declared a national emergency and made
provisions to deal with a possible food shortage caused by war.
A government decree was issued to create an emergency reserve of food and to close all
special food stores that serve party members and officials. Yugoslav Communists will
have to carry ration cards like everyone else. Government agencies are forbidden to buy
all luxury items. Gasoline will be strictly rationed with no exceptions.
This has caused a good deal of grumbling amongst party officials.
EDGAR SNOW REPORTS ON YUGOSLAVIA
Edgar Snow wrote a report after a visit to Yugoslavia.
"After the summer rain Belgrade’s slush, compounded partly of black Serbian mud,made
walking hazardous. But most Belgraders walked; the city's insufficient trolley cars were so
packed that the press called them sardine boxes. Here & there, watching the crowds from
street corners or hotel lobbies, stood men either in uniform or in ankle-length black
leather coats which in the popular mind is the unofficial uniform of the security police, "
Uprava državne bezbednosti," called " UDBA,"
I asked the enthusiastic young Communist official who escorted me if he could show me
some happy people. We went to the Kalemegdanska Terasa, a restaurant overlooking
the Danube. A group of Dalmatians were singing folk songs. Some officers were sitting at
tables and sipping wine and soda; a group of employees
from a ministry were exchanging loud wisecracks. The restaurant was packed. and two
youths fought over a vacated chair. The people were discussing the world situation and
the threat of war. Most people were confident that Yugoslavia would be able to keep
out of the war but no one is sure. These people looked like they could be in any other
European cities.
Belgrade nights are dominated by the giant red star and the scarlet neon sign at the top
of the lofty building belonging to Borba, official daily of the Communist Party. When it
rains, the red is reflected from some of the wet buildings and in street puddles.
The young communist official explained that people are much now better off than
before the war, and that every day in every way things are getting better & better. The
government has invested much money into develop the economy and increasing the
trade with other countries.
The Economic system - the communist economic system based on Stalinist economics has
gone through many changes. The previously state distribution system was often
inefficient, partly because the farmers did not want to grow or deliver certain foodstuffs
at the low prices fixed by the government. Now the government has relaxed the
collectivization and allows the farmers to produce what they could and to sell surpluses
on the open market. This is belied to increase the productivity for the summer harvest
and still be in according to the Tito brand of national communist usually refrede to as
Titoism.
As there have been reports about possible world famine, food stuff that is not sold on
the open market is still rationed thought the state owned stores to ensure that the each
citizen will get the minimum amount of food they needed. Monthly ration for a single
citizen is 66 Ibs. of bread, 7 Ibs. corn meal, 3.3 Ibs. fats, 18.7 Ibs. meat, 4.4 Ibs. sugar, ½
lbs. coffee. The communist government has invested in the economy through the five
year plan which primary aim is to make Yugoslavia more economically self-sufficient.
Tito last summer claimed that there is still a long way to go but with the 3.11% increase
of the GDP in 1950 things are on the right track. The increase is the highest among the
countries using the communist planned economy style and even outpacing some of the
more develop western European countries. This if a great boast to the Yugoslavian way
of Titoism and is often proclaimed in the propaganda. Last week the five-year plan's
mastermind Boris Kidric, chairman of the Planning Commission, said that the next years
investment is likely to be at the same level as this year with factories full of production
and new products in development. Yugoslavia has much undeveloped mineral wealth
and all the main strategic raw materials except coking coal, and that may be largely offset
by her hydro electrical potential.
Yugoslavia is essentially a peasant country and there is still a shortage of skilled labor.
Many new factories, schools and offices have been built and it increases the urbanization
in the whole country. This is still not enough and many thing are still learning by
mistakes. In 1949 there were 6,500 collective farms, supporting between 1,250,000 and
1,500,000 people who are working 4,353,900 acres, or 23% of the land under
cultivation. In Jan 1950 the communist reformed the collective farms experience after
stagnation economy in the countryside. Even if the reforms took place only 6 month
ago many peasant has already left the collective farms. Still there is a number of
collective farm operations in remote areas where the efficiency will be higher if the
peasants work together or some collective farm are still held together by good
management. Many collective farms has been reorganized according to the Socialist SelfManagement program to replaced state ownership of the means of production with
social ownership, entrusting ownership and management responsibilities to the workers
of each enterprise.
I talked to a worker in one of the collective farm. "I am eating better then before the
war," he admitted" "Of course, not so many men will work collective land as well as his
own land. Come back here in the summer. Drive down a road bordered on one side by
a zadruga, and on the other by private land. You will immediately know which is which.
Just try and count the weeds on the collectivized land."
Religion - The communist in Yugoslavia has frequently been criticized for the prosecution
of religion. In Yugoslavia the Orthodox Church has about 7,000,000 followers, and the
Roman Catholic Church, strongest in Croatia and Slovenia, has about 6,000,000. The
two-churches have maintained a solid front, but it is the Roman Catholic Church has
suffered for their association with the fascist during the war. The Catholics have lost
schools, orphanages, old folks' homes about 500 educational or charitable institutions has
been converted to communist institutions. Many priests have been arrested for their
supporting the fascist puppet regime created in Croatia during the war and actively
working in the camps to force convert people. .
Intensive indoctrination of Marxism in schools has been recently stepped up to root out
the feudal superstitions. Young pupils get heart-to-heart lectures from teachers : "Don't go
to church, there is no God, come along with us. Otherwise you won't be able to go to
school any more, and you won't get a job."
No soldier should go to church but at religious holiday a few slipped into Belgrade
churches, nor should teachers or government workers, except at the risk of losing job and
ration card.
Government - The security police keep a watchful eye to ensure the safety and freedom
of the citizen. The UDB is about 40,000 strong. Every Yugoslav has a personnel dossier
(karakteristika). The UDB is very powerful but still not above the law. There are a
number of bureaucratic procedures to be met before a person can be arrested.
After some hesitation the official admitted there are thousands of Yugoslavs in jail today,
mostly war criminal or collaborator during the war. They are put to work on roads or
other projects, so that they can pay their way. If they seem to see the error of their ways,
they get more pleasant jobs. They are re-indoctrinated, and go
through a re-educative process. The idea is not to keep them enemies of the state, but to
make them understand the true meaning of communism.
The police, like the other great arm of the state, the army, are firmly and totally in the
hands of the sole real power in Yugoslavia: the Communist Party. Behind the parliament
and courts, behind the organization of the People's Front, to which half of all Yugoslavs
belong, stands that single real power. There are some interesting figures showing how
authority over 15 million people is concentrated in the hands of a small group. Last
official figures put membership of the party at 468,000, or some 3% of the population.
In 1941 the party had only 12,000 members, and of these only 3,000 survived the war.
The "old Communists" in Yugoslavia therefore represent less than 1% of this 3%.
Every member of the 63-man Central Committee is drawn from this magic 3,000. So are
most of the 28 cabinet ministers.
Communists staff the top bureaucracy in the six republics. Nine out of ten officers in the
army are Communists. The tight link between party and state apparatus can be
understood from this figure: the 122 permanent officials of the Communist Politburo,
Central Committee and Central Supervisory Committee (89 members and 33 substitutes)
among them hold 823 key jobs in the government.
Atop this pyramid of power stands Josip Broz-Tito. There are a good many songs, mostly
sung by the SKOJ (Communist youth movement), about him. Example: Comrade Tito,
our red rose, Our famous country is with you; Comrade Tito, you strawberry in the dew,
Our people are proud of you.
This 200-lb. leader has come a long way since he first left his home village of Kumrovec,
in Croatia. The former lock smith apprentice, soldier, agitator, machinist and army
marshal has a personality which exudes strength and assurance. He is a fierce patriot and
a convinced Communist. He takes important decisions swiftly. He talks fluent German
and Russian, smokes a lot of cigarettes, relaxes easily over a few drinks, likes to sing old
partisan songs with intimates who call him "Start" ("Old Man")-Tito now lives in a spartan
villa in Dedinje, a suburban district of Belgrade, the old White Palace of the Serbian kings
is used for ceremonial receptions in Belgrade.
Three faithful friends of Tito are the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 men in the land—Kardelj, Rankovic,
Djilas.
Edvard Kardelj, Deputy Premier and Foreign minister, is a 40-year-old former
schoolteacher from Ljubljana, in Slovenia. He joined the party in 1928, went to Russia in
1933 and taught the history of the Comintern at Sverdlovsk University.. With his
scholarly eyeglasses, small stature and sober, meticulous clothes, Kardelj is a patent
imitation of Molotov, the iron functionary. Kardelj had his toes broken in prison by the
police of the late King Alexander, and he still walks awkwardly.
Aleksandar ("Marko") Rankovic, Minister of the Interior, is of a different type. Born in
the Posavina 41 years ago of Serb peasant stock, he started life as a tailor. He became a
Communist when still in his teens. He looks a perfect police chief—burly and iron-jawed,
with eyes as cold as the Danube River in winter. In 1939 he was in Moscow, taking
lessons in police administration from Lavrenty Beria. Rankovic is the most intensely
feared man in Yugoslavia.
Milovan Djilas, Minister without Portfolio, is 38 and a Montenegrin from Kolasin. His
wife, Mitra-Mitrovic, is a Communist intellectual and a minister in the cabinet of the
Serbian Republic. A graduate from Belgrade University's faculty of law, Djilas is a coeditor of the Communist daily, Borba. Today one of his functions is to direct "agitprop,"
the psychological warfare branch of the Yugoslav government. A forceful, brilliant writer
and speaker, Djilas, with his shock of black hair and lively eyes, is a more attractive
personality than the other two members of the triumvirate.
This trio would probably succeed Tito in a joint capacity if the marshal were to die or be
assassinated. Probably no one of them has the personality to succeed Tito alone - Kardelj
is too colorless, Djilas too impetuous, and Rankovic too well hated.
I asked 40 foreign observers what the Yugoslavs thought. They agreed that 95% or more
of the nation supports Tito and his regime. The Communist Party machine has a total
grip on the nation. Nothing can overthrow it except the use or possibly the threat of
superior forces.
Tito insists that Yugoslavia is more Communist than Russia in the sense that the
decentralization of the economy and the Socialist Self-Management program with
workers ownership has lead to a system closer to Marx original teachings. In other
aspects Yugoslavia is gradually being liberalized. While I was in Yugoslavia a score of
Bulgarian journalists were being taken on a conducted tour of the country. Afterwards
one of them told me: "We had complete freedom to go wherever we wanted, and we
were all deeply impressed by what we saw.
The Army - At the moment, the army proper has around 10 divisions of 25,000 men
apiece, to this can be added thousands of irregular militia (KNOJ). The air force is being
brought into the jet era with Soviet equipment. The navy is neglible, the naval yards are
in full production but the ships are being exported. Needless to say, there are no atomic
piles, rocket research centers or bacteriological warfare centers.
Tito trying to keep out the World War 3 but is wisely preparing for the worse. He will
not fight more than a delaying action on the plains. Instead the battle will be brought to
the mountains which cover most of the country south of the Sava River. In a short time
Tito could have 1,500,000 fighting army men and guerrillas in the mountains. This army
would be broken up into elements of not more than 200, to fight the long guerrilla war
Tito knows best. "
ALBANIA ADOPTS NEW RELIGIOUS LAW
In October, the Albanian government issues a 'Decree on Religious Communities' that
requires all religious orders to comply with "the laws of the state, law and order, and
good customs." Religious orders based outside the country are told to cease all activities
in Albania, religious institutions are banned from participating in the education, health
and welfare systems, and all religious orders are prohibited from owning property.
VOLCANO ERUPTS IN ITALY
Mount Etna erupted in eastern Sicily. The 10,902 ft high volcano did $150 million worth
of damages leaving 25,000 people homeless. Timely evacuations spared any loss of life.
MILITARY SPENDING HURTS YUGOSLAVIA
Associated Press reports that sources in Belgrade say that Yugoslavia is going to the
poorhouse with military expenditures. Although this unconfirmed, Yugoslavia supposedly
used nearly half her revenues to build military hardware in 1950 while only modernizing
three state industries. With a growing population, the economy must expand to meet the
nation's needs.
STATISTICS
How much has the U.S. output in real goods grown since 1929? In December, the
Department of Commerce announced the gain: 75%. It was less than half the increase
shown by dollar figures, largely because of the drop in the dollar's purchasing power.
To make its computation, the department picked 1939 as a reasonable norm between
prosperity and depression, and used that year's purchasing power of the dollar as a base.
With this measuring stick, said the department, the gross national product for 1929 was
$85.9 billion, instead of the actual dollar figure of $103.8 billion. The gross national
product for 1950 was $153 billion, instead of the actual dollar figure of $280 billion. "the
use of current dollars to measure the national product conceals a price rise of about 50%
since 1929. But, even on an adjusted basis, the output of real goods in 1950 increased
7% over 1949 - a more than average gain."
COAL
On New Year's Eve, laughing crowds in London's Piccadilly Circus, restored to its prewar
dazzle only 18 months ago, gave a full-throated rendition of Auld Lang Syne. The New
Year did not stay welcome for long. With housewives grousing over escalating prices for
meat and other staples, Piccadilly's neon lights were doused by a coal shortage.
The government ordered advertising signs throughout the country switched off, begged
the public to save gas & electricity, and suspended 3,854 passenger trains. Philip NoelBaker, Minister of Fuel & Power, pleaded in a radio address: "Put the kettle on before,
not after, you light the gas. Don't boil more water than you need. Keep the lid on the
saucepan while you're cooking. Try to use your electric heater for half an hour less every
day …"
Long-suffering Britons hastened to obey. The warning revived grim memories of the
freezing winter of 1947 when the coal strike paralyzed industry and transport, threw
4,000,000 out of -work, sent overcoated millions to a long diet of cold food.
Britain's 1950 coal output set a postwar record of 216,301,100 tons but it still fell
1,700,000 tons short of the nation's needs because of the soaring demand for power for
the booming export drive and rearmament. British miners, dissatisfied with pay and
conditions in the nationalized coal industry, were not giving their best. Thousands of
them, tired of the dirty, dangerous work, quit to join the expanding armed forces or to
take better-paying jobs in other industries. In 1950, the mining force fell from 708,900 to
688,600; absenteeism and labor disputes climbed.
To strike at the heart of the problem, Prime Minister Clement Attlee invited the 27-man
executive committee of the National Union of Mineworkers to a conference at 10
Downing Street. Because four or five members of the executive are Communists,
including N.U.M. General Secretary Arthur Horner, Attlee did not appeal for more coal
for defense; Horner was primed to resist any such plea. Instead, Attlee's Colonial
Secretary, ex-Miner Jim Griffiths, gave the executive a comradely pep talk, said the
government wouldn't let the miners down. At meeting's end, Attlee promised to redress
the miners' grievances in return for their pledge that they would try to dig 3,000,000
extra tons of coal by April.
With the promised pay increases, an extra week's vacation (to start in 1952) and a new
pension scheme under their belts, Britain's miners set out to redeem their pledge. To give
them added zeal, every miner in the country got a letter starting "Dear Friend," printed in
a reproduction of the Prime Minister's handwriting. The letter said: "The nation looks to
you; I am sure you will not fail . . ." It was signed "C. R. Attlee."
EXCESS PROFITS BILL PASSED
After three weeks of public and private wrangling, the outgoing Democratic Congress
passed a bill called for a levy of 75% on all earnings above 85% of a company's average
profits during its three best years between 1946 and 1949. The tax would be retroactive
to January 1, 1950. No more than 67% of a corporation's earnings would have to be
paid in normal and excess-profits taxes v. 80% during World War II.
Corporate America is pushing for President Dewey to veto the bill, yet there are even
Republicans say that the tax might be very helpful to foot the cost of the war.
THE TROUBLES OF TAXES
The Steel companies tell French Premier Henri Queuille that they need lower taxes to
modernize their industry and government subsidies. They asked that their tax rate be
lowered to 18%, which drew a loud outburst from the Socialists and Communists, who
said, "The government needs revenues. If you lower taxes on industry, then they must be
raised on the worker. If you impoverish the worker - who will buy the manufactured
goods?"
ATOMIC BOMB APPROVED BY FRENCH LEGISLATORS
By a very narrow margin, the French Chamber of Deputies approved a plan to develop a
French atomic bomb. The vote was very close with Socialist-Communist opposition
vociferous both inside the Chamber and across France. Over 500,000 leftists gathered in
Paris to protest the government action. The majority (52%) of French citizens are
opposed to building such a bomb because the country may become a target of an attack
by the Germans or Soviets.
Research will begin in January, 1951.
GERMAN SHIPBUILDERS OFFER TO BUILD OIL TANKERS
The French Oil Company Total has announced that it will be accepting bids from ship
builders to build new oil tankers capable of carrying large loads from Asia. So far, the
only two companies with reasonable bids were German.
FRENCH OPT FOR NEUTRALITY
The majority of French polled indicate that they want France to remain neutral in World
War III. If Premier Henri Queuille leads his nation into war against the Soviets and Red
Chinese, he may have the votes in Chamber of Deputies, but the country will be badly
divided.
A GESTURE TO COMRADE STALIN
Until a few weeks ago the 11,000 citizens of the sober little town of Saint-Junien in
central France got along all right with their Communist mayor. Then M. le Maire Martial
Pascaud decided to make a gesture of obeisance to his masters in the Kremlin. Tottering
old Communist Leader Marcel Cachin paid a visit to Saint-Junien. To mark the occasion,
Mayor Pascaud marched a party of 100 local Communists down Saint-Junien's main
street, the Boulevard Leon Gambetta, to hang new signs on each corner rechristening the
street Boulevard Joseph Staline. When the street was thoroughly renamed, the mayor
and his friends marched out to the football stadium to nail up a large wooden sign
reading "Stade Maurice Thorez," in honor of France's top Communist.
Next day in Paris the Interior Ministry instructed Saint-Junien's postmaster to deliver no
mail addressed to the Boulevard Staline. Mayor Pascaud countered by adding the old
Boulevard Gambetta signs to the new Boulevard Staline signs, thus giving the street two
names. Then, just before the start of the first game of the rugby season, six members of
the local team went on strike, refusing to play ball in the stadium. "We didn't come here
to play politics," explained Center Forward Jean Colombier. "Le sport est mort a SaintJunien," sobbed a heartbroken referee.
That night 60 members of the local sports club assembled in a café to protest the new
name on Saint-Junien's stadium and sent a deputation out to pull down the wooden
sign. The following day Mayor Pascaud ordered a new sign put up. During the night that
one too was pulled down. For five days and nights this maneuver was repeated. Last
week the Communist mayor of Saint-Junien issued an order. Henceforth, he said, a
municipal employee would hang a sign reading "Stade Maurice Thorez" on the stadium
each morning and take it down each night.
QUEVILLE REBUKED BY LEGISLATORS
The French Chamber of Deputies refused to spend $150 million on researching an atomic
submarine in conjunction with Italy and Great Britain since the country had not even
developed atomic power yet.
This measure was also turned back in Italy for the same reasoning.
MOROCCAN LEADER VISITS PARIS
From a month of palaver and pleasure in France, Sidi Mohamed ben Youssef, Sultan of
Morocco, sailed back to his North African domain in mid-December. His mission had
tried in vain to loosen the ties binding Morocco and France. Now the suave and
stubborn Sultan talked guardedly of breaking them.
Under the impetus of the North African campaign of World War II, the urban Moroccan
intelligentsia grew increasingly restless for a fuller measure of freedom than that allowed
them under the French protectorate. Most clamorous for nationalism was the Istiqhlal
(Independence) Party. A leading moderate was the Sultan; he well knew that his
backward countrymen were not yet ready for full freedom in a modern state, and
besides, French power made his position secure against possible uprising of Berber tribes.
But when he arrived in Paris last month, the Sultan told French leaders that even
moderates now wanted more autonomy than was possible under the Protectorate Treaty
of 1912. Premier Henri Queuille said that he would talk with the Chamber of Deputies,
but he doubted that they would agree. Sidi Mohamed expressed regret, hoped France
would change her attitude later.
A Moroccan spokesman told the press: "In 40 years the world has changed. The
Moroccan people cannot remain indifferent to the examples of India and Egypt." Before
leaving for home, the Moroccan delegation informed government officials that what
they really wanted was an end to the treaty altogether and a completely new agreement
in its place.
The polite French, with Indo-China undoubtedly in the back of their minds, feted the
Sultan of Morocco, saw him off aboard the cruiser Georges Leygues, promised to form a
mixed French-Moroccan committee to meet soon in Rabat to study Sidi Mohamed's
program.
WESTERN EUROPEAN ALLIES FORM JOINT AIR DEFENSE
France, Great Britain and Italy have formed a joint air defense command that is
monitoring the borders with Germany, Hungary and Yugoslavia with radar and air
patrols. Under one command, the three allies will jointly react to any violation of their
air space with fighter jet and AA guns.
EASTERN EUROPE REMAINS NEUTRAL
The Communist governments of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania have joined
the Yugoslavia in declaring its neutrality.
BALTIC STATES DECLARES NEUTRALITY
Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland have all stated that they are neutral in World War
III and have forbidden their airspace to be used by any warring nation.
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
Freedom, liberty or democracy - whatever called - its essence is the right and dignity of
the individual. To achieve that principle has taken centuries of revolution and bloody
battle. In Japan, this principle came so suddenly - and so quietly - that most observers fail
to see the scope of the tremendous, bloodless revolution that has been wrought here
since the start of the American occupation.
The "bloodless revolution" has been in full swing since 1945. Just two years ago, the Diet
passed Japan's new constitution. General Douglas MacArthur himself had written the first
draft in his clear, old-fashioned hand. It reduced the Emperor from godhead to symbol,
abolished the feudal aristocracy, and gave the Diet genuine power to make laws,
guaranteed popular liberties, decreed sex equality, and renounced the nation's right to
make war, even for self-defense. It contained such alien concepts as "public servants"
(ancient custom made bureaucrats responsible only to the Throne) and "pursuit of
happiness" (many a Japanese finds this Jeffersonian concept immoral).
It had paved the way for land reform; the estates of the old gentry had been bought and
resold to 5,000,000 new, small, independent holders. It had given Japanese politics a
new look; at parliamentary elections for the first time in history, candidates for office had
gone hat in hand to solicit votes from ordinary folk.
The new constitution looked fine on the statute books. But what did Minshushugi (the
way of the democrats) really mean to a people long accustomed to Shinto (the way of
the gods)?
The Japanese find U.S. democracy attractive but elusive. It is strange and foreign to the
touch. Schoolboys argue whether Minshushugi means Marx, Lincoln or Adam Smith.
Harried housewives wonder how long it will be before belief in true democracy can scale
down the price of black-market soap. Said a graying Osaka politician: "We can explain
the theory of democracy and even make laws about it. But to feel it, that is the big jump.
Let's face it - Japan is being baptized at a very old age."
The lack of force in applying Minshushugi puzzles, and exasperates, some Japanese.
"Who are we to choose?" asked a shabby ex-officer. "After all, the Americans are running
the occupation."
The coming of democracy has had its greatest impact on Japanese women. Before the
war they were virtually without legal rights. Now they vote, own property, attend
square dances, go to coeducational schools and eagerly discuss the advantages of love
matches over the ancient Japanese custom of marriage arranged by parents. They may
smoke if they like. Emancipation has not been confined to the young. A middle aged
matron in a Fukuoka leather-goods store explained: "Before the war when my husband
and I went out I walked behind. Now we walk side by side."
A sociologist who has spent a lifetime studying the conservative folk of Japan's fishing
villages said last month: "Everywhere I go the conflict is the same. It is the young against
the old. The old instinctively want to preserve past ways, but they are losing. Now, in
the village assemblies the youngsters speak out against their fathers—often violently. The
old, rigid family structure is cracking. Where the young will go, what faith they will
finally adopt, I don't know."
Everywhere in Japan, the people are suspended between the old, which is no longer
considered right, and the new, which they do not yet understand. A few months ago,
Emperor Hirohito celebrated his 49th birthday. Between morning and nightfall, nearly
400,000 Japanese filed into the palace gardens to pay their respects to the Mikado. Since
the Emperor has formally ceased to be a god and has begun to move freely about his
realm, he has become even more popular with his people than in the old days. His
subjects seem to prefer his humanity to his divinity; at baseball games, among workers,
wherever he goes, they take inexplicable comfort from his invariable approving remark,
"Ah so, ah so." Yet even in their homage of their constitutional monarch the people are
confused.
Amid the gossipy birthday crowds strolling across the imperial gardens at Tokyo, a
frayed, rustic-looking little man stopped, doffed his hat and made a low bow toward the
palace. In the middle of this gesture, once compulsory but now archaic, the little man
suddenly became aware that his more modern-minded countrymen were staring at him.
Deeply embarrassed, he checked himself in mid-bow, pretended that he was merely
scratching his head, and put his hat back on. Then he shyly disappeared into the crowd.
The little man was the measure of America's task. The little man, and millions like him,
wanted to know what he might bow to now. Emperor MacArthur? The American flag? If
democracy was the faith of the men who had beaten Japan, it was probably a good
thing; he would make obeisance to it, too.
The little man had yet to learn that democracy was not a matter of bowing to any idol
but of standing straight and free as a responsible citizen. Unless this lesson sank in, the
little man would easily stray from the road of the democrats to the road of the
Communists, who had new idols all ready for him to bow to.
The American teachers of democracy could not be sure where their lessons would end.
Once before the Japanese had acquired a veneer of Western progress. They had achieved
mass education and mass production. They had learned to forge steel, to fly and to
bomb Pearl Harbor.
It may be argued that in prewar Japan democratic forms were merely superimposed on
ancient, rigid social patterns. In Japan today the U.S. is breaking up those social patterns.
It is deliberately fostering a social revolution far bolder than anything colonial powers of
the past have attempted in Asia. This revolution might lead to real democracy; it might
also backfire as badly as Japan's earlier and shallower experiment with Western progress.
Americans and Japanese are groping down a dim and dangerous road. But there is no
safer way.
For the time being, Japan's plain people were still not mainly concerned with the road to
democracy; they worried, like people in the best regulated societies, about the road that
would lead them to the 'biggest bowl of rice. In a Tokyo saloon last month, Mikizo
Kawahara, an unemployed counterman, said: "It's useless to talk to me about democracy
and new ideals - get me a job first!" A bearded grocer nearby put down his cup of
watered sake and nodded: "Life here," he said, "is like trying to do business in a prison
without bars."
Japan is desperately poor. Miles of gaping ruins still deface the land, though in the big
cities shoddy-built warrens of small houses and shops hide some of the scars of bomb
destruction. The crowds that haggle over prices in Tokyo's Shimbashi market are only
slightly better dressed than they were five years ago. High priced Tokyo shops sell "fancy
silk ties, brocade purses and delicate chinaware, but few can afford them. The Ginza's
humbler stalls have stacks of hardware and kitchen utensils, but still at soaring blackmarket prices. Chubby new autos (toyoda toyopetto, or "pet cars") chug along streets
once monopolized by occupation vehicles - but most Japanese still wait in dreary queues
for rickety buses.
The newly rich black-marketers fling lavish parties in speakeasy restaurants for their
geisha girls. Pomaded dandies and taxi-dancers foxtrot in crowded dance-halls to the
melancholy strains of ikoku no oka, "the hills of a strange land"- a hit-parade lament
about Japan's 400,000 strong POWS still held in Soviet Siberia.
The average wage-earner has plenty to be melancholy about at home. He struggles
desperately with the inflated cost of living. At official prices an average belt for a man
costs 800 yen, a hat 2,000 yen, a pair of shoes 1,500 yen, and a suit 4,000 yen. The
black-market prices are twice as high, but if the Japanese boycott the black market he will
need a year and a half to accumulate the tickets necessary to buy a suit on his ration
card.
When MacArthur took over Japan, the country's economic situation was desperate. For
decades, Japan, one of the world's great trading nations, had supported itself from
markets around the world; its best customers were the U.S., China and India. By ruthless
seizure it was the master of fabulously wealthy Manchuria, the chief prize in the treasure
house of the "greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." When the war ended, the great
trading empire was shattered. Gone also were four-fifths of the Japanese merchant ships
that had carried her trade. Eighty-one million people (increasing at the rate of about one
million a year) were bottled up on the overcrowded islands of Japan in a space hardly
capable of supporting 50 million. The disaster, which Japan had richly earned, was
compounded by a U.S. policy which was designed to keep Japan forever from waging
another war. As it turned out, the cost was whopping, and it was paid by the U.S.
taxpayer, who had to help support a destitute Japan.
A good part of the American occupation's first two years was spent in demilitarization
and the purge of war-guilty officials. The trusts of the Zaibatsu, big family combines,
were broken up. The occupation authorities, however, had nothing to substitute for the
old Japanese way of doing business. The Zaibatsu unquestionably carried a heavy share
of Japanese war guilt. But instead of punishing individuals for individual offenses, the
U.S. economic policy in effect punished the entire Japanese nation because the effect of it
was to forestall such limited economic recovery as was still possible.
Things changed as the rivalry between the United States and the USSR heated up.
Washington sent slight, straight-talking Banker Joseph Dodge, of Detroit, to get Japan
moving again. In a busy three months he had persuaded Premier Shigeru Yoshida's
government to balance its budget (for the first time since 1931) and set up a realistic yen
rate (360 to $1 U.S.). In return for the national belt-tightening that this signified, the
Japanese would receive billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
Finance Minister Hayato Ikeda, one of Japan's few competent cabinet members, who
had done the spadework with Joe Dodge, proclaimed "Real political freedom cannot be
hoped for where there is no economic independence. If we Japanese prefer to lie idly
dependent on the help of foreign countries, we would be disgracing both our forefathers
and our children."
The Japanese have worked hard in the last year to take advantage of every economic
opportunity. The economy grew by nearly 20%. However, most Japanese are poor and
work for low wages. The Japanese are on the long road of recovery, but it will take
some time. The United States has encouraged many of its businesses to set up in the
Japanese market, which has helped fuel the recovery.
Only time will tell how this all plays out.
COMMUNISTS ASSASSINATE ITALIAN POLITICIANS
A small band of Communist operatives have been assassinating local officials in Northern
Italy. Approximately 7 political leaders were killed this month. The Italian police are
investigating but have made no arrests at this point.
THE PLANE TO MOSCOW
The green C-47 from Moscow circled above Paris' Orly Field, showing the bright red
stars on its fuselage as it turned, then came in for a landing. Half an hour later, an
ambulance drove up, opened its doors. From the ambulance Maurice Thorez, France's
Communist boss, reclining on a litter, his feet in bedroom slippers, was carried to the
aircraft to start what may be his final pilgrimage to Moscow. He said goodbyes to the
bigwigs of French Communism: Jacques Duclos, looking like the tubby mayor of a little
French town; Andre Marty, his fanatic face wearing an uncommonly benign look; hardboiled Red Labor Chief Benoit Frachon in a green raincoat.
A dozen weighty trunks were hefted aboard the plane. No one inspected them; the
French government had waived customs formalities. Then the Thorez litter was passed
in, the white curtains were drawn and Maurice Thorez crossed into a world that
outsiders are not allowed to glimpse.
Hard driving, 50-year-old Maurice Thorez was a very sick man. He had been nearly
killed in a bomb blast by an assassin. While recovering from those injuries, he was struck
down by a cerebral hemorrhage he had lain bedridden and partially paralyzed in his
party-owned villa near Paris. He had frequent spells during which he blacked out. Five
French specialists had agreed that Thorez seemed incurable and would probably never
regain full possession of his faculties.
Moscow had sent Professor Sergei Davidenkov to attend Stalin's "very dear Comrade
Thorez." Davidenkov disagreed with the French doctors, said that he would personally
guarantee a cure in a Moscow clinic. Thorez' wife, Communist Deputy Jeannette
Vermeersch, took the hint and publicly asked the Soviet to treat her husband. The Red
Foreign Ministry made the request official, the French government agreed and Thorez
was off.
The Kremlin could congratulate itself on a delicate job, well - if brusquely - handled. It
had reason to worry about Comrade Thorez. Long before the world heard of Titoism,
the French party chief was quarreling with colleagues who accused him of harboring
patriotic relics in his thinking. Thorez made unorthodox statements such as "One thing
happened in Russia, another will happen in France. We'll have our French revolution in
our own French fashion." Three times Thorez had been slapped down by the Kremlin for
nationalist tendencies. Each time he took his reprimand like a good Kremlin offspring,
welcoming the blows, enthusiastically agreeing that they were for his own good.
It would not be safe to leave a bedridden Thorez in France. He could not easily be
hidden underground if the French government decided to arrest the Red leaders. With
the war in Italy, nothing was for sure. Communists were being assassinated in France and
the government was thought responsible. A sick man whose brain or nervous system was
affected might talk. He had to be whisked out of the country.
The Kremlin Said No. This raised the question of his successor as secretary general of the
700,000-member party. The rat-race for power began as soon as the underlings realized
the extent of the chief's illness. The faction urging a tough Communist line pushed their
senior member, Andre Marty. But though Marty is a reliable fanatic, he is an inflexible
fool save in his specialty: barricade-building and street fighting. Auguste Lecoeur, one of
the party's four secretaries, emerged as the compromise choice. Though a graceless
militant, he was Thorez' protege and, like Thorez, had come up through mine-union
politics. But the last word, of course, was Moscow's.
In December, it was spoken. The Kremlin definitely turned down Lecoeur: 1.) he had no
training in Moscow, 2) the times required a wily, subtle, flexible approach rather than
militancy alone.
Into Thorez' place went Jacques Duclos, shrewdly jovial, a skilled parliamentarian.
Duclos, leader of the Red deputies in the chamber, could be hard as nails - as he proved
when he headed the Red underground during the Nazi occupation. Or - and this is
particularly important now - he could be as smoothly persuasive as an insurance
salesman.
For fledgling Lecoeur, 39 years old, came a summons. When the Thorez plane took off,
it carried an extra passenger. Ruddy-faced Auguste Lecoeur was off to Moscow for the
soul-searing and trial by fire that precedes leadership of Communism's fifth column in
France.
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Prime Minister Clement Atlee's administration took a slight break from addressing the
crisis in Italy to fulfill a promise he'd made to the British people upon his initial ascension
to the post of Prime Minister: the formation of the first of what he hopes to be many
National Parks in the United Kingdom.
"Great Britain's natural beauty is often overlooked. Even many Britons view our nation
as being crushed be development and lacking in natural splendor...what we've done is
set aside several areas of outstanding natural beauty so that our children and
grandchildren will be able to appreciate them."
The first four areas to be set aside are as follows:
1. The Peak District, an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in
northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester,
Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire.
The National Park covers 555 square miles (1,440 km) of Derbyshire, Staffordshire,
Cheshire, Greater Manchester and South and West Yorkshire, including the majority of
the area commonly referred to as the Peak. Its northern limits lie along the A62 between
Mardsen and Meltham, north west of Oldham, while its southern most point is on the
A52 on the outskirts of Ashbourne in Derbyshire. The Park boundaries were drawn to
exclude large built-up areas and industrial sites from the park; in particular, the town of
Buxton and the adjacent quarries are located at the end of the Peak Dale corridor,
surrounded on three sides by the Park. The town of Bakewell and numerous villages are,
however, included within the boundaries, as is much of the (non-industrial) west of
Sheffield.
2. The Lake District also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North West
England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains (or
fells), and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William
Wordsworth and the Lake Poets. It lies entirely within Cumbria, and is one of England's
few mountainous regions. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above
sea level lies within the National Park, including Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in
England.
3. Snowdonia National Park covers 827 square miles (2,140 km2), and has 37 miles
(60 km) of coastline.
The Park is governed by the Snowdonia National Park Authority, which is made up of
local government and Welsh national representatives, and its main offices are at
Penrhydeudraeth. Unlike national parks in other countries, Snowdonia (and other such
parks in England and Wales) are made up of both public and private lands under central
planning authority.
More than 26,000 people live within the Park, of whom about 62% speak Welsh. The
Park expects over 6 million visitors annually, split almost equally between day and
staying visitors, making it the third most visited National Park in England and Wales.
Whilst most of the land is either open or mountainous land, there is a significant amount
of agricultural activity within the Park.
4. Dartmoor National Park is an area of moorland in the centre of Devon, it covers
954 square kilometers (368 sq mi). The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous
period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops
(known as tors), providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The highest point is High
Willhays, 621 m (2,037 ft) above sea level. The entire area is rich in antiquities and
archaeology.
Dartmoor is managed by the Dartmoor National Park Authority whose 22 members are
drawn from Devon County Council, local District Councils and Government.
Parts of Dartmoor have been used as a military firing range for over two hundred years.
The public will enjoy extensive access rights to the rest of Dartmoor, and it is expected to
be a popular tourist destination.
(This is an historic event that must be funded in the 1951 budget)
MUST HAVE HEIR
The Iranian parliament has urged the Shah to marry so that the nation can have a male
heir. There was no comment from His Imperial Majesty.
The Shah had originally been married to Princess Fawzia of Egypt, sister to King Farouk,
in 1939. The marriage was not a success. After the birth of the couple's only child,
Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi, Queen Fawzia obtained an Egyptian divorce in 1945. This
divorce was not recognized by Iran until November 17, 1948, when Princess Fawzia
agreed that her daughter would remain in Iran to be raised by her husband. Queen
Fawzia reclaiming her previous distinction of Princess of Egypt.
Princess Fawzia was married to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in an effort to ally Iran with
Egypt. Above all else, for reasons of state, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi needed a male heir,
but that was not to be. As in many arranged marriages, the Shah wasn't in love with her
and there wasn't any passionate romance. As time wore on, there weren't any male heirs
putting great pressure on Queen Fawzia.
Having never adjusted to life in Iran, Fawzia missed her old home and its glittering
sophisticated environment. She was used to a life of luxury and pampering very common
at the court of her brother. By 1945, she viewed all of Iran with contempt. The Shah's
mother was also a great problem since she worked constantly against Fawzia's interests
and made her.
MENZIES WITHDRAWS GUEST WORKER PROGRAM
Under great pressure from the Australian public, Prime Minister Robert Menzies
withdrew his guest worker proposal from Parliament. Given the outbreak of World War
III, the majority of Australians were opposed to allowing large number of Asians to come
to Australia as guest workers. There is a great fear that there would Communist fifth
columnists amongst them. On top of that, Australia remains proudly conscious of being
an white Anglo-Saxon nation and is quite racist towards Asians. While Mr. Menzies'
proposal wouldn't have made quest workers citizens or permanent residents, the votes
weren't there in parliament and certain defeat would have brought down his
government.
According to political insiders in Australia, the bill may have had a chance if Menzies
would have agreed that the program would need parliamentary approval after the 2year trial basis instead of an automatic extension and if Parliament had the right to
approve what foreign nations could participate in the program. Menzies never
responded to the Parliamentary compromise.
PROPOSED SECURITY ACT IN AUSTRALIA GOING NOWHERE
Prime Minister Robert Menzies made the following proposal, called the Security Act,
before Parliament:
1. Communist organizations must register with the Ministry of the Interior and furnish
lists of all members.
2. It shall hereby be a criminal offense to contribute to the establishment of a totalitarian
regime in Australia.
3. Members of Communist organizations are barred from working in defense plants,
education and may not obtain passports.
4. Communists shall not be granted admittance into Australia. Those found to enter
Australia and later register with a Communist organization may be subject to expulsion
from Australia.
5. Sponsorship of revolutionary activity by members of Communist groups shall result in
investigation of case and may be punished by revocation of citizenship.
So far, the Australian Parliament has been reluctant to discuss it since previous attempts
to outlaw Communist organizations and actions have been declared unconstitutional by
the courts. Menzies is lobbying hard for the bill, so time will tell if he can get a majority
to support it.
DOES "TURK" WESTLING WORK FOR THE GERMANS?
With growing numbers, the mercenary leader, Raymond Paul Rocco “Turk” Westerling
has defeated the Indonesian army at Ciamis and seized the city. He has organized a new
Republic of Java with a puppet regime. This coming at a time when the Indonesians are
fighting against the Communists at Serang and Genteng, may be fatal to the Sukarno
government.
There is growing evidence that Westerling is receiving military aid from the Germans.
Much of his weapon is German manufacture. The Germans claim that this is nonsense
and that World War II surplus can be found around the globe.
AUSTRALIA REIMBURSES RANCHERS FOR LOSSES
With Northern Australia under extreme duress due to drought conditions, Australian
governmental agencies are working hard to provide relief to the beleaguered region. In
October, millions of dollars in foodstuffs were sent to aid the people living in Northern
Australia. Defense Minister Eric Harrison deployed the 1st Motorized Infantry Division to
assist.
An emergency bill was quickly passed through Australia's Parliament giving the nearly
bankrupted ranchers $100 million to rebuild their businesses. The ranchers had lost much
of their herds to a severe drought caused by the lack of a winter monsoon.
Additionally, another $100 million was allocated to drilling more artesian wells.
SUKARNO ACCEPTS MEDIATION
President Sukarno of Indonesia accepted Australian Prime Minister Menzies offer of
mediation in the fishing dispute between the Philippines and his country. Likewise, the
Philippines have also agreed to Australian mediation. Talks will begin in January, 1951.
AUSTRALIANS TO FIGHT PIRATES
With Indonesian permission, a squad of frigates was dispatch by Australian Prime
Minister Menzies to police the Straits of Malacca and the Java Sea against piracy. 15
pirate vessels were sunk or captured in the 4th quarter of 1950.
NEBE SAYS NO GERMAN UNITS INVOLVED IN GENOCIDE
Reich Commissioner Arthur Nebe told the world press that no German units were
involved in any mass killings in Rwanda. All genocide was carried out by bands of Tutsi
and Hutu tribesmen. Fighting continues in Rwanda as German marines fight the warring
parties to restore order. There has much fighting in Byumba and Kibuye. No causality
numbers have been released.
Ethiopia has demanded a United Nations investigation of the matter.
COMMON TARIFFS ADOPTED BY BALTIC ZOLLVEREIN
German Foreign Minister Count Von Schulenberg pushed through an agreement at Baltic
Zollverein meeting adopting common tariffs with non-member nations. Effective January
1, 1951 all tariffs would be uniform and Germany would negotiate them.
Sweden was not in attendance at the meeting, but is still bound by the decision.
WZC BOWS TO GERMAN DEMANDS
On December 6, the World Zionist Congress disbanded the Committee on Jewish
Material Goods against Germany and signed an agreement renouncing all monetary
claims against Germany for the Holocaust. Jews leaving Germany or German controlled
Poland were also being forced to renounce the right to sue Germany for pain, suffering
and damages. Any Jew who refused the sign lost his chance to leave.
The emigration of Jews resumed immediately afterward. However, Germany refused to
send them to Israel, preferring Greece as a destination. 75,000 Jews immigrated in
December. Reportedly many ended up in Israel anyhow.
ISRAEL RECEIVES $1 BILLION IN CONTRIBUTIONS
The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. - Isaiah 35:1
Since winning its independence in 1948, the State of Israel has struggled to make its
desert-like land blossom. But it has not been able to attract enough money from foreign
investors, has had to rely largely on contributions by such philanthropic organizations as
the United Jewish Appeal, to support its fast-growing population.
In the 4th quarter of 1950, the Israeli government decided to switch from charity to
hardheaded finance. It filed a registration statement with SEC to sell a $1 billion issue of
"independence bonds," the largest foreign bond issue ever floated in the United States. It
was the start of a three-year plan of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, to raise $3 billion
to make the new nation independent economically as well as politically.
The SEC gave its approval in December, so Israel can launch its bond drive beginning in
spring. In a sense, Israel will be appealing to the heart and not the head: the bonds will
be sold not through securities houses, but through Jewish community organizations.
In the meantime, fund raising drives across the western world have raised $ 1 billion to
aid Israel's national development. The United Jewish Appeal awarded the money to
Israel on December 30, 1950.
Jewish lobby groups are pushing to get $1 billion in foreign aid from the United States
and $500 million from Great Britain, France, Canada and Australia each.
BEN-GURION'S GOVERNMENT MAY FALL
When David Ben-Gurion became Israel's first Prime Minister, in 1949, his mildly socialistic
Mapai Party had less than a majority in the Knesset (Parliament). To form a government,
he had a choice: coalition with the pro-Soviet Mapam, or with a bloc of four orthodox
religious parties.
Ben-Gurion chose the religious bloc.
The marriage of convenience began peacefully enough. Bride and bridegroom agreed
that religious differences would be subordinate to foreign affairs (mainly trouble with the
Arabs) and a precarious economic position. Ben-Gurion gave the religionist bloc three
cabinet posts: Religious Affairs, Social Welfare, Health & Immigration.
Then the religionists began nagging.
They insisted on strict enforcement of the Sabbath, which caused grumbling from the
more worldly Mapai partner. They demanded that Yemenite children, who were arriving
at immigrant camps in droves, be entered in orthodox religious schools, and Ben-Gurion
gave in. But when the government set up immigrant work villages, and the orthodox
bloc insisted that the schooling arrangement be carried over into them, the Premier
found that his party was unwilling to put the nation's educational program into
religionist hands. His Mapai Party felt that education had to be secular and open to
Palestinian children.
Aged President Chaim Weizmann tried to broker a compromise with the religious bloc,
but Ben-Gurion was under fire for bowing to German demands on Holocaust claims. For
weeks, the Knesset public galleries were filled with the bloc's supporters, mostly bearded,
black-hatted Jews in caftans and side curls, who had come to show their opposition to
deals with the Germans.
Ben-Gurion must find a solution to its differences with the religious bloc or call new
elections.
US INVESTORS OFFER TO BECOME INVOLVED IN ISRAEL
Philco has offered to spent $150 million in establish a refrigerator manufacturing industry
in Israel if the government will provide matching funds.
Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, General Shoe Corporation and General Tire & Rubber
Company are also interested in doing business in Israel, but haven't discussed terms.
FRENCH BALL POINT PENS
In 1945, Bich and his partner, Edouard Buffard, bought an empty factory near Paris.
Bich’s knowledge of the writing instrument trade, gained while working as a production
manager for an ink maker, had them starting with production of fountain pen parts and
mechanical lead pencils. This year, Bich purchased the patent for the ballpoint pen from
Hungarian László Bíró who had been producing such pens since 1943 in Argentina.
The company formed by Bich is called Société Bic Group and is listed on the Paris Stock
Exchange.
HLM
The HLM system was created this year in response to France's post-war housing crisis.
The low level of construction during and between the two world wars, the rural exodus
that had started to take place in France - directed mainly at Île-de-France, the region
around Paris - and the baby boom, together has contributed to a deficit of an estimated
four million residences.
Eugène Claudius-Petit, the Minister for Reconstruction and Urbanisation, promoted a
scheme of massive construction of socially subsidized residences to address this problem.
The new system took its foundations from the HBM (habitation à bon marché
("inexpensive housing") system which had been created in 1889 and financed mainly by
charitable sources rather than the state.
SHAH DEMANDS CHANGES IN IRAQ
The Shah of Iran issued a statement in October following reports of mistreatment in
southern Iraq at the hands of the Sunni-dominated central government.
"A government has a responsibility to see to the needs of its people, and to protect them
from persecution from others. The government of Iraq has shown to this point that they
are incapable or disinterested in doing so," the statement read in part.
"We expect that Iraq will improve this situation, and live up to its duties as a member of
the community of nations."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Said told the Shah to mind his own business.
MOSSADEG HAS PRICE PLACED ON HIS HEAD
In retaliation for the murder of SAVAK chief Karee Tabor, the Iranian government
declared Dr. Mohammed Mossedeg an enemy of the Iranian state, and placed a $25
million dollar reward on him. Mossadeg and the Iranian National Front claimed
responsibility for Tabor's assassination.
IRAN SEIZES BRITISH OIL ASSETS
Is the end of the British Empire in sight? Is Great Britain no longer strong enough to
command the respect of foreign nations? First, Red China seized Hong Kong with
impunity. Next, the Argentineans rioted outside the British embassy for a return of the
Malvinas. After that, the Egyptians threaten to take the Suez Canal by force. Now, the
Iranians, dissatisfied with British refusal to renegotiate the terms of the Anglo-Iranian Oil
agreement between their nations, simply seized British oil fields and nationalized them.
Anglo-Iranian oil officials were taken into custody and deported to Iraq. All oil company
assets in the Bank of Persia were also frozen by Iran. The economical losses are
horrendous since many British investors lost millions of pound sterling by this seizure.
The British stock market dropped 20% within the two weeks of the seizure as Britons
fled London for safer markets in the United States.
Prime Minister Clement Atlee has lost a great deal of prestige since the election. It's likely
that he will have to call a new election early next year.
In Iran, the Shah's popularity skyrocketed because of that action. It took the win right out
of the sails of any opposition to his rule.
WAR NEWS
World War III (Oct – Dec 1950)
Jeju Island: After the communists fired the opening salvos of World War 3 with their
seizures of both the Korean Peninsula and the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, the
world waited with baited breath to see what the reaction from the West would be…in
the early morning hours on October 1, they made their answer on Jeju Island.
Still held by the Soviets’ 2nd Airborne, 3rd Paratrooper, 2nd Airborne Tank and 1st
Transport divisions, the Allies approached from the north, at first the Soviet troops
assumed they were simply more North Korean patrols…until the bombs started
dropping.
1st, 2nd, 10th Fighter Wings along with 77th Bomber Wing struck the island without
warning, sending the veteran Soviet forces into cover. With the US jets striking, the
North Korean airforce was simply incapable of putting up and resistance, choosing to
save their equipment for later use rather than face annihilation.
While the attacks were demoralizing, no Soviet unit suffered severe damage in the
onslaught, and lack of ground forces cost the Allies an opportunity to seize the island,
but the air field and port facilities on Jeju were completely devastated. After
approximately a week of attacks, the Allied task force faded back across the horizon.
A short resupply took it back to the seas and heading for Vladivostock.
Fuijan Province:
At about the same time the attack was launched on Jeju Island, Allied forces based from
Taiwan struck at Fuijan province across the Formosa straits. The UK 6th, 7th and 8th
Fighter wings, along with the Australian 1st Fighter Wing met resistance in the air from the
People’s Airforce, which had very little warning of the attack. The PRC’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd
fighter wings took to the air in their MiG 15’s to go up against the Australian’s Vampires
and the British Supermarine Swifts.
The around Fuzhou was like an angry hornet’s nest as the Allied forces used their slightly
superior numbers to keep pressure on the Chinese pilots who began to have serious
problems early in the engagement.
But when the People’s Liberation Army’s mobile missile batteries hidden in the mountains
around Fuzhou began to fire missile barrages over the Formosan Straits and into Taiwan,
the Allied pilots couldn’t help but be horrified…giving the Chinese airforce time to
regroup and re-assert themselves.
Total losses: PRC: 64 downed jets. 40 dead, 4 injured, 20 without planes. UK: 30 14
dead. 16 POWs Australia: 12 7 dead. 5 POWs. All air units involved are Fatigued.
Additionally, the Chinese rocket attack targeted Taipei, causing approximately 10,000
civilian casualties and destroying the city’s main power plant. It will cost 20 RPs to
repair the damage. While the airfields at Fuzhou sustained moderate damage and will
require 5 RPs to repair.
November:
Vladivostock:
The attack on Jeju Island had put Soviet and PRC forces on full alert, and with cloudy
weather in late October, the American task force arrived in Vladivostock to attempt to
copy their success at Jeju Island. This time they found the Soviet Air Force waiting.
A ferocious battle took place in the skies over the port with the US 1st, 2nd and 10th
fighter’s F 94’s going up against the MiG 15’s of the Soviet 1st fighter wing, as well as the
newly arrived Soviet 2nd, 3rd and 4th Fighter Wing’s MiG 17’s.
While the MiG 15’s posed an equal challenge, the F 94’s were simply outclassed by the
cutting edge Soviet jets. Their superior speed, higher ceiling and nimble turn radius made
them a nightmare for the American pilots. The commanders quickly realized that their
mission goals were unachievable and called the jets back to port, laying down covering
fire from the fleet that caused some slight damage to the port facility.
The damage to the carrier based fighter units caused some issues later in the quarter, but
the Allied forces soldiered on.
Losses: No units destroyed. US 1st , 2nd and 10th Fighter wings are Damaged. Soviet 1st
Fighter wing is Damaged.
Hainan:
On 15 Nov, the 2nd Naval Task Froce left Okinawa, steaming around Taiwan and
towards mainland China, where they shelled coastal ports. The task force arrived at
Hainan and found it undefended, so the 2nd Ranger Brigade, the 1st Royal Marines, the
27th Artillery and the 101st Infantry Division landed and occupied the island with little to
no resistance.
Naval War:
Allied troop transports were simply too well protected for the Soviet or Chinese
submarine fleets to be able to take a run at, so the Soviet submarine commanders turned
their attention further afield, and started unrestrained submarine warfare in the Pacific,
while the Chinese submarines instead stayed deep, acting more as scouts than as active
combatants. The Russian and Chinese fleets stayed in port, each sustaining some damage
from the concerted Allied effort to target them during the air battles over Fuzhou and
Vladivostok.
All naval units in port at Fuzhou and Vladivostock are fatigued.
The Allies cast a wide net searching for Russian and Chinese shipping, but there was
precious little on the waves for them to find, although it did lead to a noteworthy
moment as the 2nd Fleet, in the North Sea for its patrol, had its movements mirrored by
a Kreigsmarine patrol in the Baltic. Neither side forced the issue, and the situation
remained peaceful, if tense.
Allied submarines and surface ships were able to locate and destroy approximately 75
RPs worth of Russian shipping, as well as 15 RPs worth of Red Chinese shipping.
The communist forces were unable to exit port safely due to the massive Allied naval
presence.
Overall:
Allied generals were unhappy with their orders, privately stating that spreading ground
forces over such a large area of Asia was a mistake, not allowing the Allies to bring
overwhelming force to bear in any once theater and delivering paper cuts instead of
what could be decisive victories against the communists. If the war continued to be
prosecuted in this manner, they feel it will take years, possibly decades to come to any
sort of culmination.
Vietnam (Oct – Dec 1950)
While not part of the actual declared war, the French added pressure to communistbacked rebels in Vietnam during the last quarter of 1950 while being assisted by the
arrival of both British and American troops.
Allied armor proved completely incapable of penetrating the thick jungles of Indochina,
and while the Allied soldiers easily won every direct confrontation against the Viet Cong,
the VC simply melted back into the jungle and hid in plain sight among the many
villagers that supported them in their quest to end French Imperialism.
With no pitched battles, the Allies were unable to drive the VC into any sort of trap.
Losses: US: 1,100 (421 Killed); French: 2,200 (1400 killed); UK 1,200 (380 killed). VC
Losses: Unknown. They’ve been taking their dead with them.
Syria raids Northern Israel (Oct – Dec 1950)
Without warning, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Syrian Artillery, positioned in the strategically
important Golan Heights, began shelling Israeli positions in the early morning hours of
October 3, 1950, prompting an artillery response from the Israeli 2nd Howtizer Brigade
that managed to kill Hassan al-Breidi, commanding general of the Syrian Mechanized
Infantry, which caused some disarray in their initial advance…
Then came the planes.
The Syrian Airforce’s BF 109G’s engaged with the Israeli Air force’s P 51’s, with the Israelis
acquitting themselves very well in the conflict, but were unable to stop the Syrian
bombers from having free runs at the Israeli positions for all their success. The Do 17s of
the 1st Bomber Wing savaged the Golani and Givati divisions with repeated bombing runs
with the 2nd and 3rd Bomber Wings’ Ju 87s used their precision dive bombing to stymie
most of the advantage that the Sherman tanks of the Barak division offered against the
Panzer42 half tracks of the 1st and 2nd Mechanized Divisions…and allowed the anti tank
missiles of the 3rd Mechanized Division to cause real problems for the Israelis.
The Israeli Defense Forces managed to stop the Syrians from hitting the town of Tzfat
and managed to hold the field, but there was no doubt that the well-supplied Syrian
armed forces had given better than it had taken in the exchange.
Losses:
Israel: 14,500 (8,000 dead, 6,500 wounded), 87 tanks destroyed, 22 Howitzers, 12 P
51’s.
Syria: 5,200 (3,200 dead, 2,000 wounded), 25 half tracks destroyed, unknown artillery
damage, 23 BF 109’s shot down. No bomber losses.
The United Nations has called for an international inquiry into who is responsible for the
border altercations between Syria and Israel. Israel has agreed to cooperate, but Syria has
not.
TURKISH ELECTIONS
For months it looked very bleak for the left-leaning Republican People's Party, they were
predicted to lose by a landslide. But World War III turned things around for Prime
Minister İsmet Inonu; the Turkish voter returned home to a government that they knew
and trusted. When Election Day came, the Republican People's Party won 53% of the
vote and 408 seats. Their conservative opposition, the Democratic Party only carried 40
municipalities and 69 seats. Veteran Prime Minister Inonu would be guiding Turkey for
another four years.
PAGEANTRY OF PAGANISM
Once a year half-a-million goose-stepping Germans swarm into Nuremberg, "the most
German of all German cities," join with another half-million gaping visitors for the
greatest political circus in the world; the seven-day National Socialist Party Congress.
Days before the Congress opened in late September, 550 special trains, seething with
black, brown, green-shirted Labor Front and Sons of Odin Youth were pouring into the
railway stations, disgorging their loads in the allotted ten minutes time. Shouldering their
packs, the military and semi military corps clumped away to their temporary homes in 13
cabin areas, spread over half-a-million square yards around the medieval town.
Through the week, from freight trains and field kitchens dotted among the tents, food
gushed like gravel from a stone-crusher. Into the maws of cooking pots went some 1,500
cows, 7,000 pigs, 1,320,000 pounds of potatoes, 176,000 pounds of vegetables to come
out stews and soups for the blond, Aryan party members. Fuhrer Heckmann has ordered
that no one was to go hungry.
Loudspeakers summoned the populace to the streets night before the Congress opened as
Volker Heckmann arrived by car from Berlin, drove through the town to the modest
little Deutscher Hof, which had been rented exclusively for his comfort. To relax himself
for his grueling week of speeches Heckmann went horseback riding and played eighteen
holes of golf on the eve of the Congress.
Nuremberg's weeklong spectacle opened with all the traditional ceremony. Twelve
thousand anxious delegates comfortably seated on the floor of Luitpoldhalle. In the side
seats were jammed black-shirt Odin Youth and Labor Front members. A large area was
also reserved for the Wehrmacht and loyal members of the party. The few scattered
civilians stood out like the second thumbs but seemed welcomed.
As is traditional, the meticulously dressed slender leader of the Third Reich entered to the
strains of his favorite march, the Badenweiler, gracefully made his way to the speaker's
stand shaking hands with various party officials as wave upon wave of throaty cheers
thundered. As is traditional, the ever loyal Albert Speer opened the Congress; Ernst von
Weizsäcker welcomed the Führer and the party members to Nuremberg. And as is
traditional, Heckmann did not address the first session, instead sat messiah-like on the
haupttribune while rasping-voiced Artur Axmann read the Fuhrer's Proclamation. Nazis
laud the Proclamation as the coming year's party program, indicating in vague
generalities the German course in foreign, internal affairs.
As ordered, Herr Axmann emphasized Heckmann's main points: 1) the economic
expansion would continue with every available Reichsmark being used for the
modernization of German industries and the acquisition of new foreign markets. He
called upon all Germans to sacrifice today for the prosperity of future generations of
Germans. The industrialists were warned that Germany must export or become a second
rate power. 2) The Fuhrer's Proclamation that Germany was prepared to reach long term
understandings with other nations interested in "safeguarding the world from chaotic
madness" and dedicated to "peaceful coexistence." The proclamation reaffirmed that
Communism in the USSR did not stand as an obstacle to good relations with that
country. 3) The proclamation spoke of the growing unity between the Germanic peoples
of the world and their relation to other races and ethnic groups. "In the future, all races
will have their place on earth. The jungles of Africa belong to the Negro and the rice
paddies of the Far East are the hegemony of Orientals. But Europe is the bastion of
Aryanism and Teutonic Blood, other races and people should not pollute it. In the
future, our Germanic civilization will stand heads above the rest of the world. Our
posterity will endow to the world with great technological and medical achievements
and create a civilization that will stand for a thousand years"
A rare privilege was given to twelve favored foreign correspondents; a chatty interview
with Herr Heckmann. Informally meeting them in the room of Frederick Barbarossa in
the 12th Century castle dominating old Nuremberg, Der Fuhrer answered queries
sometimes freely, sometimes directly, sometimes evasively.
Quizzed on the international scene, the youthful Heckmann replied dryly: "Stalin
overplayed his hand in Korea and now has a full blown war to contend with. Since
Korea could have been won by Kim Sung alone, I'm still puzzled why Soviet submarines
bothered to sink American troop transports. How you win this war is beyond me.
Neither side can deliver a knockout blow to the other. I've fought in Russia; it's an
endless land of snow and ice. Landing at Vladivostok is meaningless exercise; the Allies
could march 1000 miles from there and not be any closer to defeating the Russians. As
for Stalin, he can't get across the Sea of Japan or the Formosan Straits because of the
Anglo-American fleet; he's going nowhere too. It will be a long war of strategic
bombing."
Each day of the political circus featured a different attraction in the center ring. Most
impressive: The march-past on the mammoth Zeppelin Meadow of the Arbeitsdienst Nazi labor battalions. Forty thousand lads in rough khaki, 3,000 stripped to the waist,
goose stepped past Der Fuhrer, mirrored thousands of times on the silver-blue spades
they carried on their shoulders. Most beautiful: 22,000 alternate Nazi ranks, carrying
flaming torches, wending their slow tramp along the search-lit walls of the turreted
medieval city. Most spectacular: 140,000 gray uniformed commandos lined up column
upon column on the Zeppelin Meadow. Flanked along the sides of the floodlit arena
crammed 250,000 spectators. With trumpets blaring, the Fuhrer mounted the platform,
stood with chin cutting the atmosphere as three blood-red rivers, crimson party banners
carried by brown-massed troops, moved toward him. Flames leaped from cressets atop
the corners of the stadium, 250 army searchlights pierced 3.000 feet in the sky to make a
gleaming square of light.
As always the Germans know how to put a show on.
BURMA
As the Burmese government wages a life and death struggle with the Karens, a new
rebellion has further destabilized Burma. A much better armed Communist army began
to attack governmental units in western Burma. Led by Thakin Than Tun, they have
driven governmental forces out of the Sagaing Region proclaiming a "People's Republic
of Burma".
The Karens have effectively established a new country called Kawthoolei composed of
the Karin, Kayah, Southern Mon and Tanintharyi Regions.
FAMINE IN BURMA
Although there aren't any available fatality statistics from Burma, a famine has developed
in central portion of the country.
THE RED GUARD
Students across China, in a show of devotion to Chairman Mao, have begun forming
groups dedicated to the Chinese leader’s teachings. The students carry little red books,
quoting the Chairman’s quotations. They are encouraged to confront those expressing
“counter-revolutionary ideas”, but are forbidden to use of violence against them.
Chairman Mao wants the students to win others by debate, using both Marx and Mao’s
teachings as a philosophical basis. Mao, himself, has referred to these youths as his “little
red guards” prompting many to refer to them as this, and the groups have quickly taken
the nickname on as their official title. The PRC Ministry of Education has begun working
with these youth groups to create an organized structure and chain of command, "to
better prepare them for their future roles in Chinese society, and ensure orderly behavior
among the young patriots."
POLITBURO MEMBERS CALL UPON MAO FOR RADICAL REFORM
Reportedly, Gao Gang and Kang Sheng have warned Chairman Mao about revisionists in
the Chinese government that do not fully believe fully in Marxism-Leninism. In particular,
they were aiming their assault against the growing power of Liu Shaoqi, who is in charge
of the nation's economy. Both men want all land in China nationalized and then divided
up into collectives; something that the more moderate Communists has resisted fearing
the reaction of the peasants. Likewise, they reminded the Politburo that "religion is
another prop of capitalist control" that should be abolished throughout the country.
In a speech, Kang Sheng supposedly said, "We must not fall prey to statism. MarxismLeninism is a movement of the working and peasant classes that transcends all nations,
races and ethnic groups. We must not resort to the imperialist methods of our enemies.
The People's Liberation Army is not fighting the Americans; it is fighting the militaryindustrial capitalist clique that rules the country. It's important that we don't allow
ourselves to think that we are simply building a new China; what we are building is
Marxism-Leninism. Our goal is to create a world-wide society that is ruled by the people.
To simply build China is neo-imperialism."
The leftists on the Politburo are willing to accept Tibetan separatism as long as the Dalai
Lama and his religious reactionaries are removed from power. "Whether Tibet is or is not
a part of China is immaterial; what is important is whether or not the revolution has
liberated it from religious tyranny."
At the same meeting Gao Gang set his sights on Liu Shaoqi when he said, "Our party has
been infiltrated by Capitalist roaders. We have some members of the party that will bow
to pressure from the bourgeois class in order to more smoothly establish a neo-imperialist
Chinese state. Whether these revisionists mean to destroy the revolution is immaterial,
the fact is that they will. Even good intentions that fail to keep ideological solidarity will
be used by the capitalists to divide and destroy us. Our enemies are powerful, we must
keep ideological faith with one another."
Liu Shaoqi, reared in Stalinist interpretations of Communism, called the leftists,
"wreckers". In a counter speech, he said, "Gao and Kang are following the Trotskyite
deviation. At this point, as Comrade Stalin has said, the Communist Party can't survive
without the nation. No matter what our successes are in China, there is no world-wide
revolution under way. Except for France, there isn't any evidence that the Capitalist
clique may fall. So only by building China can we preserve our party till the world
revolution comes. Comrades Gao and Kang put the cart before the horse."
It is said that Mao listened quietly to all the arguments.
CHINA ISSUES WARNING TO DALAI LAMA
Red Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-Lai told the Tibetan envoy in Beijing that his
nation would not tolerate Tibet establishing and agreements with foreign nations.
REEDUCATION
China's Red masters have a special word for thought control: "hsueh hsi ", or "the practice
of learning." China's plain people use a more telling expression: Communist
indoctrination, which presses on them without pause or pity, is simply "hsi nao", or
"washing the brain." From Hong Kong in December, TIME Correspondent Robert Neville
cabled a survey of brain washing in Red China:
Correct Thinking. "Incorrect" thoughts in Red China may be punished by anything up to
death. "Correct" thoughts can often be the sure path to success. This probably explains
why millions of mainland Chinese are engaged in hsueh hsi and why Red China has a
dedicated army which rarely breaks, an efficient and incorruptible corps of
administrators, and a zealous youth ready to believe that black is white and to die for
that warped belief.
So important is hsueh hsi that it takes precedence over almost every other activity in Red
China. Writers, actors, entertainers, journalists are not allowed to work without having
passed their hsueh hsi, All army personnel, government employees and trade unionists, as
well as Communist party workers, must attend indoctrination lectures. To conduct "hsueh
his" courses on a national scale requires thousands of lecturers, teachers, observers,
spotters and heretic hunters.
The chief brain washer of Red China is Ai Szu-chi, director of the all-important
Federation of Democratic Youth. More heard than seen, Ai gives long-winded,
ponderous lectures over Radio Beijing. A native of Yunnan and a comrade of long
standing, he edits a turgidly written monthly called, appropriately, Hsueh Hsi, in which
he answers tricky questions concerning correct Marxist conduct. Ai really shines,
however, in the six so-called "revolutionary universities" where young Chinese twigs are
first bent.
The six revolutionary universities are at Peking, Nanking, Sian, Canton, Hankow and
Kweiyang. Foremost among them is the North China Revolutionary University, located
in an army barracks in Beijing's western suburb. Last week I talked to a recent graduate
who had just made his escape into Hong Kong.
The university, he reports, has an enrollment of 8,500 men & women, who are divided
into four categories: 1) returned students from abroad, and children from overseas
Chinese families; 2) former civil servants and teachers of the old Nationalist regime, who
might be useful provided their thoughts are "adjusted" to the new way of thinking; 3)
Communists who are in need of re-indoctrination; and 4) picked, promising teenagers.
Most pupils need at least a year's brain washing. Once enrolled, there is no getting out. If
the student is a stubborn case, there is a process called indoctrination through labor,
which means he is put to work in a gang, on repairing Peking's city walls or digging
sewers. Food is rationed at 20 ounces of kaoliang (millet) and one ounce of peanut oil a
day, topped with occasional boiled potatoes and cabbage and about two ounces of meat
a week. Students follow a 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. routine, broken only by two half-hour
rest periods.
The highlight is the Tuesday lecture given by Ai Szu-chi. Sometimes he is there in person;
at other times he is heard on records. These lectures, the only ones given at the
university, are held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The gist of Ai's "philosophy" is contained in
a book of his called Historical Materialism, which has become the virtual Bible of "hsueh
his", (Sample excerpts: "Communism is the exquisite acme of man's social evolution. The
capitalistic world is being pushed into the grave step by step...")
After the lectures come group discussions. Students are encouraged to tell all about their
backgrounds and their social and political ideas, describe their grandparents, parents,
brothers, sisters and friends. A Communist party observer takes notes on everything said.
After about five months of hsueh hsi, a group is called to a "thought mobilization"
meeting at which all are urged, one after another, to get up and "cast aside, once & for
all, their burdensome thoughts." There are warnings that those who still hold reactionary
thoughts or have not yet confessed reactionary deeds will sooner or later regret it. What
follows is a kind of political revivalist meeting, or a Buchmanite confessional, at which
students cry their ideological sins and profess to see the light of reform.
The final and most important step is the writing of a sort of graduation thesis which the
Communists call a "thought compendium." It can run up to 50,000 words in exhaustive
self-analysis of the student's thoughts from birth to his "conversion." The thought
compendium undergoes the scrutiny of the group leader and the party observer.
Most of the thought compendiums are returned to the students four and five times for
rewriting. No specific reason is given - just that the thesis is "incomplete" or "failed to
cover all essential points." Back the student goes to think up worse sins he has committed.
"By this time the average student would be so tired from the incessant discussions and so
fed up with the dull life that he was willing to confess anything," says the escaped
student. "There is no way out. If we failed to write an acceptable thesis, we would only
get more indoctrination."
Once his thought compendium is accepted, the graduate is assigned a job, perhaps with a
land reform team, or in Korea, or at a bureaucratic desk. He has no choice of jobs. And
along with him, wherever he goes, goes his dossier, always there to be used against him.
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION IN ROC
Beginning in late 1950, the provincial governments on Taiwan will be democratically
elected by the people. Elections will be held in 16 counties and 5 cities. Very vaguely,
President Chiang Kai-shek promised that elections would be ultimately held for a
national parliament after the civil war was concluded. However, the government didn't
state who would be eligible to vote in these provincial elections. Most analysts believe
that the franchise will be very limited given the Taiwanese hostility to the ROC officials.
NATIONAL YOUTH CORPS
President Chiang Kai-shek announced the formation of the China Youth Anti-Communist
National Salvation Corps to provide physical and skills training to youth before they are
drafted into the Nationalist Armed Forces. The education of youth groups will be
conducted as a voluntary opportunity for public service. This organization shall be part
of the civilian defense program providing emergency communication runners, public
service aides, and other assigned roles in public education for civil defense practices.
Participation is voluntary and is rewarded with education credit for service.
INDIA AND CHINA CEMENT FRIENDLY RELATIONS
Since World War III broke out, the Red Chinese have been nervous that India might join
the Allies or allow their territory to be used as air fields to bomb China. Fortunately for
Beijing, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has enough problems on his hands without
concerning himself about China. Besides, the Allies represent the forces of imperialism
that had long sought to oppress India; Nehru could hardly feel any empathy for them.
Red Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-Lai flew into New Delhi on October 17 to meet
with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss relations between their countries. After
two days of high level talks, the following agreement was released to the public.
1. India and China agree to mutually respect for each other's territorial integrity and
sovereignty: China agrees to recognize Indian control of all lands past the McMahon
line, save for Tawang, which is of great importance to the Tibetan-Chinese. All other
parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin (which is part of Kashmir) are recognized by
China as sovereign Indian Territory. India agrees that Tibet, including Tawang, are
sovereign Chinese territory. Both parties note that the use of the McMahon Line for
these discussions is only as a reference point for agreeing on borders, and the
acknowledgement of one another as equals, and does not in any way validate any other
parts of the Simla Conference. (ie: There is no "Outer Tibet", and the Dalai Lama does
not have the authority to negotiate separate treaties without Chinese consent.)
2. India and China agree to a mutual 10 year non-aggression pact, including a provision
forbidding any hostile forces from using any signatory's land or air space for attack
against the other signatory. Nepal and Bhutan were included in this provision.
3. India and Red China agree to refrain from interfering in one another's internal affairs.
Nepal and Bhutan were included in this provision.
4. India and China recognize one another as equals and agree in principle to work in
harmony with one another.
5. India and China shall each strive to coexist peacefully, resolving grievances through
diplomatic channels
Afghanistan's strongman Mohammed Knid sent strong protests to both India and Red
China that they had concluded an agreement on the disposition of Aksai Chin without
consulting Pakistan or Afghanistan. Shah Knid said that he would not recognize this
treaty. Not long afterward Pakistan echoed his sentiments.
NEHRU ORDERS A CRACKDOWN ON OPIUM
Has Nehru bitten off more than he can chew?
Millions of peasants in Northern India grow poppies on their small farms to be used for
opium. Barely able to eke out a living, opium exports keep many of these people from
starving. On top of that, large numbers of Indians are accustomed to using opium for
medicinal purposes. Over a million tons of opium is consumed in India each year.
Nehru has ordered a police crackdown on opium sellers and users; but the police ask
how?
The provincial police chief in the Jhalawar district of the picturesque State of Rajasthan
told the London Times, The people are accustomed to buying and selling opium to make
money to live. If I attempt to enforce the Prime Minister's new measures, my men will be
killed. The people have been doing this for centuries; a simple law isn't going to change
their attitudes. Nehru is asking for big trouble!"
A member of the opposition party in parliament told the Associated Press that Nehru's
action are becoming a danger to the state and that he should be removed. "If he had any
sense, he would try to get this under control by licensing it, then subsidizing a program
to wean the peasants off of farming it. Pay them not to plant it or to plant something
else. Slowly but surely you could reduce the amount being produced. In the meantime,
you educated the public about the dangers of it. Nehru hangs around his Communist
buddies too much; he thinks that he can rule the Indian people with an iron fist like
Stalin does in Russia. He will never last."
TELANGANA REBELLION CRUSHED
Negotiations with the Telangana rebels had reached a stalemate. The rebels wanted the
Indian government to acknowledge the land redistribution that they had carried out as
well as the nationalization of large corporations. Prime Minister Nehru refused to do so;
while he was willing to be generous and forgiving towards them, he wouldn't let them
dictate governmental policy - that left only one course.
In October, 4 infantry divisions, totaling 100,000 men, were used to suppress the rebels
in Nalgonda, Warangal and Bidar districts. For a few weeks, the battle was bloody but
the outcome was never in question. The rebellion was finished by the end of the month.
9,000 rebels and 1,200 Indian soldiers were killed. Another 10,000 rebels were taken
into custody. The three provinces had sustained a loss of $250 million. However, order
was restored.
FAMINE IN INDIA
The summer monsoons had brought much needed rainfall for the Indians to irrigate their
fields. Crops are being harvested providing more food for people to eat. The
government continued to distribute foods to the peasants that it had purchased from
abroad. Over the course of last several months, Nehru's officials had become much more
efficient at distribution. Famine deaths in the fourth quarter of 1950 were under 50,000.
OCTAVIUS CONTINUES WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION
Colonel Donaldo Octavius war against corruption led to the convictions of the political
boss of Rio de Janeiro and his chief lieutenants. Part of the Vargas machine, these men
controlled the polling places on Election Day making sure their candidates won. Because
they could guarantee electorally victory, their influence on political officials in matter of
governmental contracts and political appointments was paramount.
The new Federal Police force have busted 250 city and provincial police on charges of
corruption, murder, theft and other crimes. All have been tried and found guility.
THE BRAZILIANS
Brazilians are very comfortable in their bodies and their sexuality and one result of this is
the exploding birth rate up and down the country. Whereas the tourist postcards always
show a lineup of sexy Brazilian girls, the real picture should show teenage girls with
babies on each arm. Brazilian guys don't believe much in condoms. It's against Catholic
belief to stop procreation.
Brazil has some terrible economic and social realities to contend with but the Brazilians
themselves are amongst the happiest, most positive people on the planet. They're always
ready to laugh or help out no matter their own burdens.
If they have their beach, their beer, their barbeque and some football then the meaning
of life is close at hand. The latter form the bulk of most Brazilian conversation so if the
small talk dries up you can always start a conversation about sports or radio programs.
The main thing to understand in Brazil though is that the distribution of wealth is one of
the worst in the world. The rich live behind guarded walls and the poor get by any way
they can. The easiest ways to do that are to turn to banditry, prostitution and drug
dealing.
The rich couldn't care for the most part, though you do get some conscientious Brazilians
who go to volunteer in the favelas, slums squatting on hills or on the edges of the city. It
gets a bit much to be talking about some rich Brazilian's new poodle when there's an old
woman three times her age picking up scraps from garbage cans on the floor streets.
Brazilians are a lot of fun but not the most reliable people in the world. They have no
concept of punctuality whatsoever and will keep you waiting for hours, something the
average Westerner in Brazil never understands. People in Brazil also have a hard time
saying what they really mean, they're too afraid to bring anyone down by explaining
their true feelings.
So while it's easy to go out in Brazil and pick up a girl or guy to kiss all night, actually
getting to know them could take years -mainly because they're not encouraged to know
themselves all that well.