SOVIET GREETINGS TO EISENHOWER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 13

SOVIET GREETINGS TO EISENHOWER

Zhukov’s Message On Peace (I ?«- > NEW YORK. April 19. Soviet Defence Minister, Mar--5£l Ge< i rgl v? hukov ’ today sent his best v s I°, President Eisenhower, say,.e telt sure the President would to tus best to promote in practice the cause of peace. jThe greetings were contained in a tetter to the Overseas Press Club of America on the occasion of the club’s annual dinner tonight. Marshal Zhukov, while appealing for peace, assailed those politicians who. were trying to spread the belief that war was inevitable. . He said the international * situation nad been aggravated by the latest developments connected with the ratification of the Paris and London treaties for rearming Western Germany. The Soviet official cited the final sentence of the war-time Yalta Declaration. issued by President Roosevelt, Mr Stalin, and Sir Winston Churchill, at the end of their historic meeting. This said that dnly by continuing co-operation and understanding among the three countries could a lasting peace be realised.

“Excellent words,” Marshal Zhukov said. “Somebody perhaps doesn’t like those words now? We do like them very much, as undoubtedly do all the peoples struggling for peace.” Marshal Zhukov began his letter by expressing to the American people "friendly greetings and good wishes from the peoples of the Soviet Union.”

“Good Will at End of War” He then emphasised the good will that existed at the end of the war and. the ho —c for lasting peace. “Now." he said, “only 10 years have passed since the end of World War 11. and the wnpld again faces a grave threat of a new war. The common people of the world need no war. They don’t want the atomic, hydrogen and bacteriological weapons to be dropped on their homes, on either New York or Moscow. London, or Paris: thev don’t want their children, mothers and wives to perish.”

He declared that th> people of the world had rested their hopes on the United Nations, “but that unfortunately the hopes of the people have not come true in full.”

The Chancellor claimed that his adjustments will remove 2,400,000 persons from the need to pay income tax. The tax changes mean a married couple with two children and an income of £7OO a year will save just over £ll a year in income tax. Mr Butler disappointed many people by retaining the present high taxes on beer, tobacco and petrol. He also refused to give way to demands for cuts in the entertainment tax.

The reduction in the purchase tax on cotton, linen and rayon from 50 per cent, to 25 per cent., will not only benefit the industry in Lancashire and Northern Ireland, but will mean that housewives will pay less for sheets, towels, curtains, and other goods. Mr Butler estimated that the income tax changes will cost £155,000,000 in a full year. They will come into effect on the first pay day after July Conservatives were highly satisfied with the Budget. They believed it could win them many votes in the forthcoming election as a programme which provided moderate relief and incentives without attempting to exploit the nation’s economy for electioneering purposes. The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (Mr Herbert Morrison) told the House after Mr Butler’s 80-minute speech that the proposals to help the textile industry "did not really amount to much.” He foresaw very great disappointment in Lancashire. In the lobbies of Parliament, Labour politicians were more blunt, labelling the Budget as "a bribe to the elector” and “a blatant piece of vote-catching.” Mr Butler estimated that his revenue for the coming yetar would be £4,710,000,000 against expenditure of £4,562,000,000. Before listing his tax concessions, he said “sheer burden” of taxation was too great and that some lightening of the load was needed to give industry the spur to be more competi? tive.