INTERNATIONAL NOTES

Grey River Argus, 10 December 1938, Page 6

INTERNATIONAL NOTES

COLLECTIVE FARMERS “READY." [Contributed by “Left Wing.”l MOSCOW, October 10. During the last four years alone, 400,000 members of the collective farm physical culture circles have won the first grade “Ready for Labour and Defence” badge, and 170,000 the “Ee Ready for Labour and Defence Badge” for children. In the Ukraine there are approximately 3,000 collective farm physical culture circles embracing 80,000 people. They have 50 stadiums and 2,448 sports grounds and gymnasium halls. DENMARK CAN’T BE NEUTRAL. COPENHAGEN, October 20. “We must remember that the peace forces are always the stronger,” said Aksel Larsen, President of the Danish Communist Party. He was speaking in Parliament on the so-called neutrality policy followed by the Government and pointed out that all the efforts to keep the people ignorant of. the actual situation in the country had been in vain. “Those who themselves have helped; to ruin the League of Nations should! speak with a little more moderation' when talking of the weakness of that institution.” BOYCOTT ELECTION. * MOSCOW, October 17. Writing on the electoral campaign in Poland, “Izvestia” stresses that leading circles have not been able to appease the growing discontent hv the occupation of Teschen. The appeal to the opposition parties to participate in the election has failed. Throughout the country, a campaign in favour of a boycott of the so called elections is developing. The opposition parties have advised thp population to stay away from the poll.

LANCASHIRE TEXTILE TRADE FAILING. MANCHESTER. Lancashire’s textiles are languishing. Her trade is being hit all round. Mr. Naesmith told the Trades Union Congress at Blackpool, that while in 1914 the number of operatives in the textile industry was 640,000, to-day it is 324,000. Of this number, one-third are totally unemployed; only 50 per cent, of the machinery producing cotton fabrics is ac five to-day. ANGLO-EIRE TRADE. DUBLIN, October 14. Eire’s trade with Britain continues tn decline, according to the July return. Imports from Britain in the first seven months of this year totalled £11,581,080, compared with £12,768,704 in the same period of 1937. Exports to Britain were £9,877,328 against £10,168,863. Imports from Britain were, however, about equal to the total from all other countries, while Britain bought more than - three-fourths of Eire’s exports. UNREST IN MAURITIUS. CAPETOWN, October 12. : During the last eighteen months there has been serious labour Unrest

in Mauritius. Quite recently further large-scale strikes of workers on the sugar estates and in the sugar factories for increase in wages have taken place. FINNISH SOCIALISTS. HELSINGFORS, October 19. A committee to help anti-Fascist refugees in Czechoslovakia has been set up by the Socialist Women’s League in Finland. It has issued an appeal, signed also by the Finnish Trade Union Council, the Socialist Party and Socialist Youth League, stating that its aims include assistance for the children of Spain. SOCIALIST PAPER BANNED. TALLINN, September 28. Following a recent ban on extra editions of all Esthonian newspapers, Government has now decreed that the only Socialist paper, "Rahva Sona,” shall no longer be published. The chief editor of the paper has been ordered out of the capital, Tallinn (Reval), and sent to the outlying region of Dorpat. BANS VETERANS' FILM. PARIS, October 11. A film of the Congress of veteran men and women who met together m August to discuss ways and means of forcing through the pensions at GO legislation has just been banned by the censor. Entitled “Justice for the Old,” the film, which is solely a record of the deliberations of the 1,500 delegates from all over France, cannot now be shown publicly anywhere. The censor has refused all explanation for the banning of the film. INTRIGUE IN INDIA. The Bombay “Sentinel” has recently published alarming evidence <if Nazi intrigues and propaganda in India. A certain Dr. Urchs, employed in a trading company, is leader of the party. Intense propaganda: is carried on by individuals and through commercial firms; also German nationals are under the strict surveillance of the party leader, and under his direction make contacts and spread propaganda in clubs, etc. German firms are forced to dismiss Jews and to carry on this incessant propaganda. At the same time the German Consul General and his staff build up social contacts with high officials and with their connivance indulge in blatant political propaganda. The German Consulate in Calcutta even goes so far. as to offer free advice to the Government on how to deal (on the principles laid down by Adolf Hitler) with industrial troubles. Indian papers are supplied with endless Nazi propaganda and receive payment for publishing them. Such articles have appeared recently in the “Star” and the “Hindu”; only papers that accept this tendencious material are favoured with advertisements from German firms. An information bureau distributes articles and supplies photographs free of charge. At the universities both German and Italian Fascist Governments have suosidised German and Italian Fascist “chairs,” the occupants of which'carry on intensive propaganda for Nazi “culture.” . Mussolini proclaims himself the defender of Islam and Hitler includes the Hindus within his Aryan fold. Hitler and Mussolini try to stand in the role.of protectors of the oppressed. .■ . .. " ■ . •’ . In 1936 the Italian Consul had to be

ordered to leave India, together With some of his secret agents. It was discovered that he was illegally issuing pamphlets claiming that Mussolini would defend the Indians against British Imperialism. He even made an attempt to recruit terrorists into a Fascist organisation, and he also attempted to get into touch with Mr. Kripalani, General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee, with a view to the acceptance by the Congress of Fascist aid and Fascist ideology at the very moment when Italy was overrunning Abyssinia.—“Workers’ Weekly.” THE PRICE OF INTERVENTION. "It is not a peculiar coincidence that the nations both in the East and in the West now engaged in ‘beating Bolshevism’ are fighting on territory rich In economic rewards.” This observation of the London “Daily Telegraph" is quoted in a report recently issued by the Basque Delegation in London analysing Ger many’s great interest in the resources of the Basque country and revealing the extent to which the Nazis have al ready penetrated into the economic life of the region. It is in the industrial and financial strength bf the Basque country, according to the report, that one finds the real motive for the “rebels’ invasion of the Basque country and the powerful support given by their German and Italian allies.” . » Quoting from the most recent reliable statistics (including private bank •statements and reports of various governmental departments) the report reveals that the Basque country controlled and owned an amazingly high percentage of the total wealth of Spain. The percentages credited to the Basque country in various lines of economic activity are as* follows:—

Per cent. Mineral ore output 50 Capital of commercial companies 50 Economic banking power 70 Profits of the Bank of Spain 32 Deposits in public savings banks 33 Production of metallurgical coke 65 Production of steel billets 74 Production of iron “blooms” 77 Production of paper industry 70 Production of explosives 69 Mercantile marine 53 Fishing fleets 30 These statistics do not include the Basque country’s large heavy engineering and shipbuilding • activities, nor the activities of her 14 wellequipped ports, which handle 6,000,000 tons of goods annually. Before the war Euzkadi (the Basque - country) exported some 1,500,000 tons of iron ore and produced some 400,000 tons of commercial iron each year. “Euzkadi was invaded by Franco’s German and Italian allies for a price,” the Basque delegation report observed. “Conquest of the country provided ample riches and industrial power to pay that price.” .BREAD FOR DEATH. NEW YORK, October 12. Last week General Franco’s bombers dropped rolls and loaves of bread, instead of death-dealing explosives, on Madrid and Alicante. The rolls dropped on the latter city were wrapped in paper bearing the message: “This is a sample of the bread we eat in Nationalist Spain, and we are sending it as a present to the women, children and wounded of Alicante." Commented the “New York Times”: “It makes a pretty question how effective this gift of bread from the skies will be tn a mother whose child has been

killed or maimed by a different kind of projectile from a Nationalist plane. It was not perfect tact in the Franco writer to mention the Alicante wounded; they might so easily be the wounded of his own making. • Will the gift of bread, stick in the throats of the Alicante women? Will it only ■stir. „a new pain and hate?” 11 The Civil Governor of Alicante reported, accorded to the Associated Press, that “the women would not touch the roles, fearing they were poisoned. The police took charge ol all that fell.” UNDER THE SWASTIKA. SIX AND NINE-PENCE PER WEEK FOR. DOMESTICS.In Germany the class distinction seemed very marked and the wages of domestic workers still low, writes a correspondent who recently visited Germany. The maid in a Berlin family who worked from 6 or 7 a.m. till after 9 p.m., got 30 marks a month, that is tfie usual wage. At the registered mark rate of exchange it represents about 275. As no employer dares to discuss politics in front of his servant and no servant in front of his employer they are left to guess at each other’s attitude, We found Aryans who were opposed to the regime willing and glad to talk to us. One of these told us of a young poet, a friend of theirs and of Pastor Niemoller’s, who is? now in a concentration camp because, when he was asked for a subscription to the Winter Help Fund, he said:— “I would gladly give a subscription if I thought Niemoller’s children would receive any help from the fund.” We had Jewish friends in Berlin who lived in a flat. They had to be extremely careful; they would not talk in a room with the telephone in case of being overheard, and were always quiet for fear of disturbing the tenant below, who was a Nazi. The parents’ great hope was to get the sons off to America. They saw no prospect of leaving the country themselves. Their daughter is already in England, but as they have had their passports taken away, they cannot see her.

JEWISH DOCTORS COMMIT SUICIDE. Many Jewish doctors committed suicide while we were in Berlin as a result of the decrees forbidding them to practice. It is almost impossible to find employment; the young men meet in very small groups to learn English or cooking and sewing in preparation for the pioneering life they hope to lead if any country will admit them. Jews are not allowed in the Berlin parks. IN A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE. We saw a happier state of things in a little mountain village in -. Our Jewish hostess was welcomed by everybody, including the leading Nazi. As in every village the newspaper, “Sturmer," was posted up for the public to read. It is an indescribably loathsome paper, but decent folk try to forget it. In our village everybody except our hostess said “Heil Hitler” whenever they saw you, but they were not really enthusiastic Nazis and they dared to confide their troubles to a Jewess. In Leipzig, in the big dormitory of a youth hostel, we talked with a girl from Vienna. She said the story of Vienna was a tragic one. They were

not used to being drilled and the treatment of the Jews was horrible. The girl was a commercial artist and wondered if she could go to New Zealand and earn a living there. HALF A POUND A WEEK. At Leipzig we also met a batthlidn of boys doing their “Landjahve” (Land Year). They were all about 14 and had been working together on the land and having lectures in the afternoon. Now they were having a holiday together and went from place to place seeing their home lanq. They wanted to know whether we really hated them in England. They were thrilled to hear we lived in New Zealand —that was the country where so much butter came from. We asked if they were short of butter in Germany. They said: “No. but formerly some people were greedy and ate too much. The Fuehrer, in his wisdom, had rationed the butter and now everyone has half a pound a week.’’ BRANDED WITH SWASTIKA. LONDON, October 6. Branding of Czech women and children with swastikas burned into their skin by hot irons, is the latest atrocity reported as perpetrated by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia. Richard Ac<and, Liberal member ot the British Parliament, startled and shocked the House of Commons last night by his report of seeing in Prague from where he returned on Tuesday, a young Czech woman with a swastika branded on her chest. “A doctor who was with me,” Mr. Acland declared, “told me he had treated that morning an eight-months old baby with a swastika the size of a shilling branded on its face.” Turning to face the Government benches, he cried: “Those are the devils to whom you have handed over these decent, innocent people."

WOMEN OF CHINA’S ARMY. HANKOW, October 18. The Chinese army counted 80,001 women in its ranks to-day who hav< had exactly the same training as th< men recruits. It is understood that nearly half o the 80,000 women already have serv ed in the fighting line on various fronts during the Sino-Japanes« battles. Some are lighting with “in regulars.” Chinese women in the ranks laic down their lives, side by side with the men at the front. Many others have been listed among the wounded. Hankow army . officials reported that the women soldiers are particularly valuable as pilots, flying heavy machines. One of the most outstanding air women in the flying corps is a 20-year-old pilot. Lieutenant Pie Tou. Although Miss Pie only became a fully qualified pilot several months ago, she has a score of 17 enemy planes to her credit. The girl pilot has been wounded twice while flying. Each time she managed to return and land her plane safely. BOYCOTT ADVANCES. NEW YORK, October 6. A boycott of German goods in the first eight months of 1938 cut U.S. imports from Germany to 33,900,000 dollars, as compared with 56,200,000 dollars for the corresponding period in 1937, the joint boycott council of the American Jewish Congress and the

Jewish Labour Committee reported here yesterday. AMERICANS DENOUNCE MUNICH PACT. ' WASHINGTON, October 5. . More than 2,000 persons crowded into a theatre and an overflow meeting at a church nearby under the auspices of the Washington Save Czechoslovakia Committee to express their condemnation of the betrayal of the little democracy. The demonstration called upon the United States Government to continue its efforts together with other democracies to halt Fascist aggression. Speakers included Dr. May Wooley, president of Mount Holyoke College, Votja Benes, brother of the Czechoslovak president, and Dr. Henry Nobel McCracken, president of Vassar College. SWEDISH SOLIDARITY.WITH CZECHS. STOCKHOLM, October 18. A special committee, the Workers’ Aid for Refugees, has been set up by trade union and other 1 democratic organisation to help the people of Czechoslovakia. Collections have been organised throughout the country, and one sum of money has already been sent off. Every day brings in more donations. The executive of the Clothing Workers’ Federation has given 3,000 crowns that of the General Workers’ Union 10,000 crowns. Stockholm printers have given 1,000 crowns. So far the trade union movement has brought 100,000 crowns for aid to Czechoslovakian refugees.