AFGHANISTAN, ON SOVIET BORDER, IS NEW U.S. TARGET

‘’J^ENSION between Pakistan and Afghanistan appears to be coming to a head. It was

announced last week that the Afghanistan Government have ordered a general mobilisation “for defence against possible attack” and have recalled their Minister to Karachi, the capital of Pakistan. At the same time Pakistan has broken off diplomatic and trade relations with Afghanistan and sent troops to the border. An armed clash may be imminent.

Afghanistan is one of the potential hot spots of the cold war. It is a country of 12 million people, bordered by Iran, Pakistan and the Soviet Union.

W O R L D S T A G E BY SPECTATOR

For many years now Pakistan,, prompted by the Americans, who maintain a strong diplomatic and military mission there, has been complaining tbat Afghanistan has been coming more and more under “Soviet influence.”

The truth of the matter is that Afghanistan, which is not a socialist or even a democratic country in the accepted sense, has merely been trying to preserve her neutrality and independence in the post-war period, and this has brought her into disfavour with the Western powers.

Agreements— With BothIn February, 1950, Afghanistan entered into an

agreement with the ynited States, in terms of which she was to receive technical and economic aid as an “undeveloped country.” As if to keep a proper balance, Afghanistan, in July of the same year, signed her first trade agreement with the Soviet Union. No

details of this agreement were announced, but the Afghan Minister of Agriculture said at the time the agreement was based on a policy of “equal rights and benefits to both countries.”

And it is from 1950 that the border disputes between Afghanistan and Pakistan date. The disputed territory is an area on the north-west frontier of Pakistan. The Afghans maintained that it

should become a separate state, called Pushtunistan. The Pakistanis wanted to incorporate it into Pakistan, but at that stage were not yet prepared to say so openly.

When, in 1950, there were clashes between the border tribes the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, declared that Pakistan had “no territorial ambitions” (a sinister phrase), but accused the Afghans of raiding Pakistani territory. The Afghans replied alleging the Pakistani Air Force had bombed Afghan civilians.

The dispute died down for a while. But meanwhile Afghanistan’s relations with the West deteriorated.

U.S. Aid Withdrawn «In 1952 the United States withdrew technical and

economic aid from Afghanistan on the grounds that she had failed to sign the 1950 agreement. But Afghanistan’s relations with the Soviet Union "Ye- mained cordial. On January 27, 1954, an agreement was signed between the two countries under which the Soviet Union gave Afghanistan a loan of 31 million dollars, to be used for, the construction of two grain mills and two large silos. The Soviet Union agreed to provide technicians, while Afghanistan was to export to the Soviet Union cotton, wool and sheepskins.

In January, 1955, Afghanistan and People’s China established diplomatic relations at embassy level.

In September, 1953, the Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Marshal Shah Mahmud Khan Gazi, resigned on the grounds of “indisposition and bad health.” He had been a supporter of the West. The new Premier, General Mohammed Daoud Khan, took up a more independent line.

First U.S. ThreatRelations between Pakistan and Afghanistan dc-

termrated again over the proposed extension of U S militarv aid to Pakistan.

On December 30 Afghanistan’s Prime Minister, Daoud, described the proposed U.S. military aid as “a grave danger to the security and peace of Afghanistan.”

It will be remembered that at that time the Indian Premier, Nehru, also denounced the proposed United States aid to Pakistan. He rejected a similar U.S. offer to India, insisting that India wished to maintain her independence and had no desire to degenerate into a puppet of any of the Western powers.

The Pakistani argument was that the proposed pact with the U.S. was purely defensive in character and the arms would not be used for aggressive purposes. But in March, 1954, the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, declared he himself had no fear of aggression from China, India or the Soviet Union.

Against whom, then, was it proposed to “defend” Pakistan?

Afghans ApprehensiveThe Afghanistan Government was naturally fearful

of Pakistan intentions. In November, 1954, the Afghan Foreign Minister, Prince Saidar Mohammed Naim Khan, visited Karachi for discussions with the Pakistani Governor - General,Ghulam Muhammad, and the Prime Minister, Muhammad Ali,

In a press statement afterwards Prince Naim Khan said the basic difference between the two countries did not involve any territorial adjustment. He said, however, that the people of Pushtunistan should be. allowed to express themselves on “their status and way of living.”

He said both Afghanistan and Pakistan were Moslem countries and in the same geographical area, and “neither could be indifferent to the security of the other.” But he felt that the national interests of both countries were similar and there were good possibilities of economic co-operation.

The Pakistan Premier confirmed that the discussion had improved relations between the two countries.

That was last November. Yet in March of this year Pakistan, acting unilaterally, in a calm act of aggression, “incorporated” the Pushtunistan area into Pakistan. So much for the previous protestations of her Government that she had “no territorial ambitions”!

Afghans AngryThe Pakistan Government’s action naturally

aroused intense resentment and anger in Afghanistan. There were riots outside the Pakistan Embassy at Kabul (the Afghan capital) and consular offices at Jalabalad and Kandahar.

The Pakistan Government retaliated by evacuating the wives and children of diplomats from Afghanistan and closing the consulate at Jalabalad.

Later there were counter-demonstrations by Pakistanis outside the Afghan Embassy at Peshawar, the nearest Pakistani town to the Afghan border, foL lowing which Pakistan demanded the closing of Afghan consulates at Quetta and Peshawar. Now there comes the news of Afghanistan’s general mobilisation for “defence against a possible attack” and Pakistan’s rupture of diplomatic relations.

All the signs point to an attempt by the Pakistani Government, backed by the United States, to do a “Guatemala” in Pakistan and bring into power a Government which will be more amenable to dictation from the West. The “Armas” who will do the job in Afghanistan may very well be the former Premier of Afghanistan, Marshal Khan Ghazi, who seems to have recovered from the “indisposition and bad health” which laid him low in 1953, and who on January 14, 1955, had a long interview with the Pakistani Premier, Muhammad Ali, in Karachi.

Another CrimeShould such a conflict break out in the near future

it will be a further crime committed by the imperialists against world peace. The list of these crimes is already over-long., The people of Korea, Indo- China, Greece, Egypt,’ Cyprus, Jran, Guatemala, British Guiana, Kenya are among those who have suffered horribly in the post-war period from the rapacious intrigues of the imperialist powers.

Now Afghanistan is threatened. She is a member of the United Nations. Such membership did not save the Arbenz regime in Guatemala from extinction. Will the United Nations act to “preserve law and order” in Afghanistan?

One important difference between the situations of the two countries is the existence of the Soviet Union as a good neighbour of Afghanistan. It is unlikely that the Soviet Union will tolerate any attempt to convert Afghanistan into a war base of the imperialist powers.

GWENTSHE DEPORTED

AGAIN !

44 f fDetrimental to the Peace .of Bushbuckridge

JOHANNESBURG.A. S. GWENTSHE, East London A.N.C. leader,

'*'*-*- who in 1954 was banished from his home in the Eastern Province to Bushbuckridge in the Nelspruit-Game Reserve area of the Transvaal, has now been ordered away from Bushbuckridge, and removed to the district of Mafekeng. He has carried the message of Congress to Bushbuckridge so swiftly that the Government appears to have panicked once more.

On the morning of May 4, Gwentshe was served by the Native Commissioner in Bushbuckridge with an order by the Governor-General, in terms of the 1927 Native Administration Act, that he be removed to the Trust farm Frenchdale in the district of Mafekeng.

This is therefore the second deportation order in terms of the 1927 Act served on Gwentshe in the period of less than one year.The order is in terms of Sec

tion 5 of the Act. It says that Gwentshe’s presence in the Pil- grimsrust District (where the Government placed him last year!) is considered to be detrimental to the peace and good administration of the Africans living there.

The Governor-General orders.

therefore, that he live on the farm Frenchdale, near Mafekeng, and that he under no circumstances leave that district except with the prior written permission of the Secretary for Native Affairs. In Mafekeng he is to be at the disposal of the Native Commissioner there.

The order was served at 9 a.m, on the morning of May 4, and Gwentshe was told that he was to leave by 1.30 p.m. He was given no prior warning whatsoever of this order.From Nelspruit to Mafekeng

he travelled under police escort.The African National Congress

has protested strongly at this treatment of Gwentshe. It shows, comments the A.N.C., that the Government cannot hope to succeed in isolating African leaders from their people.

A .N .C . ISSUES W ARNINGON PASS LAW S

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Leading to Restlessness and DissatisfactionJOHANNESBURG.—A sharp warning that the enforcement of the pass laws, never

so vicious and harsh as they are to-day, is leading to deep restlessness and dissatisfaction among the African people is contained in a detailed statement on the pass laws made last week in Johannesburg by Mr. O. Tambo, acting general secretary of the African National Congress.

The large-scale pass arrests, the periodic swoops on Africans for passes, are coming to be accepted by far too many White South Africans as the “pormal” thing. Not a day passes but raiding parties scour Johannesburg and other large cities to make arrests, and though the pass laws have always been one of the most hated and arduous forms of oppression imposed on the Africans, the dragnet for victims has never been cast so wide, the laws so unsympathetically administered, and the victims of these inhuman laws so numerous.

Issued just as the Government has announced a Bill to amend the Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents Act (the amendment tightens up loopholes in the Act and stipulates that “foreign natives,” including those from the Protectorates, carry a separate type of reference book) this statement recalls that at the time of the introduction of the law in 1952 it challenged the bluff of the Nationalists that this law was really to “abolish” passes. Its warning that the new Act was a more vicious applicaion of the pass restrictions than ever before has been borne out by events in the last three years.PERSECUTED AND HARRIED

In the period that the provisions of the new law have been applied, countless people in many parts of the country have been ruthlessly persecut^d and harried; men and women removed from their homes in urban areas; homes broken up; workers refused permission to enter urban areas from rural areas; and countless more subjected to arrest, enquiry and detention.

Young men leaving school and anxious to enter jobs in industry are refused permission to do so

VICTIMISATION OF TEACHERS_____________ l i n e s '

Many Classrooms Bare and DesertedJOHANNESBURG.—Verwoerd’s victimisation of teachers who refused to sabotage the

schools boycott is considered here to be intended to frighten teachers into utter submission and to intimidate other areas from joining in the movement against Bantu Education.

The manner in which the Department decided on, and ordered the dismissals, will long rankle among the teachers.

First a meeting of school principals was summoned and school inspectors announced that Verwoerd’s threat would be implemented to the letter. Then the principals were called before the inspectors one by one. They had to supply the attendance figures at their schools on the mdrning of April 25, when the ultimatum expired. On the basis of these figures they were told how many teachers would be allocated their school. The basis was one teacher for 55 pupils. The principals were then asked to say which of the teachers on their staff were members of the African National Congress or “left inclined,” which were in sympathy with the boycott, and which teachers were “insubordinate.”

If a principal seemed reluctant to inform on his staff in this way he was told that the department’s policy was in any case to have women teachers in the primary schools, and the men teachers would be weeded out.

The inspectors then made their

decision about which teachers would be dismissed.

35 YEARS—THREE LINESThe dismissal notice served on

the teachers was a cyclostyled sheet on the letterhead of the Department of Native Affairs (Bantu Education Division), and consisted of barely three type-written lines: “I have to inform you that your services as ateacher at the .......... ..... school willbe terminated on 31st May, 1955.” One dismissed teacher has had over 35 years in the service of the Department.

The Newclare Methodist school is left with nine teachers of an original staff of 18. The Newclare Community School has been left with two teachers of eleven; the Sophiatown Dutch Reformed Church school has two teachers of an original staff of six; and the Methodist School in Sophiatown has had its staff halved from ten teachers to five. The Mary Magdalen school in Sophiatown has been left with only two teachers of a staff of 15.

.School principals have been overwhelmed by the mass of paper work and checking that inspectors have demanded of them. They have had to supply daily attendance lists, together with reasons for absence against the name of every child. Only sickness is accepted as a valid reason for absence from school on April 25, and if a parent reports that a child was ill, the principal has to certify that this reason is genuine.

Many of the schools affected by the dismissals have a deserted and abandoned air about them. Some classrooms accommodate only a small sprinkling of pupils.

There has been no official intimation from the Department about what has to happen to these schools. Are they to remain only partly populated? Is there any substance to the rumour that principals will be told to scour the townships for children not yet in school and to fill their classrooms with these pupils, in place of those who took part in the boycott movement?By the end of last week there was

no indication of where the 116 dismissed teachers would find alternative teaching posts.

and are endorsed out of tbe urban areas. In the towns they are forced to live the Jife of the hunted, continually trying to evade the roving pick-up van.

The statement points to some of the worst features of the pass arrests and raids, and the application of these pass laws.

NIGHTMARE FOR ALL# Living in the cities has become a nightmare for all Africaps o^ pass-bearing age, as night and day police in plain clothes are stationed on street comers, n?ar the pass offices, outside stations; are constantly searching in locations and suburbs, and busy trapping passing Africans.

A never-ending manhunt , for pass offenders is being conducted in South Africa.# Among the thousands detained every day for pass offences or Investigation are many Africans in employment who subsequently lose their jobs after being kept in prison cells pending investigation or trial on some petty pass infringement.# No worker may accept employment unless he has the permission of the Labour Bureau, and the workings of the bureaux ensure that Africans have to accept the work earmarked for them, even if they can independently find work at higher pay, or work of a more skilled nature. A man once registered at the bureau in some labouring category is pegged in that category for a lifetime.

LITTLE HITLERS# Officials at the pass offices are “little Hitlers” and authorities unto themselves, with the power to

.m ake snap decisions which will determine the future of individuals and whole families. In only very rare cases is there any appeal from the decision of the officials.# The pass laws are now openly being used as a form of political persecution and intimidation.

During the school boycott the Minister of Native Affairs threatened all school boys over the age of 16 who did not return to school by his appointed date with compulsory registration as workseekers, and deportation to labour colonies if they did not find employment.

ATTACK A.N.C.Local authorities are also using

the pass laws to persecute active African National Congress members. When it is found impossible to arrest them on any more serious charge, they are apprehended for non-payment of poll tax, or a contravention of permit regulations, oRvSome minor pass offence.

Only last week the Secretary for Native Affairs informed the Cape Town City Council that under the Urban Areas Act children were forbidden to enter and remain in urban areas beyond the 72-hour limit, and that African children from country areas should therefore not be admitted to schools in the towns.

The courts are clogged with pass cases. “Crime figures” in the Union have shot up alarmingly, the monthly figure. of convictions having trebled since 1936. But an examination of these figures shows that convictions for serious crime, theft, drunkenness and assault have not risen startlingly, and that the increase is in the number of convictions under the pass and permit laws.

UTMOST HARDSHIPInvestigations under sections 10

and 14 of the Urban Areas Act which might result in banishment from the urban areas impose the utmost hardship on Africans.

The statement reiterates the demand of the African National Congress for the total abolition of the pass laws. It also calls on branches to protest at the constant raids; to be vigilant for the peoples’ rights; to fight every endorsement out of the urban areas; to support the Cape campaign against the expulsion of African women; to link all campaigning and in particular preparations for the forthcoming Congress of the People, with the pass laws; and to unceasingly fight against these laws which are a cornerstone of apartheid op*pression.

LEAVE BAN HITS WORKERSJOHANNESBURG.—The City Council here has decided to

invoke regulations, not enforced up to now, which will not permit African workers to take leave in excess of six months. Leave in in excess of six months must be regarded as termination of service,employers have been Affairs Department

instructed by the Council’s Non-European

# What is the Congress of the People? Is it an assembly, a meeting, a conference, or a new organisation?

The Congress of the People is not a new organisation. It is to be an assembly of elected representatives of the people of South Africa, coming together for the purpose of deciding what changes are needed in the laws of our country, and to frame the needs and wishes of the people as a whole into a “Freedom Charter.”

It is now generally known that the Congress of the People came into being as the result of a call made by the African National Congress at its Queenstown Conference for the people of South Africa to come together and proclaim their aspirations and desires in a single declaration, a Charter of Freedom. All organisations were invited to sponsor the Congress of the People, and four leading organisations of the people —^The African National Congress, South African Indian Congress, Congress of Democrats and South African Coloured People’s Organisation—sponsored the Congress of the People.

The drawing up and adopting of the Freedom Charter is the pur

pose for which the Congress of the people has been called. It will be the South African people’s declaration of human rights.

# Who may send delegates to the Congress of the People? Are delegates only coming from the organisations that sponsored the Congress of the People?

Never in South African history have the ordinary people of this country been permitted to take part in deciding their own future. The right to vote and elect representatives of the Parliament of our country has always been restricted to a small minority of the population.

ALL THE PEOPLEAt the Congress of the People,

delegates will represent the people of South Africa on a far widCr and more representative basis than they have ever done in the official Parliament. ALL the people of this country may send their representatives to the Congress of thePeople. Workers in factories, housewives from their homes, whether they are proper houses or shacks in shantytown, peasants from the kraals and the countryside, mine- workers, people of ALL races from town, village, farm, factory^ men and women, will appoint their representatives to speak on their behalf at the Congress of thePeople. It will be the biggest single gathering of spokesmen ever known in this country.

It does not matter if you do not belong to any organisation—even if you have never joined any organisation in your life. All you must do is meet together with the people among whom you live, or among whom you work, and appoint your own representatives to the Congress of the People to speak on your behalf.

Next Week; How many delegates can any group of people send? Who is going to pay for all the expenses, fares and so on?

VERWOERD EDUCATIONCID , NOT ABC

JOHANNESBURG.—Apart from the forces of police called in, the Government has been using its Special Staff of the C.I.D. (the political police) to break the school boycott here and carry out its post-boycott investigation and supervision.

Hardest hit of all will be flat workers, many of whom have homes in the countryside to whjeh they return for periods every few years.

They will no longer be able to return to their previous employment, or to the urban area, if they take leave of six months or longer.

The Council is also enforcing the regulation, framed under the Urban Areas Act, which refused remission of service contract fees for workers on leave. The granting of remission was always at the discretion of the registering officer at the pass office, and from now on no remission will

be granted.• Both these are signs of the tight

ened control over service contracts and registration since the Council took over the administration of the system from the Government.

Already, also, inspectors of the Non-European Affairs Department are visiting flat buildings in the city to check on the number of Africans working there.

In some cases employers have had to give workers notice because they were unable to find alternative accommodation in hostels or elsewhere.

Schools affected by the boycott are still being visited daily by members of the Special Staff. At the height of the boycott Special Staff detectives visited some schools almost hourly, one informant said.

It is the work of these detectives to scrutinise' the attendance figures and lists, and they have been interrogating the school principals continuously.

In fact, it seems that the Special Staff has had more dealings with the schools than the department inspectors in this crisis period for Bantu Education.

TEACHERS INTERROGATEDThe Special Staff snoopers have

also been doing more than just gather information about the extent of the boycott and its supporters,

^ h e y have been interrogating teache r s for their views on the boycott and Banth Education, albeit sometimes informally, in a casual question or two;

Inspectors went as far as to demand that some principals and teachers should prove they are with the department and against the boycott by speaking on public platforms to urge the parents to return their children to school.The ban on pblitics applied to

teachers was apparently conveniently waived on these occasions, suggested one teacher to New Age.

It is clear that teachers ate closely watched and that the department

uses every opportunity to test the teachers for signs of “political reliability.”

Report To Our ReadersThere wasn’t room on the front

page for all the front page news. The incredible closing of Fort Hare, the good news of the judgment in Sam Kahn’s case and the bad news of John Alwyn’s, the preparations for the Congress of the People, the progress of the boycott and the inspiring news of how Gwentshe is doing a sort of Government-sponsored tour of South Africa to carry the Congress message.

It is in weeks like this that every progressive realises with full force the value of the paper, for on many of these issues it is only in New Age that the truth can be found.

In appreciation of articles of past weeks we have a donation of £1 in honour of Albert Einstein and

' as a tribute to Spectator’s review of the great thinker’s philosophy, and another pound has come from a doctor who was particularly impressed by our letters on discrimination in the treatment of African patients.

There’s an idea for you. When you see an article you think is particularly good, send us some hard cash to express your ai^ predation. It’s a good way of encouraging our writers to new efforts!

MANNIE MONEY.

lA

I.

AS WORLD CELEBRATES PEACE, GERMANS ARE ARMED FOR WARBut Germany’s Economic Competition Threatens Her ‘Allies’

LONDON.Last week the democratic world celebrated the 10th anniversary of VE Day, the day

on which Hitler Germany capitulated to the Allies.In the socialist countries, vast demonstrations took ^lace, and the

people vowed to fight against a new war, and to take the necessary measures to guarantee security and maintain world peace.

1. /

"In the West,” reported the Cape Times last Monday, "VE Day was honoured quietly and passed almost unnoticed. (One might ask how a day cdn be "honoured” if it passes “almost unnoticed.”)

The reason is that in the West, VE Day fell in the same week as the ratification of the Paris Agreements, by which West Germany has been drawn into the Atlantic Pact and will be rearmed to spearhead a future anti-Soviet war.

Naturally the Western Powers, in the midst of their war preparations, do not like to be reminded of what happened ten years ago; try to make their people forget the horrors of the last war so that they will be ready, when the time ,comes, to accept the burdens of a new one.

FALSE TRIUMPHThe Western powers have been

gloating over their triumph in incorporating the 50 million people of West Germany, and especially her proposed army of 500,000 soldiers, into their war alliance. But their triumph is of the nature of a pyrrhic victory, which will eventually cosf them dear.

There are many sinister resemblances between the West Germany of today and Hitler’s Germany before the war. The same industrial monopolists and financiers control the country’s economy, the same Nazi-minded politicians and militarists are in power. There is the same tendency on the part of the ruling class to seek a solution to West Germany’s problems by adventurism abroad.

IMPORTANT DIFFERENCESBut there, are also significant

differences. The socialist sector of the world, against which the Atlantic Alliance is directed, is far stronger than it was before the war. Then the Soviet Union stood alone. Today it is joined in fraternal alliance with the millions of People’s China and Eastern Europe.

In fact, in the age of the hydrogen bomb, the West German army of 500,000 men is no longer the decisive factor which it was thought to be when it was first mooted five years ago.

Above all, the German ruling class has never been so completely divorced from the mood of the people as it is today.

At the very moment when Adenauer has been given the green light to go ahead with building his army, the German people are anti-war, as public opinion polls have testified. The recent Soviet concessions to Austria have made the Germans realise that they, too, could have had unity and peace for the asking. Instead they are being dragged ever closer to war.

“ONLY ONE QUESTION”In Bonn, the West German

capital, reported the New Statesman last week, “only one question is being asked. How can Dr. Adenauer refuse his trip to Moscow when the dreaded invitation card arrives? . . . In recent months the suspicion has been growing fast throughout the Federal Republic that he has paid far too high a price for the right to join the Atlantic alliance and re-create the German army. . , . Contrasting Austria’s gains with the situation in his own country, how can any German fail to ask himself why he should not benefit by a similar act of Russian generosity? . . . What Mr. Molotov has achieved

is to make the Paris treaties a dead letter in Germany even before they are put into force. Andif Washington and London continue to treat neutralisation as a dirty word, they will leave the way open for a direct Russian approach to Bonn which no German chancellor could reject, without laying himself open to the charge of treason.”

CONSTERNATIONThe paper concludes: “There is

consternation in all the Western capitals as the realisation dawns that the walls of NATO could fall flat as soon as the Russian trumpet sounds a peaceful note.”

Perhaps the biggest headache of the Western powers who have poured their millions into West Germany, just as they poured them into Hitler Germany in the thirties, is that they have created a monster which is already threatening to devour them—in the sphere of international trade.

West Germany’s exports in recent years have been increasing much faster than those of her competitors. From some 4,000 million marks in 1949, they have risen to 21,500 million marks in 1954—an increase of more than 500 per cent. West Germany’s share in the total exports of all the capitalist countries has increased from 1.2 per cent in 1948 to 6.5 per cent in 1954.

FRANCE OUTSTRIPPED

As a result, France was already outstripped in volume of exports by 1953. Britain still has a lead, but West German exports are increasing at four times the rate of British exports, and in one or two years Britain’s lead will be wiped out. Already by the first half of 1954 West German steel exports were greater than Britain’s. In Pakistan and India it is Krupps that is building new steel mills, laying out new industrial townships—not Britain. (The Soviet Union is also building a new steel mill in India with an output of one million tons a year.)

The British are hoping that the requirements of rearmament will reduce West Germany’s ability to compete in the export field during the next five years. The Americans, too, are hoping that German rearmament will give their economy a much-needed shot in the arm. But they miscalculate.

President Schaefer, of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, assured West German exporters in a recent speech that rearmament would not “̂ affect the export outlook as regards either volume or prices.”

Despite the expansion that has taken place in her production in recent years, over ten per cent of West Germany’s industrial capacity is not being used at present. Her steel capacity, which in 1954 amounted to 17.5 million tons, can be increased to 20 million tons without further capital investment.

As for manpower reserves, a< the end of 1954 there were about 1,300,000 officially registered unemployed in West Germany—and

jobs can be found for them on the production line as rearmament and exports increase the demands on production.

The future can only witness an intensification of the trade war between Germany and her “allies,” sharpen the conflicts between them.

WORKERS REJECT BOSSES' COMMMITTEE

DURBAN.nO ^A RlN G the strength and militancy of the workers employed in the

Aluminium Industry A.C.O.S.A., the largest aluminium factory in South Africa, has attempted to form a Factory Committee on the lines suggested in the Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act.

Pass your copy of N E W A G E

on to a friend

This was disclosed at the Annual General Meeting of the Natal Aluminium Workers’ Union, which was held at Pietermaritzburg last Simday.

The workers who were given three weeks in which to decide whether they wanted the Union or a Factory Committee, unanimously rejected the suggestion to form a Factory Committee and voted their full support for the Union.

“This attempt to form a Factory Committee,” said Mr. M. P. Naicker, the Secretary of the Union in his Annual Report, which was read to the meeting by the Branch Secretary, Mr. V; Pillay, “was a direct attempt to destroy the Union.”

FEARS JUSTIFIED“The employers are intimidating

the workers in order to wreck the chances of the Union being registered under the Industrial Conciliation Act. Their fears of the Union are justified, for they know that a strong and united Union such as ours can and must obtain the work

ers’ just demands for higher wages and better working conditions.”

Continuing, Mr. Naicker’s report states, “We do not oppose the idea of a Factory Committee. In fact we shall welcome it. But, such a Committee should be formed of representatives of the Union and the employers. We cannot let the employers decide who the representatives of the workers should be. That is the prerogative of the Union and nobody else.”

Mr. M. P. Naicker was unanimously re-elected Secretary of the Union although he is banned from attending gatherings and from participating in the affairs of a registered Trade Union.

Other Officials elected were: Mr. V. B. Naidoo, Chairman, Mr. M. I. Naidoo, Branch Secretary, and Mr. C. G. Pillay, Treasurer.

Although application for registration has been made the Natal Aluminium Workers’ Union is not as yet registered in terms of the Industrial Conciliation Act.

JAPAN BEGINS TO HIT OUT AGAINST U.S. DOMINATION

Relations Reach ''Post-War Low"TOKIO.—With the re-emergence of the biggest Japanese monopolies and the height

ening of their struggle for world markets and profits, the Japanese Government, formerly among the most docile of the United States camp-followers, has recently made clear moves to break the American grip on the country.

The strong hostility to the American domination which has long been felt by the ordinary people of Japan is now to a growing extent shared and encouraged by big business.

The right-wing daily Tokio news- pai^r Vomiuri recently published a series of articles on the economic theme: “Japan is at the mercy of the blue-eyed foreigners.”

The blue-eyed foreigners are American businessmen who are charging exorbitant royalty fees for processes sold to Japanese industry. American companies like Westinghouse, R.C.A. and Caltex had been “very cuiming” in their methods, the paper stated, adding: “Japan was not defeated by General MacArthur but by General Electric.”

“VICIOUS”The American Time magazine,’

organ of United States big business, complained: “The viciousnewspaper articles were a symptom of the worsening relations, now approaching, a post-war low, between U.S. companies and the Japanese Government.”

In spite of the fact that U.S. industry had invested more than 229 million dollars in Japan since the war, the magazine said, it was now proving very difficult to get Japanese Government approval for new American applications to invest in Japan. About 70 applications worth 34 million dollars were being held up by Japan’s Foreign Investment Council.

To facilitate American investment in Japan, the United States Government announced a plan to guarantee future private investment in Japan. Some companies applied for the guarantee, but were told by the Japanese th a t their applications would have a better chance of

succeeding without the guarantee, which was regarded as a reflection on Japan’s stability.

The Japanese authorities have also started to disallow the 50 per cent. Japanese income tax deduction formerly allowed to Americans working for U.S. firms with money invested in Japan.

The biggest reason for this anti-Americanism, Time concedes, is “a resurgence of nationalism since the Hatoyama administration gained power,” and the magazine quotes the Japanese Minister of In te rnational Trade as saying: “There is a national feeling against too much foreign capital.”

BIG STICKTime suggests the only way to

handle the crisis is to make it plain to the Japanese that if they do not toe the line the U.S. would withdraw its business elsewhere, thus inflicting a “tremendous loss” on Japan.

There are already indications that some such action has been taken by the Americans, who have long been hostile to the proclaimed intention of the Hatoyama Government to “normalise” relation^ with People’s China and the Soviet Union, especially in the sphere of trade.

“It is known,” reported the Cape Argus recently, “that certain officials in the American Embassy in Tokio have frequently advanced thinly-veiled warnings that any Japanese firm trading with Communist China would be blacklisted.”

Nevertheless, Japanese Premier Hatoyama repeated r e c e n t l y

that his predecessor’s policy towards the Soviet Union and China had been wrong.

“The Soviet Union is apparently following a course for peace both in Europe and Asia,” he said, “and accordingly it is right for the Japanese Government to try to adjust relations with Russia.”He added that he thought it only

natural for Japan to establish closer relations with the Soviet Union and China because of its position in Asia.

Hatoyama admitted that the U.S.- Japan Treaty was not one which should have been concluded between countries of equal standing. However, he said, he would not “touch it” now, and he stressed that the basic foreign policy of his Government of “strengthening relations with the U.S.” would remain unchanged.

The Americans can be expected to increase both economic and political pressure on Japan from now on iri an attempt to force her into line with Washington. But it Is certain th a t as U.S. interference grows. It will further inflame Japanese n a tional feeling and strengthen the struggle of the people to put an end to foreign domination as soon as possible.

GUATEMALAN DICTATORArmas, who, with U.S. assistance recently overthrew the democratic Government, has signed a Bill handing over to the United Fruit Company 240,000 acres of land which had been nationalised by the previous democratic Government. The peasants to whom the land had been given by the previous Government have been evicted.

Collection Number: AG2887 Collection Name: Publications, New Age, 1954-1962

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