Ce can be leased “for commercial ag-

Big business’ stake in litaly

By PETER MORTON

A MERICAN big business has a
*” ‘dollars-and-cents stake in the
outcome of the April 18 Italian
elections. Since 1943 about $300

million has been added to already >

well established U.S. investments in
Italy. General Electric is develop-
ing the Aosta valley's water sup-
ply. Standard Oil of New Jersey
is drilling in Sicilian oil fields.
Trans-World Airlines controls 40
percent of Italy’s air transport
system.

DuPont, Ford, Otis Elevator,
American Export Lines, Alumin-
um Company of America, Ameri-
can Radiator, Worthington Pump,
Westinghouse Air Brake and
Western Electric are among other
U.S. corporations with large vest-
ed interests in Italy.

Last spring, when top Italian
trade negotiator Ivan Matteo

Lombardo was in the U.S., he un-
blushingly explained why Ameri-
can corporations would find Italy
a profitable investment. The
New York Herald Tribune, March
31, 1947, reported his views. “An
other argument on which he
(Lombardo) will base his appeal
to American capital is the profit
to be derived from investments
because of low wages paid in
Italy.”

The U.S. big business position

“was consolidated under the terms

of a recently negotiated treaty al-
lowing private corporations to op-
erate in Italy with the same rights
and privileges as Italian enter-
prises. This “open door” policy
clears the way for complete U.S.
economic domination because war-
devastated Italian industry is in
no position to compete with giant
American corporations.

Under an early agreement on
August 14, 1947, the U.S. govern-

MARCH

Intervention in Italy

Before the war prominent members of the Sons of*Italy in
eames were closely identified with distribution of Mussolini’s
Fascist propaganda in this’ country and linked with Italian
Fascist organizations like the notorious Circola Roma in Van-
couver. Now the order is.:participating in the American-spon-
sored campaign to influence the outcome of this month’s elections

in Italy.

Here, Gustavo .d’Errico, general secretary of the |

agg Selly = inspects one of the thousands of circulars sent
to Italian-Canadians in Montreal urging them to work for defeat
of the Socialist-Communist front by writing letters to their

relatives in Italy. Actions‘ |

louder than words, however,

Vt pee

- Gasperi government.

a

ine
ferry

ment cancelled an estimated $900
million debt owed by the Italian
government. The agreement laid
the groundwork for American in-
dustry to reap far more than that
in profits.

Part of the August 14 treaty
reached back to the days of Mus-
solinii when Morgan & Co., the
Chase National Bank (Rockefel-
ler-controlied) and Dillon Read
(Sec. of Defense James V. Forres-
tal’s Wall Street home) floated
a $94 million bond issue that was
swiftly grabbed by American in-
vestors.

In 1940, Italy stopped paying
interest. After Pearl Harbor Day
the bonds could have been pur-
chased for 5c or 10c on the dol-
lar. Under the August 14 pact
the Italian government agreed to
honor the Mussolini obligation
and pay accrued interest. This
means a windfall of $136.4 million
for the bondholders.

“As described in official U. S.
circles, the Italian decision to
pay off the face amount of its
prewar government bonds,” said
the June 13, 1947 New York
Times, “was offered as first lien
on the Italian economy.” The Ital-
ian left-wing and labor movement
bitterly assailed the Aug. 14
agreement as a Plan to reduce
their country “to the status of
an economic satellite of America.”

Italy's economic plight is ad-
mittedly desperate. Hard hit dur-
ing the war ,she lost 30 percent
of her electric power plants, 50
percent of her locomotives, 85.
pereent of her merchant marine.
Today 46 million people are pro-
ducing about 60 percent as much
as 44 million did ten years ago.
More than two million people are
unemployed.

For recovery Italy needs coal.
Before the war she was the Ruhr
valley’s best customer. But today

U.S, coal companies control the
Italian market. Fortune maga-
zine, August, 1947, reported sales
at $22 or $24 a ton “of which $14
goes to shipowners who have
been taking advantage of the
shipping shortage.” If Italy con-
tinues to buy U.S. coal, the ar-
ticle pointed, it will cost her $100
million more than would Euro-
pean coal.

The Italian left attributes Ita-
iy's hardships to the failure of
profit-minded foreign and domes-
tic monopolists to develop the
country’s resources and industries
for the people’s benefit. A left
victory in Italy would méan an
extensive nationalization prog-
ram, vigorous land reforms and
abolition of monopoly control by
private interests. At almost any,
cost American corporations seek
to avoid these sweeping changes
that would end their control of
Italy’s industry.

Czechs rebuff Labor critics

CRITICISM by the British La-

bor Party of the new Czech-
oslovak government has been
rejected by the Czechoslovak
Social Democratic Party.

“The Czechoslovak Social Demo-
cratic Party cannot agree. with
your attitude toward the Febru-
ary events and the present state
of affairs in this country,” the
statement replying to the Brit-
ish Labor Party said.

“As we all found out, it was
a matter of suppressing an at-

U. S. calls ‘het

—LONDON.

A report that the British loy-

alty purge was initiated by

the U.S. has been published by

the conservative Daily Express
here.

According to the newspaper,
the U.S. government threaten-
ed to stop sending information
on arms research to Britain un-
less all those suspected of Com-
munist sympathies were weed-
ed out of the British Joint Ser-
vices. The report said that Sir
Alwyn Crow, chief of the Brit-
ish Joint Services Mission in
Washington, transmitted this
message to London.

' The loyalty probe has been
denounced by civil service union
leaders and civil liberties

groups. Members of parliament,
who have no control over the
secret probe, have pointed out
that the opportunity is granted
to any malicious informer with
a grievance against a colleague
to obtain his removal.

Americans exploit Pacific islanders

‘TH U.S. navy, which © took

South Pacific islands under
American trusteeship, is now sell-
ing the natives’ farmland to Am-
erican business groups that: will
exploit them for profit. The navy
has imposed wage ceilings of 5c
to 7c an hour for farm labor
there and 9c to 11%c an hour for
skilled labor.

These facts were revealed by
the Institute of Ethnic Affairs,
American group working for the
welfare of colonial peoples. They
were documented by a notice is-

sued by the Deputy High Com--

_ missioner of the Pacific Islands.

The notice, printed in the navy
newspaper, Saipanorama, states
that large parts of Tinian’ island

riculture.” Bids are invited from

residents of the islands, the con-
tinental U.S. or any U.S. posses-
sion.

Island inhabitants, all of whom
are poor, will not be able to qual-
ify, however, because the notice
states that “only proposals con-
templating large-scale commer-

cial agriculture are desired.”

The Institute said that if is-
land natives refuse to work for
the miserable wages offered,
“labor from outside the Trust ter-
ritory will be imported.’ By im-
porting former enemy nationals,
such as Japanese and Okinawans,
the navy can force acceptance of
whatever pay it chooses.

The Institute charged that the
navy’s action is “a violation of
the Charter of the United Na-
tions,” which provides that “the

nationals in Trust territories only
in cases where security is invol-
ved.”

interests of the inhabitants of the
Trust territory shall be para-
mount’ in any economic activity
undertaken there.

Furthermore, it said, by limit-
ing foreign bids to Americans the
navy violates a U.S. pledge to the
UN Security Council that “prefer-
ence shall be given to American

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tempt of reaction from abroad,
of government work and the
progress toward socialism.

“It used all means at its dis-
posal—beginning with sabotage
which tried to stop our further
resignation of ministers, and
ending with an anti-government
conspiracy and high treason,

“The whole Czechoslovak peo-
ple and the Social Democratic
Party and its ranks stood up
against such attempts.

“If you speak of an attack
from without and treason from
within, it is true that those fac-
tors existed here.

“But they were on the other
side, not as might appear from
your statement, and the Czecho-
slovak people did not succumb
to them.”

Those who spoke of Social De-
mocratic principles’ expressed
sharper criticism of the recent
events in Czechoslovakia than
of fascist dictatorships in Spain,
Portugal and Greece, added the
statement.

“The view that a minority
forced a dictatorship upon the
nation does not conform * with
reality,” the statement goes: on.

“As a result of the February
events the government was re-
constructed according to parlia-

mentary usages and with the
participation of President
Benes. —

“The head of the state, the
president, not only through his
constitutional position, but also
‘through his moral authority and
Philosophic leadership, persono-
fies the democratic methods and

basis of the Czechoslovak re-

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4s EAST HASTINGS =

Replying to a delegation of
workers from factories in Pra-
gue, Kladno and Pizen, during
the February crisis, Benes stat-
ed: “I should say that a govern
ment without the Communists
does not exist for me. I speak
clearly, openly and deliberately.
I must guide the government in
such a way that nobody could
conceive the idea that we can
cust the biggest parliamentary

‘ majority.

ANAT AT

Poor advice.

—LONDON.

AZI officers with experience
in fighting on the Russian
front are now advising the
British army, War Minister
Emanuel Shinwell has disclosed.
Shinwell made the admission
when a Labor member of par
liament asked for,an explana~
tion of an appeal broadcast over
the radio at a German officers’
prisoner-of-war camp in North-
umberland in the north of Ens-
land.

The appeal asked for “offi-
cers and armorers with techni-
cal experience of weapons and
motorized vehicles in winter
campaigns in the east” to act
as advisers in winter exercises
Slinwell said he was not aware
that the use of war prisoners
in this manner contravened in-
ternational law, adding:
any rate, we’re doing it.”

mei

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