ae fancies to solid facts,

quarter of the ice layer,

OWADAYS when we
N think of the frigid
waters of the Polar
Sea, our minds turn to war
worries. Canada and_ the
Unittd States have lately set

up military and naval instal-
lations in both the Arctic and
Antarctic regions. Our papers
have talked endlessly of secret
polar maneuvers. These are
supposed to be precautions
against attack by the Soviet
Union.
When we turn from. wild
we. see
how ridiculous it is to fear a
Soviet assault from the Arctic.
True, Soviet experts are vigour-

ously carrying on new develop-

ments in the Far North. But
these are peaceful _ activities.
And they are conducted out in
the open, without secrecy.
As a matter of fact our coun-
tries could benefit enormously if
our governments would pay at-
tention to what Soviet scientists

_ are actually doing up in the re-

gions of polar cold. Since the
war ended they have published
several radical new discoveries
for all the world to study and
Take the problem of navigat-
ing ships through frozen waters.
This problem has baffled sea-
faring men and engineers for
-- several centuries.

_ Today Soviet merchant ships
are Sailing right across ‘the top

of the world,, opening an all-

year-round trade route of im-
-mense economic importance to
_ the world. They are using a new
type of icebreaker invented by
engineer V. Chizhikov.
Most people know that a
_ freighter cannot force its way
_ through ice that is more than a
foot or so thick. Specially de-
signed icebreakers can smash
a path through heavier ice. But
when the going is tough they
_ make only a few hundred yards
an hour, sometimes crawls
along at ‘a fraction of a mile an
- hour, and in ice much over a
yard thick even the most pow-
erful icebreakers cannot break
a clear channel
ca S

HIZHIKOV’S invention is
basically simple. It uses a
stream of water, forced from
a nozzle at extremely high speed,
to cut through the thickest ice.
The cutting power of water
is well known. It is used in
_ hydraulic mining for slicing up
densely packed clay, shale and
-even some kind of rock. Chizhi-
_ kov experimented for years be-
- for he devised hydraulic knives
capable of cutting through ice
at high speed.

A centrifugal pump, mounted
on board ship, takes sea water
up te-.3,000 pounds per square
inch pressure. At this great
pressure the water flows into
_ three nozzles, one on each side

_ of the vessel and one dead cen-

ter, all three being flexibly
_ mounted about 10 yards out from
. the ship. —
: When the pressure is turned
on the blasting streams of water
drill deeply into the ice. But
_ Chizhikov found it was not ne-
_ cessary to cut right through the
_ ice. When the hydraulic guns
2 have eut through just
; the
strength of the whole layer is
reduced to one-eighth its solid
strength. That is, making a
two-foot cut in ice that is eight

feet thick reduces its strength -

to that of ice just two feet
deep. If the nozzles cut through
half the ice thickness, the re-

maining strength of the ice is

- one-twentieth.
In practice these aes
nozzles are mounted on _ stan-
dard steel freighters. As the ice
is cut underneath,

and forward thrust of the ship’

rapidly smash it from above.

- Often the tremendous force of

the water, blasting ‘up into the
IDAY, MAY 23, 1947

one-.

the weight —

Sailing in

polar seas

By DYSON CARTER

cuts, splits huge cakes as though
by dynamite.

Tests made by the North Sea
Route Administration show that
the Chizhikoy system, by speed-
ing up the ships and doing
away with separate icebreakers,
will probably reduce the cost of
Arctic freighting by no less than
30 percent.

HIS system is of great po-

tential value in our continent,
It would make Port Churchill,
the great Canadian ocean port
in Hudson Bay that has long
been sabotaged by monopoly in-
terests open for all-year navi-

By DEREK KARTOUN

| .—LONDON.

OMMUNIST ministers have

been excluded from the
French coalition cabinet.

The Socialist, Catholic and
Radical ministers took this step
after the Communists had vot-
ed against the government on
a confidence motion.

In his explanation before the
National Assembly, Jacques Du-
clos, leader of the Communist
group, pointed out that his par-

-¢y could no longer give un-

qualified support to a cabinet
which had failed consistently to
take urgent measures to keep
prices. down and production up.

As the 186 deputies filed into

the lobby against the govern-

- ment of Socialist Paul Ramadier,

France entered her sixth gov-
ernment crisis: eines the Liber-
ation.

The background to the cexisis :

is simple enough.

e -
im CAN be seen in: the side
streets of Paris and its work-

ing-class suburbs, where for the

last two weeks long lineups have
formed at dawn betore the
bakeries. “

The Paris housewives have had
to return to lining up for their
bread ration—now reduced to
an inadequate 250 grams daily.

The weather has been hard ~

on the people of France and a

third of the winter wheat was

frozen’ in the ground. j
American’ grain commitments
are not being met and there
is “a sudden and quite unexpect-
ed gap of 245,000 tons in
France’s wheat imports.

Further, the peasants are re-~
luctant to

sell at controlled
prices when an active black
market will offer them twice as
much for flour destined for res-

taurants and PRS. papery mpi

ing. :
©

PATS ARE ss still
meat, fruit and vegetables are

‘short and dear, everything else

that the Paris housewife puts

-worker’s pocket to

Government

raat wine,

gation, with enormous benefit
to Canada’s vast northland and
the northwestern states.

At the same time Chizhikov’s
invention could be widely used
on the Great Lakes Route.

Soviet scientists are coming to
the opinion that most of the
world’s frozen waterways can be
kept open all winter. Right now
they are experimenting with a
method for keeping harbors free
from ice, This was developed by
the Swedish engineers Persson
and Forslind, and consists of

nothing but pipes laid on on the

harbor bottom, through which is.

pumped.

into her shopping-bag has risen
considerably in Brice in the et
two years, ‘

The two poveminentaiapésed™

price reductions of five percent

in the last three months, and
a number of other measures to
enforce the price controls, cer-
tainly mitigated the evil. They
did not cure it. «6

Wages, through all this period,
lagged woefully behind the
rocketing cost of living.

The CGT established at the

beginning of March a minimum ~

for the Paris area of $59 a
month, to which the rest of
the country would be adjusted.
This was something,
only scratched at
of the problem of
enough money in

putting
the French
enable him
to. live decently.
Through all this time the
Communists have been exhort-

ing the workers to produce

more. +
They have asked workers to

prove that even if the so-called —

‘elite’ had lost interést in the
country’s future and had al-
ready emigrated in spirit to the
United States, the working peo-
ple at any rate knew how to
make sacrifices and pull the
ao g through.

@

per popten is enough. ‘The
Socialists and MRP, mem--

bers. in the government, have

constantly failed to take the

stern measures with the black
market which would lead to a

fair redistribution of food and

goods,

Once again prices are Genine |
ning to race ahead of wages,
and once again, with Commun-

ist support alone, the unions

have asked for a small wage

increase.
Nor does the “nee on there.
failure in this

sphere is matched -by other fail-
ures.

_ Georges ‘Bidault came back?
from the Moscow Conference

last week with a coal agree-

ment which from the French |

;

shall.

but it.
the. surface

supported at. home by
party in the country, with the

The air rises up through thous-
ands of tiny holes. Expanding as
they rise, the air bubbles cause
a steady circulation of warmer

‘water up to the freezing sur-

face layers. Not only will this
prevent ice from forming at all,
but it can also melt ice. The
cost is very low bevause the only
heat used is that supplied by

the deep water itself.

What’s behind the French government crisis?

viewpoint is laughable and not
a little sinister.

In return for this agreement
—which does not come within a
hundred miles of giving France
the coal she needs — Bidault
presumably won some _ small
favors from Bevin and Mar-

No one yet knows what these
favors are. But it is realized in
Paris that by accepting the coal
plan Bidault has
‘weakened French claims for rep-

tions from Western
many.
And he has thrown France

headlong into the Western bloc

for which the American dele-
gation had been” working
throughout the talks. :

French people are saying that

blocs are all very well, but one

needs much more specific as-
surances about their aims, |

They point out that even now,
after the devastation wrought in

France by the Germans, Ger-

many has 88 percent of the coal
available in the same territory

in 1936, while France only con-—

sumes 80 percent. i '
y :  @

OVERNMENT failure to
carry out the program to

_which the parties ‘composing it
had subscribed has gone even —

further than this. ’
A cardinal point in the Con-
stitution of the Fourth ‘Republic

-and in the program of Rama-

dier’s cabinet has been the or-
-ganizing of the French Union—

the new democratic association -

of nations which once composed

the French empire.

But the pledges were broken,
and a classic colonial war was
instigated — in Indo-China | and

exception of the Communists,
A government crisis came and

went, The — ‘war continues ‘and

the Communist campaign te
start negotiations stil] goes on,

Latterly, troubles in Madagas- %

car led to the summary arrest

by the authorities of the mada

pent deputies.

enormously -

Ger-

work was possible with

the five
very

Communists and those Wane

Incidentally, Chizhikov’s inven- he

tion has been applied to coat

mining by the Siberian engineer —

Muchnik. ae:
At the Kuznetsk coal basi
dozens of ‘water drills, 27% —
used. They break out the seam
at high speed. At the same
time they eliminate the terrible
coal-mine dangers associated
with the use of explosives and
the formation of coal dust.

Once again everyone put the fe
Communists supported this UD
constitutional move.
munists fought in the goveth” —
ment for the principle of P@?
liamentary immunity and ‘a
justice to a member state ©
the French Union. neo
eo. rip
W2=* by week; these failures “

of the coalition cabinet ee
been piling up, and the sea is
munist Party has become mor —
critical. Le

Thus far the Communists — ;
have considered that they i :
do more to guide the first falt-
ering steps of the Fourth oe
public along the right path y
staying within the cabinet thap
by going into opposition. Pe

They have not been unmind: se
ful of the fact that General ee
Gaulle is-once again in the oP®
—gambling on chaos, misery ane Se
dissatisfaction to bear him 'Y
umphantly to power. —

They have realized th
sity of doing constructive
to get France out of her
difficulties just so long 2

e iecees
work —
grave
as suc ch
in ee
cabinet. ; A
In backing the demand ae
Paris engineers for a ae
increase in their bonus rate, Re
Communist ministers knew ee
fectly well that they mae i
lining up the rest of the cabipt™
against them. s fe
They did it for the very simp ah
reason — completely overlo0®

—

by the ‘experts’ on inflation Ped

that the Paris workers

those 10 francs to keep”

selves clothed and fed.
The , Socialist

group led ‘the move to |

‘Communist min

from the cabinet after. the — nf

then $

_ ecutive ‘had voted in fav0r
the resignation of sagen i

A struggle is now afoot in

the Socialist Party betw%

those who wish to maintain *

only

policy of cooperating same aes
wish

a@ government which

to lead the party yet cara

: the right.
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