NICOSIA

Everyone above the age of 12
in the Cypriot village of Platres
has been registered, fingerprint-
ed and photographed with a num-
ber across the chest—then charg-
ed two shillings a head toward
the cost of the job.

This mountain village is the
first of 73 villages with a total

population of 30,000 to be tackled
by police and British troops un-
der the new compulsory registra-
tion order requiring Cypriots to
‘be numbered, photographed and
fingerprinted for “identity cards”
which they will be required to
produce whenever demanded by
police or troops.

After the 73 villages, known
for their part in the resistance
to British rule, are dealt with,
then comes the turn of the rest
of the island.

While registration began in the
mountains, in Nicosia the illegal
Working People’s party (AKEL)
issued an appeal for “no more
bloodshed.” é

The party, largest in the island,
was declared illegal by Governor
. Sir John Harding last December.

Leaflets distributed by the
AKEL last week declared that
“violence should cease from what-
ever quarter it may come.”

In a four-point policy to end
the present dangerous situation
the party urged:

CAPE
KORMAKITI

Letka
y \SEvevkhou
St

ry
* Khrysokhou

Kiimalf:
e.
Bes D)

33

(eer

Postponement of all further
hangings of convicted Cyp-
riots as a first step toward a
general amnesty;

’ Abolition of the Emergenc
Regulations; :

Release of all political pris-
oners;

Repatriation of Archbishop
Makarios and other depor-
tees.

Together with this eminently
practical program, another AKEL
leaflet replied to recent charges
against it by Digenis, head of
the Right-Wing EOAK terrorist
organization.

. ABatithoric
Us Lajps NOY
\ 7

LIMASSOL
ee
Abhrote: Bo

.

Cypriots photographed
like criminals -- charge

CAPE
ANOREAS

Rizokarpaso

Akanthou a
Kyrema A GA
Morphou Bay eer ees ape “Ayios Theodhores
Bat pioneer NICOSIA iw, é Famagusta Bas

FAMAGUSTA
nen

Waa. \

CYPRUS

Medsterranesn See

Answering Digenis’ charge that
AKEL was betraying the natidon-
al struggle by not using terror-
ist methods, the leaflets said that
the British imperialists had con-
sidered the AKEL campaign pow-
erful enough to justify its ban-
ning.

“AKEL does not hide the fact
that it disagrees with the policy
of Digenis.

“Tt believes that the Cyprus
campaign should be pursued
through democratic channels,
and that such democratic
courses would win more friends
and allies for the Cyprus cause.”

Italian left
gains in vote

ROME

A farther shift to the left of Italian public opinion is
the outcome of the municipal and provincial elections. The
extreme right neo-Fascist and Monarchist parties had heavy

losses.

The Nenni Socialists increased their vote in northern

and central Italy; the Social Dem-
ocrats polled unexpectedly well;
the Communists though suffer-
ing slight losses, made gains in
several important places.

In Bologna the Communist
mayor, Dozza, polled 35,000 more
votes than in previous elections,
while in Rome, Genoa, Turin,
Venice and Bara the Christian
Democratic government party
lost a complete majority.

In Rome the Communists, Nen-
ni Socialists and the Social Demo-
crats increased their vote. The
neo-Fascists and Monarchists had
noticeable losses.

To elect the mayor of Rome,
the Christian Democrats have
now to choose whether they will
seek either neo-Fascist or Social-
ist support — and the Socialists
are asking that the Christian
Democrats discuss the matter
with them.

Practically the same problem
arises in Genoa, Venice and Tur-
in, where the road is open to co-

operation between the Christian
Democrats and the Socialists.

Naples is a unique exception
with more than 250,000 votes poll-
ed by the Monarchist mayor,
Lauro, who collected about 100,-
000 previous Christian Democrat
votes.

But the significant trend es-
tablished by the elections is
that the extreme right has lost
strength everywhere.

Official figures for provincial
elections were: Total Centre vote:
12,574,639; Left: 8,396,341; Right:
2,676,304.

In Bologna the Communist
mayor has already invited the
Social Democrats to join in the
government of the city.

Pietro Nenni, Socialist leader,
issued a statement saying that,
in view of the big gains made by
his party at the local polls, the
governing Christian Democratic
party must now discuss with him
formation of local governments
in many towns and cities.

SOCIAL WORKER’S REVELATIONS SHOCK BRITAIN

Britain’s Belsens in Kenya —

the women prison officers with
canes and dogs, the girls of 11 and
12 serving life sentences — have
been described in detail by a
Quaker social worker, Miss Eileen
Fletcher, replying to the Kenya
government’s comments when
she first made her charges.
-” British authorities in Kenya ad-
mitted that they were sending
girls over 14 to prison for alleged
“Mau Mau” offenses. They said
there were 21 girls in a women’s
prison near Nairobi.

They denied, however, that
any, of the children were serving
life sentences. Two girls, they
conceded, were detained “during
the governor’s pleasure,” the sen-
tence which in Kenya takes the
place of life imprisonment for
children.

They did admit that others
were serving up to seven-year
Sentences, but they denied that
any were working quarries oF
doing hard labor.

In replying to the Kenya
Zovernment’s denials of her char-
ges, Miss Fletcher, who spent a
year as social worker in Kenya
camps and prisons, added new
details so horrifying that British
Labor MPs are calling for an im-
mediate inquiry.

She told a meeting held at the
House of Commons last week —
and this was the most appalling
Charge of all — that women
Prison’ officers in Kenya walk
tound the camps carrying canes
and accompanied by dogs.

LONDON |,

“You remember what we-
thought in this country when
we saw the pictures of the
women prison officers in Bel-
sen with their dogs,” she said.

She herself had reported one of
these women for beating a pris-
oner over the head with a swag-

ger cane.

Answering the Kenya govern-
ment’s statement that the courts
were entitled to send “girls over
14” to prison under the Juveniles
Ordinance, she declared:

“Offical records show that the
; ages of some of the girls held are
11 or 12 years. The prison num-

> . ”
these girls are in my possession.

Then Miss Fletcher passed
round the meeting a photograph
of some of the girls, while she
quoted from the records:
“Admitted September 1954,
‘aged 11, charged with taking
two illegal oaths. Seven
years’ imprisonment.
“Admitted June 1954, aged
12, charged with consorting.
with armed persons. Life
imprisonment.

“Aged 15, charged with be-
ing in possession of ammuni-
tion. Life imprisonment.”

Miss Fletcher said that out of
the 21 female juveniles sentenced
to life imprisonment, 17 were il-
literate.

Seventeen of them, in ee
group she was working with,
would have hanged if it had
not been for their sex and their
youth.

bers and tribal particulars” of |

Some of the-girls were sen-
tenced to 16 days solitary con-
finement for singing Mau Mau
hymns in their dormitory at night.
They spent the 16 days in small
corrugated iron cells, the only
light coming through a grille.

“I saw those girls come out after
their 16 days,” said Miss Fletcher.
“I can tell you that even now
that look on their faces some-
times keeps me awake at night.
I saw stark terror on their faces,”

To the Kenya government’s
statement that none of the girls
was doing hard labor, Miss Flet-
cher gave this reply: _

“IT saw girls and women stone
breaking, not as a punitive meas-.

‘ure, but as ordinary prison labor. |

I believe we have abolished that.
in this country, even at Dartmoor.

“The prison commandant said
they often injured their thumbs
either by cutting them on the
stones or hitting them with ‘the
hammer. But it was their eyes
I was worried about, in case
pieces of stone hit them in the
eye.”

“Miss Fletcher added that the
term “hard labor’ was taken
from the official records.

She herself had seen detainees
beaten with rifle butts and she
had been told of Askaris en-
tering a compound at night
and beating up boy prisoners,
including two little boys, aged
seven.

At the Langata camp there

Girls jatled for life in

dren, aged seven and four.

Miss Fletcher denied that female
juveniles are under the special
care of a rehabilitation officer;
until she went to the Kamiti
camp it was the government’s
policy not to do any rehabilitation
workwork except with the “grey”
and “white” grades of detainees.

During her seven months at
this prison the only rehabilitation
officers were a young woman
who had no experience except as
a shorthand typist and who re-
signed after a few months, and a
screening officer who worked
half time and whose only quali-

* Dmitri Shepilov (above),

editor of Pravda, has
Succeeded V. M. Molotov as
foreign minister of the USSR.
One of the Soviet Union’s best
known public figures, Molotov
held many high posts over his
nearly four decades in the
government, including the
premiership and the foreign

were two unaccompanied chil-

ae
June 8, 1956 —

Kenya

fication was that as the wife and
daughter of a settler she spoke
Kikuyu.

Answering another of the
Kenya government’s attempts to
discredit her, Miss Fletcher said
it. was untrue that she resigned
after seven months. In fact she
worked 12 months and resigned
because of the conditions she
saw.

At one camp she saw women
sleeping in a tent with their
babies. One half of the roof of the
tent was completely ripped off
and heavy tropical rain was
falling’ inside the tent. The
prison commandant refused to
repair the tent and said the

women were being punished for
tearing it.

“I believe that conditions in
Kenya teday are a slur on the
name of Britain,” she declared.
“They are creating bitterness,
not only among the Kikuyu,
but also among the other tribes,
which will take years to over-
come.”

Asked to comment on a state-
ment by the head of the Quaker
delegation in Kenya, John Stark,
that she had given an unfair ac-
count of conditions in the colony,
Miss Fletcher said: “He has never
been inside a camp or a prison.
I worked full-time in the camps
and the prisons for 12 months.”

Miss Fletcher was in govern-
ment service for 14 years until
her resignation.

She went to Kenya as a re-
habilitation officer and was later
appointed staff officer in charge
of the rehabilitation of girls and
women in detention camps and
prisons.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3