y% Lieut. General Joseph Kammhuber, shown above with Theodore Blank, former West German war minister, is the Nazi general who launched the bombing of open cities in the Second World War. Now he is touring Canada and the U.S. campaigning for atomic weapons for the West German army and air force. Observers seated at U.S. Communist parley NEW YORK HE intense and wide public interest in the recent na- tional convention of the U.S. Communist party was indicat- ed by the 52 applications. for press credentials’ submitted before the opening session. The applications were from the ma- jor press services and the ma- jor New York newspapers, as might have been expected from foreign press services, and from an unexpected number of small town papers. Papers in Milwaukee, New- ark, Trenton and Chicago were represented, as well as the Christian Science Monitor, the big TV and radio networks, the big Italian News Agency ANSA (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata) several It- alian newspapers covering the convention through their own correspondents, Tass and the Polish Press. Agency. Delegates grouped in state or regional delegations sat at tables around the ballroom of the Chateau Gardens on New York’s lower east side. What they said or heard or decided was funneled to the world through a small anteroom jammed with reporters, pho- tographers, television and film crews. and radio newscasters. The day the convention opened the reporters direct- ed their questions to two men. One was Simon W. Gerson, public relations officer for the convention. The other was Rev. A. J. Muste, leader of a group of impartial observers attend- ing the sessions. Muste, secretary emeritus of the Fellowship of Reconcilia- tion, handed out a statement to the press about the origins of the observer group. “The idea that it would be in the public interest and that 4; ’ Friends the Communist party would be well advised to invite a number of non-Communist ob- servers to its national conven- tion originated in conversations in which Norman Thomas and I, among others, participated,” the statement said. “The sug- gestion was communicated to C.P. people and we were noti- fied soon afterward that it was acceptable. “It was understood that ob- servers would not act as re- porters during the convention; but that they were completely free thereafter to speak and write, individually or as a group, about the proceedings of the convention and, of course about Communist the- ory and practice in general.” Muste was accompanied by: Dr: Stringfellow Barr, former president of St. John’s Univer- sity; Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker editor; Rev. John Paul Jones, Bay Ridge Prebyterian church; Lyle Tatum, peace ed- ucation secretary, American Service committee, Middle Atlantic region; Roy Finch and Bayard Rustin, War Resisters League; Alfred Hass- ler, publicity director, Fellow- ship of Reconciliation; Bernard Rosenberg lecturer, New School of Social Research; George Willoughby, director, Central Committee for Consci- entious Objectors. In addition, there were three observers from the New York Civil Liberties Union — Carl Rachlin, Lester Migdalt and Dr. Marie Jahoda. When the proposal to admit these observers was placed be- fore the convention, a few del- egates expressed fear that the presence of outsiders would in- hibit the discussion. But the delegations voted almost unan- imously to admit the Muste group, and if any one was in- hibited it was not noticeable. INDEPENDENT STAND -— U.S. Communists — united on policy By AL RICHMOND NEW YORK _ There will be a Communist party of the United States, but it will be different, more independent in shaping its program and more unified than it has been in the past year. That appeared to be the will of the 300 delegates to the party's 16th, national convention, which concluded four days of turbulent, at times bitter debate here on Tuesday last week. In their four days of delib- eration, following almost a year of intense discussion, the delegates: @ Voted to retain the name and form of their party, while leaving the door open “‘to all constructive exploration and discussion” of a change either in name or form “as may be organized by the (party’s) in- coming national committee.” @ Approved an amended draft resolution, submitted by the party’s national committee, which asserted that the U.S. Communist party “interprets, and applies, and strives to de- velop further” the principles of scientific socialism devel- oped by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and V. I. Lenin “in ac- cordance with the require- ments of the American class struggle and democratic tra- ditions.” @ Adopted a new constitution that reaffirmed an independ- ent application of Marxist- Leninist theory and provided for a new democratic regime within the party, including the right to dissent in intra-party discussion. @ Elected 20 members at large to a new national committee, with 40 more still to be el- ected from the various states. In presenting the declaration of the party’s new approach to the theory of scientific so- cialism, the convention resolu- tions ‘committee emphasized that the intent was to break with the previous practice of leaving the interpretation of Marxist theory to 6ther Com- munist parties — and most spe- cifically the Soviet party — while restricting the American party to a “creative applica- tion” of this theory as interp- reted by others. The final convention session was featured by a demongtra- tion of party unity by the prin- cipal antagonists in the pre- convention debates. These were William Z. Fos- ter, party chairman; Eugene Dennis, general secretary; John Gates,~ editor of the, New York Daily Worker, and Ben- jamin Davis, who had the twin distinction of being New York’s first Negro and Communist city councilman. ; The occasion was a propos- al submitted by Dennis on be- half of all 20 members of the newly elected national com- mittee that 11 committee mem- bers resident in New York serve as a temporary adminis- trative body until the full 60- member national committee is filled out by election from the states. “We should end this conven- tion on a high note of militan- cy... unity,” said Davis in seconding the proposal. “We have stressed — all of us — many different points of view at this convention,” Gates said. “Some of us have lost on some points. But no matter who lost, the party has won.” Foster agreed with Gates that the convention was a vic- tory for the party and not a victory of any group or fac- tions Referring to the many reso- lutions adopted by the conven- tion, some after long committee hassles and heated debate on the convention floor; Foster said, “I want to say that I have voted for every one of thos documents.” . Most of the reporters who clustered like bees about the convention looked for a story of either a split or a rejection of change by the party. They found neither. The delegates asserted their desire for unity —and a change. The 20 national committee members elected at large re- flected this desire and the as- surance was given that a new complexion of the party’s lead- ership would be reinforced with the 40 national commit- tee members still to be elected from the states. Aside from Dennis, Davis, Foster and Gates; the 20 el- ected were: Charlene Alexander, Los An- geles; Claude Lightfood, Chi- cago; James Jackson, New York; Dorothy Healy, Los An- geles; Earl Durham, New York; Fred Fine, New York; Doxey Wilkerson, New York; Carl Winter, Detroit; John Hellman, Montana; Carl Ross, Minnesota; Al Richmond, San Francisco; Anna Correa, Col-. orado; Sid Stein, New. York; Charles Lohman, New York, Dave Davis, Philadelphia; and George Blake Charney, New York. Cabinet ministers get $17,500 and most never had it so good Old age pensioners, trying to live on $6 hiked his own annua that Premier Bennett had sessional indemnity) and boosted cabine Opposition leader Robert Strachan’s speci $5,000 sessional indemnities of the legislature. from $3,600 to This means that Bennett now draws $20,000 a year, making him Canada’s highest paid provincial premier. Cabi- net members draw $17,500, Strachan gets $8,500 and MLAs are’ paid $5,000. Are they worth it? The argument is that Ben- nett, a prosperous hardware merchant and former presi- dent of a Kelowna winery, made much more than $20,000 in private life and conse- quently is “working for pea- nuts” as premier. Even if one accepted this argument, how about the cabinet members? Many of them never made $17,000 or anything like it in their former occupations. Attornéy - General Robert Bonner and Education Min- ister Les Peterson were law juniors, barely out of school, when they climbed on. the Socred bandwagon. Highways Minister Phil VICTORIA, B.C. 0 a month or less, must have been startled to read 1 salary from $9,000 to $15,000 (plus. a $5,000 t col leagues from $7,500 to $12,500. He also upped al leader’s allowances from $2,000 to $3,500, and raised Kamloops Minister a’ bus; Gaglardi evangelist; Labor Lyle - Wicks. drove Municipal Affairs Minister Wes Black was a_ school teacher; Mines Minister Ken Kiernan ran a gas station; Health and Welfare Minister Eric Martin was a clerk and bookkeeper. For these cabinet members things have nevér been so rosy. The premier is Santa Claus, and all’s right with the world. was a MARCH 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 14 ©