British Labor vote against
rearmament of West Germany
challenges Tory drive to war

. By MEAT ATOM, MacEWEN

LONDON

‘The people of Britain do not want a revive ed German army which will drag the world into a

third great catastrophe.

That is the plain meaning of the 25’ Labor votes cast. in the British House

of Commons last week against the ratification of the German. treaties.
The Labor party voted almost solidly against ratification of the agreements, spurning Foreign

Minister Anthony Eden’s plea. re
ficial Labor amendment whic
ae the principle of German
rearmament but contended that

it was inopportune at present.

First the Labor amendment was
lost by 296 to 260, a majority of
34, Only a handful of extreme
right-wingers. on the Labor
benches abstained from voting,
among them F, J. Bellenger, for-
mer secretary of state for war,
who said he did not see why he}
should not support Eden merely
because he sat in the Opposition.

The motion ‘was carried by 293
to 258, a majority of 40, showing
that even on the direct vote
against ratification the over-
whelming majority of the Labor
members abided by the party’s
decision,

This was an historic occasion.
It was the first time that the
Labor, party has directly voted
against the ee eee foreign

lic i
mt a also a complete reversal

of the usual position in foreign
Seeks In the past, left-wingers
have often been in the position
of having to vote against the par-
ty or to abstain, but this time it
was the extreme right wing which
found itself in that position.

: In the closing speech for the

Labor party, Hugh Dalton gave
five reasons why the agreements

should not be ratfied at the pres-

ent time:

- be very close to a German ad-
vance over the Polish frontier.

’. until the fall, the govern-
ment would be enabled to hold
Four-Power talks on Germany
with the Soviet Union.

Viscount Hinchinbrooke, Con-
_servative ‘MP, attacked the -gov-
ernment’s foreign policy, declar-
ing he could not support it in the
division lobby unless the govern-
ment declared that defeat would
resulf in its resignation and a

general election.

“Much as I regret to say it
‘we’ve had nine months of bureau-
_ cratic Conservatism.” (Labor
laughter).

- “Exchange control, Meh in

imports, retaliatory export re-
_ ductions. Make no mistake

about it, the Americans are all

bent on making Western Germ-

any a fulcrum of their economic

power in Europe. ; ;

~ “On top of that comes the pro-
- posal, American-sponsored, Amer-
 ican-pressed, for the -rearmament
of Germany.’ -

Eden begged the Labor party to content itself with voting for the

Ut

Hostility toGerman
rearmament grows

hd :
in French Assembly
PARIS

Prospects of making a start
this year with rearmament of
Germany have dwindled serious-
ly as a result of U.S. refusal to

_ grant more than a third of the
off-shoré armament orders ask-
ed for by France.

More than half the 75 Radical
Deputies in the Assembly have
now joined the deputies hostile
to ratifying the European De-.
fense Community treaty. ‘

_ This was made clear by an
article published last week by
former Secretary of State. for
War Maurice Bourges Maun-
oury, in which he wrote that be-
cause of the off-shore decision
of Washington, “ratification of
the European Defense Commun-
ity treaty by the French parlia-
ment has lost its last chance.”

“Off-shore’’ purchases are
contracts for U.S, arms placed
in French factories and paid in
dollars. ps

eee

Lith

=

He quoted from an article in
the London Economist which said
that the idea was being expressed
in America that the European
Army must develop into a Ger-
man-American alliance.

“What are these soldiers of
the European Defense Community
going to do?” he asked.

“Tf under pressure of NATO
they turn East, we may be in for
one of the most frightful wars
which has ever rent enanelua

“Only now, I find myself able
to recall that I have profoundly
disagreed with the» Prime Min-
ister’s foreign policy from Fulton
to Llandudno and from Zurich ‘to
Strasbourg:

“T don’t think that thet atom
bomb is a deterrent to Russia. -
I think it is a provocation.

“T don’t think the only lang-
mage the Russians understand is
force. Certainly they will meet
force with force and possibly
force unwisely by striking first.

“Mr. Eden said we are more
likely to talk if we press. on with
rearmament. I entirely disagree.

‘Why do we rearm one half of
Germany competitively against
the other? Do we expect they will
fight, each other like North and
South Korea? If they do, I think
this island will become a shambles
overnight. A

“I do ask what prospects has
the North Atlantic Treaty Organ-
ization got of bringing Eastern
Germany into the Western world,
or detaching the satellites from
the Soviet commonwealth?

“It has got no prospect at all.
It is a useless instrument.

“NATO is a palsied organiza-
tion. I urge the government to
let it rest. I urge them to go
for a Four-Power conference
with Russia now, even if the
agenda is a loose one, «

“I urge them to go for a united
Germany, much on the lines of
the great success we had in the
Four-Power control of a united
Austria,

“The younger generation today
is heartily sick of the sombre
words that come from 10 Downing
Street, from ‘Washington, and
from the centres of arms and
atomic energy production.

_ “They look for a return of in-

—

dependence to Britain.”

ANEURIN BEVAN

CLEMENT ATTLEE

”

Defeat for Atlee .

The Labor party's. sold vote
. against ratification of the Bonn
agreements for West German
rearmament represented a vic-
tory for Aneurin Bevan (top)
and his supporters over former
Prime Minister Clement Attlee
(bottom) and the Labor front
benchers who opposed any open
break with the Churchill gov-
ernment’s foreign policy.

As the debate opened in the
British House of Commons,
hundreds of trade union and
peace delegates were wai
outside the lobbies to demand
that their MP’s oppose German
reafmament and to urge upon
them the opening of Four-Pow-
er talks on Germany,

| Attlee’s personal attack on

‘Bevan, made without custom-
ary notification, in which he ac-
cused his former. health minis-
ter of disclosing cabinet secrets
ended in public humiliation for
himself, Bevan’s reply, justify-
ing his right to reveal the rea-
sons for his resignation from
Attlee’s cabinet, drew some-
thing of an ovation from Labor
_benches and Attlee walked out
of the House with cheers: for

Bevan ringing in his ears.

Project linking Volga, Don rivers ‘step to Communism’

‘By RALPH PARKER
. MOSCOW

The opening of the Lenin Canal,
linking the Volga and the Don
rivers, and of the vast complex
of power, irrigation and naviga-
tion enterprises connected with it,
is. being hailed throughout the
USSR as ‘the nation’s greatest
achievement.

Tt is recognized. as being of
a different nature than the big
works of post-war reconstruc-
tion such as the rehabilitation
of the Donbas or the rebuilding
of the Dnieper Dam, for this is
a new step—and a mighty step
—forward towards communism.

‘Those who participated in the
éonstruction works of the first
Five-Year Plans see the present
gigantic development schemes, of
which the Lenin Canal is only one,
as belonging to a new phase of
Soviet society’s advance, the tran-
sition from socialism to commun-
ism,

In this phase it is proving pos-
sible to link the entire nationa]
economy to the task of rapid
mechanized construction and to
tackle simultaneously a number

of parallel problems which are
themselves but links in the great
chain of development projects af-
fecting the whole country.

Nearly every machine-building
factory of any importance in the
USSR has contributed to the build-
ing of the Lenin Canal and the
Tsimlyanskaya Dam and power
station. From Yereyan in Arm-
enia to Leningrad, from Minsk to
distant Sibera labor-saving mach-
inery hasbeen brought to the
construction sites. .

Instead of a huge flow of un-

|skilled labor a relatively small

number of specialists from tech-
nical institutes in many towns as-
sembled for the building of this
canal, :

The Soviet policy of mass _ tech-
nical training bore fruit in the
form of conscientious skilled tech-
nicians to man the “walking ex-
cavators,’’ the mechanized ¢on-
crete-mixing factories and the
other complicated machines which
are now being reassembled on the
sites of new and still larger con-
structions of communism, Others

were trained on the spot. Courses
in over fifty new qualifications

were organized in the workers’
settlements beside the Volga and
the Don. »

* * *

In these days the Soviet press.
while devoting much space to the
material achievements involved.
finds ample space for tributés to
these highly skilled working men
and women, ,

_ As part of the master plan to
harness all the Soviet Union's
great rivers, the Lenin Canal
will appreciably lower the cost
of goods, and thus con-
tribute to the laying of the
material foundations for that
era of abundance known as
commuhism, an era when the
worker will labor according to
his abilities and be rewarded ac- '
cording to his needs.

The cost of floating timber from
the forests of North Russia to
the plains of the Ukraine, the
cost of shipping coal from the
Donbas, wheat from the Kuban,
cement from Novorossiisk, man-
ganese from Georgia, fruit from
the Caucasus to the nee popu-

Socialism
now goal é

in GDR

3 BERLIN
The time is now ripe for build-
ing socialism in the German De-_
mocratic Republic, ‘Walter‘ Ue
bricht, deputy prime minister and a
general secretary of the Socialist
Unity party told a Socialist Unity

party conference here recently.
“The creation of the founda- —
tion of socialism is in accordance
with’ the economic‘ development
and. the interests of all working
people,’’. he said. ‘‘The Genman
people, who produced Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, the found-
ers of scientific socialism, will 89
forward .to. convert into. reality —
the great idea of socialism in the
German. Democratic Republic, leds
by the working class.’’ :
Propounding the tasks. facing
the people of the German Demo-—
cratic Republic ‘in providing the
basis for socialism in our. indus-
try,”’ Ulbricht defined them ‘as:
@ Speeded up reconstruction of
Jarge factories on the basis of pro-
gressive technical knowledge.
, @ Overcoming| disproportions
brought about by the partitioning
of Germany. , ;
@ Increasing the productivity
of labor... a
@ Application of the principles — :
of economie accounting in all na-
tionally-owned factories. *
Dealing with. the question of
unifying Germany, he stated:
“The. construction of socialism —
in the German Democratic Repub-
lic and Berlin can have only 2
favorable effect on the fight for @
united, democratic, peace-lovin®
and independent Germany, W®
stand by our proposals for achiev-

ing a peace treaty and GermaD

unity, The question as to which —
form of social order shall rule i2
German after the unification of
the country| will be decided bY —
the German people themselveS —
without the intervention of bos
foreign influences. :

“Socialist construction will give
all working people a chance t?
judge for themselves which. path
serves the working people a2
which path is in the interests of |
the arms kings, big business, 20¢
the landlords.”

? Lenin Canal greatest Soviet achievement

lated areas of- Huropean Russia
will all be reduced. And in the cO2"

ditions: of Soviet society thes?

“| economies must benefit the con

sumer,

It is because he has had a share —
in building the Lenin Canal 284
knows’ that he will likewise shat@
the fruits of that work that the —
average Soviet citizen regards 1°
opening as a day of national cel
bration.

* Ss *

- The complexity of the “achieve”
ments that all USSR is hailing 7
these midsummer days AY ioe
judged: by the facts that simul
taneously navigational, power 9”
irrigation problems have beet
solved. As the Azov and plack
Seas are linked with the ae
Volga navigational ,system, he :
dustrial power goes to the pont
to Rostov, and water flow® i
through the irrigation cana
serving 250,000 acres of land.

2
PACIFIC ‘TRIBUNE — AUGUST 8, 1952 — ne