Time’s Gouzenko Like Mother Goose’s Peter, “put it in a pumkin shell, and 10 years. Spy for the Russians. To date thriller for a whole decade. Time editor Whitaker Chambers there he kept it very well’—for Only it wasn’t his wife, but an alleged roll of microfilm copies of State Dept. dodiments, handed to him, he says, by a the Time editor has given four different “explanations” as to wky he kept mum on this spy famous Hong Kong seamen’s strike of 1925, It all began when drivers of Hong Kong’s Star Taxi asked for a wage hike from $1.50 to $2 _. dajly and struck after the owners refused to go beyond $1.62. The Seven other taxi companies in the ' Port then locked out their own drivers to split union ranks and Put pressure on the Star men to 80 back to work. When all 615 licensed hackies in Hong Kong Were thus made idle, the\ British authorities hastily licensed many ‘new applicants whom the struck Companies proceeded to hire. Braving police interference, pick- 2,000 Filipinos Strike against U.S. oil firms —MANILA American oil company agen Cles here have been paralyzed by a strike of over 2,000 Filipino Workers they employ in the Man- area, The strike began Decem- er 1, when Standard-Vacuum and the Shell Oil Company rejected un- n protests against recent firings 4nd demands for better conditions, orkers in the Caltex and Tide- Water Associated Oil companies _ Walked out the next day in sym- Pathy with the original strikers. The strike stopped sales of gaso- line at some filling stations and tie up several scheduled commer- Cial planes. The workers. charge that much of the consumer oil Shortage has been engineered by, y 1% Companies themselves, in the hape that they can make the in- ‘onvenienced public blame the Whole situation on the strikers. A ell executive threatened that ‘Shipments of motor fuel destined for the Philippines would be di- ‘Divide and rule! game played out in China By S. F. CHEN —HONG KONG A strike of taxi drivers im Hong Kong, major South China port that has been a British colony since 1840, has lasted 11 weeks and spread from a dispute with one company to a demonstration of labor solidarity by 90,000 organized workers unprecedented since the world- ets persuaded most. of the .new drivers not to scab.. The owners then tried to bribe ome old drivers back to work with bonuses of $300 per head and sent recruit- ing agents to enlist others in neighboring Chinese cities. After this too failed, the police took a hand once more by confiscating two truck-loads of rice collected for strike relief. The Hong Kong & Kowloon Labor Federation, with 90,000 mem- bers, responded by raising enough funds to pay ‘every striker $5 daily and furnish more rice for strikers families. The seamen’s and streetcar workers’ unions were particularly active in the collec- tion. Despite police support, the tax companies have now begun to feel the pinch. Victory for the €d to other countries if the Walkout continues, men is imminent. The British authorities, conven- iently remembering that Commun- ists are winning a war in nearby China, are now trying to connect Hong Kong. “unrest” with that situation by starting a general “investigation of subversives.”’ SHANGHAI—Encouraged by the success of their fellow workers jn cities that have already changed hands, unionists in Chinese indus- trial cities still held by the Chiang Kai-shek government are prePar- ing to protect, mines and factorjes against last-minute government attempts at destruction or evacua- tion. Miners in the great Kailan coal pean centered at .Tangshan, North China, have already organ- ized the defense of their shafts. Chinese workers are determined that the industrjes in which they gain their livelihood will be pre- served intact in the changeover from Kuomintang to Communist- led government. Many industrialists, including the Britjsh half-owners of the Kailan mines, have also entered into secret negotiations with the Communist-led; People’s Armies for joint action against any “scorched earth” tactics by the Unions greatest force in Israel national economy —TEL AVIV Twenty out of 29 new town- ships settled by Jews in Israel smce May 15, when the Israeli state was proclaimed, were estab- lished by the country’s General Federation of Labor (Histadrut), government statistics reveal. operative factories, retail restaurants, bus lines, an airline and many other enterprises. Ownership is vested in the whole membership of the Histadrut, with its elected officers acting as di- rectors of these concerns. shops, The Histadrut organjzes not only Jewish but also Arab work- ers through its affiliated Arab Labor League with branches in Haifa, Acre, Nazaretl:, Lydda, Jaffa and rural areas. Its prin- ciple is to obtain the same pay for Arab and Jewish workers doing the same job. Internationally, the Histadrut is a member of the World Federa- tion of Trade Unions. Its political secretary, Reuben Burstein, recent- ly attended the WFTU sessions in Paris and visited labor leaders in France, Belgium, Holland, Czecho- Slovakia and Great Britain. Within Israel, the Histadrut was visited in November by a de¥-ga- tion from the Czech Trade Union Federation. Labor delegations from other countries have been invited to visit Israel and are ex- pected to arrive soon. France uses new ‘Devil’s Island’ for Viet-Namese = —-PARIS. -France’s new ‘‘Devil Island” is Pulo Condor, off the solithbast | coast of Indo-China, where 2,000 captured Viet- Nam — (Indo- Chinese) independence fighters are now confined by French troops. Pulo Condor has been used as a penal settlement for opponents of French rule for 80 years. Many of the present leaders of the Viet-Nam republic spent their “apprenticeship” there. But the island was a paradise in. those days compared to what it is now, Viet-Nam dispatches reveal. The prisoners now held on Pulo Condor are far in excess to the number it can sustain. Water is rationed for drinking purposes ,only, so prisoners can wash neither themselves nor their clothes. Of the. population of 2,000, over 500 are held permanently in chains as ‘ “especially dangerous.” In- fractions of prison discipline are punished by solitary confinement in deep . pits where, many have died. Conditions on the island have produced a very high rate of tuberculosis, malaria and heart disease, for whjch medical atten- tion and proper care are en- This report highlights once:more!on secret trade the widespread activities of the/agreements Histadrut whjch not only carries |(with Germany) on union affairs but is the greatest |might, if made single political and economic force i public, cause re- in the country. A: bigger industrial percussions dur- owner than any private company |ing the present in Israel, the Histadrut runs co-' delicate negoti- | 1 ; important By ISRAEL EPSTEIN A new wave of “red spy” hysteria launched in America last w quite different from what was intended. renegade Communist Whittaker Chambers, a $30,000 a year by the press as revealing secret U.S.-Nazi negotiations directed Stolen’? State Dept. against Strangely enough, the first stories | concerning the contents of these | documents appeared in redbaiting, } reactionary newspapers, The } ultra rightist New York Daily News said December 9 that: they related “to secret trade agree- ments with Nazi Germany in 1937-38" and revealed “that we were playing ball during those pre- war days with the late British Prime Minister Neville Chamber- lain in his appeasement policy” while “at the same time telling the Russians that they should string along with the western powers to stop Hitler.” Turning to current implications, the Daily News said “suppressed details touching ations designed to get Ruhr in- dustry operat- Israel Epstein New U.S. ‘spy scare’ may reveal real anti-Soviet secret deals —NEW YORK eek threatens to disclose something documents dated 1938, produced by senior editor of Time magazine, are reported the Soviet Union. wanted to hold his “proof of crime” so they would not dare «touch him. (4) Chambers did ; not keep the papers secret at all but tried to interest U.S. officials in the case long ago, and even tried to sell the documents to Magazines as anti-Soviet articles in wartime, Another discrepancy in Cham- ber’s statements is that he. pre- vjously testified under oath that he had broken with the Communist party and “red spy rings” in 1937, while he now claims he obtained the papers, as a trusted “red spy”, in 1938. The unAmerican committee, fighting against possible dissolu- tion by the next Congress and public disrepute consequent on the recent indictment of its chair- man, Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, for fraud, also has its own motives in the “revelations.” Inside Whit- taker Chambers’ famous pumpkin, the United Press said frankly December 8, “was new life for the unAmerican activities, commit- tee. ... If (it) can convinee the ing under German management.” It is indicative of present states of mind in the U.S. that these allegations are regarded as un- in © themselves. The documents are quoted by reac- tionaries only to prove how horri- fying was the prospect that, they | might have reached Soviet know- ledge at the time. Senator-elect Karl Mundt of South Dakota (Re- publican), for instance, credits their exposure with having “caused Stalin to make a pact with Ger- many in 1939.” Actually, there is no proof so far that the documents. got beyond Chambers, or even that they were removed from state department files 10 years ago rather than more re- cently for the. purposes of the current ‘hysteria. The papers pho- tographed in microfilm, were handed to the notorious House un- American activities committee by Chambers. Chamber produced them from a_hollowed-out pump- kin on his Maryland farm, to help his defense against a libel suit brought by former state department high official Alger Hiss, whom Chamber accuses of espionage for | the USSR. The murky motives and actions of Chambers in this ease are now being subjected to the scrutiny of public opinion. To the question of why the renegade had hung on to the papers, as he claims, for 10 years, Chambers and _ his friends have given four different answers; (1) Chambers is a Quaker and not willing to hurt anyone, even people he accuses of treason, because of religious seruple. (2) Chambers changed his scruples because Hiss had in- sulted his wife. (3) Chambers kept the documents because he public on this one, it will be ricky | rewarded (with) ample funds to. ,continue the current inquiry or _begim other investigations.” | President Truman, whose admin- | istration is under attack by Re- | publicans associated with the com- |mittee, has again denounced the | whole business as a “red herring.” | Truman’s justice department, how- ;ever, has brought the documents | before the same grand jury that in- ;dicted 12 American Communist ‘leaders for propagating Marxism. | Tired of Chambers’ efforts to steal iits thunder by peddling all his “secrets” to the rival unAmerican committee, the justice department wants to indict the renegade him- _ self for perjury because he pre- viously swore he had no documents of any kind to prove his “espion- age” allegations. To the unAmerican committee, this makes Truman and his justice. department accomplices to treason. Rep. Richard M. Nixon (Repub- lican) wailed to the newspapers: Dec. 9: “If Chambers is charged the justice department will destroy" the chance to indict others because the star witness will be a con- victed perjurer.” Grand Loggers’ Dance: CLINTON HALL 2605 E. Pender St. , SATURDAY, DEC 18 — 9—12 p.m. — Refreshment Tickets, 75c. Proceeds to Organization Fund Local 71, WIUC F.O. Vancouver Branch was afraid of the Russians and “_ STANTON Vancouver Office 501 Holden Building 16 East Hasting Street MArine 5746 BARRISTERS, SOLICITORS, NOTARIES & MUNRO Nanaimo Office | Room 2, Palace Building, Skinner Street 1780 ALWAYS MEET: AT... Every DANCING - disintegrating Kuomntang forces. tirely lacking. e PENDER AUDITORIUM | Renovated—Modernized—Hall Large and Small for _ CONVENTIONS Triple Mike P.A. System — : — Excellent Acoustics —. 339 WEST PENDER STREET Need MEETINGS | Wired for Broadcasting _ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 17, 198 — PAGE 3 __ .