Israeli hard line stand blocks
way to peace in the Middle East

The Israeli government con-
tinues its double-edged policy of
refusing to negotiate key ques-
tions vital to a Mid-East peace,
while at the same time extending
its overtures to Egypt for a sepa-
rate deal.

The Begin government this
week repeated its intention of
holding onto occupied Arab lands
and continue its settlement con-
struction in violation of the will of
the United Nations and even in
opposition to the Carter administ-
ration. Its policy of building up
the West Bank and Sinai into an
Israeli fortress has caused a seri-
ous public rift between Washing-
ton and Tel Aviv.

This attitude has also under-
scored the intransigence of Begin
toward UN Resolution 242 which
calls on Israel to withdraw from
lands it occupied during two
wars. Even the U.S. has de-

scribed this attitude as being an
obstacle to peace.

At the same time, Tel Avis has
expressed its renewed interest in
dealing with Sadat in the hopes of
convincing the Egyptian leader to
abandon Arab unity and agree to
separate arrangements with Is-
rael. Begin’s personal philosophy
of declaring the occupied West
Bank as part of “‘the historic lands
of Israel’” which he calls Samaria
and Judea has even created prob-
lems with the Labor Party in the
Knesset (parliament) and its sup-
port for his hard line.

Having declared his firm inten-
tion to occupy Arab lands, having
refused to discuss the right of the
Palestinians to a homeland and
having launched a full-scale inva-
sion of Lebanon, Begin pretends
to concern himself with peace in
the area.

The Palestine Liberation Or-

Toronto meet honors

Guyanese

TORONTO — The fight for
democracy and majority rule in
Guyana is more than the title of a
forthcoming public meeting in
Toronto, it is the story of the life
of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, whose 60th
birthday was celebrated here,
March 25. (He was actually born
March 22, 1918.)

The celebration, organized by
the Association of Concerned
Guyanese, brought together some
60 invited guests to hear commen-
taries on Cheddi Jagan’s active
political life and to enjoy music
and dancing, following a delicious
Guyanese meal.

Herman Ali, general secretary
of the Association of Concerned
Guyanese, gave highlights in Ja-
gan’s life, including his election as
head of the People’s Progressive
Party to the post of prime minister
in 1953, and the 133 days of
democracy which was ended
when British warships arrived
and the British Government sus-
pended the constitution. Jagan’s
book, The West on Trial, de-
scribes this turbulent period in
some detail.

The evening also heard refer-
ence to Jagan’s own personal
story, his studies in Guyana and
the USA, his marriage to Janet
Rosenberg in Chicago in 1943,

PPP head

ss

Dr. Cheddi Jagan, PPP leader
and former prime minister of
Guyana will speak in Toronto.

and their return to Guyana to en-
gage in a political struggle that has
never ceased.

William Kashtan, leader of the
Communist Party of Canada,
spoke briefly, recalling conversa-
tions with Cheddi Jagan over the
years of the Guyanese people’s
struggle.

Jagan, general secretary of the
People’s Progressive Party, will
speak in Toronto, April 5, at 7:30
p.m. at Central Technical School,
on “‘the fight for democracy and
majority rule in Guyana.”’

ganization has, on the other hand,
agreed to cooperate with UN
forces in Lebanon to facilitate the
withdrawal of the Israeli army
from the country.

The need for the re-convening
of the Geneva Conference on the
Mid-East with full representation
from Israel, the Arab states and
the spokesman for the Palestinian
people, the PLO is ever more
clear.

Rather than separate deals be-
tween Sadat and Begin, deals
based on sell-out and short-term
advantages for these two states a
comprehensive peace in the Mid-
dle East, based on full respect for
the rights of all peoples in the reg-
ion, including the Palestinians is
needed.

BOYCOTT

SOUTH AFRICAN
PRODUCTS

Israel’s hard line stand in refusing to end its occupation of Arab lands
has even caused a rift between Tel Aviv and Washington.

THE HAGUE — In a letter to
his fellow Christian Democrat in
Norway, the former prime minis-
ter, Lars Korvald, Dr. Roelof
J.H. Kruisinga, until recently the
Netherlands minister of defence,
explains his resignation. The let-
ter was dated March 4, 1978.
Since then the Dutch parliament
has voted 2-1 opposition to the
production and deployment of the
neutron bomb. A translation of
Dr. Kruisinga’s letter follows in
full:

My Dear Lars,

Today I resigned as a member
of the Cabinet of the Netherlands
Government.

As a minister of defence it was
impossible for me to accept a de-
cision that the Dutch Cabinet
took concerning the production
and introduction of the neutron
bomb.

From our Christian people’s
party’s point of view for me there
is no possibility of supporting the
production and introduction of
this new nuclear weapon.

The production and introduc-

Make personnel, credit records
public, CLC demands at hearing 2.822".

OTTAWA —A bref presented
March 21 by the Canadian Labor
Congress to the joint Parlia-
mentary-Senate Committee
studying freedom of information
demanded that ‘‘all information
gathered by public employees and
documents prepared by govern-
ment employees should be con-
sidered public.”’

CLC executive vice-president
Julien Major in presenting the
labor centre’s opinion spoke of
the need for greater public access
to information collected from bus-
iness and other sources including
such questions as occupational
health and safety.

Major added, ‘‘we believe ...
that citizens should have access
to their own personnel records
and to their credit records.

The congress also recom-
mended inclusion in both the new
Freedom of Information Act and
the Canadian Human Rights Act,
laws governing access to personal
files that would allow information
seekers recourse to an appeals
mechanism.

A two-tier appeals mechanism
was outlined, with an Information
Commissioner responsible to par-
liament at the first stage and judi-
cial review by the Supreme Court
of Canada, which could overrule

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 7, 1978—Page 6

any confidential classifications by
any government minister, as the
second tier.

‘Review costs should not be
chargeable and ... costs of litiga-
tion should be borne by govern-
ment’’, the brief said.

The CLC also recommended
making public the government
policy directives regulating the
enforcement of the laws; called
for the complete listing of all gov-
ernment documents, including
those which are classified as con-
fidential; and recommended an in-
formation secretariat to assist the
public in its search for in-
formation.

tion of this new nuclear weapon
means in fact:

1. escalation of nuclear war-
fare;

2. damage to the credibility of
NATO to the Netherlands
people;

3. real problems in any negotia-
tion observing disarmament;

4. real lowering of the atomic
threshold;

5. introduction of a weapon
which saves material things and
especially is a new contribution to
the overkill-capacity already av-
ailable in the central sector of
Europe;

6. means the production of a
weapon that will cause long suf-
fering to human beings which
should be a point about which the
Christian people’s parties should
be especially concerned;

7. means the introduction of a
weapon which has as its effect
human suffering; also in my opin-
ion as a medical doctor, it is very
much worse than that of numer-
ous chemical weapons. I cannot
see how we argue against intro-
duction of chemical weapons
‘from a Christian Democratic
point of view while we accept the
introduction of this weapon.

My dear Lars Korvald, I thank

Holland’s defence minister hands -
in resignation over neutron bomb

former defence minister sent 4
message of support to the Interna-
tional Forum to Stop the Neutron
Bomb, which was held in
Amsterdam, March 18, in which
he regretted being absent in Nor-
way.

“‘T express my hope that the In-
ternational Forum will contribute
to the international forming of
opinions and the rejection of the
production as well as the intro-
duction of the neutron bomb,

Kruisinga said. He asked for con- —

sideration of his letter to Lars
Korvald by the Forum.

‘‘May your deliberations be 4
new impulse for all — no mattet
their social, cultural or political
background — who are aware of
the danger of a further escalation
in nuclear armament and who
wish to prevent. this.”’

——

No to neutron

BERLIN — Leading mem-
bers of the German Democratic
Republic’s Academy of Sci-:
ences, and highly decorated
writers and artists have signed
declarations demanding 2
world ban on the production
and deployment of neutron
bombs.

L

RG

“Which do you find more humane: the classical atomic bomb or the neutron

bomb? ”