China’s* big four’ reap big profits from war

by ANNA LOUISE STRONG

YENAN—Kuomintang China’s wealth, as well as its government, is controlled by four great families, headed by that of Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek, which have made $20 billion out of the country’s foreign and civil wars since 1928. This charge is made and proved by Chen Pai-ta, lead-
‘ing Chinese economist, in a book just published in this city. All the facts and figures, Chen says, come from Chiang’s own official publications and

explain the strange paradox of Chiang’s behavior — why he iss

His last official act, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes
signs the formal peace treaties with Italy, Hungary,

Bulgaria and Romania.

Looking on are Senators Van-

denberg and Connally, aides-in-chief to Byrnes in the
promotion of aggressive imperialist policies.

ues cease-fire orders with one hand and wages civil war with the other.
Besides Chiang Kai-shek, the four great families include his brothers-in-law T. VY.

Soong and H. H. Kung and the party-boss brothers Chen Li-fu and Chen Kuo-fu, Ac-
cording to author Chen Pai-ta, they rule through interlocking combinations of political

financial and military power. Chiang runs the army, Kung and Soong run banking and in- |

NS miners seek
basic wage boost

HALIFAX — Thirteen
thousand miners in Nova Sco-
tia and New Brunswick have
been alerted for possible strike

.|action by the leadership of Dist.

26, United Mine Workers of Am-
erica, with the warning that
“there will be no extension of the
present contract beyond Jan. 31.”

The miners are seeking a wage
increase of $2.50 a day. So far,
all employers have offered is $1
a day along with a program of
‘fnereased production” which lo-
cal UMW leaders term an out
right speedup proposal.

An increase of $2.50 a day
would raise basic pay from. 78¢
to $1 an hour. At present rates,
average take-home pay for a
miner on a 5-day week is $28.08.
According to a labor survey in
the typical mining town of
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, bare
essentials for a family with two
children cost over $40 a week.
About 70 percent of the miners
in the area are married and

have large families,

The UMW in Canadz is affiliat-
ed to the Canadian Congress of

dustry. The two Chen Families
run the political machine with
a Jot of real estate, local finance
and publishing enterprises thrown
in,

The financial focus of the com-
bination lies in the four big banks
of China, known, ironically
enough, as state banks. Chiang
is president of their joint govern-
ing board. These institutions —
the Central Bank, the Bank of
China, the Farmers’ Bank and

the Bank of Communications—en-
joy the right to issue and control
curency, are alone permitted to
own foreign money and bonds, fi-
nance foreign trade on their own
terms, and have special tax priv-
ileges,

But the chief business of the
banks is to finance military op-
erations through the isue of bonds.

Whether these operations are ne-|

cessary for the nation, as the
war against Japan was, or only
for Chiang’s own power, the banks
and the four families make their

e
Labor, which includes CIO and
national unions. Although Cana-
dian miners withdrew from the
CIO in 1942 along with Ameri-
can miners, Canadian UMW
branches retained’ their CCL af-
filiation.

profits. During one year the banks
were given a discount of 49 per-
cent on bonds they resold to the
public at par value.

Author Chen claims that every
Chinese military enterprise dur-
ing the past 19 years was manip- —
ulated to bring profit to the Chi-
ang -Soong-Kung-Chen combina-
tion. This has made its members
“the greatest plutocrats in history,
leaving all_past emperors trailing
behind.” i

The author points out that
the four great families have al-
ways been in cahoots with some
foreign power against their own
people. One of their chief sources
of income has been the foreign
Joan market. For their own
profit they have sol@ China’s
sovereign rights to alien big-
money groups, as they sold
China’s entire silver reserve to
the U.S. in 1985.

Today the four big families
have the financial backing of the
U.S.—the world’s greatest finan-
cial power—in their civil war. As
usual, they are taking their own

juicy cut from money loans, sur-
‘plus property sales and UNRRA
relief supplies.

So why, Chen Pai-ta asks,
should Chiang-Kai-shek want
peace either in China or the
world, when war is so profit-
able.

Shocking housing in Indian cities -
ignored by new interim government

by NERGIS BATLIWALA

BOMBAY—lIndia’s new interim govern ment—the first of its kind with leading Indian
figures as its members—has decided to drop > “for the time being” any consideration of
workers’ housing program, The unions had ex pected that housing would take top priority
in the government’s 5-year plan for social legislation. The seething industrial unrest which

is gripping India will be intensi-
fied and production crippled un-

less the government remedies
shocking housing conditions, union
leaders say.

In Bombay, India's largest and
most modern industrial center, no
less than 300,000 workers literally

Franco praises
Churchill plan

LONDON—Winston Chur-
chill’s call for a Unite.
States of Europe—minus the
Soviet Union—received a vig-
orous endorsement from the Fran-
co dictatorship in Spain. The
Franco government is the only
one so far to have reacted fav-
orably to the suggestion of the
wartime British prime minister.
A broadcast over the govern-
ment-controlled Madrid radio
lauded Churchill especially be-
cause his idea “is Franco’s idea,
expressed two years ago.”

Comparing the liberal convic-
tions of the late President Roose-
 -yelt to the ideas of the British
: leader, the broadcaster as-
asserted that “today, as yesterday,
Winston Churchill is right.”

: “If Eoosevelt and Stalin in
had not annulled the

ideag of the great British pre-
mier,” the broadcast said, “this
giorious, indomitable old man

.

have no roofs over their heads
and are obliged to sleep on, the
city’s pavements, Government rec-
ords-show that 91.24 percent of
Bombay workers live in 1-room
tenement apartments.. built in
crowded rows with the most
wretched facilities imaginable.

It is mot uncommon, for ex-
ample, to fing a slum of 16
tenements with only six water
taps for its 600 occupants. Toi-
lets. usually consist of crude
holes in the ground. In the Par-
el slum where some 300 textile
workers live, only three such
toilets are provided. ;
Living rooms are never bigger
than 10 feet by 10 feet, are most-

ly without windows and are bad-
ly ventilated. Dark even at mid-
day, these rooms are supposed to
be better than those in base-
ments where day light penetrates
with difficulty, but unlight, never.

These wretched hovels are be-

ing shared by "three or four
working class families per unit,
each family performing all the
functions of life in these narrow
confines: living, cooking, eating,
sleeping, breeding and dying.

The abominable housing con-
ditions and the low wage stan-
dards are the main reasons why
the life span of the average
Indian is approximately 22 years.
During the war Bombay’s popu-
lation increased by 65 percent,
mainly among industrial workers.
Not a single dwelling has been
built in the working class districts
in the last six’ years. The Ma-
tunga Labor Camp on the out-
skirts of Bombay, built to ac-
commodate 3,500 workers, is now
occupied by 11,000. :

The effect of all this over-

crowding and lack of sanitation

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE TWO

4

Labor college
to open Feb. 10

The City Committee of the La-
bor-Progressive Party has an-
nounced the opening of the Van-
couver Labor College for Monday,
Feb, 10, at the West End Hall,
1832 Davie St. Open to the gen-
eral public, the college is arous-
ing keen interest in labor circles.
Classes wili be held three nights
a week under the direction of
instructors who are outstanding
in their fields of work.

Emil Bjarnason, well-known
economist and teacher is leading
an advanced class on _ political
economy which will meet every
Monday night for an eight-week
period. Labor Workshop every
Tuesday night beginning Feb. 11,
will provide an interesting course
in public speaking, writing for
the labor press, and the art of
mimeographing,. under the guid-
ance of Alex. Gordon, The course
will include lectures by Tom Mc-
Ewen, editor of the Pacific Tri-
bune, : :

Registrations. are especially.
heavy for the course entitled,
‘The communists and the labor
movement,’ directed by Bill Ben-
nett and including as lecturers,
Nigel Morgan, Maurice Rush and

‘Al Parkin. :

on the health of the workers can
well be imagined, The ,govern-

‘ment’s announced plan to. in

crease production and allay in-
dustrial unrest can hardly be rea
lized if workers’ living conditions
are not improved.

Newsies seek a union
| agreement with Sun

Union smashing tactics on the part of the Province and
Sun wholesalers, and evasions of the provincial department
of labor, threatened to throw Vancouver’s organized news-
vendors into a dispute with the Vancouver Daily Sun this

week, over the desire of the news
vendors union to obtain trade
union recognition, street corner
protection, a fairer share of the
sales profits, and other improved
working conditions.

Since June 5, 1946, when the
ITU went into dispute with the
Daily Province, the unions news-
vendors have been fighting shoul-
der to shoulder with the Typos in
their struggle with the Southam
chain, and during that time, the
fighting newsies have sa€rificed
over $10,000 of their pitiful earn-
ings in return for the $1,000 do-
nated to their struggle to date.
Some have gone to jail, others to
hospital due to maladies brought
about by malnutrition, and others
have had to seek social assistance,
but the vast majority of them
have accepteg their conditions as
part of the fight. ‘

Meanwhile, through their par-
ent union, the Building Service
Employees' Local Union 244, they
have applied to the Provincial
Department of Labor for certifi-
cation for bargaining rights for
the Sun and the News-Herald, In
October, the Hon. G. S. Pearson
was of the opinion that their
case was a “border-line one,” as
he considered the wholesalers had
some direction and control over
the vendors, Then, when the ap-

‘plication was contested by the

Sun wholesaler, the department
retreated from its previous posi-
tion without any definite. reason,
but gave the vendors permission
to appeal this decision to the Na-
tional War Labor Board.

Feeling the crisis was over for
the newspapers, the. wholesalers
of the Sun and the Province, made
a tour of inspection of the corn-
ers last Friday, and told the boys
that either they handle both
dailies—the Sun and the. Proy-
ince—by Monday, January 27, or

they would be replaced by vend-
ors that would handle both pap-
ers. This, and two petty cases
of discrimination against Dave
Bartlett, who had fought off a
Province scab, on two occasions,
and Ken Crelman, union section
chairman, who had to leave his
corner and go to work elsewhere
for a couple or three weeks, on
account of pressing financial re-
sponsibilities, anq were xeplaced
by Province subsidized vendors
from Edmonton, have brought
the News-vendors Union into
sharp conflict with the Sun.

The union’s leaders are attemp-
ting to reopen negotiations with
the Sun, at press time, with a
view to having both members re-
instated; and consummating a
vendors contract with that paper,
or any other “fair” paper wish-
ing to negotiate.

Appeals have been made to 400
trade unions and allied organiza-
tions, for financial and moral sup-
port, as well as requesting mem-
bers to phone the Sun publishers
at MArine 1161, or write the de-
partment of labor their views in
this case. First union to come to
the support of the “organized -
newsies” was the New Westmin-.
ster Local of the IWA, who at a
meeting Sunday, January 26, vot-
€d to donate $200 to help them.
in their struggle.

MOSCOW-—New Times, maga-
zine published by the All-Union
Central Council of Trade Unions,
will appear weekly instead of
twice a month from now on. The
magazine deals with foreign policy’
and international affairs and is:
Published in Russian, English,

French and German. The AUCCTU
also publishes a daily organ, the
newspaper Trud. —

FRIDAY; JANUARY 31, 1947:
. i