LONDON

at work of friends of the Soviet Union is at times oddly

like that of the public oficial we in Britain call a
sanitary inspector. They chase around after a bad smell
caused by some anti-Soviet activity and put a stop to +,
but they know all the time that some of the smell will
stick in some nostrils, and that when they have stopped up
that horror there will be another smell waiting for attention
on the next. street.

The “labor camp” oT “slave camp” story is one of
these smells. There are, we are told, two-—five—seven—
nine—twelve million people—you can spick the number out
of the air—kept in these camps, nearly all, it is suggested,
without any charge of conviction, and living in such appal-
ling conditions and treated with
such brutality that about one- PT thd PPR te te ee tb tl
third of them die every year. é

We are asked to believe that ‘

the camps are 2 regular feature By D. N. PRITT, KC ; : : 3 ; © Here members of
of life today in the Soviet Union, Z : : es 3 *
side by side with the development : : He As Soe

of education, the arts and sci- : ;

ences, the new building programs,- . 8 : : 5 of Moscow are shown

the rising standards of living. j eee tae in session. The three

“Tt is shameless nonsense, like : i : . eae judges are shown
| He ee seated at the table

so many other anti-Soviet stories.

{ want to demonstrate this first facing the camera.
by considering its inherent, ab-
surdities, and then by giving some
account of 2 visit I paid to one
of the “slave camps” in 1950.

First, the absurdities. One of s ?
the worst is the suggestion that S es VY }™ rs re) ¥ S an e r
the camps exist as part of 2 :

scheme to maintain production. :
One would have thought that even
the stupidest of slanderers would

know that free men work better
than slaves—to say nothing of less than half as much Lend- and successes that disprove sug- the maximum possible of self- covers and other such things from

slaves whose conditions are al- Lease material as British receiv- gestions of any but the minimum government, freedom from petty home. The women naturally have
leged to be so bad that one-third ed.) : of disaffected elements being in restrictions, useful work, ‘and. de> more of these than the men. In
of them die every year. And yet If these stories of disaffection existence. The successful Five- cent treatment. The main social most dormitories the, prisoners
one even finds newspaper writers. had any basis, the least that Year Plans, the development of dividend this paid was that a very had given themselves a few flow-
ready to suggest that “slave la- would have happened in the war the heavy industries, the mighty small percentage of them returned ers from the gardens, in jam jars;
bor” is used in atomic develop- would have been that the Soviet improvements in agriculture, the to crime after their release. My and there were some tables and
ment—the one field where skill, armies would have collapsed in many cultural achievements, first visit to an actual “labor cor- just room for 4 game of chess- ;
intelligence, discretion and devo- a few weeks, as was prophesied which are reported by every visit- rective camp,” however, Was in © :
tion are most essential. : by the “experts”—imbeciles, fools, or to the country, all called for— September 1950. Skilled workers, and those who
Tt is extraordinary how, in the’ or liars, one wonders which they and received—the most devoted f were having the fortnight’s noli-
field of anti-Soviet propaganda, are—in British and the !U.S., all support of the millions, solidly day a year which each prisonet
it seems permissable to abandon of whom were wrong, none of ranged behind their government gets as a right, live in rather
all the normal standards of com- whom lost his job, and most of  afid ‘determined to win peaceful ; peter dormitories less crowdee
mon sense, common honesty and whom are probably now engaged victories over innumerable prob- Ware ROM: py conviction Of yj ,vatories were reasonably cleae
probability. in giving “expert reports” about lems, virtually unaided by the crime before the ordinary courts, and free from smell. Every work
It is only in countries with vast slave camps and disaffection “be- outer world. se iain as wk 3 — ER Bp gets a path and a change @
reservoirs of very cheap labor, hind the Iron Curtain.” I would make only one other cae tg Bive labor camp life the linen regularly. ve
and retarded industrially, that ex In truth, of course, if these remark on the slave camp stories. chance to rehabilitate the PY &

AP eee OE ben
¥

—caunninapuaeuenyngaunnuaverayemocegueunmiaes@i@ N11

I should preface my account
of it by explaining how one gets
placed in/such a camp. The only

fford” to be W t oner: and even then some of the For relaxation, there is oo
loiters can “affor » to be waste- stories h ee \ ; m. aie Pea va
Pp ries had had any foundation; A quarter of a century. 3g9, when more serious offens Hea Siie amateur dramatic circle and

ful of either the physical strength there would have been not just conditions in the Soviet Union ,; i ious other circles, newspaper
i li ¢ work- j ished by sentences to ordinary
and condition or the lives of wo a collapse but a revolt! were still very hard, similar imprisonment in closed prisot pooks, radio, and lectures — t u
ers. In the USSR, where there Weriés were told about the tim: (which are hel a as BS apne 8 ecturers being drawn oe
is work waiting for more than par-euting camps. They were in- Gieasant thafi labor cam : an Central Institute of Le
oT} the weaiierke DANES OM Ure eh One mig Ada. ythint, that ic -vestiBated py an unofficial British: ay ere 2
ealdeat economic motive wo or : S cause the authorities want to have
the standerers believed their own Committee which was permitted ;
on ‘ i in the labor camps only people
compel the authorities to cherish stories and were logical thei to go to them py the Soviet gov-
: z gical, eir who have reasonable prospects of
labor and its efficiency like gold; Jine ought to be — “well, don’t ernment, and it reported that, jmprovin themselve a
and its true attitude to labor waS worry. Don’t rearm. Let Du- While conditions were certainly Bie Ane i Evokes ie
ed by Premier Joseph ‘ not likely to infect” other im-
express vy Ponts languish and the jobless hard, there was no cruelty, star- provable prisoners
Stalin himself when he said that ines lengthen. All is well, Russia vation or humiliation. ;
human beings are the most valu- can't fight. She's rotten inside. ‘And it was discovered after- Crime is diminishing substan- day to the other except for
able form of capital.. ; She couldn’t invade the next vil- wards that the slander had haen tially, 80. that in due course the checker who passes oné ne -
aa lage, let alone Europe!” invented, not simply for Snti- total number of camp prisoners, the gate between the naa
penne next absurdity lies in the But, of course, there are always Soviet motives but also as an at- which cannot of course be any- and the factory sections. jp
©; gomparizon Pee ne false pic! two misfitting sides to these base iaiapte bie hen parts ph certain where near the figures suggested There are only 40 euare
. ture of | disaffection which this medals of slander. On one face timber interests to persuade the by the slanderers, will soon be "all, men and women, fr the ene
story implies and the way the she is falling to pieces by her own British not to buy Soviet timber diminishing. thousand prisoners. A few ° 500
_ Soviet peoples have always work- inherent evil; on the other she but to buy their own. ~ -q visited the camp at Krukovo prisoners work outside the Prim
S.ed and fought: for their country is so all-powerful and integral bag one day at the end of September. and occasionally go to ane “put

ov in peace and in war. “ and efficient that we can’t hope be : It lies about 25 miles from Mos- their jobs without guards pi
atcemppink whet’ the story logically to be strong enough to resist her That is perhaps enough of the cow, near the road and railway the) bilo of tem renee jul
the camp all the time, inc

“volves: ” te Take, say, 10,000,000 unless we arm from toe to teeth absurdities. Now et me recount to Leningrad, at the point where
“4 sgults in the camps, with & death (and thereby of course fatally what I saw in 1950. I had visited the Germans got nearest to Mos- nist
roll of 3,000,000 a year, Every five weaken ourselves!) Soviet prisons and settlements in. CO” in the autumn of 1941. It ne factory, Lanes as
_ years you “add 15,090,000 to your Nor, of course, is it only in the 1932 and 1936, and found them ig a range of ordinary-looking aneous aluminum 000% |” og

original 10,000,000 to. keep up the war that the Russians have de- humanely and intelligently ad- prick buildings inside a wire licenses, forks and spoons vies
‘pumbers, even if. you release no- monstrated their great qualities ministered, giving the prisoners - fence, on an area of half a square and saucers, pots, sports troy

—pody. That number of disaffected mile. ees goth
Oe

és

Moscow, just as is done fo
other audience.

The time the inmates —
spend in the residential 5° Me
is perhaps 2 bi But she
not intolerable,
sees a guard from one end 0

holidays.

adults, with their wives’ and chil- Inside that fence live 700 men Men and women work t vl
- aren, and with a steady supply of + and 300 women prisoners, cabat (ine: Geure day (inst

more waiting to come forward— ; of them under 40, serving sen- eight as is done outsi¢
for the slanderers would natural- CCF h : : tences of five to ten years. The days a week, for rates V@
ly never. suggest that the numbers ec oes Sg an er camp is divided into two parts, below .the normal. . Th
diminish—means that something | residential and factory. When mostly on piece work.
like half the total population of : s ? ~ you are at work, you are in the All the usual elaborate ant
the USSR is disaffected. : AS D. N. Pritt, a former Labor MP and one of Europe's fore- factory, with as much freedom of ly propaganda for increa4 “i
One asks at once, how did they most trial lawyers, points out in this article, the story of, movement as any other factory duction, slogan & mi
last out"in the war ~~ let alone “slave labor” camps in the Soviet Union is constantly being worker, and no more. When you — agreements, tables of hot
display heroism, tenacity, cour revived by anti-Soviet sources which, of course, prefer to ignore}. are not at work, you must be in tographs of good Wor

age, surpassing all history, coup! , ‘\) the residential section, and in played—that one sees
nq with military and industrial Bee Naat ee ivate ee ne qunlevomente that part of it which is reserved operated here too, and
efficiency? Don’t forget that their seine ‘gor your own sex; but you have over norm is up to the
industries worked so well, even ae freedom . of movement between average. ya
after. the loss of all, the more The CCF News, which never publishes any article reflecting your dormitory, the canteen, the From the earnin:
important industrial regions — of |. Soviet achievements, contributes to this slander in its May 380 small club, the reading room, the. One 15 percent is put
Rurovean Russia, that. they pro- issue by devoting considerable space to “testimony” about Soviet gardens, and. the camp shop. to form a fund to star
auced 96 percent of all the war. ‘@glave labor” camps offered to the UN Economic and Social The dormitories have hard beds, when they leave; a further
moateriat thatthe Soviet forces. Comnntl Py the “yellow” trade union international, the so-called in two tiers, and are rather crowd- ly sum is then peace:
: e Anas

used. (Lend-Lease was great, and ‘| International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. - ed; but they are clean, airy ana thelf \“guarante
it was welcome, and very useful, ; free from smell, and have sich 2nd.-the rest, averaging

put it was.only 4 percent of their ee amenities as linen window cur- a week in purchasing |
total; and they received in truth = ——_— — tains. Prisoners can have linen (Continued on next

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 8, 1954 =e