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'HE announcement that a truce
has been signed in Korea,
that at last the guns are silent,
brought joy to the heart of every
democratic Canadian. It stopped
the wholesale destruction which
as wiped out the lives of mil-
lions of men, women and child-
Ten, the majority of them help-
less civilians, and has ravaged
the whole of Korea. It opens up
€ prospect for lasting peace

through settlement by negotia-

, ee

tion. It opens up the prospect
for re-establishment of trade and
diplomatic relationships between
eople’s China and Canada—as
Well as a number of other capit-
alist states — and for People’s
China to take her rightful place
I the United Nations. It opens
Up the possibility- for settlement
Y negotiation of a whole series
of problems of relationships be-
tween the imperialist states and
he peoples of Asia.
Democratic Canadians will re-
Ject and condemn the sentiments
Of John Foster Dulles, U.S. Sec-
etary of State, echoed by the

By PHYLLIS ROSNER

BERLIN

HE People’s Chamber of the

German Democratic Republic

has Unanimously decided to offer

to buy $15 million worth — or

More—additional foodstuffs from
the United States.

It stipulated, however, that it
Would only do so at world market
Prices on the usual trading terms.

must be understood, the state-
Ment added, that only goods in
Which the republic is interested
Will be considered.

The reply to this question—the

‘Statement issued after the de-

. “sion was made last week—will

Show the true intentions of the
S. government in its proposals

to supply so-called “food help”

to the republic.
aithe statement thanked the So-
A government in the name ‘of
‘ © German people for its gen-
pacts help in providing food and
Ae Materials which were in
ort supply.
and Quick look round the shops
t Stalls in East Berlin refutes
in {propaganda stories appearing
sh he Western press about food
Mar woes and hunger in the Ger-
&n Democratic Republic.

€sh peaches, apricots, plums,

*Pples, pears and tomatoes are

Dileq Vegetable stalls are
meeere is plenty of butter,
bread, ge nages, fish, cake and

.-? lO Say nothing of a wide
c

sycice of delicious tinned food
Pork 48 Soviet crab, Hungarian
q@ 2d Rumanian duck.

In his : b)
Chamber ppeech to the People’s

ter Ott ast week, Prime Minis-
Bovern.. Grotewohl outlined his
Proved Tents proposals for im-
‘ioe living standards and Ger-

-—By TIM BUCK

Truce in Korea
is Canada’s
opportunity

-

Toronto Globe and Mail in its
editorial verdict that “the main
thing to be said about this arm-
istice is that it accomplishes no-
thing whatever except a cessa-
tion of the shooting on one Far
Eastern front.” Honest advo-
cates of peace will refute that
falsehood with the victorious fact
that the armistice in Korea
proves conclusively that, because
of the existing relations of
forces, the world-wide will to
peace was able to compel a ne-
gotiated end even to that war.

Achievement of the armistice
in Korea underlines the fact that
the struggle for a lasting peace
has advanced to a new and much
more favorable stage. Equally,
it is a significant setback for
the “war party” in the United
States and their partners in Can-
ada.

Those who a year ago were
proclaiming, “Westward across
the Pacific our path of empire
lies, have suffered their ‘first
major defeat. How desperately
they tried to prevent it, is illus-

man unity on a peaceful and de-
mocratic basis.

He proposed large increases in
the supply of food and consumer
goods during the second half of
this year—30 per cent more su-
gar and jam, 17 per cent more
butter and a 54 percent increase
in footwear supplies were among
the items he cited.

This was to be achieved by
amendments to the 1953 econ-
omic plan and to the five-year
plan, pacing greater emphasis
upon food and consumer goods
production.

Output of food and consumer
goods from nationally owned and

-private industry was to be sub-

stantially increased, while the
output of heavy industry was to
be cut. Investment in heavy

industry was to be cut as well.

Allocations for housing, school
building, convalescent homes and

Berlin sta the $15 million worth of U.S. food could better have

trated by the following statement
written by Blair Fraser, Ottawa
editor of Maclean’s Magazine, on
July 15: :

“Ottawa is firmly convinced.
that we could have had a Ko-
rean truce in April if Wash-
ington had wanted one. We
failed to get one because Wash-
ington came up with a brand
new set of proposals, radically
different from the proposals
that Washington had accepted
(along with 53 other UN gov-
ernments) in the Indian resolu-
tion of last December.”

The above typifies a whole
series of unscrupulous efforts by
which the Eisenhower adminis-
tration, through its state depart-

Tim Buck, natiomal leader of the Labor-Progressive party, dis-
cusses a point’in his party’s Put Canada First platform with a voter

in his Toronto-Trinity constituency.

kindergartens have already been

ment in the metallurgical, ore '

increased heavily.

In 1953eand 1954 capital invest-
mining and heavy machinery in-
dustries will be cut, while that
in the consumer goods industry,
coal mining and nationally own-
ed farms will be increased.

In the 1954 budget a consider-
ahle allowance will be made to
enable further price reductions
to take place.

Grotewohl warned, lrwever,
that fulfilment of these plans de-
manded -greater efforts from the
nationally owned industries,
from the workers and from the
peasants.

He appealed to the people to
help bring in the harvest, say-
ing that this would make a not-
able contribution toward the goy-
ernment’s aim of improving liv-
ing standards.

S

been donated to the two million unemployed in West Germany.

‘other word for it.

When he referred to the offer
of $15. million worth of “free

food” from the United States,

Grotewohl was enthusiastically
applauded for his statement that
it would be better to give this
food to the more than two mil-
lion unemployed in West Ger-
many and West Berlin.

“Tt is an insult to the people
of the German Democratic Re-
public. We are not a colony,”
he said.

He told the Chamber that the
republic was quite prepared “to
buy $15 million worth of goods
from the U:S.. But we are only
prepared to buy those goods
which interest us.”

A letter published in the Ber-
liner Zeitung one day last week
illustrates the truth of Prime
Minister Grotewhol’s statement
that the $15 million worth of
food donated by the U.S. could
more fittingly have been donated
to West German unemployed.

The writer, a man named Hen-
kel, of Greilstrasse, East Berlin,
found out in his own way the
meaning of the U.S. “free food”
stunt when he went to visit rela-

. tives in Schoenberg in the West

There he heard the U.S. broad-
cast in German about the supply
of U.S. food to the people in the
Democratic Republic:

“Lies,” he wrote. “There is no
Nobody is
hungry here, either in this (the
Eastern) sector or in the repub-
lic.”’,

But his relatives in the West,
a young couple and an old wo-
man living together, “suffer from
hunger in the real sense of the
word.”

Being an unskilled worker him-
self, Henkel could make a fair

ment, its war department, its con-
trol of so-called UN truce nego-
tiations, etc., sought to prevent
the achievement of an armistice.

*

If the people of Canada had
known the facts there would
have been such a public outcry
that Prime Minister St. Laurent
might have given .a_ second
thought to his scheme to spring
the election on August 10 and
get the new House of Commons
safely elected before the majori-
ty of people learned what has
been going on and its probable
consequences for Canada.

The slavish support: given by
the St. Laurent government to
the aim of the Eisenhower ad-
ministration and the refusal of
the national leaders of the Con-
servative, CCF and Social Credit
parties to reveal the truth to the
people, has been a disgraceful
anti-Canadian deception, a poli-
tical conspiracy against the elec-
torate, shared in by all the par-
ties in the last House of Com-
mons.

In varying degrees the govern-
ments of all the countries that
have contributed forces to the
U.S. war in Korea have demon-
strated their servility to Uncle
Sam in the same way.

The fact that an armistice was
achieved, in spite of everything
the instigators of war could do
to prevent it, is our guarantee
that the united action of the
peace-loving forces of the world
can make this armistice the be-
ginning of a whole round of vic-
tories for peace. What is neces-
sary now, to assure that outcome,
is that the determined will of
the people for peaceful settle-
ments shall continue to be ex-
pressed in ever more sustained

and well organized public ac-
tions.

(Concluded on next page)

GDR gov’t offers to buy food from U.S.

comparison between the mid-day
meal he was used to at home,
with the one they had.

“Tt just could not be described
as a midday meal,” he comment-
ed.

As for the butter they had to
make last for three days, “this
would just about be enough for
two pieces of bread for me.”

When he told his relatives this,
they were annoyed, so he showed
them his ration card. That con-
vinced them.

In the concluding part of his
speech to the Chamber, Grote-
whol answered “several questions
of principle which the people are
now asking.”

On the question whether the
movement had renounced its so-
cialist aims, he said the answer
was in the negative.

“We shall continue the con-
struction of socialism because it
conforms to the interests of the
people,” he declared, amid
cheers.

On the question of the Wash-
ington communique issued after
the meeting of the three West-
ern Foreign Ministers, Grote-
whole said that his government
did not believe that the German
question could be solved merely

‘on the point of a “free election.”

It required a just peace treaty,
withdrawal of the occupation
troops and a democratic, united
and peaceful country.

Grotewohl called for a speedy
meeting this month — between
authorized West German repre-
sentatives and German Democra-
tic representatives to discuss an
election law, carrying through of
elections and. formation of a de-
mocratic all-German government.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 7, 1953 — PAGE 9