“US. jails 11 for

-test protest —

By PHILIP M. CONNELLY

aes

LAS VEGAS

The “naked awesome power” of the Atomic Energy Com-
mission over lives of U.S. citizens was startingly demonstrated
in the arrest of 11 pacifists who stepped over an imaginary line
at Camp Mercury nuclear testing grounds on Hiroshima Day.

Albert Smith Biglow, noted
architect who commanded
Combat ships in the Second
World War, spoke for TV cam-
€ras_ about AEC’s “limitless
PoWer under an.immoral law”
Minutes before he joined 10
Others in “civil disobedience”
at Camp Mercury gate.

Only by awakening the con-
Sclence of the American people
and stimulating a national

be curbed, bomb tests
Protest can the power of the
€nded and a blow dealt against
War itself, said Bigelow. He
and his companions hoped
their defiance of AEC regula-
“ONS would achieve this end.
_ Fresh from weekend meet-
ngs of prayer and meditation,
Pacifists from many states, in-
cluding the West Coast, arrived
after dawn to find the test
area turned into a bristling
fortress, Coiled barbed wire-
ike entanglements of Second
orld War battlefields—were
Stretched as far as the eye
Could see enclosing the vast
Site heretofore unfenced.
-~One hundred armed and
Uniformed men stood guard
ver the roadway into the site
Sole opening in the barbed
Wire barrier. A part of these
Were civilian guards, a contin-
Bent of 30 were Nevada state
Toopers_ with “Rough-rider”
ae Nye county deputy sher-

S augmented the force. There
were Inilitary MPs and an
"med array of AEC men.

Inside the test site adminis-
Tation building a “joint com-
Mand” awaited “the trouble.”
h he arriving pacifists took
alf an hour to stretch an
ld parachute on poles for
Protection against the blazing
€sert sun.

Two hand-lettered placards
Were nailed on sticks and la-
Sriously driven into the rocky
€sert sand.
ee eee

OPEN DAY and NIGHT

astings Steam Baths

xpert Masseurs in attend-
ance

TA. 0644, 766 E. Hastings St.

Vancouver, ‘B.C.
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&

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One read: “That We Shall
Not Repeat Hiroshima—Pray-
er and Conscience Vigil for
Peace.” The other: “Will You
Act for Peace Without Fear?”

Occasionally the strains of a
hymn filled the desert air.
They .sang “Lead Kindly
Light,” because, said one, cat
was Gandhi’s favorite.”

After an hour two men and
a woman arose. They com-
prised the first group of the
civil disobedience “team” of
11, They were Lawrence Scott
of Chicago who first conceiv-
ed the idea of entering the
test area; James Pack of New
York, writer for pacifist and
race relations publications,
and the sole woman on the
“team,” Mrs Lillian Pember-
ton Willoughby, native of
West: Branch, Ia.

Slowly they walked 300
yards to the entrance “gate,”
a small pillbox in the centre
of the roadway where those
entering or leaving show their
AEC passes.

They were met by AEC se-
curity guards who demanded

they show passes. Scott ex-
plained their mission to a
guard who repeated again and
again: “You can’t enter without
a pass.”

A large truck and. trailer
thundered to a stop at the
gate forcing demonstrators and
guards to yield the roadway.
In the moment that followed
Scott led the other two around
the dispersed guards and a
few feet inside the “line”
which had been indicated as
the limits of the test area.

“That’s it, shouted an AEC
official. Deputy sheriffs fell
“upon the three pacifists hustl-
ed them inside the adminis-
tration building where finger-
printing men were ready.
They were searched, ‘mugged’
and delivered to Dist. Att.

Beko who signed complaints
charging “trespass.”

In’ quick succession three
other groups of two each ap-
proached the gate, were told
not to step over the “line” and
were arrested when they did

REPAIRS
Duroid, Tar and Gravel
Gutters and Downpipes
Reasonable

NICK BITZ PA. 6031
YORE AS EES SR ATES EN

Hundreds of thousands of people visit

the 1957 USSR Agricultural and Industrial Ex-
hibitions in Moscow each week. Top photo shows a section of the grounds; at bottom is the
engineering pavilion, with cars and buses on display.

No more Hiroshimas’ youth cry
at 127-nation Festival rally

By SAM RUSSELL

MOSCOW

All traffic was stopped in the centre of Moscow on Tuesday night last week as over

300,000 young people, including most of the

30,000 here for the World Youth Festival,

gathered for a Peace and Friendship rally in the shadow. of the Kremlin.

Across the great Manezh Square from the Moscow Hotel to the Manezh building itself,
from the bottom of Gorky Street to Red Square, a sea of young faces was turned to the plat-
form where reptesentatives from 127 countries pledged themselves to fight for the aboli-
tion of all weapons of mass destruction.

The rally marked the 12th
anniversary almost to the
hour of the dropping of the
first atom bomb over Hirosh-
shima.

“A dozen years have pass-
ed since then,” said one of
the speakers, “but they have
not weakened the memory
of the horrible sight of the
ruined city of. Hiroshima and
the thousands who lost their
lives or were maimed in the
blast.

“Out of those ruins came
the appeal: ‘This must never
happen again,’”

From every district of Mos-
cow tens of thousands of
young people had marched;
with banners and flags to
demonstrate for peace and
friendship against atomic
weapons and atomic tests
against war.

They carried placards with
slogans in Russian and Chi-
nese,in English, French, Ger-
man and Spanish, saying: “We
want peace,” “End atomic

‘tests,’ and “Peace and friend-

ship.”

Night fell as the Soviet
young people gathered in their
tens of thousands and tens of
thousands of torches blazed
across the square. “fhe scene
was also illuminated from all
sides by dozens of search-
lights. :

Then’ came hundreds of
buses and coaches bringing
the young people from the
countries who have gathered
for the Festival.

A choir of hundreds of

young girls broke into a peace
song, and young people came
on the great platform at the
end of the square with torches
in their hands to light a flame
of peace which. burst from the
top of a great urn.

The majestic sound of the
closing bars of Beethoven’s
Fifth Symphony filled the
square, which was then plung-
ed into darkness. On a great
screen behind the platform
scenes from the Japanese film
“Hiroshima” showed the dev-
astation which struck that
city.

Churches oppose
nuclear tests |

NEW HAVEN

The world movement for
banning nuclear weapons tests
received a powerful reinforce-
ment last week when the cen-
tral committee of the World
Council of Churches, meeting
here, adopted without a dis-
senting vote a statement call-
ing for a discontinuance of all
nuclear tests “at least for a
trial period.”

The statement questioned
“whether any nation is justi-

fied in continuing the testing”

of nuclear weapons’ while
scientists disagree about their
after-effects. It questioned the
right of any nation to take
“sole responsibility” for tests
whose consequences may be
borne by the rest of the world.

In the silence that fell a
young Japanese girl came to
the microphone in front of the
platform to address this great
gathering in the name of the
young people of Japan.

She told How her mother,
grandmother and sisters per-
ished in that first atomic hola-
caust,

As she finished her appeal
for the banning of atomic
bombs a tiny Russian girl ran
on to the platform to present
her with a bunch of flowers
and then young girls from
China and Sweden, from Af-
rica and Australia came out
to embrace her.

Once again the square was
darkened. Once again the hor-
ror of war appeared on the
screen as the screech of bom-
bers filled the air. The ruins
of Warsaw and _ Coventry,
Rotterdam and _ Stalingrad
were shown, with their fleeing
refugees and _ terror-stricken
children, frantic mothers and

’ sobbing sons.

Across the screen flashed
the word “No” in a dozen
languages.

At the same time 4,492 miles

away, the 390,000 citizens
of the rebuilt city of Hiroshi-
ma observed a one-minute
silence’ for the 60,000 bomb
victoms and for peace. About
20,000 gathered at the Hiro-
shima Peace Memorial Park,
where wreaths were laid on

the monument to the victims. -
August 16, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3 -

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