[TIBIA TLL TL || [Lworto Canadian veterans honor Jewish martyrs WPC delegation in India discusses disarmament A high-level delegation of the World Peace Council met with By PHIL GERSHUNY - Last May I had the opportu- nity to visit the Soviet Union _ with a group of Canadian vete- rans to mark the 40th anniver- sary of the defeat of fascism ‘and the ending of World War Two in Europe. It was also a useful reminder to all of us that 50 million people lost their lives in that war, 20 million of whom were Soviet citizens. In Minsk, capital of Byelo- russia, 83 per cent destroyed during the war, we saw huge crowds greet former Red Army veterans and partisans who led the parade to the eternal flame in the city’s main square. _ Before 1939 when Minsk was occupied by fascist troops, the city’s Jewish popu- lation numbered 50,000. They received ‘‘special treatment” from the SS troops. Most were shipped to concentration camps, the remainder first sent to the ghetto, then 5,000 were massacred in a hollow outside the ghetto’s fences. When I heard about the former Jewish. ghetto-from a doorman at our hotel, myself _ and a number of Canadian vets went to lay flowers at the foot of a monument at the site. There I spoke with a Soviet- Jewish resident who had sur- _ vived the massacre. She ex- _ plained that the monument was erected after the war by the present Jewish population of Minsk. It reads: To their memory She also told me that they had a small synagogue in Minsk which was sparsely-at- tended throughout the year and that only during the Jewish High Holidays was it crowded. The monument is in two lan- guages, Russian and Yiddish. ““To the everlasting memory of the 5,000 Jews who were murdered by Hitler fascists”. India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on September 16 to dis- cuss world problems of peace, disarmament and development for human need. The peace envoys, led by Romesh Chandra, WPC presi- dent, expressed the ‘‘support and solidarity of the millions of people represented by the WPC’”’ for the Non-Aligned Movement, of which India is a member, in its struggle against nuclear arms escalation and the racist policies of the South African government. The WPC delegation informed Gandhi of the steps the organiza- tion had taken among its support- ing councils in 141 countries, to mobilize public opinion behind the Non-Aligned Movement’s _ New Delhi Declaration, dedi- cated to saving the planet from nuclear annihilation. Prime Minister Gandhi, ex- pressed hope of progress at the Gorbachev/Reagan summit in. November, and spoke of the need to prevent the arming of space, to end all nuclear weapons tests, and to achieve a new international economic order. He gave his views’ on the struggle against apartheid and the liberation of Namibia and South Africa, as well as ways to work for peace and security in Asia. Speaking to a press conference next day, World Peace Council president Chandra said also that, ‘“‘The prime minister apprized us of the situation in Punjab and the efforts of the government and the people to combat terrorism, * MOSCOW — Recently, I received a copy of the ‘speech by U.S. ambassador Richard Shifter which he _ delivered to the meeting of human rights experts held in a “Ottawa last May. This was a meeting of the participants _in the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, made up of 33 European countries (capital “and socialist), the U.S. and Canada. to the copy of the Shifter speech which I received from the U.S. embassy here, he made the fol- - Jowing statement: ‘“The Soviet Union, in pre-revolu- _ tionary days the largest grain exporter, is now the world” s largest grain importer.” _ Aside from the fact that there was no Soviet Union in Spre‘revolutionary days, that statement is malicious and misleading, like the speech as a whole. What are the facts? In the years 1910 to 1912 inclusive, Czarist Russia accounted for about one-fourth of world grain exports. - But in that same period 20 million peasants, or one-fifth of the population, went hungry. While the big land- _owners made fabulous fortunes, many of those who - produced the grain fed on weeds, boiled bark and roots. ___ Perhaps the ambassador would like to see “the good old days’’ come back to this country? _ Today, there is not a single home in the Soviet Union without good quality bread every day of the year. Even when adverse climatic conditions result in a poor har- vest, there is bread for all; further, there has been no _ let-up in the shipment of grain from the USSR to other - countries suffering from natural calamities, mainly developing countries. Ethiopia is a classic example. _ However, the Soviet Union does buy grain from some countries. In most cases, it is fodder grain to make the more concentrated feed necessary for increasing the output of meat and milk. The Soviet Union does not have to apologize for that. The U.S., for example, imports large quantities of meat and dairy products every year : ~~ Western Europe imports more grain than the Soviet - Because of inclement weather in 1979 and 1980, Soviet 8 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 9, 1985 Jack Phillips grain harvests fell below the 1978 figure of 218 million tonnes. However, the low of 179 million tonnes com- pares quite favorably with the pre- aerohibabary average of 65 million tonnes. Any area where the average camein temperature is below five degrees centigrade is considered unfavorable for farming. In the U.S. 10 per cent of ploughland is in such zones, as compared with 60 per cent-in the Soviet ~ Union. The whole European part of the USSR, all of Siberia and most of Kazakhstan are more northerly than the southern U.S. Kazakhstan and Soviet Central Asia are in the zone of semi-deserts where the land must be irrigated. Much of Soviet farmland is water-logged or boggy and must be drained. With these handicaps, the wonder is that Soviet agriculture has done so well. The American ambassador did not tell his listeners that Soviet people now consume more milk than the people of the U.S., Italy, Japan, Austria and the Nether- lands; more eggs than the people of Great Britain, Italy, Denmark, Canada and the Netherlands; more sugar than the people of the U.S.; Great Britain, France, West Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. While the objective here is to increase the supply of meat and fresh and dried fruits, it should be noted that big advances have already - been made in that connection, and also in the supply of fresh vegetables. Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi greets Canadian Peace Congress president John Morgan. which draws inspiration from cer- tain outside forces.” Arms or Education The Canadian member of the delegation, Dr. John Hanly Mor- gan, president of the Canadian Peace Congress, president of the -WPC, seminar at Delhi University that Star Wars is part of a long-term strategy of U.S. president Ronald Reagan of making the United States so powerful that it “‘could control the whole world”’. Vice-Chancellor Moonis Raza, inaugurating the seminar, Dis- armament, Development and the United Nations, said that the question today was one of ‘‘armaments or university’. As resources devoted to armaments increased, those devoted to _marked improvement. development and education would decline, he commented. The seminar was organized by Educationists for Peace. The visiting delegation was made up of: Romesh Chandra, President, WPC; John Hanly ~ Morgan, president, Canadian — Peace Congress, Luis Echever- — ria, former president of Mexico, — James Lamond, British Labor Party MP; General Francisco da Costa Gomes, former president of Portugal; Richard Andriaman- — jato, president of the Supreme ~ Council of Revolution of the Democratic Republic of Mal- agasy; Bahig Nasser, (Egypt), WPC secretary; and Academician E.M. Primakoy, director of Academy of Oriental Siu USSR. and a vice- told a Among the things the ambassador did not tell his audi- : ence is the fact while the supply of nutritious food i increasing in the Soviet Union, prices for the majority of items have not increased for 20 or 30 years, while pe sonal incomes have continued to rise. Meat, for ex ample, is sold for about one-third to one-half the actu cost, the balance coming from state subsidies. Unlike the U.S. and Canada there are no unemploy people here, and no destitute persons lining up for a bow! of soup or acharity sandwich. As a matter of fact, one 0 the problems, which the leadership of the country i coming to grips with, is that personal incomes are risi faster than the supply of desirable consumer goods. Of course, there are problems connected with ¢ ficiency in agricultural production and the storage an distribution of certain food products. But these are pro lems of growth, not stagnation or decline. All you have t do is to read the statements of the Soviet leadership ! connection with this, the last year of the current Fiv Year Plan, and in respect to the next Five-Year Plan, realize that the problems have been identified and tha vigorous measures are being taken to bring about a History has a habit of putting to shame many state ments by prominent persons, including some am sadors. If we examine the history of the Soviet Unio’ objectively we must note the legacy of Czarism, the Ci War, and the imperialist intervention and bloc against the Soviet. Union in its early and very diffic years. Then, as the basis for socialist agriculture W firmly established, Nazi Germany invaded the countrys causing terrible losses in human life and vast destructi to industry, agriculture and the whole infrastructure- Seen in this light, the overall progress made by Soviet Union is truly phenomenal. Contrary to the ¢ argued by ambassador Shifter in Ottawa, it proves t socialism, the socialist way of life, is a great succes® There is no crisis here, no gloom about the future. 110 things exist only in the captialist world.