er anti-Communist
"ench people,

RENCH

Jacques Duclos, we Commitnit leader
propaganda, his party still has the support of the

ELECTION ROUNDUP

Facets “After four vears

Communists still
strongest party

The so-ealled Third Force government of France has
"ged from the first general election in five years greatly

&me
Weak

fo : ened in spite of having rigged°a special election system
: . Probable result will be much closer
sn tons between the centre groups making up the recent

rel 'ts own advantage.

fries
*ht-w}
scist

of governments and the
ng RPF led by the neo-
General Charles deGaulle.

y ith an pb ns
it ut scattered returns in,
‘ppears that the Communist
ticgy’? target of all the other poli-
im, batties’ attack, has emerged
rey unscathed. Communist
tent gates received about 10 per-
Nove €wer votes than they had in
Mo ainber, 1946, but still attracts
in Prete than any other party
the ‘nce about 25% percent of
Alec tj Stal. Owing to the special
thei, law designed to cut down
ly pecats in the National Assemb-
b © Communists lost roughly
1, tent of their seatis.

main aunt strength was solidly
dust, ained in areas of heavy in-
in na but showed a slight decline
8g Bantry districts. There was a
by » atic attempt in the big cities
dy Unicipal authorities to pare
Sib] he voting lists on every pos-
ult €chnical ground, with the re-
On, _ at this year there were about
tha Million fewer voters registered
m 1946,
ting three principal organiza-
Thirg Making up the so-called
lie Force, the Socialists, Cath-
iy, SIP and the Radical-Social-
Dor ch lost a far greater pro-
teas of their popular vote com-
uni to 1946 than did the Com-.
But under the new

Wing Mt were deGaulle’s right-
8 sen °rganization, the RPF, and
Whi ns of regional organizations

den toPted the label of “inde-
but nt” for the election campaign,
Uden ich include a great many

‘ Over deGaulle men.
*q },, lection campaign was mark-
pa: oe intense anti-Communist
the ete by all candidates, from
‘, lalists to the RPF. Among
Ne €r, however the centre and
’ng Stoups had few harsh words
The "© fundamenta’ differences.
‘Vst,,8°Vernment-controlled radio
lorit, 2nd the overwhelming ma-
Principe the press played up. the
chy tha! lection issue ‘as defeat-
*oligg: ® Communist party. The
hg do pent night after night tear-
%s Wn Communist election post-

A ‘
ie anement of all other parties on
teragiec ommunist issue was most
ae of Cally expressed in the sys-
SW] election alliance, which: the

fostered. This system per-

paring this with the 1946 general

PARIS

mitted any*group of two or more
anti-Communist parties formally
allied for the campaign to sweep all
the seats in the district if together
they won more than 50 percent of
the votes cast. In the three elec-
tions held since the 1944 liberation,
however, proportional representa-
tion was the rule. .

iHere’s how the 1951 law work-

ed in the Herault district of
southern France. Allied parties

got 51 percent of the votes cast
and swept the six seats at stake.

With 69,000 votes in the district;
the Communist party got no seats;
but the Socialists won three seats
with only 39,000 votes and three
other parties got one seat each
with 26.000, 23,000 and 21,000 re--
spectively. The same pattern
was repeated all over France,
principally to the disadvantage of
voters supporting Communist
candidates. ‘

De Gaulle’s RPF joined officially
in alliance deals in a dozen dis-
tricts where it was calculated it
would be to the advantage of the
coalition. In some districts where
it was not formally in the alliance,
the RPF purposely put up a weak
campaign in order that the alliance
would win. The government par-
ties accepted as “independents” in
their alliancés candidates whom
they knew well to be RPF mem-
bers pledged to give power to de-
Gaulle. They never answered the
Communist charges of collusion
with the RPF leveled in regard to
a long list of such “independents.”

With almost all votes in, the
election results were: RPF, 21 per-
cent of-the vote, 125 seats; ‘Inde-

pendents,” 12 percent, 100 seats;
Socialists, 15 percent, 99 seats;
Radical - Socialists (and allied

groups), 10 percent, 86 seats; MRP,
12 percent, 85 seats; and Commun-
ists, 25 percent, 105 seats. In com-

election, it must be remembered
that the RPF' had not been formed
at that time, although a compari-
son of this general election vote
with the 1947 municipal: elections
makes it clear that the RPF has
lost heavily and that the Commun-
ists have made substantial gains.

The Communis¥ vote showed
that despite over four years of an
intense anti-Communist propa-
ganda Campaign, the Marshall
plan and the North Atlantic pact,
the bulk of the people who voted
Communist in 1946 still do so to-
day.

| || | soe IAAL ut il

U.S. plans setting up
of Southeast Asia bloc
to combat liberation

One of the issues discussed by John Foster Dulles, the U.S. State Department’s special
advisor on Far Eastern affairs, in his talks in London and Paris, is setting up of a military

bloc of Southeast Asian countries headed by Japan.

PARIS

The proposal to set up this bloc, Tele-

press learns from diplomatic circles in Paris, was put forward at the recent British-French-
American military conference at Singapore by the U.S. representative, Vice-Admiral Arthur

Struble.

Under Struble’s proposal, which
was drafted by the U.S, State De-
partment, the military bloc is to
include Japan, the Philippines, In-
dochina, Thailand, Burma, and
Malaya and is to function as a
supplementary grouping to the
Pacific Pact which is in the pro-
cess of being set up. The way is
left open for Indonesia, Pakistan
and India to be included in the
“Southeast Asia block at some time
in the future.”

The member countries of the
bloc are to provide guarantees
of mutual assistance in the strug-
gle against the national liberation
movements in the countries of
the bloc. For this purpose,
Struble proposed establishment
of a joint military .staff to be
composed of representatives of
the general staffs of the individ-
ual countries. U.S. military re-
presentatives would be attached
to the “joint staff” as “advisers.”

This “joint staff’ would decide
on-the regions where the situation
was considered most dangerous for
the countries in question and would
control despatch of military forces
to any such area. Later on, work
is to be started on setting up an
integrated army which would in-
clude the armed forces of Japan,
the Philippines, Thailand, Burma,
Malaya and other countries of
Southeast Asia.

Diplomatic circles in Paris point
out that under any such system
the main forces would be provided
by Japan which would, under
American control, be the domina-
ting influence in the bloc itself.

It is believed that a conference
on this question, attended by Brit-
ish, 'U.\S. and French government
representatives, is to be convened
as the first step in the preparation
of the bloc. John Foster Dulles is
reported to be pressing for such a
conference. |
~ At the same time, a conference
of representatives of Asian coun-
tries. chosen to participate in the
bloc is to convene in Tokyo.

British scheme steals |
march on Malan but
apes Malan’s racism

LONDON

The British plan for a new “Dominion” in Central Africa
—a federation combining Northern and Southern Rhodesia
and Nyasaland Protectorate—is being hailed in the capitalist
press as a great concession of democratic rights to the six

million African inhabitants of
announced in a White Paper by
the Attlee government on June 13.

Examination of the scheme re-
veals, however, that the constitu-
tion planned for the new federa-
tion is to provide a central parlia-
ment of 35 members: 26 members
will represent the 169,000 European
colonialists in the three territories,
and only nine will represent -the
Africans.
will themselves be Africans.

In addition, there will be a Brit-
ish governor-general and'a “Min-
ister for African Interests” special-
ly appointed by the British govern-
ment.

South Africa’s pro-fascist Premier
D. N. Malan “is expected to react
violently to the proposals,” the Con-
servative London Daily Telegraph’s
Cape Town correspondent cables.

j

Since the new scheme preserves
as ruthlessly as ever all the forms
of racial discrimination and exploit-
ation now practised in the three
areas, Malan’s indignation is pre-
sumably due to the fact that the

new British imperialist setup will
thwart his own plans for annexa-
tion of these territories.

Of these nine, only four

these colonies. The plan was

Moscow building
huge skyscraper
apartment block

Five thousand Moscow citizens
will move at the end of this year
into the new 32-story apartment
skyscraper now nearing completion
in Moscow’s Koteinicheskaya em-
bankment.

The “Giant House,” as it is called,
will have 700 luxurious apartments
besides shops, a tailor’s workshop,
kindergarten, cinema and admin-
istrative offices... :

Residents will be able to rest
after their day’s work on the huge
terrace on the 17th floor, equipped
with settees and chess tables and
adorned with a fountain, palm trees
and flowers. =

The “Giant House” is designed
to fit well into the general-style
of modern Moscow, while the sun-
lit flats are being equipped to pro-
vide the utmost comfort for the
future residents.

BRITISH ‘PUBLIC MORALITY COUNCIL PROTESTS

Leering Americans on our stage’

LONDON

A complaint that a “definite de-
terioration in the character of pub-
lic entertainment on the stage” is
taking place throughout Britain,
appears in the annual report of the
Public Morality Council.

“In certain plays we see sexual
depravity condoned and American
sailors leering through a telescope
at a woman taking a shower,” says
the report of the Stage Plays Sub-
Committee,

“We see violence, brutality and
degeneracy made the themé of
pleasant entertainment, and de-
pravitly advertised in the play
which was banned by the censor -
and which is now licensed.”

Another sub-committee reports
the recurrence of indecent and
pornographic literature.

Some magazines are “so harm-
ful and decadent that it is impos-
sible to use words’ strong enough’
in condemnation,” it adds.

“These magazines purported to
be American importations, having

the price in cents printed on the
outside cover, but were, in fact,
printed in this country.

“Moreover, they far outstripped
in vulgarity and indecency any-
thing previously seen of this kind,
and were displayed in large var-
iety and great numbers throughout
the country.”

The cinema sub-committee refers
to the possible setting-up of an
international non-governmental or-
ganization to combat immoral lit-
erature and films.

The secretary, George Tomlinson,
attended a preparatory conference
in Paris last autumn, at which the
general project was approved.

The sub-committee says that
there is room for a sex-instruction
film made in Britain, and dealing
with conditions prevailing this side
of the Atlantic, which are so dif-
ferent from those in America.

The report points out that “the
exploitation of nudity” is often ad-
vertised as the chief feature of
revues, 5

allel eT

Peron opens attacks
on U.S. imperialists’, ©
murders Communists

MONTEVIDEO

Argentine dictatbr Juan Peron
has initiated his campaign for
next February’s presidential elec-
tions with an intensification of
his demagogic “attacks” on the
U.S. on one hand and of repres-
ion and open assassination of

Communists and other democrats
on the other.

Layest examples of these two
electoral “methods” are publica-
tion by Peron, under the name
of “Descartes,” of an “anti-
American” article in the Buenos
Aires Democracia, and assassina-
tion of two Communist leaders
by Peronist gangs in Buenos
Aires. While “attacking” U.S,
imperialist policies in his article,
Peron ordered the death of
Ernesto Bravo, Communis# stu-
dent leader, and Francisco Blan-
co, secretary of a local Commun-
ist committee.

te nt Tn ny

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 29, 1951 — PAGE 3