f

Serm w

ltalian labor hits:
election law fraud

a0 ROME
Millions of workers throughout
aly came out on 24-hour gener-
; pee last week in answer to
ti call by the General Confedera-
ton of Labor.
pees Were protesting against
tis eeetpment forcing through
Simeita an electrical law de-
victor '0 give Premier De Gasperi
at : at the polls next June al-
ie RG In the past year he has
Poli Percent of his supporters.
mci a turned out in full force,
a ing tanks, jeeps, armored.
‘and fire engines. More than
%00 people were arrested.

In the industrial north all the |.

big iron, Steel, metal and en-

mening works were at a com-
€ standstill, while trams, buses

iy aa lines were on strike.
a sin Meret Milan and Turin not
ut tf € tram or bus ran through-
€ day. The 15-minute token

strike on the railways was 100 per-
cent successful everywhere.

In Naples and Genoa the entire
harbor areas were silent and de-
serted. Demonstrations and protest
meetings took place all over Italy.
_ The greatest were held in Milan,
Turin, Padua and Venice in spite
of one of the biggest displays of
armed police ever put on by the
De Gasperi government.

The general strike followed
stormy scenes in the Italian Sen-
ate as Communist, Socialist and
other progressive Senators sought
to delay passing of the new elec-
toral. law.

This aims to rig the law so
that at the June elections the
Christian Democrats, party of
Premier De Gasperi, will be given
two-thirds of the seats in the
Chamber of Deputies if they get
one vote more than 50 percent of
the total cast.

F rench peace leader
killed in accident

thks MOSCOW
eas last speech before his
Breda ©n March 29, the famous

ar Tesistance - leader Yves
th ge testified to his confidence in
thin Uture with the words, ‘“No-

§ has been lost. Life will win.”

Peactive in the Council for World
Fren, ed a leader of the small
die AE Progressive party, Farge
ota Severe brain injuries suf-
While Im an _ automobile accident
Thilis; returning from a visit to
one 1, Stalin’s birthplace. He had
cent Ae the Soviet Union to ac-
Prize € award of a Stalin peace

Farge, who had been a pastry

After the war he served as min-

chef, won renown during the Sec-
ond World War as commander of
the Vercors operations whereby
5,000 French patriots stalemated
two and a half Nazi divisions.

ister of food and governor of the
Lyons region before dedicating
himself to the peace movement.

What was destined to be Farge’s
last speech was broadcast over the
Moscow radio March 26. In it he
said his close contact with Soviet
citizens had convinced him that
“the primary aim of the Soviet
Union is to prevent the unleash-
ing of a new war.”

ar charges -

and proof

Stat

Sre

a8
Schw

dene Aircraft Wing, were sent to each of the 54

®Sations to the UN.

The U.S. is now manoeuvring in the UN to offset the ia of
®Mments disclosing secret Washington orders for germ warfare
© by two high-ranking U.S. officers taken prisoner in Korea.
Stary One of the two officers, Col. F. H. Schwable, a
ta of the U.S. First Marine Aircraft Wing, uses the map

t © a point in an interview with Alan Winnington, correspon ris
©ndon Daily Worker. Copies of the statements ma naa
able and Major Roy H. Bley, ordnance officer of the

former chief of

dent of

permanent

I! | iii

Maltreatment by
Yankees charged

as Czechs return

PRAGUE

Twenty-three Czechs, passeng-
ers on a Czech National Airways
plane seized by the pilot and
armed accomplices and flown to
Frankfurt, were given a mass
welcome in Wenceslas Square
when they returned to Prague
from Germany last week.

One of them,  Viladisiav
Kricka, said that American
agents had tried to extract “es-
pionage data”. from them, but
they had collectively refused.

“Therefore they started to
terrorise us,” Kricka said.
“They separated us, put us in
single cells, threatened us, strip-
ped us naked, and used every
means of pressure to make us
stay there.”

U.S. won't sign

human

rights

UN covenant

WASHINGTON

The United States does not plan to sign two United Nations coven-

ants — one on human rights and another on political rights for
women.

This is what U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told a
Senate judiciary sub-committee which is holding public hearings on

a congressional proposal to limit
president and his administration.

Dulles opposed the proposal to
limit the president’s treaty-mak-
ing powers. Then, elaborating on
the attitude of the Eisenhower ad-

Struggle for Free Malaya

This exclusive photo shows a unit of the heroic Malayan
People’s Liberation Army moving into action from a jungle base.

the treaty-making powers of the

ministration, he expressed the
view that international treaties
should not be used to effect social
changes within the United States.

For this reason the administra-
tion would not sign the two UN
covenants.

(The United States is the only
power which has not signed the
Geneva Convention outlawing bac-
teriological warfare.)

GDR people hit
European Army

BERLIN
Mass meetings held throughout
the German Democratic Republic
in the past few days have clearly
demonstrated the people’s desire
for peace and their opposition to
inclusion of West German troops
of the German Federal Republic
in the European Army, as ratified
by the Bonn government despite
strong popular opposition.

Bread, meat prices in USSR
slashed by half since 1947

By RALPH PARKER
MOSCOW

Further sweeping reductions in
prices of food, clothing, utensils,
furniture and other items vary-
ing from five to 50 percent were
announced here last week by the
Soviet government and Commun-
i rty.
si the sixth such series of
price cuts announced since 1947.

The biggest reductions of 50
percent are in the prices of a
whole range of fruit and veget-
ables, including: potatoes, carrots
and cabbage, apples, pears, or-
anges, lemons, grapes and tan-
gerines.

Beef, mutton, pork, poultry
and sausage, together with can-
ned meat, have all been reduc-
ed by 15 percent, fish by 10
percent, bread, fats and eggs
by 10 percent.

All sugar and _ confectionery
goods, together with sugar itself,
cakes, biscuits and pastries, are
also cut in price by 10 percent as
are jams and jellies of all sorts.

Tea, coffee and cocoa prices

have been reduced by 20 percent;

beer, wines and liquers by 15 per-
cent; vodka by 11 percent, tobac-
eco and cigarettes from 5 to 10
percent. ‘

Clothing price reductions range
from 5 to 15 percent, footwear
from 5 to 20 percent, and furs and
skins from 7 to 15 percent. ;

Soap, scent and cosmetic prices
are cut’ by 10 to 20 percent. :

Tremendous encouragement is
given by price reductions to those
building or setting up new homes.
Tableware, pots and pans, crock-

|ery, rugs and furniture are steep-

ly reduced, some by as much as
25 percent.

.Electric bulbs have been re-
duced by 25 percent, vacuum
cleaners by 25 percent, refriger-
ators and washing machines by
20 percent.

Among the vast number of other
articles whose prices have been
reduced are matches, bicycles,
clocks and watches, hunting and
fishing gear and building mater-
ials.

The first post-war reduction of
foodstuffs and manufacturers’

prices went into effect at the end
of 1947 together with the abol-
ishing of rationing. c

This reduction meant the con-
sumer paid 57,000 million roubles,
less for goods bought in the course
of the year. }

Increased labor and productivi-
ty expanded the production of
consumer goods and lowered pro-
duction cost made possible a sec-
ond reduction in 1949, when the
state retail prices of major foods
items and also industrial goods
and building materials was lower-
ed by 10 to 30 percent.

Spring 1950 saw a third reduc-
tion even more impressive than
the preceding two. The new cut
affected hundreds of items of food,
clothing and household goods.

Wheaten: bread, for instance,
was reduced 30 percent; meat by
a quarter to a third, butter by 30
percent, and cigarettes by 20 per-
cent.

A year later the fourth reduc-
tion brought most goods down by
15 to 20 percent. ’

The yearly saving to the public
from the price reductions of 1949
and 1950 was respectively over 70
and over 110 thousand million

roubles. The 1951 cut meant an-

other 34.500 million roubles say-

|ed in the course of a year.

On April 1, 1952, a further sub-
stantial reduction in state retail
prices of foodstuffs came into ef-
fect. As stated, this was made
possible by “the progress made in
industrial and agricultural pro-
duction, the rise in labor produc-
tivity and lowering production
costs.” :

Reductions were up and to 330
percent. The price of books fell
18 percent. and hotel charges
were reduced.

It is important to note that
each price cut in state retail
shops brought a corresponding
drop in cooperatives and mar-
kets, which account for about
one-third of all the goods the
public buys.

During the period of five suc-
cessive reductions, Soviet wages
and earnings have increased.

An indication of the falling
cost of living is obtainable from
the fact that at the beginning of
1953 the cost of bread was about
one half of the 1947 price.

Beef, mutton and other meats
have fallen to less than half the
1947 price; fresh milk to 73 per-
cent, butter 45 percent, cheese
46 percent, tea and eggs 65 per-
cent, sugar about 75 percent of
1947 prices. :

The significance of the price
reductions for the Soviet people
can be judged by the fact that
with the same expenditure of
roubles as in January 1948 a
Soviet family could buy in Jan-
vary 1953 two-thirds more
bread, twice as much meat, half
as many more eggs and tea,
nearly one-third more sugar.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 10, 1953 — PAGE 3