Pollitt on British election LONDON The British general election to be held May 26 “provides an op- Portunity for the Labor movement to inflict a more decisive defeat on the Tory government than it 1 10 years ago in 1945,” in the Pinion of Harry Pollitt, general Secretary of the British Commun-| ist party, who is now visiting hina. He will return to. Britain on May 6 to begin a speaking tour a the 16 constituencies for which Ommunist candidates have been named Ina statement given to a London aily Worker correspondent in eking ‘after Prime Minister Sir thony Eden. had announced the lection date, Pollitt said: 2 ere has never fbeen a gen- tal election in Britain in ‘which € chief issue at stake was so Clear, : “It is peace or war — for the Whole logic of Tory govern- Ment policy at home and abroad 's to prepare for. war. This is why the economy of Titain rests on rearmament, why oon Germany is to be rearm- na why Britain is to manufacture © hydrogen bomb. ha Peace is not secure il ae the Tories. Eden is only Urchill dressed up in his best clothes.” : The 16 constituencies for which Mmunist candidates ‘have been named. are: West Fife, William Lauchlan; 1M in the ‘Chance to inflict big defeat on Tories’ : HARRY POLLITT The issue is peace or war East Dunbarton, Arnold Hender- son; Gorbals (Glasgow), Peter Ker- rigan; Springburn (Glasgow), Fin- lay Hart; Dundee West, Dave Bow- man; Brightside (Sheffield), How- ard Hill; Wigan, Tom Rowland- son; North Nottingham, John Peck; Perry Barr (Birmingham), Bert Pearce; Rhondda East, Annie Powell; Hayes, Frank Foster; Hornsey, G. I. Jones; Mackney Central (London), John Better- idge; Stepney (London), Solly Kaye; St. Pancras North (London), John Nicolsen; Southwark (Lon- don), Joe Bent. . British doctors would confine atomaniacs “LONDON An article published in the Medical Press last week suggests that politicians and others who contemplate the use of nuclear weapons should be “‘lodged in. Broadmoor,” (mental hospital) and demands the immediate prohibition of hydrogen and atom-bomb test explosions. The Medical Press is an independent journal founded in 1839, devoted to “‘the advancement of medical science.” Its editor-in-chief, Sir Cecil Wak- ely, is senior surgeon and director of surgical studies at King’s Col- jlege Hospital, London. The article says that only one kind of nuclear war would make sense: “One waged exclusively by professional soldiers against pro- fessional soldiers, all over the age Of 50°; Experiments on animals have proved that irradiation affects human biology, as well as caus- ing sterility, it adds, demanding -international research into “the genitic hazards of radiation.” “Tf nuclear war should ‘break out there is no possible doubt that great numbers of people would be exposed to radiation from fission products to an extent which would produce damage to and mutation of genes. 7 “Tt is this which makes nuclear warfare different from all other forms of warfare and makes hypo- critical nonsense of the suggestion that ‘A’ and ‘H’ bombs are no worse than ‘conventional’. bombs somewhat magnified. “To the doctor it must seem that .statesmen and others, of whatever nation or party, who are prepared to countenance the bombing of civilian populations would be more appropriately lodg- ed in Broadmoor than in legis- lative assemblies and the like.” The:British government was suf- ficiently interested in: the genetic effects of radiation to sponsor in- tensive research. Such research was clearly of the highest import- ance. “But while we applaud this step we cannot easily accept the decis- ion that experiments involving test explosions shall continue while the research is going forward. “Our reason for saying this is that, as we have pointed out, the damage which may be done is ir- reversible. “if in 30 years time we are told that a doubling of back- ground radiation is in fact dan- gerous, the information will only be of academic importance be- cause the doubling will already have taken place and nothing . can undo it.” Radiation claims Hiroshima victim TOKYO The US. atom-bomb dropped on Hiroshima 10 years ago is still claiming its victims among the survivors. 2 The number of deaths this year attributed to radiation sickness rose to four with the death of Takumaro Ito, a school teacher. University members hit H-bomb decision LONDON Fourteen members of the staff of (Manchester University have publicly protested against the British government’s decision to make the hydrogen bomb. The 14 include the distinguish- ed anthropologist, Professor Max Gluckman, Manchester Univer- sity’s professor of social anthrop- ology. All Indonesia By RALPH PARKER ; BANDUNG Wherever people meet in the ao tling, ‘sweltering capital of In- 4S topic of conversation: the con- Tence of the official representa- tives of. Over 1,250 million Asians and Africans, Djakarta, the city - that _ for a long time was known - as Batavia, has always had close links with the rest of Asia — through cultural, religious and commercial ties, through its Chinese, Indian and Arab commun- ists, through its large, busy port. ; But, judging from what I have heard, there and elsewhere on the island of Java, Indonesia has. never before felt so strongly its Share in the problems and _ dInterests common to Asia. eas Indonesian people have as heartened by the support Sta by the conference to Indo- “2S claim to “Dutch” @&New ee the only part of former to i wast Indies that was denied lic j € young Indofiesian Repub- : Nn 1950, Hee ‘ag Wlonesia’s claim to West Irian, alwa € territory is called her, has ublye been warmly supported by “* Opinion. I have heard it ga °0 as Indonesia’s “For- the . don’t fear- the return of ios utch from West Irian any Chin than I expect the people of Mints fear the return of the Kuo- Nesian © from Formosa,” an Indo- it irks Journalist said to me. “But Some S our people to know that fran; OL their brothers are not yet a from colonial rule. Dunreover, with West Irian in tito, ands, a part of our ter- ne Is directly linked with the Blanc States’ strategic war "S toward which the attitude nesia these days there is but|’ Mahomed Ali of Pakistan. our people is: profoundly hos- tile.” ; This is no sentimental feeling. The national liberation of this old, fertile colony is far from com- plete. Indonesia is a sovereign independent state only in the for- mal sense; economic ‘power still lies in the \.ands of foreigners. Most Indonesiatls see in the Ban- dung conference a new opportun- ity to advance thé cause of com- plete liberation. : * x * ; During the past few weeks I have travelled extensively in In- donesia trying to assess the situa- tion on the eve of the conference. I have questioned the politically conscious organized dockers of Surabaya, the plantation workers of Eastern Java, the young men ‘demobilized from the Youth Army with scholarships to go to college and learn ito replace the foreign specialists that are still holding down jobs Indonesians are perfect- ly capable of filling. -. I have spoken with the dwellers of rattan-walled huts, with gov- ernment officials and social work- ers, Indonesian, Chinese, Eurasion. iat ¥ the Overwhe!ming majority of The aims and purposes of the discussing conference | > . Bandung Conference have been widely publicized and have been grasped by the people. Their anxieties have been heightened by recent reports of large-scale joint Dutch-U.S. con- struction projects in West Irian, including the building of docks, oil pipelines, airfields and roads. Foreign «capitalists continue to extract from Indonesia profits that are out of all proportion to their investments. According to a memorandum: prepared by the Indonesian government recently, Dutch capital investments in In- donesia remain, at around 2,500 million rupees, of which.the larg- est items are sugar and rubber estates and oil. Total profits of Dutch capital amounted to over 1,000 million rupees in the first. 11 months of 1954. These figures are in pre- war values. Profits include wages to foreign employees, which, be- ing exportable, are in fact a loss in foreign exchange to the Indo- nesian people. Hundreds of thousands of In- donesian peasants continue to work on Dutch-owned plantations. { Here are the premiers of the five countries sponsoring the Asian-African Conference at Bandung. to right) U Nu of Burma, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Dr. A ered to return to Dutch landlords land they have occupied during the past ten years. Indonesian products still have to be carried in Dutch-owned ves- sels from ports whose installations -are almost ‘entirely foreign-owned. The import and export ‘trade is largely in the hands of the Dutch monopolies known as the Big Five. Foreign tourists—wealthy Am- ericans on world cruises, Chinese millionaires from Hong-kong, Brit- ish administrative officials from Singapore — are catered for by Dutch hotels, Dutch ships, Dutch travel agencies, Dutch shops. In these circumstances the In- donesian people see a direct re- lationship between the economic control exercisel by foreigners and their own standard of living. And they see in the Bandung Con- ference a reflection of the desire they share with other Asian and African peoples ty grasp their des- tiny in their own hands. * * * Not every Indonesian I spoke to identified the conference with! such specific aims. Perhaps the They are (left li Sastroamidjojo of Indonesia, Sir John Kotelawala of Ceylon and |Some of them are now being ord-|best illustration of what is in the minds. of the less articulate in a land where less than one-fifth of the population is able to read or write is the reply by a 60-year- old chieftain of a village at the foot of one of Bali’s volcanoes. “When the Dutchmen first came to our village my heart became heavy, although I was then a young man. We ‘became Indo- nesia and my heart grew a little lighter. But it is not the heart of a free man. I am old, but I still wish my heart to be light.” This blend of sadness and hope, often expressed in the answer “Not yet” that one receives to questions about Indonesia’s future, makes this land a great question mark straddling the equator. But one thing is certain. People expect the Bandung Con- ference to lock the door on those foreigners who pian to return to Indonesia as masters. When and how those foreign masters who remain will be flung from the window and how the Indo- nesian people will choose to run their own house when they are the real masters of it still re. mains to be seen. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 29, 1955 — PAGE 3