British unionist reports

Anti-U.S. sentiment
widespread in Japan

LONDON

Reporting on his recent trip to
Japan as the World Federation of
Trade Unions’ delegate to the ILO
Asian Regional Conference, Jack
Woddis, British labor leader, said
his major impressions were of
“military preparations, U.S. dollars,
GI culture and the Japanese peo-
ple’s growing national resistance to
American domination.”

All the main streets in Tokyo,
Woddis write in the WFTU maga-
zine’s December issue, “have been
renamed — Avenue X, Avenue Y,
5th Street, 10th Street, etc. — in
American style. GI’s pour out from
a huge building above which flies
the Stars and Stripes side by side
with the UN flag. I look at the
name plate of the building — and
read ‘Chase Bank’... .

“Huge American cars sweep by,
with overpainted Japanese girls
seated in the. back. Down the
famous Ginza street, and in the
streets leading off it, are numer-
ous strip tease shows, peepshows,
burlesque shows and other refined
expressions ,of the American way
of life. ;

“The hotel where I stay is full
of American officers and their
wives. One evening I came out of
the hotel with three Japanese
friends. An American officer and
his wife are standing on the pave-
ment talking. We step out into
the road and hail a passing taxi.
As it draws up, the Americans push
past us and get into the cab, the
wife shouting imperiously: ‘Out of
my way, boy. We were here first.’

“Other bits of the picture swing
into view. I sit in my hotel and
turn on the electric fan. It is
brand new. I look at the make —
it is a Mitsubishin. . A reporter
comes to interview me. I glance
at his pencil — and read the name
of its makers — Mitsui. I pick up
a newspaper and read an advertise-
ment — the firm is Sumitomo.

“Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo
— the names of the big three

monopolies which dominated
Japan before the second world
war — are again becoming dom-
imant. Banks, shipping lines,
coal mines, industrial undertak-
ings — all are being centralized
-jn the hands of the big Zaibatsu
firms, Mitsui, Mitsubishin, Sumi-
tomo and others.”

The cost of living is so high that

one magazine recently carried an

article on “Tokyo — the most ex-
pensive city in the world,” Woddis

said. In the larger factories em-
ploying over 500 workers real
wages are only 60 percent of the
prewar figure.

Japanese workers are fighting
back with increasing vigor, Wod-
dis reported, pointing out that-the
series of strikes staged by the
unions in the past year surprised
the U.S. military authoritiés by
their militancy.

A united struggle has developed
against the 700 U.S. bases in Japan,
Woddis said.

“Bach base,’ he explained,
“means the loss of land and live-
lihood of Japanese peasants and
fishermen . . . the loss of freedom
in the areas around the bases...
loss of sleep by gunfire practice,
and the constant peppering of peas-
ant huts by rifle bullets.”

The fight against the new base at
Uchinada has captured the imagin-
ation of the -nation, Woddis said,
describing the, efforts of the peo-
ple in that area to prevent the base
from operating.

“The people have organized a
sitdown on the firing range it-
self// Woddis reported. “The
peasants are being helped by the
fishermen who defy the Ameri-
can prohibition on fishing, and
continue fo fish as hitherto. Every
section of the Japanese people,
and every form of struggle, is
being thrown into this fight to
stop Uchinada becoming a mili-
tary base.

“Transport workers are prevent-
ing the transportation of military

supplies to Uchinada. Other work-
ers send solidarity aid, make pro-
tests to the government, organize
demonstrations.

“Every time some minister comes
to visit the prefecture, huge demon-
strations take place. Angry peas-
ants, with the women well to’ the
fore, hurl the armed police aside,
force their way into the buildings,
shake fists at the trembling min-
isters, thump on the desk and
voice protests. Peasants who have
never before left their village, go
to Tokyo to talk to members of
parliament and address workers’
meetings.” ;

Uchinada, Woddis said, has_ be-
come “a symbol of the national
liberation struggle being waged by
the entire Japanese people for their
independence from American rule,
and an expression of the new unity
being built . . . between the peas-
ants and the workers.

U.S. trade embargo

becomes boomerang

NEW YORK

The U.S. embargo on East-West trade has been undermined in a
report issued by one of the US. government's own most important

committees.

The long-awaited statement of the Randall Commission on U.S.
foreign trade proposed that “the United States acquiesce in more trade

in peaceful goods between Western
Europe and the Soviet bloc.”

Faced by a prospect of trade
slump at home and abroad, the
Commission says:
ge The ban on trade with ‘China

and North Korea should re-
main, and so must that on goods
of military importance for Europe.
e@ But the ban on other trade
“has weakened the economies

of friendly countries and increased

their need for our aid.”

“There lies a possible area of
trade between the East and the
West in Europe in commodities
which do not strengthen the forces
of military aggression, a trade from
which new advantage might accrue
to the West,” says the commission.

“Tt is this area of commerce that
presents the dilemma to the United
States.

“For many generations there has
existed a broad historic pattern of

trade in Central Europe that serv-

ed to support the economies of
countries that are now our allies.
“These nations traditionally
drew from the Soviet Union,
Poland, East Germany and the
lower Danube valley foodstuffs,
feeds, fuel and raw material.
‘ They sold, in return, the products
of their factories.” ;
However, there are dissenting
opinions by six of the 17 members
of the commission and whether
the Congress can be persuaded to
accept even this cautious advance
is doubtful. ;
Other proposals in the commis-
sion’s 35,000-word report are:
More foreign investment of dol-
lars, and measures to promote this.
Fewer import duties—a reduc-
tion of five percent of the duty on
certain goods during each of the
next three years—this could affect
whisky, textiles and other British
goods. /

Three Buganda chiefs

challenge depositions

; LONDON

Three Buganda chiefs have
brought an action in the High Court
of Uganda to contest the legality
of the deposition of the King (Ka-
baka) of Buganda by the British
government.

The action takes the form of
suing the present members of the
Buganda parliament on the ground
that as their membership of parlia-
ment has not been approved by the
king it is not legal.

The king was deposed and forc-
ibly deported by the governor of
Uganda last November and the ac-
tion of the chiefs means that the
legality of the acts of the British
government are now in question.

U.S. blunders

in Pakistan

By turning Pakistan into a military base the U.S. has made the
most stupid error in modern politics, Harry Pollitt, general secretary
of the British Communist party,’commented on his return from India

last week.

LONDON

“The arming of Pakistan has united all sections of the Indian

population,” he said. “It has alien-
ated any vestige of sympathy for
the U.S.”

Pollitt said.his main impressions
of India were the appalling con-
trast between rich and poor, and

Why not for peace?

rte
STEAM
(nonradioactive)

e
The United States launched its first atom-powered submarine,
the Nautilus (shown at top in shipyard and at bottom on the
Thames at Croton, Conn., iust after the launching), on January: 21.
The uranium now used for U.S. war purposes comes from Canada,
whose rich resources of the tremendous power source are thus
largely denied for peaceful industrial application.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

the Indian people’s desire for
peace.

He described his visit—he went
to India as the British Communist
party’s fraternal delegate to the

;|Indian Communist party’s third

congress—as “the most interesting
experience of my life.”

He said: “Before I went to India
I though I had some idea of the
conditions of the people.

“But never in my life have |
been so shocked as | was by the
terrible reality, by the grimness
of what I saw.

“The contrast between rich and
poor hits you in the eye in every
place you visit.”

Pollitt visited Bombay, Delhi,
Amritsar, Agra, Calcutta, Hydera-
bad, Madras and Madura. “And
everywhere it was the same story,”
he said. ie 5
“When you think of all that
British imperialism has robbed In-
dia of—its raw materials, its riches,
— and how it has exploited the.
people, this is indeed a shameful
heritage that has been left for the
Indian people to solve. .

“1 am confident they will do
so. For rarely in my life, in any
country in the world, have | seen
such trust, love and affection for
the Communist party as | saw in
India.

“Tts record of struggle and sacri-
fice is appreciated by the Indian
workers and peasants, who more
and more are flocking to its stand-
ard as they see in actual experience
the shortcomings and weaknesses
of the policy of the Indian National
Congress.”

On the Indian people’s desire for
peace, Pollitt said he had no doubt
at all that the masses of the In-
dian people would insist on a more
resolute policy for peace being car-
ried out by the Indian government.

Council hits
McCarthyism

LONDON

Dr. Hildegarde Broda, who. mar-
ried Dr. Alan May Nunn last Au-
gust after his release from prison,
will retain her job as an assistant
schools medical officer.

The 52-member Cambridge Coun-
ty Council voted unanimously to
retain her services last weekend—
and defeated an attempt to intro-
duce the political persecution meth-
ods of McCarthyism into British
municipal administration. .

Captain A. C. Taylor, a Conserv-
ative sitting on the council as an
Independent, was shouted down
with cries of “McCarthyism”, when
he introduced his motion asking
for Dr. Broda’s dismissal.

Ald. C. D. Rackham, chairman of
the Cambridge ' County , Eduction
Committee, said: “Dr .Broda is a
good medical officer and as long as“
she does her work well it is nothing
to do with anyone whom she mar-
ries. These attacks are a disgust-
ing form of persecution.”

“Does Captain Taylor want Mc-
Carthyism in this country?” asked
Councillor J. Moule, a labor mem-
ber. “He is a traitor — a traitor
to democracy.”

To Taylor’s claim that Dr. Broda
was a Communist who “might in-
doctrinate the children,” another
Labor member, A. S. W. Newman

retorted: “I don’t know if she is a
Communist and I don’t care. She
is a fine doctor.”

FEBRUARY 5, 1954 — PAGE 3