LE 2D II EF BI os a 4 LANS to mingle the waters of the Volga and the Don, and ‘to use them to irrigate an area of potentially fer- tile land the size of Belgium, have been announced here. The Soviet government’s scheme calls for completion of the canal linking the Don and the Volga in 1951, and by spring of the following year the. Don is to be dammed near Tsimlianskaya, creating a huge 100-mile long reservoir from which water will be drawn off to irrigate the ter- ritory, lying mainly south and east of the Don, suitable for wheat and cotton crops, Although many hundreds of miles separate the points where the two great rivers rise, and there is an even greater . distance between their estuaries in the Caspian and Azov seas, there is one } point where their courses are little more than 50 miles apart. This canal is now being dug. In the pre-war years, this project was part of the mas- ter plan to link the five seas is’ where the ; « we A huge new dam at Tsimlianskaya will rival the famous Dnieper: (above) ry A ot) StL ae a CH TT te ee u Tt ts i Linking the Don and the Volga of European Russia — the White, Baltic, Caspian, Azov and Black — with navigable canals. Postponed by the war, the work on the canals began three ‘years ago, when the government classified it as a project of national import- ance. ene that announcement the says mechanization of labor has now reached the point where the time origin- ally allowed for the éomple-« tion of the canal can be shortened by two years. The canal will be 63 miles long with 13 locks. It will reach the Don’ near Kalach. (It was at Kalach that the two encircling arms of the Red Army met around the doomed Sixth Army of Von are likely to arise. At the Soviet Union's and Leningrad. New river fieet LARGE fleet of river vessels is being built in the Soviet Union so that full use can be made of the internal waterways system. ship canal will give the Donets ‘Basin coalfield, now once again the Soviet Union’s chief source of supply, a river outlet to the whole of European Russia and later to parts of Soviet Asia. In return, this important pop- ulation center will receive North Russian timber. Consequently a series of huge new inland ports are to be built, The largest will be at the mouth of North- ern Donets, equipped to handle the loading of 4,000-ton Vessels in a few hours, Other large ports are projected for Tsimlianksaya on the Don and Kalach on the: Don. The Rostov port is to be reconstructed. shelter harbors are to be built on large inland seas which the vessels will have to traverse and where storms oldest shipyards a fleet of large new luxury liners Tor river use is to be built. They will run between Moscow, Rostov and perhaps on to the Black Sea coastal resorts. 509 passengers, salons and swimming pools, these diesel electric ships will be considerably faster than the highly popular river steamers now in use.. Other lines will link the Black Sea’ with Archangel Altogether, the building of the link between the Volga and the Don will connect’ 19,000 miles of water- ways of the Volga and North Russian basins with the Black Sea, compared with 8,000 miles of Dnieper and Don Basins’ now linked with it. . ee MOSCOW Opening of the Volga-Don Numerous With cabin space for . ” 4 By RALPH PARKER PTO RO tte Ce Ce Oo ED Do a Paulus in the 1942.) “fhe damming of the Don at Tsimlianskaya will create a head of water capable of yenerating enough energy to provide cheap power to farms on the reclaimed steppe land, The water will be pumped into branch canals by 141 electrically driven pumping stations. The irrigation scheme will construction of about 500 miles of main and They are scheduled for completion in entail the tributary canals. 195608 The architectural. features of the new Volga-Don ship canal will incorporate monu- ments to the battle of Stalin- grad, according to S. Zhuk, on engineer chief construction for the gigantic project. Zhuk also added some de- tails to*the official statement. All constructional work on the canal is fully mechaniz- ed: 97 percent of earth ex- _cavated is done by machines. Since 1948 when ‘the work began 250 miles of railroad, 3CO} miles€ of highway ‘and thousands of houses for the workers were built on the site, Describing rivers so’: there * afte have a lifting capacity of 33 to 43 feet: (euateeit ‘winter of the problems that face the canal builders, Zhuk states that because the watershed between the Don and the Volga rises to: 550 feet in the region where the. are closest to each other, the canal had to be located further south. Even considerable variations in the level and each of the 13 fpcks will ; {LONDON TIE big business press of Britain is worried. Brit- uin’s contracts for Iranian oil ire up for renewal. British a difficult time in keeping their grip on grip tually unchallenged for many interests foresce shis commodity, 2 years. t On one ian Oil Company, biggest oil “producer in the Middle East, is shaken by ‘pressure of Iran- ian public opinion for nation- alization of all oil wells in hand, Anglo-Iran- the country, and for negotia- ‘ions with the Soviet Union. On the other hand, British sontrol is menaced by Am- sxrican groups which are out- sidding Britain in nearby oil areas, making the Iranians unwilling to accept the price London offers. In current negotiations, the British government, which owns 56 percent of ' Angio- Iranian Oil, offers Iran 34c¢ a barrel in royalties and 9c 4. barrel in other payments. The U.S.-owned Arabian - American Oil Company (Aramco) has given Saudi Arabia a better deal, 34c a barrel royalties plus 50 percent of all profits after deduction of . income tax. U.S. price competition makes it certain that even if Britain gets a new contract, she will have to pay more for oil than in the past. trends toward with _the USSR, dramatically manifested in recent weeks by a ban on Voice of America broadcasts as injurious to Soviet-Iranian relations, have a _ different base. The British banking { Iranian friendship . ‘ LONDON EFUSAL of the Iranian Mejlis (parliament) to rati- fy the notorious supplemen- tary agreement with Anglo- Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) is reported to have decided the British government on “determined action to remove ‘obstacles in the way of AIOC,” in Iran. ’ Foreign diplomatic circles in London believe that decisions reached at a recent cabinet meeting are responsible for the recent spate of reports put out by the Near Eastern radio and other agencies on an expected setting up of a new Arab state on the Per- sian’ Gulf. An increase in anti-Iranian propaganda em- anating. from Iraq is also aoted. ; The British government, vir- — _3titute a : vgainst penetration of non- ee st) The U.S. grabs for lran’s oil paper, Financial Times, wrote that they are prompted by the fact in its January 8 issue that Persian workers are now “considerably worse off than pefore the war.” Explaining why Iranians see better living conditions with the USSR than from increased connec- ions with the West accom- the from trade oanied by rearmament, financial Times wrote: “The standard of living of a large part of the Persian populations is now so low that almost any change must be for the better, but even 2 Persian grasp the supply of free military equipment (from the West) carries with it a concomitant »bligation to provide men te use the equipment, thus re- moving. them from the land, whereas an offer (made by the Soviet Union) to buy wool, sheepskins, nuts and fish must provide him with a better ( peasant” can standards of living.” The conservative London Daily Telegraph, also on Jan-_ uary 8, noted an increase in the popularity- of the left- - wing Iranian Tudeh party. The party, the paper said, is “g well organized and danger- ous body particularly in Teh- span and the oilfield areas.” - Moreover, the party is in- sreasing its influences not only in the ranks of labor. At least 40 percent of the security forces, as well as most university students and professors are said to be Tudeh sympathizers if not ac- tual members of the party, the Daily Telegraph com-~ plained. 4 British plot or new state believed to be ready to take steps towards setting up of a new Arab state should this propaganda® caippaign fail to intimidate the Iranian, gov- ornment, ‘According to reliable infor- nation received by Telepress, his new state would include _huzistan (the southern prov- nee where Anglo-Iranian Oil yperations are most concen- rated), the Bahrein Islands, fuweit, Katar and Oman. All these regions unified in one state would, the British gov- smmment igs said to believe, make easier the case for sep-. paration of Khuzistan, whose | — populations is mainly Arabic, from Iran. These regions are rich in oil and a strong cen- tral government in this part of the Middle East would con- real deterrent 3ritish capital. rt PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 2, 1951 — PAGE 4