"Canada By HARRY says Invasion of Guatemala is - GULKIN « a ‘‘clear case of international aggression’ and a crime that can be compared ‘only with those of Hitler and Mussolini, Ismael Mendez-Zabadua, Guatemalan Consul-General ta Canada, told the Canadian Tribune in an igterview here June 21. The invasion started anes landed in with: only after U.S. p Nicaragua and Honduras arms, he charged. A middle-aged man of medium height and greying hair, Mendez- Zabadua’s brown eves were ringed with dark shadows when I saw him. He explained that he had slept. very little these last few day$. For. better than two hours he told me'| the story of his country’s agrarian ' reform program and the events leading to the invasion. ~« He made a stirring appeal “in the hope and belief that people of peace and good-will among Canadians and in the Canadian government will raise their voice to stop this terrible aggression.” Here is the story as Ismael Men- dez-Zabadua, and his wife told it: Behind the Castillo Armas in- vasion was. Anastasia Somoza, son of President Somoza of Nicaragua who, provided Armas with money , and arms and was the contact man for the U.S-owned United Fruit Co., bitterly contesting the agrar- ian reform policies of the Guate- malan government. Armas started a revolt on July 28, 1949, when he commanded a baracks. It failed because the, workers and “campesinos” (peas- ants) rallied around President Juan Jose Alevalo. Armas was arrest- ed, not before there were 200 cas- ualties. He later escaped and made! his way to San Salvador and then, to Honduras. Last January Armas started his movement with the aid of Nicar- agua, : “His men painted big black circles visible from the air on many of the country’s airfields to mark the way for invading air- craft. But it proved a failure. “Correspondence between _ the’ conspirators and a picture of an American pilot, Carl F. Studer, who was supposed to lead the ex- pedition are in the hands of our government. Studer is a former colonel of the U.S. Army, an expert in modern weapons, and originally from El Paso, Texas, ‘which he lef; to enter the employ of the United Fruit Co. © “Other corespondence in the hands of our government shows that the H. F. Cordes Co. of Ham- burg, Germany offered to sell Armas, through Somoza, napalm bombs and jet planes to be used against Guatemala.” (Documents covering these re- revelations were placed in the bana hands of the United Nations Jan- uary 29, 1954). Claims that the United Fruit Co. is losing land under agrarian reform are false. ‘No land under cultivation has been expropriated. The reform affects idle land only and the United Fruit Co. owned 200,000 acres of such land,” Men- dez-Zabadua said. Chief aspects of the Arbenz pro- gram was to extend private own- ership of land and a new port on the Atlantic with a railroad con- necting that port to Guatemala City. The reform bill was discus- sed in Congress for two months and then passed. The United Fruit Co., with a special intervention of the U.S. State Department, demanded that it be exempted from the land re- form, but Guatemala refused. Pres- ident Arbenz himself and Foreign Affairs Minister Toriello lost sec- tions of their own land through the reform. “Why should an excep- tion have been made of the United Fruit Co.?” the consul asked. He recounted how the U.S. state department had once again inter- vened three months ago on behalf of the United Fruit Co. monopoly by claiming $6,000,000. “Guatemala again refused even though this last intervention of the U.S. had about it"the overtones of an ultimatum.” Three days before thé invasion Armas’ army paraded openly in the capital city of Honduras. The parade showed troops clad in clean new khaki uniforms, equipped with modern arms, -bazookas, flame throwers and 20 aircraft. “\t is arrant nonsense, an sult to the ‘intelligence, to as- sume that a man leading a re- volt would have money enough to clothe* and arm 5,000 sol- diers and maintain a small air force.” ‘“Revolts” in Latin American countries are never prepared so extensively. “During the -past nine years Guatemala has repeatedly asked the U.S. to sell them arms under the terms of the Continent Defense Agreement. For one reason or an- other these arms have never been sold to Guatmala, not even re- volvers for the police force. When we saw. that an invasion was im- minent we tried to buy arms from whomever would sell to us. ; “We are an independent state. We are not a state of the Union in- A. US. officer, Col. Milton Shattuck, according fo Life maga- zine, commands a U.S. military mission in Honduras. This picture shows him explaining a machine gun to officers and non -coms, Invaders of Guatemala, coming from Honduras, are equipped with flame-throwers, planes and bazookas made in the United States. MONTREAL da must help stop on Guatemalan consul-general We do not have to ask them permission to buy a pair of shoes or a revolver for that mat- (U.S.). ter. But,even apart from that’ we believe in and trade with all countries. “The charge that we were buy- ing arms secretly is of course ab- surd, when we consider they were unloading in Puerto Barrios, own- ed by the United Fruit Co.. When news of the arms shipment arriv- ing was made public, the U.S. Con- gress started a noise that sounded much like a chicken coop. Immedi- ately. U.S. arms were flown to Nic- aragua and Honduras. “Only after U.S. planes landed in these countries with arms did the invasion begin. “As to our appeal to the Se- curity Council. This matter is clearly a case of international ag- gression — not a revolution. Nor is it even local aggression, but international aggression.” ‘Reference: to the Armas army as a “liberation” or “resistance” army was false, except that in fact it was an army out “to liberate the United Fruit Co.” The charge of communism was “absurd,” the con- sul-general asserted. ‘Guatemala is only now beginning to break the shackles ‘of feudalism.” . “Our government enacted a min- imum wage of about $1 a day. Is that bad? Foreign companies. not only have a right to exist in Guate- mala, but are welcome. But just because the government, elected by the people thinks 25 cents per day is too low a wage for our work- ers, is no reason to say we are Communist. We are not.” Mendez-Zabadua’s wife provid- ed an interesting sidelight on what the present democratic government of Gutaemala has done for the country. She had iust returned from there a week earlier. It was her first visit in five years and she Was overwhelmed by the advances that had been made. Her brothers who have a cattle ranch, now have a frigidaire, and a washing“ machine powered by liquid gas. Around Guatemala she saw nine new housing ‘ develop- | invasion ‘ ‘J “Stop the U.S. aggression against Guatemala” and “Hands — Off Guatemala” read signs of @ line of pickets before the U.5 consulate in Toronto, organiz by the Toronto and Yorks Cont mittee of the Labor-Progressiv® partyacu es and buildings of every descrip: — tion. In a final comment the con sul-general declared his admira — tion for Canadian democracy: “Our aim and goal is to improve — our working conditions which — are far worse than the working conditions of Canadians and f° | ; have a democratic government ne a such as exists in Canada and Britain. “We in Guatemala do not want " any fighting..We want to live i" peace. We want to stop the — bloodshed. We know that the © people of Canada have the sam@ aims. Although |. have no I — structions from my governmen to date, | make these statements in the hope and belief that Pe?” ple of peace and good-will among the Canadian people and in thé Canadian government will rais® their voices to stop this terrible ments, new theatres, businesses aggression.” 2 ae Unlike Canadian wheatgrowers, farmers in the Soviet Union have no fears for the future of their crops. On the contrary they are gin soil into cultivation and irriga- tion and further mechanizing their production to increase yields. This was one of the most strik- ing impressions of a delegation of eight Ukrainian and one Russian- Canadian Doukhobor who toured the Soviet Union on a 24-day visit this spring. ce Delegates in the group: were John Boychuk, Toronto; William Kardash,’ MLA and Tony Bilecki, Winnipeg; John Dubno, Vancou- ver; George Solomon, Edmonton; Rose Billings, Sudbury; P;ter Karpish, Port Arthur; Max Rosh- ko,.. Montreal and William Sucha- roff, Grand Forks, B.C. Just back in Canada, 42-year-old William. Kardash, Winnipeg North member of the Manitoba legislat- ure said: “When we left Canada we left a country of 15,000,000 peo- ple with over half a million unem- ployed. Layoffs were taking place in the auto industry, coal mines and railway shops. “We found no such problems able-bodied in Moscow. Every person is employed. free from worry abo bringing millions of acres of vir-. Canadians find Soviet farmers | ut crops ad WILLIAM KARDASH “People are free from. worries of insecurity. There is no war pro- paganda. It is a. country devoted to peaceful pursuits and of course the idea of unemployment is un- thinkable,’ the MLA said. . Right now the biggest emphasis is on agriculture. State farm pro- duction is highly mechanized. A return visit to the town “where my folks were born” near Kiev at PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 2, 1954 — PAGE Borodyanka surprised Kardash There he saw a newly-develope z cabbage and tomato machine fo speeding up planting. ~ ; “Tn a half-day’s work, as muck is planted with this machine as be done by hand in six weeKS: have never seen the like 29% where.” nod Farmers expect, good crops ane expressed no fears about them visit to four collective farms s}° e ed that last vear the workers ther had surpassed their producti plan and are completely confide they will do the same this seas’ Cotton and rice crops are hee grown now for the first time in Kherson area near the Crimea: on rigation from the néw Volga Pree Canal is performing miracles ‘ land hitherto completely desolat . “The whole emphasis is of a as culture and the need to raise ye te a to such levels that it will en@™) the workers in industry to put es 7-hour day and 5-day week,” dashr pointed out, . “>. GN He stressed the importance ae Canada of friendly trade and © tural relations with. the S0V.4 Unioon, “because it would be”. to our advantage, since they the consuming power to buy things from us.” ‘3 pace ceagae ee F Feit | may f