BE AMR I TET IMR CE eA A DROS 7 ATOR m0 at stanton i L t | BY ARMOUR MILNE New Czechoslovak premier survived Nazi death march “PRAGUE T is as “our Tonda” that An- * tonin Zapotocky, the new pres- ident of the Czechoslovak Peo- ple’s Democratic Republic, is known to all the workers of Czechoslovakia, for his forthright statements, hfs honest praise, his condemnation, of all who fail to recognise the great part they have to play in the construction of socialism. * President Zapotocky, who is 68, is a former stonemason and a founding member of the Com- munist Party of Czechoslovakia. He spent all of the war years in Nazi concentration camps, his health suffering greatly as a re- sult of his experiences. Despite his arduous duties as premier and formerly as chair- man of the revolutionary trade - union movement, Zapotocky has been Czechoslovakia’s most pro- lific writer. ; His novels are classics in working class writing, two of them, New Heroes Will Arise, and Red Glow Over Kladno, have been outstanding film successes as well. New Heroes Will Arise is the . story of the life and struggles of his father, the late Ladislav Zap- -otocky, a founding member of, the old Czechoslovak Social De- mocratic party. Antonin Zapotocky was born in Zakolany, in the Kladno coal- mining district, in 1884, but moved with his family to Prague when in his teens. At 16 he was active in the Social Democratic Youth move- ment and by the time he was 18 was already writing poems and contributing to progressive po- litical papers. During his lifetime Zapotocky has served a number of prison sentences for his determined de- fense of the workers’ rights. His richest early political ex- perience: was gained in the Kladno district as regional sec- retary of the Social Democratic party and the trade unions. In 1920 he attended the Sec- ond. Congress of the Communist International in Moscow, and .during that visit had a two-hour discussion : with Lenin on the problems then confronting the Czechoslovak people. In the same year there was a general strike in Czechoslovakia. The strike was crushed and this decided the character of the new republic. or his share in organising the strike, Zapotoky was again thrown into prison. He took part in the forming of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1921 and in the following year was elected its general secretary. e ; Like the, late President Klem- ent Gottwald, he was one of the first to warn and fight against the rising danger of fascism. Elected a Communist MP in 1925 he was deprived of his seat in 1938 after a forceful ‘protest in the National Asesmbly against the Munich betrayal. After the Nazi occupation the central committee of the then illegal Communist party decided that Zapotocky should join Gott- wald in the Soviet Union, there to help direct the activities of the underground movement in Czechoslovakia. He was arrested trying to cross into Poland and after be- ing held in prison for some time, was sent first to the concentra- tion camp at Sachsenhausen and later to another at Oranienburg, where he was held until 1945. Zapotocky was one of 5,000 who love him _ . prisoners from Oranienburg who were forced by the Nazis to take part in a “march of death,” ‘tthe march having covered sey- eral hundred miles before res- cue came in the shape of a Soviet Army division. Back home he was elected chairman of the revolutionary trade union movement, and an MP. . -He played a major part in or- ganising the working class in February 1948 when the united militant stand of the .working class organizations forced Presi- dent Edouard Benes to accept the resignations of a number of reactionary ministers. After the February events he’ was elected vice- premier, and upon elevation of Gottwald to the presidency, Zapotocky _ be- came premier. : ‘Speaking at the election of the new president in the Vladislay Hall of Prague Castle, the new premier, Vilem Siroky on behalf of the Communist party and the National Front, said: “The new president will face the serious task, consistently ae years ee “Benzine Buggy Raises Excite- ment in Hope,” is the heading over an article in the Hope News and the Gold Trail, of August 3, 1911, sent to: the Pacific Tribune this week by a veteran socialist who now lives near Birmingham, England. George A. Jackson, a contem- porary of Ol’ Bill Bennett’s (al- though they never met) lived in Vancouver from 1909 until 1914, when he returned to England. Recently he read Tom McEwen’s book on Bill Bennett, He Wrote For Us, which inspired him to write McEwen and enclose a copy of the Hope paper, pub- lished at a time when that town was described as “the gateway to the Eldorado of: British Col- umbia” and everyone had the gold rush fever. Visit of an automobile to ress was big news, and the writer of the article describing the affair really let himself go. Here’s what he wrote, in part: “When a benzine buggy buzz- ed into Hope last Sunday the oldest inhabitant crept into his cyclone cellar. Jack Graham, who was sitting on the steps of Rockwell’s feed emporium, won- dering why someone did not drive in from somewhere. to buy a bag of oats, took a look at the gasoline feeder and keeled over , onto Perkins who had dropped in to tell him what a nice ss Kamloops is. “James Corrigan, who lived in ‘Hope before a railroad crossed the mountains, almost carried away the sash of Herbert Beech’s door to the Hudson Hotel in his hurry to give the road launch right-of-way while Beech him- self spoilt a thrilling chapter of his latest problem-novel Why Is A Ship in his eagerness to see the joy-wagon. “Jack Cunningham, who was out with a telescope to find a weekend guest, made ‘a sema- phore of his arms in an endeavor to run the rails into the office issue shite of the Sumineee but the road locomotive ran off on a loop and Cunningham got the wrong color : PREMIER ZAPOTOCKY “Firmly linked with the people” and loyally fulfilling the great and rich legacy of Comrade Klement Gottwald, of leading our people to “the successful completion of the socialist con- ‘struction of our country. “Comrade Zapotocky is firm- ly linked with the _ people, knows tlfeir needs, their cour- age and unselfishness, and ‘is filled with a firm belief in the creative revolutionary forces that are in our people, and in ‘the invincible power of the teachings of Lenin and Stalin.” 4 Ut Pepatinent you Please. of dust. ‘Sunny Jim’ Miller en- joying the shade of his hand- some new awning, had: got to the’ best part of his story but the finish was lost in the rush to cover as the goat-getter blew by. “The Furlott brothers, and Dick, tossing to see which would pack the water, left the coin in the air under the para- lysing impression that the ‘Lady Fraser’ was: ferrying her - pas- sengers direct to the door of the Coquahalla Hotel... . “As the naptha carriage sped out Wallace Street all Hope turn- ed out of doors, the timid being reassured by the presence of so- big an assemblage. They figur- ed that the townsite would be covered by the man-killer in less than three minutes. “The minutes passed into hours and no buzz buggy return- ed. The usual search party was being organized when word came to the waiting throng that the motor contingent had crossed the river to camp for the night. At noon next day they came out of their hole... . “From Hope the machine, a ‘30-35’ Mitchell, was shippéd to Lytton, from which place it will be driven to Lillooet and Ash- croft.” : Unionist since 1907 OLD TIMER, Namu, B.C.: ora closed find a donation to help keep the Pacific Tribune going. I have been one of the earliest. subscribers to workers’ papers. I. was for years a subscriber to the Toronto Worker and when your paper was started in Van- couver I transferred as the To- ronto paper,was two or even three weeks reaching ‘me. .f am, I think, a rank-and-filer. I ‘have belonged to unions since 1907, including the One Big Un- ion and the IWW. At that time I was in a logging camp and will What Tom’ BY ARTHUR CLEGG | People of India poorest in world survey reveals LONDON ; Nora, wath a population seven times that of Britain, has less than one-tenth of Britain’s pro- duction of electricity. Her national income per head is only $53 per year, hardly one- ‘twelfth of Britain’s and lower - than that of almost every coun- try in the world. This information is contained in the Overseas Economic. Sur- vey for India compiled by the senior British Trade Commis- sioner for India. : The survey shows that in re- ‘cent years the United States has _been increasing its grip over that country. In the trade years 1951- 52 India’s imports from the U.S. were for the first time higher than those from Britain. The U.S. supplied India with goods worth $648 million. Britain only supplied $354 million. In the first six months. of last year 28 ‘percent of India’s oil came from U.S.-owned wells in Saudi Arabia, another 10 per- cent from the U.S. itself. Two of the three oil refineries et construction or planned in India will be American. never forget the eight-hour day Victory and the change from straw bed and two and three- decker bunks to single beds and showers plus better food and liv- ing conditions. I was tending hook in a camp for Pacific Mills when we got the eight-hour news. What a change from the, early days of going to work with it so dark I’ve seen them giving. sig- nals to the donkey engineer with. a lantern. Ten hours in the woods, both ways on your own time. ... Your paper is right in the Clemens case. When I was a .small boy in Vancouver in the early 1890’s I once saw a couple ‘of cops beat up a logger in an alley. That is years ago but I can still see those cops beating up that fellow. The reason I know he was a logger is because my father was . one of the pioneer loggers of. B.C. He logged places like Eburne, Point Grey, Kitsilano, Capilano Creek and also around Victoria Drive. I was'a kid in those camps and knew most of the loggers. I even remember the name of the logger that got beat up, Red Bill Ross, a timber — faller. . I put in many an hour reading the Pacific Tribune. We work- ers have made some gains /over the years but have been far too slow. .I might add that I belong to the Fishermen’s union, we took a beating last year, and made some boners, too. I trap- ped a few mink this winter to keep myself and the as a from the slave market. Keep: the PT going as we can- not see it go under at this stage ofthe struggle. A paper is needed now more than ever. I never met Tom McEwen put I know his record for years as a militant worker. Bert Whyte’s sports page is okay, an improve- ment as it helps sell the paper, for most everyone is interested in sports:t 2" | PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 3, 1953, — PAGE ' a _ condition is worsening as explot time the survey records that d ‘with existing methods and imp le- -perialism and feudalism — but One reason for: the covet under Nehru’s government re vealed by the survey is the “re peated large increases in expel: diture on defense services” 12 recent years. For 1952-53 half the total bud- get expenditure is for military purposes. This is one’ thousand — times larger than expenditure by ) the central government on irtl — gation. The survey also ductraces the extreme precariousness of dian economy. For tlie past three — years jute and jute products have — made up the bulk of Her exports: Last year they accounted 12 — value for nearly half. — A fall in jute prices would dis organize the whole of India’s im port and export trade. ® : ; India’s chief import is food— — grain and flour—which account ed last year for a quarter of the — total imports. a Such is the state to which this one immensely rich agricultural ; country has been reduced. : Though the survey shows that — India is rich in coal resources j and very rich in iron resources: its coal and steel output is tiny: | Total annual steel consump — tion is only about 2.3 million ‘tons—and only two-thirds of this minute quantity is produced at — home. , Many othe minerals are — known to exist, but time aftel they have not been developed. “The soil of India has bee? consistently undernourished {0° generations,’ says the survey: Only some 6 percent of the cou try’s natural water resources have been’ harnessed for irriga: tion. f ‘Of the total cultivable area only 63 percent is sown. Elevel million acres of waste land could be economically cultivated ova a ents. The engineering industry, nod ~ existent before the Second World War, has been deliberately held back. : e ‘The survey omits the reasol for India’s poverty — intense eF ploitation of the people by 1” some of the results are record: ed. And things are > getting worse A government report of 1 quoted in the survey speaks of as “the serious deterioration in liv ing conditions in the previous ‘ eight years.” o Me There are at the outside 4 million industrial workers. Press ing on. them are some millions of handloom workers living great wretchedness as they are driven out of their crafts by mill production. The survey records imeineniol ally how these workers were de prived of much of their ability — to defend their standards whe? the once united Indian trade U2?" — ion movement was split by the Congress government and the — Indian Socialist party.: ; At present there are four dif — ferent trade union congresses in India. All these things: the survey seeks to record in the most fav- orable way. : But through the figures. and — the smooth sentences the picture of a downtrodden people whos tation grows greater emerges clearly. - 4 Clear, too is the fact that all present talks of plans—whethtt “Colombo Plans” or “Nehru Plans”—is merely trifling will the problem.