= I e € : h e : t 7 | : } ] } \. i | 5 } / : VN : » Pde. i See ; SF Ty! Nom < * aN 2 a } \ { Tuan a. ——— PS SMELT NAM MANILA By A. BRANDT f had long been intending to join up with a British friend of Mine who has made a practice of SPending his holidays in Portugal. Silvestor met me at the Lisbon airport, Servicing 17 of the big- 8est airlines linking Europe, Af- Tica, and North and South Amer- ica, it is one of the gateways to Europe, The airport building it- Self is old and uncomfortable, but it is being rebuilt. : Never having been in Lisbon fore, I was very much inter- ested to see this 3,000-year-old City, T found it abounding in squares and parks, and monumental build- ings clustered in the centre, Its Streets are Straight and wide, Its layout is comparatively new. The Criginal city was demolished by aN earthquake on Nov.1, 1755, On that day 30,000 people perished Nd 9,000 houses were reduced to pele The buildings spared by th earthquake were destroyed by resultant three-day fire, All ae €Scaped unharmed was St. orge’s Castle, built by the Workers. Benevolent Assn. Of Canada Progressive Fraternal Society Caters to all your needs in the Life Insurance field, LIFE INSURANCE ENDOWMENTS PENSION PLANS. WEEKLY BENEFITS \ Pee ce cccesbececcccccccceleececoeeeeecccésocoooe: Apply to: B.C. office at 805 East Pender St. or National Office at 595 Pritchard Ave. Winnipeg 4, Manitoba’ ~Seeecececocceeovesose Pee crecccccccnccccccccccosc PCocesecccccccceccceesecccecee Moors in the 9th century high on the hill overlooking the city. The Portugese people live in want and misery. Reduced to an average, every person in Portu- gal goes to a cinema only three times a year. If you exclude Lisbon and the second biggest city, Oporto, the average works out at once in three years, Now, in the second half of the 20th century, 40 percent of the people can neither read nor write: 72 percent have never gone to school. Dictator Salazar is fond of saying that where education is concerned his aim is to put an end to “utopian ideas” and “ille- gitimate aspirations,” He issued a decree in 1986 reducing the number of schools and closing down teachers’ training schools. Travelling through the coun- tryside we saw the squalid hovels in which the people live. Most of the population is engaged in farm- ing, but they have no land of their own, The vast estates are owned by the latifundists, HEAR TIM BUCK speak on ‘THE AGE OF AUTOMATION & YOU” Wed., Feb. 10 8 p.m. ELKS HALL CLOVERDALE AUSP. DELTA Regional G'ttee, C.P-C:: ——| The U.S, imperialists have set up 2,230 military bases abroad and a very important role in their strategic plans is played by their bases and armed forces in the Far East and Southeast Asia, . These bases, located thousands of miles from the United States, serve purely aggressive aims, They are spearheaded against. the USSR and other socialist countries, The network of bases extends from Japan to Thailand, Most of the American army, naval and air force bases—and the biggest—are in Japan and Okinawa (virtually annexed by the U,S,)The strength of their garrisons is about 60,000 officers and men,There aresome 20 large air bases and more than 100 airfields, The best Japanese naval bases —Ominato, Maizura, Kure, Naga- saki and Sasebo, and the Yoko- suka base. at the entrance to the Bay of Tokyo—have become the main U,S, naval bases, In Novem- ber, 1964, a nuclear-powered U.S, submarine named Sea Drag- on visitied Sasebo; the Japanese people held numerous protest meetings, Okinawa is the most powerful fortress built by the U,S, abroad, There are 50,000 soldiers and about 30 airfields on this Japan- ese island, which is used as a supply and support base for the U.S, Air Force and Navy in Southeast Asia, chiefly in Indo- china, You cannot tour Portugal with- out feeling that the stamp of de- cline and stagnation lies onit, Its economy is in a stateof lethargy, Industrial production is divided up among hundreds of small en- terprisers in which mechaniz- ation is unknown for the most part. Many of them are like med- ieval shops. At the same time statistics show that Portugal has a very high concentration of capital. In effect, the entire economy is in the hands of just 11 firms, Of late there has been a mark- ed infiltration of foreign capital, mostly West German, British and American, The foreign monopol- ists are attracted by Portugal’s cheap labor power. The steel industry now in process of dev- elopment is the child of the Ruhr magnates, British capital is con- centrated in the fish canning industry, American capital is in large measure in control of cork production, Portugal has the lowest nat- ional income in Europe, The bulk of the population lives on the edge of poverty. Working con- ditions are bad, Every year there are up to 400,000 industrial ac- cidents with about 500 of them fatal. The government answers pro- tests with terrorism, Many towns and villages are, in effect, under concentration-camp regimes, A cunning espionage system oper- ates in the factories and mills. The least protest from the work- ing people evokes brutal re- prisals. Thousands of people have been convicted on the strength of the law penalizing so-called“crimes against religion, state security and public order® In the period 1956-60, I was told, 22,000 people In South Korea, the U,S, has built 11 major air and naval bases, The Kunsan, Osan, Taegu and other air bases are manned. ’ by the Fifth U,S, Air Force, Also stationed in South Korea is the Eighth U.S, Field Army of more than 50,000 officers and men, An important link in the U,S, ‘chain of bases (notesSoviet writ- er A, Sanin in an article in Inter- national Affairs) is the island of Taiwan, a part of the Chinese People’s Republic: which is il- legally occupied and on which the U.S, has built dozens of air- fields, The biggest air bases are located at Taipei, Tainan, Tao- yan and elsewhere, The warships of the U,S, Seventh Fleet, sta- tioned in this area, are based on the ports of Tanshui and Kaoh- siung, The U,S, pays particular atten- tion to strengthening its bridge- head in the Philippines, which it U.S. bases show aggressive strategy has turned into a strategic supply centre for its numerous bases in the Western Pacific, There the U.S, has built 23 bases, including the Clark Field base at Luzon with a personnel of 10,000. The U,S, attaches mueh im- portance to consolidating its position in Thailand, which plays a major strategic role in South- east Asia in view of the growing national-liberation movement, Grossly violating the Geneva Agreements of 1954, the U,S, has turned South Vietnam into astra- tegic bridgehead, There were only six military airfields in this country in 1964; today there are 110. The U,S, has rebuilt and constructed 11 naval ports and naval bases (there were only two bases in 1954), Despite the mili- tary buildup, the U,S, is losing its “undeclared war” in South Vietnam, Generosity of ‘D “As you may be‘aware, the from January 1, 1965, to ail “A separate cheque in the Old age pensioners in British Columbia last week received the following message with their cheques: British Columbia has authorized payment of $1.00 a month as supplementary social allowance as a responsibility of British Columbia, in order to assist with transportation cost, to all those entitled to it within the next few days. OLD-AGE ASSISTANCE BOARD?” The old age pensioner who bought it to the P.T, office said he was packing his bags for a trip to Hawaii, ynamic Society’ Government of the Province of persons presently receiving amount of $1.00 will be mailed were thrown into jail. Thisisa big figure for a total population of about 10 million, Salazar’s regime is threatened The liberation struggle of the peoples of Angola and other Port- ugese colonies has struck a hard blow at it. The democratic forces oppos- ing the fascist dictatorship are uniting, But, as I heard many Portugese say: “We’re ina dif- ficult position, not only politically but geographically. On one side we have the ocean, on the other Franco Spain,” ‘The people will rise and overthrow Salazar’ I asked my friend Silvester: “Will the people muster the strength in these conditions to overthrow Salazar?” “Of course they will,” he said, “As cold ashes sometimes con- ceal smouldering coals, the out- ward calm of these people con- ceal a hatred that is ready to burst into flame at any moment, Portugal’s tragedy will soon come to an end. The people will square their shoulders, and then woe to those who now keep them in poverty and misery,” PERSON NAMED iN BELOW ee \. EDITION OF ‘PT’ THE COUPON , $ ZEREE fits “WILL BE SENT THE WEEKLY Celebrations. Please send the paper to: ADDRESS2 3235 oe 30TH ANNIVERSARY Vutreductory Offer Enclosed is $1 for a. 3-month subscription to the Pacific Tribune. This is my way of observing the PT’s birthday, in the spirit of the 30th Anniversary (This offer applies only to new subscriptions and expires on March 31, 1965) February 5, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 11