Too old at forty ~ . By LESLIE MORRIS Medical science extends the life span, and modern industrial technique shortens it. In Ontario, life expectancy in 1931 for a new-born baby boy was 60 years; in 1956 it was 67.6 years, and since then it has risen still more. * “exit, ” * Industrially the picture is just the reverse. “Our society”, says Dr. C. Keith Stuart, of Ontario’s public welfare department, society of youth worshippers. We start to reject people too early. A man is considered too old to change his job even at 43. So by the time he is 60 he has_a built-in feeling of being rejected.”’ Dr. Jesse J. Frankel, an American sociologist and expert in the problem of older people (now a branch of medicine called gerontology) says hi a man or woman who hasn’t reached stability in S or her job at the age of 40 is on the way to the door marked He says the working man or woman has only 15 peak years ‘is a ereen leaving school and getting a job, and the time when he or € is regarded as “‘too old” for advancement. Of the century is age.” One writer has put it this way: “The greatest American crime * The medical people are strongly of the opinion that this “too old at 40" practice in modern industry is utter nonsense. ee Dr. Peter Kinsey of Toronto says: ‘Some folks in their 80's an be more alert than those in their 40's and can recover from _ “fess relatively easily.” Dr. Stuart says: “The extension courses at Columbia University ve proved experimentally that persons in any age group who have _ toughout their lifetime shown a tendency to learn new things retain pat faculty. They have shown that 70-year-olds can learn Russian, ___ “tence in interests, capacites and capabilities.” * * * ‘ cen learn typing with the same facility as 30-year-olds. But just” < in 20-year-olds, one is going to find in 60-year-olds a wide ¥ i, ne i ne ee ee _ Other 4 BERLIN — flat West the Deutse briviy er py thes bee ability Basically, the problem is an economic one—the readiness and of industry and commerce to retain people and to make them feel useful, But the profit motive works against this attitude, which is not a humanist, but economically sound. Skills and experience are ey come by and all the wonders of electronics and the new mre. ot cybernetics will not and cannot replace them. ob labo _ The doctors fake the action. * f Pa Shorter work-week, retraining programs, portable pensions, af old age pensions at lower ages, health insurance—this is + he ae Program ‘for resisting the brutal throwing of workers on to ; Industrial Scrap-heap in the prime of their lives. can only advise; it is for the labor movement to _ It is time for labor to take up the principle that no employer can b them to premature senility. * © allowed any longer to wreck the lives of people and sentence \ * 5) The Canadian economy must be able to employ people at useful t from the time they leave school until they choose by their own en to ‘retire from active production—then perhaps to take up Skills which the doctors assure us are within their grasp. CHINA STRESSES PEACEFUL SOLUTION IN NOTE TO INDIA By BERT WHYTE PT Correspondent _ PEKING — Peking newspapers continue to give banner headlines to new Chinese peace proposals, news of troop withdrawals along the entire Sino-Indian border and the handing over of sick and wounded Indian army personel. Latest memorandum of the Chinese foreign ministry, deliver- ed Dec. 9 to the Indian embassy here, demands definite reply to three questions: : © does the Indian government agree, or does it not agree to a ceasefire; @ that the armed forces of the two sides should disengage and withdraw 20 kilometres each from the Nov. 7, 1959 line of actual control. e and the officials of the two sides should meet and discuss matters relating to withdrawal by both sides to form a demili- tarized zone, the establishment of checkposts and the return of captured personnel. A second note from the foreign affairs ministry to the Indian embassy strongly protested the eeeess decision of In- - dia to termin- ‘ ate the Indian China to term- inate its con- > f sulates - gener- al at Calcutta and Bombay from the same date. The Chinese consulates will be closed but China declared India “must bear full responsibility for all the ill effects and consequen- ces that this action may pro- duce.” Indian reluctance to respond positively to the Chinese cease- fire and withdrawal of troops was castigated by the foreign office ministry. It emphasized that the key issue which will de- cide if the border conflict can be terminated and peaceful negotia- tions reopened is whether or not ‘disengagement of the two sides is agreed upon and whether or not the 1959 line of actual con- trol is accepted as the base line. NO BASIC CONFLICT “China and India are two big countries in Asia,” the statement concluded. ‘‘There is no conflict of fundamental interests between them. It is desirable and entirely possible to settle the Sino-Indian boundary question in a friendly way through peaceful negotia- tions. “We advise the Indian govern- ment not to trust blindly to force of arms. The boundary question cannot be settled by relying on armed force. This is the case now and will also be the case in the future, even though more foreign aid may be forthcoming. “The measures taken by China on its own initiative have opened up an avenue toward the peace- ful settlement of the Sino-Indian boundary question. The whole world awaits a positive response from India.’ Meanwhile, the Indian embas- sy in Peking is presenting its case to foreign journalists here through a stream of bulletins, mainly arguing in detail the merits of the McMahon Line. It is ironical that a statement of British plenipotentiary A. H. McMahon, dated March~ 28, 1914, observed that the detailed ‘mu- tual agreement’ he _ obtained with Tibet had the object of mini- mizing ‘‘as far as possible the chances of future misunderstand- ing and dispute on the subject.” Peking continues to reply that the so-called McMahon Line is a line which British Imperialism tried to impose on China and which no Chinese government has ever: recognized. Another Indian contention ig that their alignment of the In- dia-China boundary lies. along high and continuous watersheds ranging in height from 14,000 to a . : : ne a Ne pLeNn ae 8 on A West German view of Der Spiegel. affain - 25,000 feet and forming a ‘“‘ma- Jestic wall of, nature, in sharp contrast to the man-made great wall of China, over which foxes leap today.” In contrast, says India, the alignment claimed by China, “‘be- sides lacking foundation in his- tory is a very artificial one, jumpng from peak to peak and cutting across watersheds and rivers.”’ MUST MEET It seems evident that when negotiations open — and open they must — both sides will have to make concessions, ag happen- ed-in Chinese negotiations with Burma and Nepal which resulted in satisfactory border lines being agreed upon. Main thing at the moment is to get India to the conference table and observers here hope that the Colombo conference of six Afro Asian countries will help achieve this aim. As Prince Norodom Sihanouk, head of state of Cambodia, put it on his arrival at Colombo: “In my opinion the impending conference ig not called upon ta discuss, and still less to examine the background to the quarrel between our Chinese and Indian friends, nor should it put forward any suggestion in regard to ways and means of finding solutions to . the problem which remains ex. clusively a Sino-Indian matter. “The purpose of the conference should be rather that of devising some means of inducing China and India to meet as friends and to negotiate a definite settle ment of their frontier dispute in an..atmosphere of. mutual con- fidence essential to the success of such discussions.’’ Rewspeper By MAX REICH PT Correspondent — In the 13 years Germany has been he Bundesrepublik, and neo-nazi organiza- have widely enjoyed the ges of its “democracy.” ese organizations have <4 multip lied and flourish- ed and are E now number- ted at some oe 1,100. The » Himmler SS alone has over 40 dif- ferent organi- zations func- with full legality eir old names. - ir of West German cy has not, however, tions ®Mocra nen 80 *8aNiations, a €n years after those bord beneficial to anti-Nazi- of Germany occupied by the Western Allies became ‘a state, there is only one anti- fascist organization still al- lowed -to function legally on that state’s territory. It is the Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes (VVN),. or Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime. Now even this lone survi- “vor is in danger of joining the hundreds of other anti- fascist organizations that have fallen victim to the police and courts since Adenauer, Glob- ke and Strauss became the guardians of West German democracy. The case is before the courts — not in West Ger- many mind you, but in the NATO war camp of West Berlin. - The trial could have gone unnoticed by many in the West, and the papers could have chosen to play it down. Events exploded sensationally vost Oi EE AON EBSD -E OG Bonn persecutes | during the trial, however, when a concentration camp victim stood up in the pub- lic gallery and denounced the court’s president as a former nazi. The court went into a hud- dle and later announced the case would be postponed. - HISTORY OF CASE Action against the VVN was first begun in 1959, when Gerhardt Schroeder, then West German minister for in- ternal affairs, asked the courts to declare it an illegal organization. But public opinion in Ger- many and abroad forced a number of delays. The West German government has ap- parently decided the time is now ripe to liquidate all op- position, and Nov 29 was set as the date for proceedings against the victims of the nazis. Why action against the itler victims VVN? It is not a political or- ganization. Its membership re- flects the» situation that pre- vailed in nazi prisons and con- centration camps whose anti- fascist inmates resisted Hitler for a variety of reasons. They are Catholics, pacifists, social- ists, Communists and others. But the organization has energetically traced war cri- minals and has provided doc-: umentary evidence on the nazi pasts of men like Globke, Oberlander, General Foertsch, the hundreds of blood judges, Gestapo men, nazi activists and others who have become the backbone of the state that German monop- oly built. The case has been assigned to a court in West Berlin, al- though the VVN is a West German organization. West Berlin is not and never was part of West Germany. No organization ; West < Garin can be under the jurisdiction of a West Berlin court. : The West German govern- ‘ment obviously believes that the West Berlin atmosphere is more conducive to its case. It will be handled in an ad- ministrative way, before an administrative court — whicn means the court will be able to refuse to hear witnesses and can cut short defense pro- ceedings at any time, as well. as exclude the public. There have been many pro- tests from Germany and people all over the world. There is no doubt that Can- adians too will express their feelings at this planned out- rage. e (As the PT went to press, it was learned that the above trial has been postponed in- definitely because of world- wide protests and the fear of fresh scandal in West Ger- many.) © 5