ERT | eI A Greek mother fights for her sons By PHYLLIS ROSNER oh ony Ambatielos, president of’ the Federation of Greek Mari- time Unions, has been under sSen- tence of death in an Athens jail for. a whole year. That he has not been executed, as hundreds Were before him,'is due only to - the repeated and constant pro- tests of unionists in other lands, many of which have been carried to ‘the United Nations. Betty Bartlett Ambatielos, Bri- - tish wife of the imprisoned sea- men’s leader, who sailed in trans Atlantic convoys throughout the has just released excerpts réceived from, an old war, from letters she her husband’s mother, working in Greece. woman, Piraeus, The elder Mrs. Ambatielos has two sons. +The second, Nicos, seems to have been jailed only “because he was Tony’s brother. Transmitting ; ty ‘“Ambatielos wrote: “Ine the. short extracts that follow will get a glimpse of the drama of this Greek mother; you will see her grim struggle to save her. two. : sons from starvation and the exe- cution squad. Above all, you will “see her amazing spirit. She is typical of Greek womenfolk to- ‘ you day.” i This is what, the elder. Mrs. Ambatielos wrote: _ ; May 18, 1949: “. . . On Wednes- day I had a message to go to Aegina (where Nicos, the younger son, is imprisoned).. Just imagine what a state I was in. I felt with- out hope. I rushed to get a travel permit and managed to get one within an hour. But I was ter- ribly ‘ worried and I don’t know how my heart stood it. It was awful going to the police (the same men who arrested the boys). I went. to Aegina but fate was against me. I ‘stayed tere for these letters, Bet-_ “are in, Greek Woman Liberation Fighter three days but they would not let me see Nicos.’ (Mrs. Ambatielos learned later that she was not allowed to see her son because all the prisoners were on a hunger strike following executions in the prison.) equnos, 1680: “1 went to Qeeina again and saw the state the boys Nicos is ill with a tem- perature, the same as the rest. He is a skeleton — just like a. corpse. pocket so light?” July 18, 1949: “Nicos is well again now except that he is al- ways writing me to ask how his ease is going (his appeal.against the death sentence). He lives with that nightmare.” (During these months the old woman was sewing day in and day out to get parcels of food to send to her two sons.) ‘ July 23, 1949: “Mrs. G. has brought me material to sew a dress for her, and when I get the money I will send 60,000 drach- {mas ($5.60) to Tony. Don’t wor- ‘ry that the sewing is tiring me. When I am paid I forget the fatigue! But I am not working eae for the OREN: We ante both . Ls Leaders: of New and spared’ year: ‘was arrested and sentenced to a year in. jail. While in ‘jail he met and fell in love with Teng Ying Chao, a brilliant and educated young woman whom he later married. - Chou ‘went to France in the early twenties to study, and he was four years in France and Germany. He speaks fluent French, German and, English. Around 1925 he returned to China to become ‘secretary of the pro-— vincial committee of the national government at Canton, and a year later he became chief of the — ‘political Sepaterent of Whamneo. esate : Spee eae Lee, ‘When the ‘Kuomintang. rece marched — northward to. invade the Yangtze Valley Chou was made political commissar of. the First National army. Chou went ahead of the army into Shanghai to organize the workers — and_ they formed a disciplined group of men so that Chiang was able to sake the ate without a. fight. tens 1919 he power. ’ mune the Communist party went In 1927 Chou was Sastaned and was sentenced to death by_ ; (CRISHE: but Het escaped. 3 He fled to Hankow whete the Communist units were still in After the Canton com- underground in the cities like Shanghai and Hongkong and Can- ton and Chou continued to work fearlessly with the outlawed or- ganization. In 1928 he went to Moscow to attend the sixth congress of the Communist International and af- ter the Long March ended in 1935 he returned as the delegate for the Seventh Congress. *~ tn 1936, “during ‘the Sian ek Agent when the Young Mars' al "kidnapped old Chiang in a des- perate effort to force a declara- tion of war against Japan, Chou was the Communist party nego- tiator, After the so-called Coali- tion government and the united front was formed, Chou went to Chungking as the Communist representative. days. What can I do, with my . © ‘difficulties. there is great hope for a better working for something more pre- cious.” © : August 15, 1949: ‘I finished the sewing and got the money, so I prepared a hamper to send... I took it down to the harbor but when I got there I was told it could not go. The boys are being punished, so they cannot receive food or money from home for. 45 I took the hamper back to the house and all the way I was thinking of how I got that money .. . Send me a bottle of Sloans liniment to rub my ‘arm, | because it aches ‘with sewing.” August. 1, 1949: “IT went to see Mus, K. She now has four sons _ in the army. The youngest one, just married, has been taken too. ‘His wife hardly speaks. Betty, I have decided not to visit anyone from now on. Where can I go? Everyone is in tears. And some beat their .breasts. But I put them to shame. I’m a heroine. In. the home and outside, I am busy. I do my sewing and my house shines. There are some people who could drown in a spoonful of water. But I say, It’s in the storm that the captain shows what he’s worth.’ ” September 2, 1949: “I had a letter from Tony. He asks me to send him a mattress and a pair of trowsers. He says I shouldn’t send the bit of food I get together to him but to Nicos. But when I send to Nicos, he says: ‘Send it to ony, 3 < October 19, 1949: appeal has been rejected. They say we have only ten days. The blood has rushed to my head and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how I have escaped an- other heart attack,’ My tears alone every night are sufficient for that. But never mind me. Do what you can for the boys.” : “I am writing — because people say that, Tony's The Ambatielos brothers are still alive, but any day may bring their executions. Their mother and Tony’s wife ask all unions to keep up their protests, to wire them to the Greek government, to the U.S. and British govern- ments which have so much influ- ence in Royalist Greece, which they support in the civil war and 7 the United Nations. China The last ie I saw Chou was oi down in Anhwei province when “the New Fourth army was in trouble. He was velty tired, hav- ‘ing walked a great distance over the hills in order to get to the army base, but he was not too tired to talk about my experien- ces of getting lost in China. He said he was glad I was going home, for he would not have to worry about me eerting: lost eter a aye Oe Pay long as people have the will» 4 to continue resistance they can- — not be beaten. But people must have confidence. and faith in their leaders and their leaders in- turn | must justify ‘this confidence by — providing the people with hope 5 fora better way of life, by living humbly and. simply, administer~ ing justly and. earnestly endea- voring to help people ‘solve their Surely” for China way of life, so long as leaders like . these three are the watchful guar- dians of the land. crusader ‘takes the stump Wink THE AMERICAN PEOPLE haveiearned of Vito Marcantonio as.a man who fights hard, often alone, on major issues in Congress, it is only his own 18th congressional distuict in New York. City, which until now has seen him on the street corners and in the halls, fighting the big fights down oe the people, no holds /b arred and no quarter asked. ‘ : No other man in» American political life of the past two ' decades has been so maligned, so singled out for enmity and abuse by the press. The late President Roosevelt, who ré- ceived far more than his share of the filth flung out by the press, was protected in some measure by the dignity of his office and the support of a sec- tion of the press. corner, shouting at the top of his voice, defying his enemies, meeting red-baiting headon,, is entirely different from the \ Mare speaking earnestly and quietly over the uadio, his voice sounding as if it came from the big easy chair in your living room. @ In following LaGuardia’s © footsteps, Marcantonio has _ done more than take over the Lucky Corner rally and be elected seven times from La- Guardia’s old district. He has been at-one with his constitu- ents; he knows them better than any people in the world. He was born there, he played there and was a political lea- der ther'e—managing LaGuar- dia’s first campaign—before he was old enough to vote. All this, then, goes into the small, bouncing figure that is But Marcantonio, while hav- ing neither that protection nor support, has thrived on the unanimous calumny flung at him by the press. @ To see Marcantonio cam- paign is to see something un- equalled in America. The very pace he sets wears out the op- : position, forcing them -panic and mistakes. present campaign for Mayor of New York, for example, he is not only speaking at an average of four meetings a night, but is carrying on his duties as a ~ congressman without letup. Every day that Congress is in session. Marcantonio -flies .to Washington in the morning, flies back in the evening. into In his ; ‘ARNOLD SROOG tells the story of VITO MARCANTONIO in his campaign for mayor of New York Then beging his campaign- © ing day. Upon his arrival in the city he confers with his campaign aides on local deve- § lopments and general Ameri- can. Labor. Party. problems, since he is state chairman of the party. Then he launches § himself on his speaking tour, usually concluding near mid- night. Starting-at midnight an array of visitors parades into his headquarters for a short § conference, a handshake, a 3 _* question or a pledge of sup- port. Rare is the night that” ends before 2 a.m. A story is making ‘the rounds of ALP clubs which neatly packages the regard ALP mem-~ bers have for Marcantonio. It seems that there was a_ progressive family, the father ‘ and mother being: ardent ad- mirers of Marcantonio. As a ' result much of their home con- versation was about what this man Marcantonio did and his name became a commonplace ‘in their household. This did not fall on deaf ears, since ‘their young son was always listening intently. _ After a passage of time, the child was old enough to be taken to a political rally at which Marcantonio was sche-— duled to speak. He sat through > the first part of the meeting quietly enough, but suddenly — “Youd cheering broke out and the, bantam figure of Marc- antonio strode to the platform amid the tumult. As the noise / _ died down the boy’s voice was heard asking his parents in a confused and plaintive voice: “But why is Marcantonio only one man?” | : And, in a manner of speak- ing, he is more than one man. The Marcantonio Who. stands _ before an open mike on a street REP. VITO MARCANTONIO- . He Won 365,000 Votes Marcantonio, when he mounts gthe makeshift platform under the string of lights on the cor- ner of East 116 Street and Lexington Avenue for the tra- ditional Lucky Corner rally the night before Election Day. There are Puerto Ricans in, ‘the crowd, who have heard Mare speak to them in fluent Spanish; there are Italians — who have heard Mare (Viva Marcantonio!) speak to them in the language of his parents .and theirs; there are working people from every nationality in New York, standing in the ‘audience to hear the man they know will speak what is in © their hearts. as it stands packed shoulder to shoulder, cheers breaking out every few sentences and a rollicking confidence expressed “in every rumble from the audi- ence. For Marcantonio is the crowd, his color and militancy comes’ from them, as do his language and his manner. He » expresses them and they ex- ~ ‘press themsélves in him. Marcantonio, the cam- paigner, is the people crusad- ing. i ~All this goes out to the crowd — T PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 11, 1949—PAGE 5 I.