By 5. MURRAY SMITH

Te soldiers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army are scaling the passes and traversing the plateaus of Tibet while the press of the capitalist world bemoans the “invasion” of a land it concedes is historically a part of China ‘and speculates hopefully about embroiling India in the inter- vention for which certain Amer!- can interests are clamoring.

It has been to the interest of ~

imperialism to pretend, for the past half century, that Tibet is a. remote, “independent” country. In actual fact it has long been @ pawn of imperialist ambitions.

Throughout the 19th century

British secret agents, acting from —

bases in Northern India, pene- trated Tibet on a number of occasions. In the aggressive surge of British imperialism which marked the turn of the century, a small army, disguised as a “military mission,” marched to Lhasa, and forced a “treaty” on the administration there in 1904, :

From the early 18th century Tibet had been part of Chinese territory, with Chinese residents in Lhasa. The Chinese govern- ment, presented with this fait accompli and itself in a. weak and divided state, had no option but to ratify this ‘treaty’. By it both China and Britain agreed not to “annex” Tibetan territory, and China agreed to permit no other foreign powers to interfere in Tibet, over which she retain- ed sovereignty. ;

Not surprisingly, in 1907, one year after this agreement, Bri-

tain nevertheless concluded an —

‘agreement with Tsarist Russia creating “spheres of interest” in the country, This followed a similar deal over the carcass of Persia. é

When the Manchu dynasty fell in China in 1911, groups in Lhasa expelled the Chinese representa- tives there. Nevertheless, Sun

Yat Sen on more than one occa- .

sion reminded the world that _ Tibet is Chinese soil. Although there were no direct representa- tives of Chinese authority at Lhasa until 1934, Chinese influ- ence remained paramount in the eastern part of the country.

"The intrigues of the British continued. In 1914, talks were held between the Chinese govern- ment and the British at Simla. Britain, while recognising once more Chinese suzerainty, and ad-

mitting the right of the Chinese

authorities to garrison Lhasa, nevertheless attempted to maneu- ver the Chinese into recognizing

development

When Chu Teh, comman- der in Chief of the Chinese People’s Army gave orders to his troops to march into Ti- bet, he fulfil- led a promise of long stand- ing to the Ti- betan people.

ents in Tibet — the Dalai Lama himself came under strong Bri- tish pressure and encouragement to resist the Chinese authorities — were directed by a political officer 1936, a British mission went to Lhasa, Even after formation of the Indian government this offi- cer remained an Englishman, and so highly do the British prize their influence in Tibet that they have insisted that the head of the Indian mission in Lhasa be an Englishman.

A recent indication of the de- termination of the British to

stationed at Sikkim. In-

lh ae aie sd 78

Following this, in May this year, a group of American of- ficers arrived in India to super- vise transportation of war ma-

terial to Tibet. The arms were to be taken in sealed railway cars to Darjeeling and from thence to Lhasa, where they were to be distributed to monasteries and to the army. It is not known how much material has actually arrived in Tibet, but recent re ports indicate that at least con- siderable quantities of small arms have been supplied. The agree- ment for the right to transport arms over Indian territory was

Intrigue in

Tibet —

“zones” dividing Tibet. Although

initialled, this convention was repudiated by the Chinese gov- ernment and never ratified. However, any concession as va- luable as this was to the British could not be allowed to evapor- ate. In 1921, Lord Curzon, who had despatched the 1904 expedi-

tion, informed the Chinese gov- - ernment that the British govern-.

ment considered the convention binding. Anthony den, as the British foreign minister, re-em- phasized this in 19438 when he sent a’ memorandum to T. V. Soong stating that Britain “ag- reed” to recognize Eastern Tibet as part. of China, on the condi- tion that the Chinese government did not “compete with British interests in Lhasa.”

e ’ : From 1904 onwards, British ag-

— Socia

of America’s anthracite industry raise their voice. Four hundred million dollars have been invest- ed in the antharcite mines, which supply coal to heat 6,000,000 hous- es inhabited by 35,000,000 people. So the mine owners are uneasy, they are afraid they might for- feit their profits if atomic ener- gy came to offer serious compe- tition to anthracite.

hared

These apprehensions are share

py the big oil operators, by the

owners of: power stations, rail-

ways, shipping companies and so on. > ‘

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has hastened to set their minds b

paqioe ‘after due consultation with physicists, that there ig no need to fear the early replace- ment of present sources of en-

ergy by atomic energy.

: ain we can only say — sich teat logic of capitalism. —

Atomic energy can greatly in- crease and cheapen the produc- tion of everything that man re quires and can make his work easier. This is to the advantage of the vast majority of the earth's inhabitants.

But where the super-trusts and _

es hold sway, words and Doe ae twisted out of their customary meaning. The word “plenty” becomes a synonum of “overproduction”, and the word “cheap” comes to mean “crisis”, Labor-saving machinery leads to

unemployment and to’ scientific,

— to ances and discoveries st ona more perfected methods of exterminating human life.

@ iniam F. Ogburn, an Ameri-

can sociologist, writes that the of atomic energy

“ig very likely to speed us fur-

announcing in OMe of |

thing upside down,

maintain their position in Tibet was the refusal of the British government to issue visas to Ti- betan representatives who wish- ed to travel to Peking via Hong Kong, to discuss relations with the’ Chinese government.

The British have always taken care that certain chosen Tibetans should receive military training in the British staff colleges of Quetta and Dehra Dun. One of these puppets is Dzasa Yuthok, trained by the British at Quetta, who is at present in India,

American interest in Tibet has expanded since the war, and last year the American propagandist and adventurer, Lowell Thomas, undertook a journey to Lhasa, with the blessing and assistance of the U.S, state department, and had “consultations” with the Da- lai Lhama on the question of American military assistance,

ism will

ther on the road to serfdom, as the term is now used — to tend to reinforce movements towards monopoly and towards cartels . . . It will tend to strengthen the big industries

... I think maybe we ought

to consider declaring a mora-

torium on all pure science and

on the researches of all natural

science development until the

social sciences can tell us what to do about it.”

So the idea is to shackle science because it is advancing too rapid- ly!

The British physicist Professor Blackett tells of two American engineers who not so long ago suggested an international agree- -ment to prevent the use of ato- mic energy for industrial pur- poses for at least one generation. These two are not the only ones who want to see the progress of science and technology ham- strung. Last March, the New York Times Magazine published an article by Bertrand Russell, the British “philosopher”, under the title “The Science to Save Us From Science.”

This makes strange reading in- deed to the Soviet citizen, who welcomes every new scientific dis- covery and invention, every new achievement of the researchers of our country.

But dimperialism turns every- A boon be- comes a curse, and great scien- tific discoveries evoke consterna- tion and a desire to muzzle science. ‘ ‘ ’

We could say to Ogburn that the social sciences have already

‘told us under what social sys- tem science can and must become

a boon for mankind, not a curse. “We could tell him how under socialism science remakes nature and puts its forces to work for

negotiated ‘directly between Neh- ru and Hienderson, the U.S. am- bassador in New Delhi.

No one, perhaps will ever know the full history of British in- trigue in Tibet. But even these facts are enough to fill us with. wonder at the hypocrisy of the British ruling-class when the London Times writes (July 29, 1950) that the “happy” Tibetans should be ‘allowed to enjoy’ their “independence”,

How “happy” are the Tibetans? Tibet, a country of 465,000 square miles and of some five million people, is a feudal theocracy of the most primitive kind. One- half of the whole revenue is absorbed by the lamaseries, and one-quarter by the nobility.

There are more than 3,000 mo- nasteries, with a priesthood of one quarter of. the population.

work miracles

the good of the people at large. e

I have endeavored to give the roughest sketch of the benefits that science will bring to man- kind in the era of eternal peace, when there will be no more wars when imperialism, the source of war, crisis and unemployment, will exist no longer.

In his day, K. E. Tsiolkovsky, the great Russian scientist and inventor, wrote in his book The Future of the Earth and the Cos- mos that “the earth is a desert” and that “the earth will have to be put in order.”

Our planet seemed a desert to him compared to the flourishing garden that he dreamed of mak- ing it and that it can indeed be- come. .He predicted that the earth would be put in order when “man becomes the master of the soil, the oceans, the air, the weather, the plants, and of him- self.”

Tremendous are the which man will accomplish when he takes his fitting place in the world. these tasks will against disease.

The two billion dollars spent on the first atom bomb could have been used to build a thou- sand splendily-equipped institutes for combating tuberculosis, can- cer and other diseases which every year takes a toll of millions of lives.

But these thousand institutes are an infinitesimally small mag- nitude compared with what the

be the fight

world would gain if all the efforts _

of man armed with science were dedicated to peaceful construc- tive labor,

The war against death will be-

come the principal war waged by mankind when there are no more wars between human be-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 17, 1950 — PAGE 5

_ preme authority, appealed to the

‘tasks

And foremost among

The lamaseries own two-thirds of the country’s cultivable land, free from a rent which if levied would amount to some $2,400,000. The vast mass of the unfortunate Tibetan, people are sunk deep in serfdom, dirt and misery, com- mitted to the support of a vast parasitic class.

The Tibetan people have long been stirring under these oppres- sive conditions. In the feudal conditions prevailing, it is not surprising that sections of the oppressing classes themselves have taken a leading part in the demands, In 1947, the monks of the large Sera monastery re- volted against the regent at Lha- sa, but were suppressed by the troops.

Last year, Tibetan representa- tives attended the People’s Politi- cal Consultative Conference in Peking. At the end of last year the Panchen Lama, Tibet’s su-

Chinese People’s government to liberate Tibet from the sphere of Anglo-American intrigue and in- corporate it as a constituent part of the People’s Republic of China. He is at present in exile in Tsinghai.

‘A number of Tibetan intellec- tuals and others have called for transformation of the present re- actionary regime. Some have suffered imprisonment - and worse—for their ‘pains. Others are working among sections of the Tibetan people where they are out of reach of the ragtag troops of the Lhasa authorities, which are directed by Nazis who escaped from interment in India during the war.

It is clear that present im- perialist intrigues are aimed at “proving” the right of the reac- tionary Lhasa clique to rule Tibet and to open it up for ex- ploitation by them. It is no less clear that the Chinese gov- ernment recognizes and de- nounces these transparent plans, and is determined to conclude the liberation of the people of Tibet from their age-old back- wardness and misery,

ings. Man can and will lengthen the span of life on this planet of ours, which he will remodel to make living a joy.

And as you think of all this, it comes home to you with re- ‘doubled force how cynical and revolting are the disquisitions of those who are already counting the anticipated profits of an ato- mic war!

Portraying this war, some of the novelists in the West conjure up all manner of nightmares. They paint prospects of soil that has lost its fertility, of poisoned water sources and contaminated air, of ore deposits ruined by radioactivity, of burnt-out forests and fields, of towns destroyed and of people reverting to sav- agery among ruins that once were homes, That is what these gravediggers predict for the world.

But they are singing these dir- ges too soon. Mankind is en- dowed with sufficient reason to © choose life, not death. It is not in the least inclined to commit suicide. ;

This is proved by the countless signatures of men and women © who demand the prohibition of the atomic bomb and the con-— demnation as war criminals of those who first start an atomic war, “

It is declared, even more loud- ly, broadcasts and articles, by scien- tists, writers, workers, peasants in every corner of the world.

But the weightiest and most convincing proof of it is the ra-_ pid progress of the Land of So- — viets, the Land of Socialism, and — the steady forward movement of mankind to Communism, which will transform our planet and make it a happy home for every- one who works. : i

in appeals and resolutions, —