Red Cross position on atom. bomb ban ‘two steps backward’

‘ TORONTO

“Two steps backward”’ is how Soviet Red Cross delegate Nikolai Slavin described preliminary efforts to torpedo a Soviet resolution calling for “the immediate and unrestricted prohibition of the use

of atomic weapons.”

Speaking in the general commission sessions of the 18th Inter-

national Red Cross Conference here, Slavin declared that his: dele- gation reserved the right to pre- sent its draft resolution to the plenary session of the conference. The general commission voted 48 to 0 on a British-amended text which struck out the section of the resolution dealing with an immediate ban and referring the entire matter to the UN disarma- ‘ment body, frustrated in its work by the opposition of .the U.S., British and French’ delegations at the UN. Eight abstained.

Slavin said it was a retrograde step for Red Cross and contrary to its fundamental principles, not-

ing that the 17th International’

Red Cross Conference in 1948 had endorsed just such a resolution. Mme. L. Teh Chuan, People’s Republic of China Red Cross lead- er, said, “The real aim of the am- _ endment made by the British dele- ‘gation is not to support the So- viet resolution but to kill it and _ to delay a convention for the pro- hibition of the use of atomic weapons,”’

A general resolution submitted by the Red Cross groups of Aus- tralia, Belgium, Brazil, France

and a number of other countries Was unanimously adopted in the

discussion on the Red Cross: and|

peace. It described war as “the _ greatest scourge that may strike humanity,” urging “cooperation and mutual help . . . to ward off the scourge of war.”

Earlier, Leopold Macaulay of Toronto, rose during general dis- cussion of the Soviet resolution, _ with a bitter irrelevant speech describing charges of germ war- fare, killings of POW’s on Kojeé

Island as just so much “political

garbage.” He received a stinging rebuke by Slavin who declared:

“The Russian delegation con- demns the speeches made by the representatives of Canada and

Malta. The Canadian remarks _ with respect to the Soviet draft resolution do not even mention

the discussion on it. We there-

fore conclude that he favors the use of atomic weapons which are against the conscience of people.” He concluded. by. saying: “If ‘this conference refuses to deal with this resolution, we will not go forward but backward.”

Significantly enough, the pres- ident of the League of Red Cross Societies, Justice Emil Sandstroem - of Sweden, abstained in the vot- ing that quashed the motion in the general commission. In his remarks prior to the vote, Sand- stroem said he had difficulty in accepting the (U.K. amendments to the Soviet resolution. “I think myself the Soviet proposal pro- Vides a more neutral basis for _ such a resolution.” He proposed ‘minor amendments, :

Following is a partial text of

original | Soviet resolution

vention providing for immedi- ate and unrestricted prohibition of the use of the atomic weap- ons, the use of which results in the mass extermination of mankind.

“The Conference calls upon all National Red Cross and Red Crescent as well as Red Lion and Sun societies to do their duty, namely, to obtain from their respective governments the prohibition of atomic weap- ons and also to urge their gov- ernments to conclude an inter- national convention to this end immediately.”

LPF, Labor make vood showing in Alberta despite Socred sweep

EDMONTON

The Social Credit party was -re- turned to power for its fifth con- secutive term in the provincial general election this week and will retain its huge majority in the next legislature. ' At Pacific Tribune press time the Socreds had captured 43 seats and were leading in 7; Liberals had 1 seat and were lead- ing in 4; CCF had 1 and were leading in 1; Independent-Social Credit had 1 seat; Progressive Conservatives had 1 seat and were leading in 1; and an Inde- pendent was leading in 1.

Premier E. C. Manning was elected on the first count in Ed-' monton (a seven-seat constitu- ency) as were Liberal leader J. Harper (Prowse and CCF leader Elmer E. Roper.

LPP leader Ben Swankey stood 15th among 29 candidates in Ed-

monton on the first count. He polled 809 votes, heading all of the CCF candidates with the ex- ception of Roper. a.

Result of the first count for‘ the six seats at stake in Calgary showed William Longridge, Mine- Mill official who ran as an Inde- pendent Labor candidate, in 15th place in a field of 25, with 527 votes,

Arthur Wray, first elected as a Social Credit candidate in 1944 and again as an Independent So- cial Crediter in 1948, lost his seat, in Banff-Cochrane to the Socred nominee,

An early tabulation of returns from more than half, the. polld showed that Social Credit receiy- ed 56 percent of the votes, the Same percentage as in 1948, The Liberal ivote advanced slightly and the CCF vote dropped from 19 percent to 15 percent.

BEN SWANKEY

15th in a field of 29

Continued from page 1 —

‘Mistake’ of Hiroshima must not be

this is no exaggeration.

Miss Tosik Yuasa, a Japanese girl who was in Hiroshima on Aug- ust 6, 1945, told her story when she signed the Stockholm petition, which pledges treatment of first users of atomic warfare as war criminals. /

Miss Yuasa said that, as a, Jap- anese, she did not wish to express any political judgment on the use of the atomic bomb against Hiro- shima. She would merely tell her own story. This is it:

“At the ‘moment the iain bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, @ man was sitting on the marble steps in front ofa bank. The man was literally volatilised, or trans- formed into a shadow. They found later on the marble steps a clear stain, which seemed indelible . the only thing that remained of this unfortunate being. '

“In many cases eyes came out of the sockets. You could find corpses whose eyes were hang- ing out of sockets, held only by the nerves.

“Practically speaking, one can Say that all life is about blotted out within a radius of three-fifths of a mile; outside that, three-fifths of a mile to a mile and a quarter distance, death is not immediate, but the victims suffer from terrible burns, _

“The burns, spreading more and

| More over victims’ bodies become

black and hard, and blisters are formed. The limbs, hands and legs, look like crabs’ legs.

“Men and jwomen lose their hair. Even if they survive, their hair will never grow.

“Another more horrible detail about these victims of atomic burns—the skin of the body comes

off altogether and the human be-|% ing is. transformed into a rag,

flayed, twisted in agony.”

Within a radius of about two miles, those not killed in Hiro- shima suffered from Pleetine Miss Yuasa, relates,

‘The blood,” she says, ‘flows from the nose and ears. It is al- most impossible to eat and swal- low food. ‘You can put a little water into the mouth of a, patient;

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he will look at you with a dull’

air,, and the water often drops from the corner of the mouth, mingled with blood.

-“The doctors say that even for

those victims less directly affect- ed, the number of white corpuscles diminished. ‘The body begins to decompose internally, and it is for that reason that the living in Hiroshima sometimes began to smell like ‘corpses.’ - * * * : _ Miss Yuasa emphasises the point brought out by John Hersey in his book on Hiroshima and by other investigators—the effect of radio-activity on people more than two miles from the ground centre of the blast. After two months, people with no burns or wounds were still dying.

Radio-activity was not properly understood by many medical workers in Hiroshima, and they went into affected areas to help those who had a chance of sur- vival. The badly wounded were often left to die, slowly.. Now that radio-activity is understood,

medical aid- may be-less likely for the wounded in affected areas,

Experiences in Hiroshima, re- lated by Miss Yuasa and others, indicate that “radiation sickness’”’ can bé picked up by contact with the afflicted, or from contamin- ated food and water, like a dread pestilence.

Sometimes in books of ad- venture there is a description of invisible rays—the death rays.

“The atom bomb is something similar—it does not only cause immediate mass death by explo-

sion; long after the explosion it

acts mysteriously through my ks

activity, and makes new victims

repeated

among the survivors.”

* * *

This is the atomic'bomb which, — President Truman claimed, ‘‘sav- ed lives,” and which, he declared, he would use again if he thought _ it “necessary,” How can human

ity accept the barbaric theory that

mass annihilation of innocent civ-

ilians, the giving of crabs’ legs —

instead of arms to human beings:

the slow mysterious deaths thati

continue so long after, can ever e ‘‘necessary’’?

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