MILLIONS REGULARLY PARTICIPATE

By PETER HERMANN
" In 1974, schools in the Ger-
yman Democratic Republic were
attended by 2,725,372 boys anc
irls between six and 8 years of
ge. They were learning at the
Country’s 5,036 general ten-year
Polytechnical high schools and
he 285 twelve-year high schools,
with the latter leading to matri-
culation standard..In the curri-
ula of these schools, the sports
€ssons are equal to German
‘anguage and history, physics
and 8eography, mathematics and
ussian.
In the first to fourth forms,
sports lessons at school include
the following events: track and
€ld athletics, apparatus work,
pymnastics, playing and swim-
In the fifth to twelfth
srades, lessons include basic
xercises such. as_ short-arm
tretches and climbing, athletics,
Ppparatus work, team competi-
40ns (football, handball, basket-
ball and volleyball), swimming,
>yMnastics and — depending on
Ocal conditions — ice skating
d other sports of the winter
eason,
While the six to nine-year-olds
‘Aforms one to three) and the 13
0 18-year-olds (grades seven to
€lve) have two sports lessons
Week, the curricula for
hildren from ten to twelve
€ars (grades four to six) envis-
ae three sports lessons every
fen “°K: Before leaving school the
*upils receive examinations in
4 ports,
' j General polytechnical high
d Chools in the GDR are equipped
With sports facilities which cor-
4 Pond to the integrated curri-
pula worked out by the Ministry
rf Education. The contents of
‘Ports lessons thus does not
*£Pend on the personal views
id ambitions of the teachers.
j Itogether, there are over 10,000
»Ports teachers working at GDR
chools, They have been trained
im Scientific methods at univer-
ities and colleges.
While almost every school in

Sports basic to school system

:

By JOHN GULLIVER
BERLIN — The German De-
3 cratic Republic’s missions to
ance and India have worked

Modern facilities, trained staff and an entire network of sports

organizations enable every school child in the GDR to develop his
or her physical skills to their full capacity.

the country has available open
air sports grounds for its pupils,
gymnasiums are usually shared
by two schools. (Despite great
efforts regarding the building of
flats as well as of schools and
gymnasiums — 45 gymnasiums
were built in the first half of
1975 — it will take some time
before every school has its own
gymnasium).

The systematic and highly ef-
fective sports lessons at school
have resulted in a strongly im-
proved quality of physical per-
formances of young people in the
GDR. After 10 or 12 years at
school the leaving certificates of
over 50% of pupils show good
or very good marks in sports.
Thanks to swimming lessons at
schools, over 96% of tenth-grade
and 99% of twelfth-grade pupils
(1974 figures) were swimmers.

Sports has become the fav-
ourite hobby of 60% of all
children and young people in the

fields.” =
Even observers hostile to the

4

GDR acknowledged the impor- _

tance of the GDR’s mission to

ut agreements for closer poli- the second most populous coun-

ee “he commercial ties with
« nd eading countries, in Paris
The a Delhi, as well as here.
Tae S and the agreements
i Pica” them were this week
BF the a proof of the strength
Rs Orces of co-existence in

world.
ve “ae mission to India was
rea 3 €fence Minister Heinz
sordial = He was received for a
faite eee of views by
Bat ci Inister Indira Gandhi
€r government leaders.

Te

declared, at the end of the
a sata the results achieved
h Urpassed all expectations.

Ss wae Shown, he declared,
tensific conditions exist” for
s aioe of - relations “in
the: fields area as well as in
4 sete Defence Minister Bansi
Beatign the visit of the GDR
ie On and said it had been
y useful and successful.” It
palecuted to improved
7 understanding, Lal said,
ded: “Both countries will

Taw mutual benefit from
€xperiences in

various.

trv in the world. They also
acknowledged, grudgingly, that
the very cordial reception given
to GDR Foreign Minister Oskar
Fischer in Paris last week nat
only showed the increased diplo-
matic stature of the socialist
German state but reflected the
new stage in European and
world diplomatic relations. ;

In Paris itself, French Foreign
Minister Jean Sauvagnargues de-
clared, at a dinner for GDR
Foreign Minister Fischer: “Your
visit is the first in France as
GDR foreign minister since the
establishment of diplomatic rela-
tions between our two states and
as a result of the conclusion of
agreements which laid the basis
for relaxation of tensions. The
significance of this visit will es-
cape nobody.” Sauvagnargues
emphasized that the Helsinki
Conference “opened new ways
cf working together between
countries with differing social
systems.” He also made it clear
that “for France the decisions
of Helsinki are a whole, and we

‘do not try to favor any single

\

GDR over the past few years.
There is a favorable develop-
ment of after-school sports
which is regarded a vital and,
simultaneously, pleasant and in-
teresting activity. The school
sports associations (SSG), found-
ed after 1961, are the basis of
these activities. Today, such as-
sociations function at three out
of four schools, altogether there
are about 3,600 of them. Includ-
ing the about 30% of children
who are members of the children

and youth branches of the Ger-°

man Gymnastics and Sports
Unicn of the GDR (DTSB) there
are some 1.5 million children in
the GDR who regularly go in for
sports.

The fact that besides the
sports teachers also 13,500 teach-
ers of other subjects volunteer
as instructors in the SSG’s is of
great significance to the stand-
ard of performances in the
school sports associations.

element.” He expressed ‘“‘com-
plete confidence” in the future of
relations between France and the
GDR, called for doubling or
further the trade between them,
and looked forward to the “de-
velopment of useful and cordial

relations between our two coun- ~

tries.”

At a press conference follow-
ing their deliberations, both
foreign ministers agreed that
their talks had laid the basis for
further progress in the mutual
relations between their two
countries. Foreign Minister
Fischer also declared the GDR
was ready to meet France half-
way, not only in doubling the
trade between the two countries,
but in tripling it.

The GDR mission to populous
India and to this leading capital-
ist country of France, which
made diplomatic observers in
Europe sit up and take notice,
are only the latest in a long
series of diplomatic exchanges
between the GDR and leading
countries on every continent.

During the past year, for ex-
ample, Foreign Minister Fischer
has deepened the GDR’s ties to
a series of Arab countries by
personal visits to Syria and Iraq.
He has also visited a number of

The so-called Pacific Doctrine,
was declared in Hawaii by U.S.
President Ford on his return
from talks with Chinese leaders
in Nov. 1975.

By ALEXEI LEONTYEV,
Novosti Press Agency analyst
One can hardly predict how

long the new “Pacific Doctrine”
of the United States will exist.
Maybe it will outlive the “Guam
Doctrine.” The old doctrine did
not help establish peace in Asia
but led to the opposite result,
setting some Asian _ states
against, others and complicating
their relations. Like the previous
doctrine, the “Pacific Doctrine”
does not take into account the
actual positive shifts which have
taken place in the world over the

last few years.

Since the relaxation of ten-
sions began to prevail in interna-
tional relations considerable
changes have shaped up on the
Asian continent and in the Paci-
fic. However, the new doctrine
continues to stake on the further
build-up of American military
might” and on preservation of
the “flexible and balanced posi-
tion of strength” under the pre-
text that this will contribute to
consolidation of ‘peace’ and
“stability” in Asia.

The desire of the great powers
to preserve peace in various re-
gions of the globe is commend-
able. However, experience has
shown that this should be done
not from “positions of strength”
but through other methods — by
the solution of all controversial
problems through negotiations,
the strengthening of security
and the expansion of cooperation
through joint efforts, the exclu-
sion of the use or threat of force
and the observance of the prin-
ciple of the inviolability of the
present state frontiers. Unfor-
tunately the new “Pacific Doc-
trine” again suggests that some

Latin American countries. In
December, Prime Minister Horst
Sindermann made a state visit
to Iran, where a new diplomatic
and commercial no man’s land
was opened up.

A large GDR delegation of
eccnomic experts then journeyed
to the USA for talks with lead-
ing U.S. Government and busi-
ness leaders. This week a dele-
gation of Italian experts has
come to the GDR for talks on
furthering ‘trade relations be-
tween the two countries.

One element in the long list
of diplomatic and commercial
initiatives of the GDR of more
immediate interest to Canadians
was the anncuncement at the
Helsinki conference of the estab-
lishment of diplomatic relations
-etween the two countries. On
the day when the ambassadors
of each country finally do take
up their wcerk in the other’s
capital, the same conditions for
fruitful cooperation and_profit-
able trade will exist as for
France, Britain, Italy, the USA
and other capitalist countries.

It can be assumed that if
France is eager to double its
trade with the GDR, there is
profit “in them thar’ hills” for
Canada as well.

Asian countries should rely on
U.S. military might in solving
their internal and external pro-
blems.

The untenability of such a
policy was proved by the results
of the Vietnam war.

At that time the policy “from
the positions of strength” did
not lead to stability in this
region. On the contrary, it in-
volved ever new countries in the
Indochinese crisis which could
have led to the extension of the
war.

References to the statements
made by the leaders of the
Asian countries which U.S. Pre-
sident Ford recently visited and
of Japan and South Korea in
support of the further “firm and
responsible” American leader-
ship are but another attempt to
Oppose some Asian countries
under the U.S. “umbrella” to
others and perhaps hammer to-
gether another military and poli-
tical bloc similar to SEATO.

Equally alarming are hints to
the effect that in implementing
its néw “Pacific Doctrine,” the
“United States counts on China’s
support.”

There is nothing unnatural in
Washington’s desire to improve
relations with the PRC.

Normalization of relations be-
tween states is in full accord
with the relaxation of interna-
tional tensions.

But at the talks in Peking the
Maoists spoke not of the
strengthening of international
security, but, on the contrary,

. attacked the process of detente

and the improvement of the in-
ternational political climate.

Trying to substantiate their
aggressive actions in Asia, the
Maoists have issued geogra-
phical maps on which territories
of practically all neighbouring
countries are indicated as “‘be-
longing”’ to China.

The Asian continent needs
peace based not on military and

. political blocs, not on the satis-

fying of claims of some coun-
tries at the expense of others.
Asia needs peace based on the
principles of peaceful coexist-
ence recognized by the leaders
of 35 countries of Europe and
North America at the Helsinki
Conference as the realistic solu-
tion corresponding to the spirit
of our times.

Good life for

Paraguay’s rich

Five per cent of the population
of Paraguay’s capital city re-
ceives 33% of the national in-
come, it was reported in Buenos
Aires.

The figures about Paraguay’s
income distribution come from a
four year cld study done by the
Centre for Economic and Social
Develcpment that had been kept
completely secret except from
director of government depart- -
ments and the U.S. economic
mission in Paraguay. The study
included 15,062 samplings in
Asuncion.

The so-called ‘“‘upper social
class” of Asuncion receives 33%
of the national income, while
50% of the people — the “poor-
er classes” — receive only 14%,

—Prensa Latina

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 23, 1976—Page 9 ©