LENINGRAD: “The general atmosphere was . .

for peacefu] development.”

. a long-term

‘

‘Absurd not to trade’

British businessman
tells of Soviet visit

By ROSE GRANT

LONDON
British industrialist James B.
tt, leader of the 33 British busi-
Ressmen who recently went to the
Soviet Union in search of more
trade, is convinced that it is pos-
Sible for socialist and capitalist

States to co-exist side by side.

He said so in the first of a 5-part
meee published in a London even-
aa newspaper, The Star. ‘Pointing

Ut that he does not set himself
4uP as an expert on Russia after his
‘ Tee-week stay there, Scott de-
era his impresssions as those
Ae British businessman accust-
ee to looking at facts and fig-
We to assessing people ‘and to
“a ming swiftly an overall picture

Pon which to base a judgment.”

€ continued:

eacnt, writing to American

: €rs in 1919, laid it down that

heard has reinforced that

ag the question whether he saw
eR ginlike preparations in Rus-
» Scott replied: “My answer is
..°—tather the reverse. Of course,
oad be foolish for me to say
not © 1S no arms program. I do
. intend to imply that.
is apn What I can say in fairness
eee the general atmosphere in
ude Ow, both in the Russian atti-
‘ and what I could see for my-
tems an that there was a long
ment: Plan for peaceful develop-
ier instance, New factories are
fen eccigned with no thought
‘ oC :
targets, y, AUER be possible air
The whole tenor of life seem-
fois be aimed at a peaceful and
Was coe osperous future. There
~. certainly none of that feverish,
might nee atmosphere that you
ir ave seen in Germany a year
_ before the war.”
thers ye those who might retort
© visitors say only .what

© Russians wanted them to see,
replied: “That to my mind
You could see the
how busy they were
re in Moscow. And you
hardly ‘disguise the layout
PUrpose of large factories.

Scott
'S nonsense
Shops and
anywh
can

I saw no air-raid shelters, }

All members of our business
party were free to go where we
liked.”

He said the stores were stacked
with goods, from vacuum cleaners
and refrigerators to eggs and
cheeses. The Russian people seem-
ed to have enough money to buy
what they are offered, he said, add-
ing: “In my experience, it is more
often the foreigner who stands out-
side and counts his rubles.”

Describing a newly opened de-
partment store in Moscow that can
hold 20,000 customers, Scott prais-
ed it as being “‘as good-as the best
London stores.” He regarded it as
a symbol of the announced inten-
tion to raise\the standards of So-
viet trade. ;

As the sales director of a big
electrical engineering firm, Scott
took a keen interest in the efficien-
cy of he factories he saw. He wrote:
‘Like you, I have heard stories
that Russians tend to treat equip-
ment badly and misuse it. In my
experience that is far from being
true, They handled machines with
skill. My overall impression of
Russian factories, the few I saw,
is that they are working allout in
the gigantic task of developing Rus-
sia and in raising living standards.”

The British business visitors re-
turned home with signed contracts
for $48 million worth of British
goods and negotiations are con-
tinuing for a further $144 million.
The orders are in line with the of-
fer to purchase $1 billion worth of
British goods within the next three
years made to them by the Soviet
miniser for external trade.

lt would be absurd not to sell
in the Russian market just as
much as in any other world mar-
ket, Scott contends. He quoted
the recommendation of the Fed-
eration of British Industries that
this should be done and there is
nothing “wrong or unpatriotic”
in such transactions.

He also quoted the view expres-
sed by Prime Minister Winston
Churchill in the House of Commons
on February 25: ‘ :

“The more trade there is through
the iron curtain and between Great
Britain and Soviet Russia and the
satellites, the better still will be
the chances of our living together
in increased comfort.”

It is a view that is winning sup-
port among the people of Britain.
ee CTT st

“Paacgn essa: The whole tenor of life seemed to be aimed at a

eful and more prosperous future.”

Poland will never

accept Nazi revival |

WARSAW

Sharp warning that Poland would never agree to the revival
of German militarism was given by Premier Boleslaw Bierut at the
opening of the second congress of the Polish United Workers party in

Warsaw.
Delivering a brilliant six-hour

Bierut said that at the Berlin Con-
ference, British Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden and French Foreign
Minister Georges Bidault admitted
that their proposals involved the
risk of a revival of German militar-
ism.

"This risk is unacceptable to
us when the most vital question
of our security is concerned,” de-
clared Bierut, with great empha-
sis.

Referring to Molotov’s proposals
for a European Collective Security
Pact, he said: “The Polish people,
with the full force of their convic-
tion, based on their historic ex-
perience, declare their solidarity
with and support for this pact.
Sooner or later the idea of collec-
tive security will triumph.” :

Bierut made a special appeal
for Franco - Polish solidarity
against the rebirth of German
militarism. \

He also stressed Poland’s desire
to increase trade .with capitalist
countries, pointed out that Poland
had already concluded 126 trade
agreements.

“This trade can be increased
considerably,’ he said, observing
that the new tasks of substantially
raising the liviing standards of the
Polish people gave the opportunity
for a big development of trade.

When Bierut spoke of the re-
armament of German militarism,
one could sense that the delegates

police report as party chairman,
felt more deeply on this question
than perhaps any other people in
Europe outside the Soviet Union.

For they had travelled to the
congress hall through a city
which only nine years ago had to
all intents and purposes ceased
to exist. They saw on every’
side the giant blocks of flats and
' factories which in those few years
have been built on the waste land
left by the Nazis. :

Only the Polish people know
what toil, effort and sacrifices have
gone into the reconstruction of this
amazing city, and if there is one
thing above all others which they
desire-it is peace.

PREMIER BOLESLAW BEIRUT
| “Poland will never agree . . .”

; PARIS
By the narrow margin of 138,394
votes to 125,927, the Popular Re-
publican candidate, Mme. Peyrolles,
defeated the Communist candidate,
Andre Stil, editor of Humanite, in
the March 4 byelection in Seine-et-
Oise constituency outside Paris.
The Communist vote was nearly
30,000 more than in the first round
of the election two weeks earlier,
when Stil polled 97,873 out of a
total of 253,611 votes cast, and up
10,000 from the 116,000 votes poll-
ed by the Communist candidate in
1951, -
In the final election on March 14
anti-Communists rallied round the

French Communist vote
increased in byelection

,of the Socialist vote was also

_ thrown. behind Mme. Peyrolles.

| The Seine-et-Oise seat was held
| before the Second’ World War by
: Gabriel Peri, Communist leader
|and Resistance hero murdered by
| the Nazis, who won it in 1932.
| However, in the postwar period it
had gone to the Gaullists, the by-
election being caused by the death
of M. Diethelin, Gaullist deputy,
elected in 1951.

Paris reaction to the result was
that it showed that the Commun-
ist party, far from losing any of
its mass following had actually in-
creased it, despite the appeals for

Popular Republican candidate. Part an anti-Communist front.

British want to deny
self-rule to Honduras

By ARTHUR CLEGG
LONDON

The British government’s attack
on the People’s United party of
British Honduras has been launch-
ed because this party stands for
the end of colonial rule — not be-
cause of any connections with
neighboring Guatemala. ~

The attack is part of a cam-
paign to prevent any people in
the British West Indies from rul-
ing themselves either now or in
the future.

This was admitted in Port of
Spain, Trinidad, last week by
Arthur Wolffsohn, former colonial
secretary of British Honduras.

Attacking the People’s United
party, he said that the trouble was
that “if not anti-British the PUP
leaders are anti-colonial.”

The PUP, which is the party of
the whole of the 70,000 people of
this colony the size of Wales on
the mainland of Central America,
is expected to sweep the polls if
an election is held. | *

Leigh Richardson, leader of the
People’s United party, speaking in
Belize, the capital, last week, point-
ed to the connection between the
sudden inquiry announced by the
British government and the elec-
tion “supposed to be held on or
about April 23.”

Indeed the party, which vigor-

‘}ously denies that its policy is

directed from Guatemala, has prev-
iously challenged the government
to prove its charges in court.

But the British government,
which has seen allegation after
allegation against the leaders of
the People’s Progressive party of

| British Guiana collapse when

brought before a court, has in-
stead chosen a one-man investi-
gation.

In this way the inventions of
police agents and = spies) which
; would be thrown out in any self-
respecting court, will be able to be
put forward as “evidence” to stop
the election.

British Honduras was a centre of
the ancient Maya civilisation of
‘Central America. A large part of
its’ population is Maya.

Others are descendants of slaves
brought over from Jamaica or
dumped there from other islands
because they were too rebellious.
Another section is of mixed Span-
ish and Latin extraction.

Under the new constitution,

which would allow an election for
the first time on the basis of uni-
versal sufirage, only nine of the 15
seats in the Legislative Council
would be open to election and the
governor would retain all his over-
riding powers.

Now charges have been trumped
up to justify the withdrawal of
even this slight concession.

_ That Guatemala, which has
‘some historical claims to the
colony, has been dragged into
the case against the PUP shows
that the same Anglo-American
cooperation which overthrew tthe
elected government of British
Guiana is now in force against
both Guatemala and British Hon-
duras. 3

: KINGSTON
The British government this

progressive people’s movements of
its American possessions to a third
colony by police raids in Jamaica.

Police raided the home of Ferd-
inand Christofer Smith, assistant
secretary of the World Federation
of Trade Unions, and offices of the
People’s Educational Organization.
As in British Guiana last fall and
in British Honduras recently, police
claimed to have discovered “Red”
connections. | .

Last week, in British Guiana, fol-
lowing acquittal of S. Nasrudeen,

week extended its drive against the,

Police stage raids upon _
homes, offices in Jamaica

the solicitor general withdrew a
charge of sedition against Fred
Bowman, People’s Progressive
member of the legislature, in effect
destroying the British govern-
ment’s case against the People’s
Progressive party.

In British Honduras, the Peo-
ple’s United party has denounced
appointment of a commissioner of
inquiry by the British government
as “a political trick,” sarcastically
suggesting to British Colonial Sec-
retary Oliver Lyttelton that “you
request the U.S. senator, Mr. Mc-
Carthy, the greatest Communist
hunter, to conduct the inquiry.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 26, 1954 — PAGE 3