People Deprived Of the Truth On oviet Policies, !s Charge Of Writers TORONTO. — “The Big Three must find a common yardstick of measurement upon which they can build the peace,’ Ilya Ehrenburg, world famous Soviet novelist, told reporters at a press conference here this week. Ehrenburg, together with Konstan- tin Simonov and Major General Mikhail Galaktionov, visited this city last week to ad- by the National Council for Canadian-Soviet Friendship. dress a mass rally sponsored Asked his opinion of the “iron eurtain’” which Winston Churchill had declared the USSR had drawn across its frontiers, HEh- renburg said: “The curtain is there but it is not on our side of the stage nor is it iron; it is a smokescreen thrown up by a section of the US and British press. Here in Amer- ica everything is magnified; if you have hot weather you say it is terribly hot; if it’s cold it’s freezing. It is the same with the ILYA ERRENBURG » “ . .. a cold reception in Canada” called secret weapons. iron curtain; when the people of America tire of it and clear away the smoke screen, a pleasant breeze will circulate.” Simonoy, 30-year-old author of the best seller, Days and Nights, told reporters that “to believe in the inevitability of another war is to spit in the face of the brave men of Canada, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States who died in this last holocaust. “Our task now is, through full security and with no threat of war, to build up a good life for our people to prove to the world we can succeed.” “Tt is not the Soviet Union which is afraid of a war,” Hhrenburgh said in reply to further questions. “We do not undertake our for- eign policy on the premise that there is going to be another war. It is mot the Soviet Union which is doing the war mongering. It is not we who are concerning our- selves with the production of so- it is the press of the western world who talk of the so-called Red menace, instilling fear into the minds of their readers. “Flow can you say, in one breath, that the establishment of American bases in Iceland is a protection of world peace, that the development of the atom- harmless scientific in the next— bomb is but a game, and then — attack the Soviet Union as “ag- gressive’ because friendly rela- tions have been established with her neighbors?”’ ‘Tt is impossible for the west- ern democracies to speak on the ome hand of supporting democ- racy, while on the other the US and Britain support the Franco government in Spain,’ he said. Bevin’s ‘Independence’ For India ‘They Simp Events are rapidly moving towards the crisis stage in India. By GLADYS CARTER ly Toss You In Jaill’ The arrest last week ef Congress leader Nehru at Kashmir at the instigation of British authorities helped to sharpen the tension. Both the Congress party and the Moslem League, India’s two most powerful political organizations, have all but rejected the Indian “independence,” regarding it as little improvement posals for Indian self-government. Behind India’s fight for free- dom is the grim story of a na- tion whose unemployed outnum- ber those with jobs, and where even those who work, live in con- ditions worse than the poorest share-cropper in the South. These conditions were deseribed by M. Fazal Elahi Qurban, prominent Indian trade union leader, in an exclusive interview with Allied Labor News. _ The British Labor government’s new offer to India does not mean real independence, Qurban said, because it allows Britain to re- tain economic control. The MIn- dian people want to industrialize their country to meet their needs —something that British rulers have always prevented. At present, Indian workers do not earn enough to buy the ba- Sie necessities of life. Steel work- ers, among the highest paid, earn $12 a month plus a $5 monthly war allowance which is supposed to cover wartime living cost in- creases. Rent alone costs $4 a month, for one tiny unpainted room. Use of the toilet costs 35 cents extra a month. In many cases men who work in cities have to leave their families behind. The men share a room and sleep in shifts. If all of them happen to be home at ence, some have to sleep on the streets. Qurban—who has spent nine of the past 20 years in jail for union activity—described these terrible Bevin-Churchill formula for over Similar previous pro- fact tone. To him, this is every- day life. He and other Indian trade unionists have no time to waste feeling sorry for themselves. Every waking minute must be spent fighting staryation. These are the conditions for the lucky workers—the ones who have jobs. The others have nothing. There are no social security laws, no unemployment compensation, no old age pensions, no health insurance. Right now, there are two mil- lion workers coming out of the army. More than three million are being fired from war jobs. The total number of unemployed is not known because there are on statistics, but millions were out of work even in wartime. G Organizing is an extremely dif- ficult job, Qurban said. The law says that workers can form their unions, but every time they try, their leaders are victimized. When you’re arrested for union activ- ity (as he was three times) the authorities don’t bother to bring charges againstg you or to hold a trial. They simply toss you in jail and leave you there for as long as they please, usually in a solitary cell. Workers who aren’t jailed are often fired for union activity. Wear of this keeps many workers from joining unions because if they are fired there is no way to provide for their families. There are about 5,000,000 indus- conditions in a very matter of PACIEIC TRIBUNE PAGE 2 x trial workers, of whom some 600,000 are in the All-India Trades Union Congress. Except for the Trailwaymen’s federation, there are no national unions. Unions are organized on a factory-wide basis, and affiliate directly to the ATTUC. Union dues are paid either monthly or yearly, with the former averaging about four to eight cents and the latter equal to one day’s pay. Most trade union organizers are not paid, Qurban said, and those that are get at most about $10 a month. Qurban, who comes from Punjab in the north, said condi- tions in his area are about the best in the country. Mr. Bevin does not want India discussed in the UN Security Council. Iran, yes, by all means, but not India. “India,” says Mr. Bevin, “is our busi- mess.” 6 U.K. Vets Score Bevin Deal On Anders’ Army By JOHN BRANDON _ LONDON.—British war veterans, unable to find jobs, are raising a howl over the government’s plan to provide work for Polish troops who are being demobilized in Britain. The British Legion — organiza- tion of all war veterans of- ficially protested the gevernment’s policy at its annual conference here. The 106,000 Polish troops under General Anders, who vio- lently oppose the present Polish government, have been fattening off the British payroll until re- cently, while stationed in Italy. The Legion president, Mpjor General Maurice, told the 1100 delegates that many employers were exploiting disabled veterans by paying them less than the standard wage. He also criticized the government's training pro- gram for veterans, declaring that many of the trades where there are labor shortages could be filled by veterans. Z The Legion passed a resoluticn calling for a basic pension of $18 per week instead of the present $9 minimum. Intrigues Exposed In Yugoslav Traitor Trial BELGRADE, Yugoslavia. — Gen. Draja Mikhailovitch went on trial for his life before a three-man Yugoslav mili- tary court last week accused of collaboration and war Crimes in an indictment which charged that U.S. and British of- ficers had ordered him to wipe out the partisans led by Marshal Tito. cow the day the trial opened. ((A joint Soviet-Yugoslay com- munique, broadcast by Radio Moscow, announced that the Soviet Union had agreed to sup- ply the Yugoslav army with arms and ammunition on long-term credits.) Mikhailovitch is being tried with 23 others on charges of collab- oration with the Axis and re- sponsibility for the deaths ~ of 10,000 Yugoslavs. Twelve of the defendants are being tried in absentia and only 12, headed by the Chetnik leader, were present in court. The mass indictments against the defendants said that a Col. McDowell, chief of the U.S. mis- sion to Mikhailovitch’s headquar- ters had said: “Wei Americans are not inter- ested in your fight with Germany America is helping you exclus- ively and your movement.” The partisans claim the Chet- niks fought them instead of the Nazis. The indictment also said that a British Col. Bailey attached to Mikhailovitch’s headquarters had stated that the Allies were pre- paring to invade the Adriatic coast in the spring of 1943 and that it was “necessary to elimin- ate Communists.” Mikhailovitch also was said to have received an order from a British Gen. Masterson to “‘liqui- date the Communists as soon as possible,” according to the in- dictment. Qne of the most important ab- Marshal Tito arrived in Belgrade from Mos- sent defendants was Konstantin Fotich, Royalist .ambassador toe the United States, who was charged with “organizing large scale propaganda abroad while fully aware that Mikhailoyitch and his Chetniks were collabor- ating with occupation government officials.” Fotich also:was charged with sending Ray Brock, a former American foreign correspondent, to Mikhailovitch’s headquarters and with “giving false propa- ganda” to R. H. Markham of the Christian Science Monitor. More than 70 Allied corre- spondents attended the opening session: They were given ear- phones and proceedings were translated for them French and Russian. The trial is being held in the auditorium of an infantry train- ing school at Topcider, a SBel- grade suburb. More than 1,000 spectators attending the opening session booed and hissed Mik ~ hailovitch when he entered. After the reading of the in- dictment, which took most of the day, the defendants were ar- raigned en masse. Spectators in the court inelud- ed peasants who walked for miles to be present at the trial, in Enmelish, most of whom held grievances against the defendants. Two former premiers of the emigre government in Jondon Slobodan Jayvanoyic and Bozidar Puris, are among those being tried in absentia. WFTU Body Will Demand Full Recognition On U.N. MOSCOW (WNS): The first meeting of the Executive Committee of the WFTU toak place in Moscow on June 22. Topmost agenda items were the relationship to the UNO, the Spanish question and internal organization. The execu- tive bureau of the Federation has been meeting here since the i7th. The executive committee was elected in Paris in October 1945. Members of the committee are be- ginning to arrive in Moscow. Lombardo Toledano, chairman of the Latin American Federation of Labor, and Mustafa el Ariss, Chairman of the Levant Trade Union Federation were among the first to arrive. The Committee is expected to issue a statement on the lack of desire for a strong cooperation evidenced by the UNO. The re- cent New York meeting of the Economic and Social Council fa- vored only a mild consultative agreement with the WETU. This provoked much criticism in Paris. ‘No Bosses No Strike!’ TOKYO:;—Japanese unions have been ordered by the government to step settling differences ‘with ~ fascist - employers by ejecting ~ them and taking over operation of their plants. The government — grew alarmed when the workers — Showed they could run plants — more efficiently and produce ~ more than the employers could: — Premier Yoshida tried to con- ~ vince the workers that his order ~ was in their interests. take over the factories.syou’ll lose the freedom to strike,” Yoshida warned the workers. “You won't have anyone to strike against.” FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1946