FEDERATION OF W.&S. EUROPE
UNDER
AMERICAN INFLUENCE
Рах
americana
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1947.
FEDERATION OF EAST EUROPE
Раж
·Sovietica
UNDER
SOVIET VNFLUENCE
HOW ABOUT FEDERATION OF YOU TWO? (cuperant in all Loukar
TWO HONGKONG SHORTAGES
BY "CANDIDUS”
HONGKONG is suffering from two serious
shortages. One is houses; the other, public opinion. The second is virtually non-existent.' For many years before the last war, the Kowloon Residents' Association proved itself to be a live and constructive body, but in these days it seems to have lost its force, It is, however, still in existence, whereas the Peak Residents' and Mid- Levels Associations have not, as yet, revealed the slightest inclination to awaken from their long sleep.
(Sooner or later somebody will complain that rickshas and chairs have not been restored to the Peak district, although they served a most useful purpose in the past.)
Such minor problems are of no particular urgency, whereas the housing problem" presents a matter of extreme importance, and Government has reason to be ashamed of its failure to assist in practical manner the rehabilitation of the Colony generally and universally.
That it appreciated its responsibility was evidenced by the appointment of a Housing Com- mittee, but the disregard for the recommenda- tions of that Committee leads one bo believe that the official gesture was an empty one.
•
*
NOTHING short of a public meeting of protest against official inaction would appear to be capable of swaying he minds of those who hold the reins, but, here again, the absence of public- spirited men is the reason for the community suffering in silence.
Of course, in the last analysis, the community is largely to blame. It is inarticulate to the extent of complete dumbness, This unfortunate state may be due to long years of being com- pletely ignored, but there should be some men of vision and notion who could guide the masses | along constructive lines. The empty pose of unofficial oMcial- dom is now a stale joke, and it is surely time that a Residents' Association was formed, truly! representative of every section of the community- body which would no longer tolerate autocracy in its most unpleasant
THE FRIGHTENED MEN... in the Kremlin,
NCE again American-
relations
are
Russian bolling up for a crisis. A year ago it was the shoot- Ing down of American aircraft by Yugoslav airmen which brought matters to a head. For a few sizzling weeks there was war hysteria in Washington.
and in Washington
by RICHARD CROSSMAN M. P.
Convinced that he is
t a r
Coventry,
East
Secondly, we must reailse that we cannot rely on either the Americans or the Russians to see us through our troubles.
We cunnot rely on the Russians, because on principle they distrust
us.
We cannot rely on the Americans because, though we can work to gether with them in war, in.
peace
form.
As long as vosted interests and cliques are allowed to do minste the Colony, so long will the taxpaying worm continue to aurrounded I do not want to minimise the time they are constitutionally incap wriggle and squirm in his help Now Hungary is the trouble. by a hostile world which is deter- blame which rests on Russia for the nblo of maintaining a consistentlessness.
mined to destroy the Soviet Union, present impasse. It is very great. policy an which we can reckon. No one knows,
ever the Communist believes that in By assuming
Thirdly, we must recognise that the that America and likely to know, exactly what sheer self-defence he must sometimes Britain were ganging up on her hope of peace depends on the British was the cause which finally hit below the belt..
and by taking defensive measures Commonwealth pulling through the Russia has coming crbis and regaining its on that assumption. made Prime Minister Nagy de
economic strength. cide to extend his holiday in Switzerland indefinitely.
or is
And Marxism teaches that he
the peanle with whom he is negolint- ing.
must always assume the worst about made her worst fears come true.
It is Roo
But it is clear enough that
Nothing we British can do or say the Russians decided сп ณ is likely to change this Russian "clean-up" in Budapest such attitude for some time, as would be an everyday matter Armly rooted in the history of the in the capital of one of the Soviet Union since the days of the wars of Intervention and the teach- Soviot republics.
Ings of Marx and Lenin.
But what would be an every- The only way to do business with day matter inside Russia has the Russians is to understand who become an international inci- they are and so act on the assump- tion that they will stay that way dent in Hungary, which is sup for quite a time. posed to have a parliamentary This does not mean appeasing form of Government and to be them or pecepting their principles. under the joint control of Rus- What it does mean is studying them carefully in order to calculate what sia. America and ourselves.
Seen from Moscow, the Buda- their reaction will be to any line of pest clean-up is a purely defen- policy we undertake. sive reaction to the American loans to Greece and Turkey and the Truman declaration which justifled them.
TIT-FOR-TAT
Might end in war
By trying to -force Eastern Europe into working for her she violent anti-Com- has produced munist movements and so created the
conspiracies, which asserts must be suppressed-in violation of all democratic principles.
she now
There are plenty of excellent rea- sons for losing patience and shouting: "Let's stop trying to work with Rus- sla and line up with the Americans to halt totalitarian uggression."
But there is another side which Britons would do well to observe.
We sometimes forget that at Yalta resident Roosevelt agreed with Stalin to divide Europe into a Rus- slan and a Western sphere of influ ence, and that Hungary fell into the should not have been difficult, Russian sphere. The Russians have
the not forgotten this. for instance, to predict that American action in Greece and
Turkey would be followed first by
the
SEE-SAW
Effect of the veto
It is, in fact, very much less Again, at San Francisco, it was the
Nothing matters as much as that -either for us or for the rest of the world. If we founder the American- Russian tour is inevitable,
Fourthly, in order to regain our economic strength we must do busi ness both with the West and with the East,
BEST WAY
Is to get trade going
DDT APPEARS
IN MILK
The United States Congress has learned that DDT appears in meat, milk and butter of cows fed on crops dusted with insec- ticide.
Dr P. N. Annand, ehlet of the It we can get American nancial
Bureau, assistance in rebuilding Europe with United States' Entomology -out-Impossible political tags, so much testifled at the House of Represento the better. It would save the U.S.tives hearings for the United States from an otherwise inevitable slump, Department of Agriculture that too
case our problems
much DDT moy polson the soil and and it would
that it has permitted some pests to enormously.
increase because It kilis the parasites
ich destroy them.
GEALED IN
GLASS..
No More Soggy Toothbrush
Dr. West's is waterproofed
cloans tooth 60% better ›guaranteed for a year
...kceps out dust and
dirt
Dr. Wests
TO OTH
West's PASTE
Dr Miracle Tuft
Trade Inquirios to L. D. Saymour & Company, Inca 43 Franch Bank Bldg., Hongkong, Chinc
South Africa's New Housing Programme
The South African Government intends to spend £29,- 000,000 on housing during the next 12 months-an increase of £6,500,000 more than the previous year.
The total building target for in the past 31 months was 23,000. 1947-1948, according to J. W. Added to private enterprise, the total Minister of Public was about 60,000. This was achieved Mushet,
in the face of a shortage of materials Works and Building Contrciler, and other dimeulties. is £16,000,000, allocated ሲሄ follows: Housing 63 percent, industrial project 17.5 percent. other building 19.5 percent.
The previous year's target was building Housing 54 percent, Industrial pro
jects 10.5 percent, other 20.5 percent.
The gap between economic and sub-economic housing could only bo bridged by reducing building costs by new types, new methods, and planned estates. The alm must bo to produce dwellings which could be ter subeconomic houses. rented at amounts being paid today
considered
ย
The Government intended to urgo "The most urgent tasks that face
on locs authorities the receptance the government," said the Minister of a form of temporary housing for
of the at a meeting in Capetown
natives to provide many thousands "are Advisory Council, Building
of dwellings at small cost, using expansion housing and industrial and all our efforts must be directed lec materials and a very high In that connection so that the hous proportion of unskilled labour. The ing of the populace of the Union decision was forced on the Govern may, be speeded up and new Inc- ment because in the past 12 months tories brought to the production only 7,000 houses had been built for stage at the earliest possible date su natives under Government-financed
be readily schemes. This was that employment may
in the poor contribution. available for every worker Union and for those immigrants who will reach these shores during next few years under the Govern with houses as quickly as possible. the cost was small the houseg ment's immigrant scheme,"
need not have a long life and in The total amount expected to be perhaps 10 years could be replaced utilised for building in the Union by more sulable
The types. been chosen WaB
the " during 1947-1948, however, is £2,- that had
preylous 12 and panel" type. Local authorities 000,000 less than the months: This is necessitated by the would- organise unskilled labour to ticularly steel.
work and x the doors, windows shortage of building materials, par- erect, under supervision, the frame- and fron mofs. The panels between the supporting pillars would be of local material.
the
Effects of U.S. Strikės If we can obtain timber and cereals
Referring to the effect of from Russia-agala, without political
the
tags--that would also be good busl-
strikes in the United States on the
ness,
since we have got the
"In addition to the soil hazard," steel supply, the Minister said that
it might soon prove necessary machinery and the goods which the said Dr Annand, "It has been found divert labour and push ahead with Russians desperately need.
considerable other classes of building work, such
to
a deadlock in Moscow and then by a series of countermoves P Hungarian coup recently.
difficult to forclell the reactions of Americans no less than the Russians the doctrinaires in the Kremlin, who demanded a Great Power veto who are in absolite control of a vast so that Washington should not be Every Russian believes that 'political machine, than it is to predict bound by any decisions of an inter- the countries of Eastern and Central high DDT residue, the amount that United States, but bearing in mind.
by these loans America has ac- quired air bases within bombing range of Baku.
Stally argues that if Truman uses American dollars to make sure that Greece and Turkey are not forced in the Russian bloc, then he is justifled for in using his Russian methods keeping Hungary out of the hands of Russia's enemies.
It is the Russian tit-for-tat in a game which, if it is allowed to go an, must end in shooting wag,
That would be the Russlan jusli- fication for their action in Hungary, if they really put their cards on the table.
What is our reply?
pressure groups.
the next move of an American national organisation to which they. Administration At the mercy of might object. countless conflicting tendencies and Now they are complaining of the
The Kremlin works on principles Russian use of the veto. which are repugnant to us; but at least they are clear-cut and defined, It has a plan and carries it out.
U.S. POLICY
·Volatile and uncertain
Washington has ideals of demo- cracy which we British share, but its foreign policy is so volatile and incertain that it scarcely merits the
name.'
But we should recognise that our recently that there is future lies, as our past lay, in trade accumulation in the meat of animals as housing, until multi-storey pro- with the Commonwealth and with that are fed on forage dusted with Jects goin could proceed normally. Europe.
DDT. It builds up in the meat, par- "It is unpredictable," said the And so we come back to the pre-cularly in the fats, and where Minister, "when increased steel im- sent crisis in Hungary, For Britain forage crops are fed that have
ports can be expected
Europe are not merely pawns in an
animal fat
A
from the
of that the powers of recovery is country and provided Jabour troubles do not occur, we may expect to I receive relief within the next six or
The Kremlin observes such Ameri
In return, they need our help to con failures to maintain a consistent policy
and explains them, not as a rebuild their shattered industries. weakness of American democracy... The best way to strengthen de which is what they are-but as a mocracy in Eastern Europe is to get pleco of Machiavellian scheming trade going again across the Iron
Curtain. which they certainly are not.
They say: "We cannot trust the That trade will help us, too, to He said there is more concern over Americans, especially when they regain our economic independence secretion of DDT in milk, because it have the atom bomb. We must take and
to become the steadying in-concentrates in the butterfat, so that precautions against them."
fluence between the frightened men butter may have fairly high quan in the Kremlin and in Washington. tities."Asssociated Press,
First, that the Russians started stituen, but of the American Con- they can to combat the American
And so the see-saw goes on. On the one side, the frightened men of the Kremlin using Communist That is not the fault of American underground conspiracy wherever
which is designed to pre- menace. this particular game', Directly vent anyone from obtaining suilt- Germany collapsed they began to clent power to carry out his will.
On the other side, the frightened men in Washington" trying to per- push, forward into Europe.
If we cannot trust the Communist suade Congress They set up puppet Governments to behave democratically and, of the fight against Communism.
to vote dollars for in Poland, Hungary and Rumania. Tito, in Yugoslavia, is certainly not course, we cannot-we can at least
And between them slands Britain. a puppet, but he is a Moscow-trainer Ume that he will always behave
according to form. Communist.
SANE ISLAND
war aliye.
to
With the Americans we are in a In Greece the Russians backed; different dimculty. We share their the Communists, who, dominated
In an insane world' E.A.M. and are still keeping the civil bellets and principles, but wo can nover be sure what they will do
Our first job is to remain tane in In Persia they tried
So we can never accure next.
on rely.
spite of the flood of Communist and control of Azerbaijan and to break them completely.
We For up a Central Government,
example, we can all welcome anti-Communist propaganda.
hole praising ourselves, but, today Only after the Russians had begun Marshall's pronouncement on thair aggression did we begin to America's duty to assist in rebuild- We are an island of sanity in an in organise defence against it And Ing Europe. But we should be fool- Bane world. we can add that in our counter-ish to rely on it, such it is always action we have never
MI
We are the only country 'where
used the probable that a Republican Con that it can be contemptuous of the the Labour movement is so strong- Russian methods of rigging burlia gress will refuse him the funils. Tentary, democracy, of which the After all, Britain tlll using her Communista.
We are the only democratie coun- most recent example is the Hun- scanty dollars to pay the costs of
from Australia garian "change of Government.
Spart. Imports into both, the British and y American zones of Germany, months New Zealand, where even after the fusim plan was signed, Tories admit that laissez-faire has simply because Congress cannot be gone for god and that we have got bothered to vote the ms to move toward that wa
economy. So, too, we can agree with the We
CONVINCED
World is hostile
and
จ
the
To troubio, is that ble sort of Americans that the Russian sundurl Americanus and better than the
Bunrea Cargument is sheer waste of time. The in Hungary is outrageous, but we confict of Ideologies) is
The Kremlla til ballover in should be foolharity to take onry We have a few fanatics on both Marxism. It is a clear and simple miction on the assumption that an sides who welcome the division of philosophy which teaches that all is Ameriashore #fective ormed the world into two blocs. But most zurin, the struggle, megainat capitallats forces are smaller than our own of us know that our very existence
10 Sokak mengetrend, Shiotas but no one known, DisaWE
KOOR TERRIER: Krical (wicht (will do anything about it. A depends on breaking it that divinkon
The natives had to be provided
WAR WITHIN
25 YEARS
Poll Of British Opinion
Samide surveys of British,
ideological battle; they grow cereals accumulates in the and dairy produce which we need to rather astounding." Avoid dra
drastic food cuts when our dollars run out,
Asked by Representative Everet; | 12 months," M. Dirksen, Republican from linols, The housing shortage in South public opinion recently showed I DDT's "toxicity is destroyed by Africa is extremely acute and the that about half the nation ex- preparing over a fire," the doctor diversion of an additional £6,500,- said no. "It comes through just as 900 to home building is welcomed pected another war within 25 toxic as when it was fresh," he said. as doing much to reduce the number years.
of homeless South Africans.
Less than one Briton in 10 believes The Government, according to Dr in the likelihood of peace during the H. Gluckman, Minister Health and Housing, had set itself next 50 years. a triple purpose (1) to honour. Its The surveys were made by "Mass commitment in respect of 0,000 Observation Gallup poll type of
veterans dwellings for war
and investigating agency-at the request other priority groups, (2) to bridge of an international society known as the gap between. economic and the "New Cofnmonwealth." subeconomie European housing by by Mr Winston Churchill. reducing costs, using new methods, new designs, new types and planned estates, (3) to breaks the back of the non-European housing needs by the new temporary native · housing scherno.
of Public
Now Types of Houring
headed
The results were contained in the
Society's latest report in book form,. called "Peace and the People."
Although the surveys were mado in 1940, the repart said: "Today the number of optimists is 'smaller and the pessimism of the pessimists iz
the
New types of housing have been deeper." evolved. It was obvious that for the lower-rent houses, South Africa
| @Investigations were made in would have to depart from the Hammersmith section of London,' "bungalow" type, Semi-detached which is strongly pro-Labour," and double-storey houses could be built Shrewsbury, which is predominantly and serviced much more economical Conservative. The two areas ly. The alm was to bring down the taken as typical because of their cor- cost per dwelling to bolow £1,000, trasting political Yeanings, for rentals between 0 and £7 aheeport did not any how many
"The
word
morith,
were questioned; but disclosed these The National Housing and Plan results: 49 percent of thosa approuch- ning Commission had, by the ended bellevod war within 23 years of February last, built 947 houses was litely; 30 percent believed it un and D21; were in course of construc- likely: 12 percent were vague or un- tion. It was hoped that 3,000 of decided t
the original 0,000 proposed would be The thoughtful Manchester Quar bullt by the end of the year and dian and war had transformod that the full programme would be Britain from a nation of wishful finished by the time Parliament had
to consider the fate of the Housing thinkers into one of pessimista.
This argues that a popular vote wwerk might well be expected in support of The estimated” number of an effective international, pesOM COSM dwellings built or, in course of con- ganisation, but also that it would not struction by the Government itself be too hopotul a case, the Guardian and ClovernIM00€-800
saidamUnited Preside