1955-07-02 — Page 13

American Trade Union Developments

LEWIS

INTERVAL FOR THINKING

TUC.

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JULY 2, § 1955.

World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian

BE SORRY FOR THESE 25,000 SCARED MEN

BY A NEWSPAPER REPORTER WHO

COVERS THE LONDON DOCKS.

**

London. Instead, pity him. For in 1953, to have to face the fact that the although he earns from £17 to docker liked his prosperity and as a work, he is a torrided could not easily forget that he man.

had hire-punthase agreements When he strikes It is because to meet

AM a London news paper reporter. For ten years I have worked in Deckland.

I have reported every strike, official and unofficial, in that time..." I know the vivid, rough personalities of the 25,000 dockers of Lon- don and they call me by my Christian name.

I probably know about the London than any other man profession.

he has to Out of his little I watched the fear begin. wo back streets have come men with grow in their minds, the ambition to rule him. They I watched the new-style Reds are not the old-time quayside come into the docks. I have foremen of years ago. They are listened and made my shorthand from his own class. They speak notes as men more evil than any his language. They have work- I have ever met in my lif ed, and still work, alongside him joined battle to wrest power in the holds of ships. Their from the existing orthodox Red Children go to 'school with his caucus,

more children. They drink in docks pubs.

is Who are these new men?

And they are determined to in my weld London's 25,000 dock

workers into a mute,

They Are Merciless

PEOPLE ASK

me questions abou: Dockland, especially in times of strikes and unrest and mostly they criticise the docker bitterly, blaming him for holding the country to ransom over some small dispute.

But I say today do not con- demn the London: docker..

SEFTON DELMER ON THE SUMMIT TALKS PROSPECTS

Do We Stake Too Much

On Soviet Weakness?

L

4

the

ATEST diplomatic in- A SEVERE Social and

economic crisis inside telligence Moscow speaks of Soviet Union.

from:

"indications" that Kremlin boss Nikita Krush is chuv is in trouble with his comrades.

THE KREMLIN has become

apprehensive of Cornmun- China's increase of power. THE RIGHT policy for the West in these circumstances is to be extremely tough in its demands and brook But if this report is cur- promise. rect--and it comes from a

Nothing cataclysmic...

source which has proved

remarkably well-informed

in the past-then Krushchev

14

ל

com-

FIRST:

Malenkov's from Pom Arthur, Under

their sur- short tenure of power, Soviel render of the strategie railway citizens tasted

and their many improve- through Manchuria, ments. The peasant's taxes were handing over of installations in reduced, his resi wages in Northern Flores. creased. Priority was given

"Ha," he says, "the Russians consumer goods.

are retreating. They are afraid. The Chinese have "forced them to go

to

Alas, the scheme broke down Heavy industry get behind with its deliveries to China and

But I think it is more pro- hable that "Zhukov has

de would have had to cut arma cided that those bases are not ments." Malenkov was sacked really of much value to Russia Krushchev The crisis

look over and re today. stored most of the harsh old In his estimate, the Chinese system.

will take

Burt and

equally well, and will be all the were enters

For it. does not dispose of the Incut with which Stalin was able to dragcon the peasants.

of this

theory is Dr Adenauer, West aged but wily

Germany's Stalin's Chancellor.

He has immensely impressed the Americans with his talk of the conditions he will impose on the Russians, before he will accept their invitation Moscow.

to visit

I believe

And it is Adenauer who, with RUSHCHEV does not have great campaign

undivided control over the or

care of these basts has had to accept the first CHIEF protagonist

ELEMENT TWO- Krushchercher allies of the Soviet Union limitation of his power since

Krushchev a man who has to he bulldozed to

balance

his way skilfully be throne last February.

tween many different influences Krushchev, so the report says,

is in his own way showing to appears to have been made

standard anxiety to improve the of living of the Soviet accept criticism of his personal

people Not performance during the receri

only is he pushing a

to grow

maize visit to Tito in Belgrade.

"indications" that There are

American lines as fodder for it has been suggested the help of his Inteligence security forces. His colleagues Russian livestock: he has also Stothe time enier. General Reinhard Gehlen in the Kremlin ways of de put back some of the cancelled Krushchev that, for

(Hitler's former espionage chief being. he should keep out

for the Soviet front), has been tablishing another Stalin, have emphasis on consumer goods. foreign affairs at any rate as

split the control of the securly as the public eye

the 15 putting over the tale of far

troops. Soviet internal" crisis and the concerned.

Moscow and Even 50, Krushchev has trouble between Peking.

fear of taking shown no

un Is there a crisis in Russia? popular measures,

imposing a Certainly there is the same new army of bureaucrats on old social and economic crisis I the peasants, cnlarning stil have known in the Soviet Union further the over, since as a young reporter farms.

to

of

A pity this, I say. For it will rule out Krushchev's attending the st

summit talks at Geneva this month.

And what is the use of sum- mit talks if the Western sum- mit does not meet the Soviet summit, but merely his mouth- piece Marshal Bulganin?

Ι.

My fear

in Berlin 25 years ago,

I first

machine

unpopular

State

A reduction in world tension solve his economic might well problems for him.

It is to our advantage he should succeed.

that

Tough line

To what, then, do I attribute EVEN the mall and shart- sent through reports of Stalin's this. Soviet new-leaf polic lived respite which Malen- guns to encourage the Ukrainian of apparent softness? peasants with the harvest

security troops using

It is the same old crisis I saw myself in Russia-first in 1939, and again in 1947.

The crisis the

of a

kov gave the Soviet people pro- I believe that a combination duced some mutterings

when

time

to

of factors and personalities is Krushchev screwed down at work. Meri like General lid once more,

Eisenhower's old com- Zhukov,

Once they have learned panion-in-arms, may well hare enjoy the good things peace can it will Decome мисл and socialised agriculture failing appreciation of the realities offer, Nor even the interest-

to of the new atomic, strategyan harder

restore ing light is throws on the to produce food in sufficient

12 Ger- Now, I can well understand internal politics at the Kremlin quantity or adequate quality for appreciation we seem We accept that

is not this, however, that rivels my attention to report.

a.collectivised

37

when we

to lack economy.

2 syem

man divisions substantially in- Dr Adenauer's desire that we

of the ever-increasing army bosses.

(Clearly Party Secretary Krushchey has not yet achieved urban factory workers.

that absolute and unquestioned

ascendancy over all his col-

leagues enjoyed in the past by

Secretary

J. V. Stalin.)

Frankly 1 am

寇 little

Real wages

crease Western strength.

I believe it is possible

-03

should all take a tough, that compromise Line with the

the realistic Zhukov bas do Russians.

cided (correctly) that

.guided That would ki any possi atomic and hydrogen weapons bility of an agreement between have made obsolete the the Soviet

frightened of the report My IT is the crisis of a country ring of defences and satellites, camp: viel bloc and the Western

fear is that it may help to

encourage still further the

which Stalin built up.

all produce consumer goods-pots,

and more

Anxiety

too Battering beliefs already pains: radios and trocks-but held by some influential policy machines, machines men. These beliefs are that:

machines.

which

can

that magnificent position which has proved so profitable for her of playing one camp against the other.

Neutralised

obedient

Ghost Of Trotsky

Do

section of humanity that will TIVERY docker today knows respond blindly to their orders them as Trotskyites. for their own political ends. not laugh at that word and dis- Men

who rebel live in fear of miss it as a 1955 fairy tale. the accident" that maims them for life.

I can tell you a lot about the would-be dictators of dockland.

The ghost of Trotsky walks the docks today in the form of men who speak only English, have English names, and wer babies when Trotsky fled from

They are merciless men. They exist in groups, and each nights Russia. the other for power.

These men belong to different In the years just after the unions but their aim is primari war it was the Radical Socialist to form a new national union of who held the sway in the docks. port workers unconnected with Those days, the dockers were the existing untons. They want not the frightened men they are to be the leaders-unchallenged today. True, there were some and unchallengeable. They wildcat strikes, but there were would allow the dockers to work also serious issues,

only when it suited the party. wanted 10 Whenever they strangle Britain's trade they would be able to call the men cut in an hour.

Veiled Threats

REMEMBER, for instance,

They do not respect truth. the "Old Men's' strike, Today, they are powerful which lasted for nearly a month, enough to be able to get up I think the dockers had a point in Liverpool and say that *7,000 Lere. They wanted to keep the in London are on strike". old men at work in the docks, and be believed. Yet perhaps, and make life easier for them only 50 are out. They will tell There was something human in the mass meeting izi London

mát. in this, and they won their way,

port a provincial But slowly the extreme Left thousands of coloured men

taken cri began to see the dockers with being

to replace their traditional loyalty.as a strikers....and be believed. wonderful opportunity for Com- YET IT IS NOT TRUE.

They learn of and revesl munist political advancement,

art

And so, almost unnoticed by Ministry of Labour and T.U.C. the rank and file, the Socialists decisions hours before they are were edged out of leadership. revealed to the genuine trade Sometimes they went with a union leaders themselves. struggle. Sometimes they dis- They plot and plan with skill appeared overnighs. And many and diabolical cunning so that a Communist ran whispering even veteran Communists call campaign to help speed out i them sinister men. man who was not of the party.

Some of the victims were enticed Menace Has Spread

into paid trade unión jobs and took them,

This

meant that they no longer worked in the bolds or on the quaysides.

there not Vou ask....are Lany who will face up to these power-hungry men?

And so it was that the Com-

I know that the majority of munists with their system of the 25,000 would be glad to see lies and false rumours and their the end of that regime of terror velled threats were able to that these men of the shadows burrow into the positions where have forged. they could control their fellow working men.

But they are frightened now. They know that the Dockland crane-driver is an artist; and inclined, hat be, if he be so

wman's head.

Their Fears Grew cold drop a packing case on

རྩྭ་

They fear the heavy load VEN so, the docker learned to

which could edge them into the Kut along with orthodox water of the dock basin.

He understood Communists.

Hard though they are, they them. They were quite open keep quiet or strike reluctantly. about their industrial ends when they know that overnight though few dockers. troubled to the think beyond the security

paving stones outside their of houses will be daubed in ber their own jobs and the old unity with words like "Scab”

and among themselves.

"Black" when they awake next morning

"ONE OUT.... ALL OUT” ... was still the rule

All this is true of London's But things were not to remata docks. like this for ever,

..

London only? I can say here As time went by, strike dis- that the menste has spread now cipline began to tighten as the to Liverpool. It can engulf the men took more urging to go za lives of the dockers throughout strike. The Communists began Britain.

Memory Man Shows What You Can Do

It is a heavy price. In queues ZHUKOV is quite ready to give. KRUSHCHEV showed poli-

up the Soviet possessions in tical ineptitude at Belgrade and crowded tenements, which and suffered a setback there for the Soviet citizen has to pay for Austria and Germany, which he is now being blamed, his country's rapidly-increasing Stalin set such store byespeci

industrial potential as a maker

Ker ally if by so doing he (According to the report he is being blamed for his undizi of heavy armaments. A poten- divide and disarm his adver-

in which they are fed behaviour, not failure.)

suries on the other side of the quickly reducing the gap be curtain tween them and the West

General Gehlen looks with

to the There are, however, two new the eyes of a typical German clements in the present crisis. militarist at the Soviet retreat

to

THE ACCESSION of West Germany

tho NATO Powers constitutes a great in crease in the strength of West.

the

5 THE GOOD-WILL gestures which the Soviet Union has

3

been strewing all along its frontiers recently are prompted

partly by Soviet realisation This

of

new German-promoted Western strength, and partly by

etin

this.

THE NEW SAFETY.VALVE

THESE Cartoons were published, under the heading "Bureaucrats' Harvest,” in the Prague humorous weekly Dikobraz. Win the editor be shot for so pillorying party bureaucrats over the breakdown. of the agricultural programme↑ Nol Humorous papers are the licensed buffoons of the Iron Curtain régimes—licensed to act as safety-valves for popular grumbling.

The crops

Has thresbed

new

From EVELYN IRONS

New York, portraits of Charles Lindbergh QUXTY-FOUR YEAR for a mural of aviation,

OLD Doctor Brunio

When she is not doing that ET us jettison before it is Furst, who came here from she is learning to fly helicopters. And too late this impracticable Germany in 1938, has a "But lessons Arc expensive formula for the summit talks perfect memory. He claims more than £20 an hou," she Adenzuer has imposed on us.

that you or I can have one, saya, ... For to ask the "Kremlin to accept a reunited, remmed Ger- too.

Aline, now las her early 40', she became an from was 16 when many which is allied

Two hundred students West that is what it amounts his memory classes aged 20 to artist am 20 when the first flew to-is to torpedo the talks 60showed what they, could do sola. before they have been launched. in a Manhattan ball.

She had flown more than 3,000 Instead we should work for a Forty member's of the hours when she joined Eritain's neutralised And reunited

Ger- audience of 500 stood up one by Air Transport Auxiliary in 1943 many in return for a neutralised one and gave their names. Then to By Spitfires, heavy bombers Poland and Teutralised they all stood

and anything that came handy, Czechoslovakla.

twenty at Doctor

Before this American got into This would be the beginningfienfified all of them. of a real peace.

Dr Turst's students are also Britain's war the was the wife Langhorne Brooks, trained to be formidable bridge of Peter

fller nephew of Lady opponents. Another demonstra, stunt tion. brought four members of Astor. (His mother, Mas Piryllis the audience to the platform Brooks, Lady Astor's sister, found a bridge table. A pack of married Lo Brand 銀 ber cards

was shuffled and dealt sécond husband.)

a

-(London Express Service)

and pupila.

and three of the four reeled off Aline and her husband were what cards they had

divorced before the war. “He

within len minutes

the married again twice and diet

students were able to say what in 1844. studs were in the hidden tand. After that any but the most addle-pated can remember all. the funny stories they hear USSEE MORAN, whose frillse "No I don't play ridge said panties once made Wimble First, sadly. It wouldn't be don headlines, has taken to fair, and besides, it wouldn't sterner stuff the uniform of the amuse me. It would be just £ss Brooklyna Dodgers baseball enry."

her Manhattan

beam She wearing it for broadcasts she is giving in New studio, York before and after all Dodger

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