Honolulu Record, August 26, 1948, vol. 1 no. 4, p. 2
Wrong Speculation
In Italy, breaking the hopes of the opposition, the recently defeated Popular Front regrouped in a new and stronger coalition. The alliance was comprised of the Socialist, Communist and smaller left wing parties which lost out at the polls last April. Pledging to "maintain a common line of action” at the Front committed itself to a program "no longer bound by organizational ties." The document in which the new program was outlined also stated that the speculation of the "reactionaries" about the imminent collapse of the Front had been dealt a heavy blow.
Still at It ...
In Nanking last week, new and even more stringent "security rules" went into effect. There was no protest from the Kuomintang. Aimed principally at workers and students, security authorities were instructed to "keep in close contact" with the owners of plants where the possibility of a strike existed. Violators of anti-strike laws were to be immediately
handed over to the criminal courts for prosecution. The security police also were told to either "forestall, check or disperse" any protest movement by students. Under the new regulations, officials of schools are held responsible for "maintaining" order in their respective organizations. They are ordered to help to secure "evidence" against their students. Refusal to do so will lead to punishment of not only the students but the school officials as well.
Police State
In Greece, top trade union leader Demitrios Paparigas has been arrested by Royalist security police. General Secretary of the Greek Confederation of Labor, Paparigas now faces a court martial death decree. . Forced underground by Greece's U. S. sponsored anti-labor laws, Paparigas was sentenced to the concentration camp on the island of Icaria last year. At that time he managed to get a message out to the World Federation of Trade Unionists disclosing that thousands of Greek union workers were in the camp, dying of disease, starvation, and torture. Making his escape last spring, Paparigas returned to the mainland to go underground again in his fight for organized labor. Last week Royalist police picked him up in Athens.
Arabs Again . . .
The four-week-old truce between Israel and Arab forces was shattered last week with a heavy mortar and machinegun attack on Jerusalem. The truce was broken, according to Israel reports, by a general attack which began at dawn a week ago Monday, Israel spokesmen, however, in reviewing the past four weeks, said that at no time had Arab leaders really observed the terms of the truce. Later in the week truce maker Count Folke Bernadotte received a firm rejection from Secretary of State Marshall.
Bernadotte had suggested a Palestine police force to alleviate the mounting near-East tension. The United Nations mediator had asked the U. S., France, and Belgium to supply 2,000 armed troops to help police the Jerusalem area.
Danube
At Belgrade, the 10 nation Danube conference adjourned after the Soviet draft of a Danube convention was approved with slight revising. The vote was seven to nothing with the U. S., Britain and France abstaining. It has been reported that the Western powers might refuse to ratify the agreement, but ratification by the Eastern European countries will make the convention effective. The split on the Danube issue was caused by the insistence of the three Western members of the conference that nations other than those bordering the Danube should have a hand in the control of its traffic. The Eastern bloc disagreed.
Split with Tito
From Belgrade it was also reported that Col. Gen. Arso Yovanovich was shot and killed while trying to flee into Romania from Yugoslavia. The general was the former chief of staff of the Yugoslav army. He ranked as the number two man next to Marshall Tito. The report stated that he and two companions were shot and killed by a border guard. One other member of the party is said to have managed to cross the border.