FORCED LABOUR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 117, 2 March 1950, Page 5

FORCED LABOUR

“INTEGRAL PART OF SOVIET ECONOMY” WESTERN CHARGES IN UNO COUNCIL NEW YORK, Feb. 28. Britain, the United States, and European and Latin American countries alleged to-day that forced labour was an integral part of the Soviet economy. Delegates of the countries were speaking in a debate in the United Nations Economic and Social Council on forced labour. They condemned the .Soviet for refusing to agree to the proposed United Nations commission of inquiry into alleged forced labour.

Czechoslovakia, which is boycotting United Nations activities in protest against continued Chinese Nationalist representation, was not present at the meeting. Mr G. T. Corley Smith (Britain) said that no other country could have anything remotely approaching the Soviet’s prison camp population. He said that evidence from men and women who had escaped from Soviet concentration camps, as well as information contained in the k official Soviet “Russian corrective labour code” proved three things: (1) People were condemned to forced labour because of their political opinions. (2) People were condemned without trial in a Court of Law. (3) The numbers involved were immense, and forced labour constituted a vital element in the Soviet economic system. t Amnesties ,to Prisoners Mr Smith said it had been officially published that upon the completion of the Baltic-White Sea and MoscowVclga canals 127,000 prisoners working on those jobs had re can ed amnesties. “How many more were engaged is not known, but 127,000 prisoners were amnestied and that is nearly the same number as the total prison population in the Russian Empire of 1914,” said Mr Smith. “It is quite clear we are not dealing with any ordinary penitentiary system but with a vast economic en terprise run by the police and appar ently employing more labour —forced labour at' that —than any other organisation in the world.” Mr Smith said that the concentration camp and all that it implied in the history of human freedom might wMI prove to be the most fundamental issue of the twentieth century. ,:iust as slavery was in the nineteenth century. Mr Willard Thorp (United States) said that it was increasingly clear that forced labour had been incorporated in the practices of East European countries, where there was no protection for. the individual form arbitrary and ruthless action by Government officials. The United States, he added, had hoped that any responsible Government recognising the seriousness of the charge of forced labour would welcome an opportunity to clear itself of such a charge and might even demand an investigation by an impartial commission. The Soviet, however, had made it clear that it would not ailow such an investigation.

Delegates from Canada, Belgium, Brazil, and Chile supported the British and American view.

The delegates agreed that there was little use in continuing the debate in the present circumstances. The council decided to postpone further debate on the subject until its twelfth session next winter.