Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR FRENCH POLITICS Somebody seems to have been misleading us about who is who in French politics. That has been clear since the advent of the Mollet Government, and doubly so with the...
...This petition urged that there should be no further appeasement of Soviet Communism and, in particular, that the British Government should not recognize the Soviet Government as the de jure government of the Baltic states, should not cease to press for free elections in the satellite states, and should not disarm unless thoroughly effective methods of supervision and control protected the West against Soviet bad faith...
...If they put the recipients of it to work on useful public works and paid them in part in food and clothing, that would probably be wise on their part- it would certainly be doubly useful- and it would make it possible for them to pay us at least in part for what they got...
...This same "pro-American underground" let it be known that Mendes-France would betray the U.S., conclude Popular Front, and favor Communist trade unions in France and its possessions...
...To safeguard the interests of those nations which usually export food and fibre, we should insist that the countries which got our surplus farm products would agree to buy from their usual sources not less than they have done before on an average, so that there would be no interference with the normal markets of exporting countries...
...That has been clear since the advent of the Mollet Government, and doubly so with the resignation of Pierre Mendes-France...
...All through last fall, we were being told by "reliable anti-Communists" that the best hope of a progressive, pro-Western policy in France was a Socialist-Catholic coalition built around one Christian Pineau...
...Common Cause is only four years old in England...
...Now we see Pineau (whose principal claim to anti-Communist stature seems to have been party-line support of EDO making wild anti-American statements which, as Sal Tas pointed out in your issue of April 23, go far beyond anything Mendes-France could ever have dreamed of in his salad days...
...And yet, in eight weeks it obtained 255,000 signatures to the petition...
...It is neither privately endowed nor officially supported...
...The failure to increase consumption is not clue to lack of need but to lack of money to buy on the part of those who have the need...
...It has, thus far, only few local brunches...
...Alfred Baker Lewis K & B IN LONDON The April 30 "Between Issues'' column, which refers to British public reaction to the Krushchev-Bulganin visit, neglects to mention the petition organized by Common Cause...
...Riches in Poor World" [NL, June 4] point to the difficulty of using our farm surpluses usefully by selling them abroad without endangering the markets of other nations that export such products...
...This point was clearly recognized by Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd when we presented the petition to him at the House of Commons on April 12...
...We see the Socialist Premier and the Socialist Minister for Algeria barring Irving Brown of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions from organizing an anti-Communist Algerian labor federation...
...Danbury, Connecticut Albert Fourier SURPLUS PRODUCTIVITY The excellent articles on "U.S...
...Even if they did not pay us anything, we would still gain a little by saving the cost of storage, while at the same time relieving human suffering without interfering with the normal markets for farm products...
...Since the "have not" nations which got our farm surplus would be getting it free as a net addition to their normal supply, they could use it in turn as a free addition to the stock of clothing or of food for the most needy within their borders...
...So giving the food and fibre is the way to dispose of it most usefully and to meet the greatest human needs...
...Mount Vernon, N.Y...
...And we see the French Socialist party assuming in Algeria the fatal role of the German Social Democrats of three decades ago, with Lacoste cast in the place of Noske: a front for reactionary terror...
...I suggest that one way to do this is to treat our surpluses as something to be given to the countries where people are undernourished and ill-clad- to increase the actual consumption of food and fibre by those who need it most...
...This remarkable response indicates that, with an adequate nationwide organization, millions of signatures would have been obtained...
...London C. A. Smith The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...We see the supposedly "unprincipled" Mendes-France leaving the Socialist-led Cabinet because it refuses to challenge the power of the Algerian colons, many of them erstwhile supporters of the Radical party...
...In the long run, this would be really productive and not just charity, for it would increase the health and, consequently, the potential productivity of those who got the increased food...
Vol. 39 • June 1956 • No. 24
