Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org
Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org
Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org
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annihilation."<br />
Current Events<br />
By Prof. William H. Russell, Ph.D.<br />
VISITORS FROM RUSSIA<br />
The U. S. State Department is relaxing its rules against<br />
allowing Russians to enter this country. Eleven Soviet col<br />
lege students who are editors of school papers will be grant<br />
ed thirty-day visas to visit American campuses. President<br />
Eisenhower has endorsed the suggestion that a delegation<br />
of Russian farmers be allowed to visit Iowa to study the<br />
raising of corn and hogs.<br />
In the last few years there has been too much truth in<br />
the Communist claim that it is easier for an American to<br />
visit Russia than for a Russian to see the U. S. The McCarran<br />
Act bars alien Communists from this country, and few<br />
exceptions have been made. Last year about one hundred<br />
Americans, mostly students and journalists, visited Russia,<br />
while the U. S. admitted forty Russians under special waiv<br />
ers. Our country has nothing to fear from any comparison<br />
with the Soviet Union, and our institutions surely are not<br />
so weak that they can be endangered by a few Communist<br />
visitors.<br />
GOOD-WELL AMBASSADORS<br />
Vice-President Nixon and his wife have completed a<br />
highly<br />
successful tour of Central America and the Carib<br />
bean area. Probably Nixon's greatest accomplishment was<br />
to bring a temporary improvement in relations between<br />
Nicaragua and Costa Rica. He also urged a speedup in com<br />
pletion of the Pan American Highway, which still has large<br />
gaps in Costa Rica and Panama. The Nixons showed the<br />
same popular touch that made friends for them in their ear<br />
lier tour of South Asia.<br />
Princess Margaret of Great Britain has also made an<br />
effective tour of British possessions in the Caribbean. Her<br />
return home was followed by increasing<br />
rumors of her mar<br />
riage to R.A.F. Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced com<br />
moner. The situation is much like that of King Edward VTII.<br />
Opinion in the Church of England and among the upper<br />
classes is against the marriage. However, Margaret will be<br />
25 in August and can then marry without the Queen's con<br />
sent, if she renounces her rights to the throne.<br />
BOMBS AND POLITICS<br />
Winston Churchill recently made one of his greatest<br />
speeches of recent years on the subject of the H-bomb. He<br />
took the optimistic view that the bomb is a deterrent to<br />
warfare. Churchill predicted that the U. S. will have definite<br />
H-bomb superiority for three or four more years. Britain<br />
will build her own bombs, however, to strike at the tar<br />
gets which threaten her most. Eventually, Britain's Prime<br />
Minister believes, the world will reach a peaceful stalemate,<br />
since everyone will realize that global war would mean "mu<br />
tual<br />
Britain is scheduled to have Parliamentary<br />
elections not<br />
later than October, 1956, but there is increasing talk of call<br />
ing them this year. The economy is now good, but showing<br />
some danger signs. The Labor Party seems to be splitting<br />
wide open, which makes a favorable time for the Conserva<br />
tives to call new elections. The Labor Party<br />
regulars under<br />
Clement Atlee favor building the H-bomb, but Aneurin Bev<br />
an has openly challenged this and called for more negotia<br />
tions with Russia. Bevan and his followers, defeated at the<br />
party's last national conference, may now be expelled alto<br />
gether.<br />
March 23, 1955<br />
CHINESE DOPE<br />
Communist China is deliberately flooding the free world<br />
with narcotics, according to testimony of the U. S. Narcotics<br />
Commissioner before the Senate Internal Security Subcom<br />
mittee. The purpose of the Reds in this infamous traffic is<br />
to obtain foreign currency and promote "physical and moral<br />
destruction."<br />
Peiping's Finance Ministry controls the produc<br />
tion and sale of opium as a government monopoly. Chinese<br />
opium production is now estimated at six thousand tons a<br />
year, ten times the world need for medical purposes. Heroin<br />
addiction has become a serious problem among U. S. service<br />
men in some parts of the Far East. The habit also claims<br />
many<br />
victims in the poorer sections of some of our large<br />
northern cities.<br />
TOO MUCH TO EAT<br />
One group of Democrats in Congress has begun an ef<br />
fort to restore farm price supports to a rigid- 90 per cent of<br />
parity. This, like the attempt to cut taxes, may be intended<br />
mainly to win votes for next year. Recent figures show that<br />
at the end of 19<strong>54</strong> the government held title to over $4 bil<br />
lion worth of farm products, and had $3 billion more out<br />
standing in farm loans. Storage costs alone amount to $700,-<br />
000 a day. Congress is likely to decide in favor of giving the<br />
flexible support plan adopted last year a fair trial. Even<br />
under present laws, the total government investment in<br />
farm surpluses is expected to reach $9 billion before it<br />
levels off. Despite strenuous efforts, the Administration has<br />
not been able to dispose of much of the surplus. Butter, can<br />
be made into "ghee" for sale in South Asia, but it has to be<br />
sold at a lower price than the American housewife pays. We<br />
cannot dump<br />
our surpluses on the world market without<br />
ruining some of our allies who also depend on farm exports.<br />
THE WHOLE TRUTH<br />
Harvey Matusow is making a name for himself as a<br />
professional liar. In 1950 he appeared as an ex-Communist<br />
informer and told a Congressional committee about the<br />
Communist connections of some 280 persons. Now he has<br />
repudiated this testimony and is also trying to discredit<br />
other informers. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee<br />
is finding it difficult to decide which story is true. In order<br />
to convict Matusow of perjury under present laws, it will be<br />
necessary not only to show that he has contradicted himself<br />
which is obvious but to prove which statements are<br />
true and which are false.<br />
FASTER AND HIGHER<br />
An Air Force jet fighter plane has made a new cross<br />
country record of flying from Los Angeles to New York in<br />
3 hours 46 minutes, for an average speed of nearly 650 miles<br />
an hour. Two others almost equalled this time, all three be<br />
ing refueled in flight. If the same speed could be matched in<br />
an east-to-west flight, the pilot would arrive at nearly the<br />
same time, by the clock, as he left. Airlines now allow<br />
seven hours and a quarter for the transcontinental flight..<br />
The Defense Department now has a small, lightweight<br />
rocket which can reach altitudes of 75 miles at one-tenth the<br />
cost of earlier models. All the space which is not taken up by<br />
fuel and driving mechanism is packed with electronic equip<br />
ment to radio back information. The low cost of the new<br />
model will mean a rapid expansion in research on the upper<br />
stratosphere.<br />
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