Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

process"
Current Events
By Prof. William H. Russell, Ph.D.
FRANCE WAVERS
The French National Assembly has ratified the key
treaty for rearming West Germany within a seven-nation
Western European Union. But the decision was by the
narrow margin of 287 to 260, after the Assembly had once
rejected the treaty. The pact restores sovereignty to the
German Federal Republic, admits it to NATO,
and author
izes a force of half a million German soldiers. Because of
France's traditional fear of German military might, Premier
Mendes-France had to stake the life of his government on
the issue. Failure would have meant political chaos both
in France and among the Western allies. All political
parties except the Communists were sharply divided, and
the French situation is still precarious as Mendes-France no
longer commands the big majorities he had last summer.
The French upper house still must ratify the treaty.
The British House of Commons and Italian Chamber of
Deputies have already done so, while the lower house in
West Germany has given preliminary approval. The U. S.
Senate also must act on the restoration of sovereignty for
West Germany and her admission into NATO. Complete
approval is likely within two or three months. French
hostility toward Germany has dimmed the alliance's pros
pects, however, for organizational machinery is dead without
a spirit of cooperation.
END OF THE G. I. BILL
President Eisenhower is terminating the
fits commonly known as the "Korean G. I.
veterans*
bene
Bill."
Persons
now in service will still get these benefits, but they will
not apply to anyone entering
and those already serving
eligibility
service after January 31,
cannot accumulate additional
after that date. The rights thus ended include
education and training allowances up to three years at a
maximum rate of $160 a month; loan guarantees for farms
and businesses;
unemployment compensation up to $26 a
week for twenty-six weeks;
and mustering-out pay of $100
to $300. Also terminated, for Korean veterans, is govern
ment hospital care for disabilities not connected with ser
vice. The Korean G. I. benefits were costing about $45 mil
lion a month and would have gone higher if continued.
Their conclusion is
in line with President Eisenhower's
belief that peacetime service is a universal obligation which
does not deserve any special rewards. His action does not
end the state of national emergency proclaimed by Presi
dent Truman at the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.
Various defense agencies still derive their power from this
"emergency."
SECURITY CHECKUP
The Senate Civil Service Committee will soon begin in
vestigating the security program for government employees.
Strong
protests have been made over the case of Wolf
agricultural attache at our
Ladejinsky, embassy in Tokyo.
The State Department gave him several security clearances,
one as recently as last April. A few weeks ago his job was
transferred to the Agriculture Department,
which removed
him on security grounds. Ladejinsky is a Russian Jew who
came to the U. S. in 1922 and was naturalized. Agriculture
officials
objected that he still has relatives in Russia and
that he worked as an interpreter for Amtorg, Soviet trad
ing agency, in 1931. This ouster has raised a storm of protest
January 12, 1955
from Congressmen, the State Department, and anti-Com
munists in Japan.
During the recent election campaign many Democrats
charged that the personnel security system, set up by
President Eisenhower in April, 1953, was being used for
partisan purposes. They also claim that employees are
harrassed by interminable security checks, with different
agencies making different findings on the same facts.
There is no doubt that the program has hurt the morale
of government workers and is a source of difficulty in re
cruiting
new personnel at the upper levels. The present
system makes the head of each executive department re
sponsible for security in his jurisdiction. The Democrats
now advocate a single central security board, with one
set of standards for the whole program.
ASIAN-AFRICAN MEETING
Five Asian premiers have met in Indonesia and issued a
call for an Asian-African conference late in April. India,
Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, and Indonesia are the sponsoring
powers, with Indonesia as the host. Thirty countries will
be invited, ranging from Japan to Liberia. If all accept,
the conference will represent over half the world's popula
tion. Communist China is invited, but not the Nationalists.
The Union of South Africa is also excluded because of its
racial policies. Race questions and colonialism will be among
the topics discussed. Our government is afraid the confer
ence may be taken over by the Communists, but will prob
ably encourage those countries friendly to us to attend,
as a counterbalance.
LOYALTY TEST
The whole loyalty program is also being tested in a
case now before the Supreme Court. Dr. John Peters, pro
fessor of medicine at Yale University, was twice cleared,
and then dismissed on security grounds. He claims that
his constitutional rights were violated because loyalty
hearings do not follow "due process of law." The accused
cannot confront or cross-examine his accusers, and often
is never even told the charges against him. The Engineers
and Scientists of America, an organization of 40,000 defenseplant
workers, has filed a brief supporting Dr.
tion.
Peters'
posi
Government attornies claim that a government job is a
privilege, not a right; that dismissal does not imply con
viction of any crime; and that constitutional guarantees of
"due
therefore do not apply. Certainly the FBI
would be badly crippled if all security proceedings had to
be conducted as public trials. Unfortunately, the actual ef
fect of the security dismissal is to taint a person's character
and make it difficult for him to find employment anywhere.
The Supreme Court has a delicate decision before it.
SAFETY BY AIR
U. S. civil avaition established an all-time safety record
in 1954, with less than one fatality
per billion passenger
miles on scheduled flights. The airlines carried about 35
million passengers for a total of 21 billion passenger-miles.
There were a number of serious crashes, but they involved
foreign or military aircraft. Airplane flight continued,
as it
has for many years, to be much safer than travel by auto
mobile. The New Year's weekend ran up a shocking total
of 259 traffic deaths in 54 hours.
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