Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

equal"
Current Events
By Prof. William H. Russell, Ph.D.
VICTORY IN FRANCE
The French Senate has ratified the Paris agreements,
approving each provision by a large majority. This is
France's most important political decision since World War
II. Three of the agreements involve the restoration of West
Germany to full sovereignty; her rearming within a West
European Union and her admission into the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. There is also an agreement for inter
national control of the Saar valley.
France was the tenth nation to ratify the Paris pacts. Bel
gium, Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and the
United States have not yet acted, but no difficulty is expect
ed. We have deliberately waited until France completed her
ratification, in order not to be left "out on a limb'' as we
were when the French turned down EDC. Hearings before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are now beginning
and the final vote may come by the end of April.
BIG FOUR TALKS
President Eisenhower is willing to consider the advis
ability of Big Four talks after the Paris agreements are
ratified. The first conference would probably consist of ex
ploratory discussions by the foreign ministers. Before the
President would agree to a direct meeting of chiefs of
state, he would expect the Russians to show some signs of
good faith. For example, we would expect some real prog
ress toward an Austrian peace treaty and German unifica
tion. Eisenhower's views are close to those of Senator Wal
ter George, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee, who first started the latest move for Big Power
talks. Senator Knowland of California, however, fears that
a conference would find the West divided and our position
compromised by "appeasement-minded" allies. Soviet Pre
mier Nikolai Bulganin seems receptive to the idea, but past
experience makes us skeptical.
ROADBLOCK
President Eisenhower's original highway program, call
ing for the spending of $101 billion over the next ten years,
appears doomed to defeat in Congress. Objections were
raised to the great increase in federal spending, and particu
larly to its financing by special bonds. Congress is likely
to approve less than half the amount originally requested.
Most of the federal money will go into superhighways, with
the secondary roads left to the states. Some Congressmen
would like to pay the cost by an increase in the federal gaso
line tax, which is now two cents a gallon. This would affect
every American pocketbook so directly that the politicians
are not likely to adopt it.
NEGRO LEADER DEAD
Walter White, our country's best-known champion of
Negro rights, died of a heart attack at the age of 61. He
had served since 1931 as executive secretary of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. White's
career was especially unusual because he was not recogniz
able as a Negro, having fair skin and light hair, with only
a trace of Negro ancestry. He became a crusader for Negro
rights after his father, an Atlanta postman, died following an
injury received in a racial disturbance. He joined the staff
of the NAACP in 1918, at the age of 25. White was a gradu
ate of Atlanta University and did postgraduate work in so
ciology and economics. His greatest achievement was last
year's school segregation decision. Now a federal court at
Richmond, Va. has ruled that the school decision invalidates
the "separate but doctrine for public recreational
facilities as well. This could mean the opening of all public
beaches and parks to Negroes, which would certainly stir up
bitter opposition in the South.
OIL IN BRAZIL
A gushing oil well has been brought in deep in the inter
ior of Brazil, near the point where the Madeira River flows
into the Amazon. Brazil's present oil wells, in the coastal
state of Bahia, produce only one and a half million barrels a
year, less than three per cent of the country's consumption.
Oil has thus been one of Brazil's biggest imports, eating up
the dollars earned by her coffee sales. Development has been
hindered by strict laws against the use of foreign capital,
and much of the interior has never been covered by geologi
cal exploration. The recent strike was made by a Texas
drilling firm hired by the national oil monopoly. Geologists
believe that the deposit may be very large, and that if labor
and transportation problems can be solved Brazil may be
able to supply most of her own oil.
HOPE FOR SURVIVAL
Along
with the increased power of atomic weapons
comes the improvement of defensive equipment. The Air
Force has announced a new guided missile, the Falcon, which
is designed to be launched from a fighter plane against
an enemy bomber. The Falcon can be released at distances
up to five miles, and seeks out its target at supersonic speed
under the guidance of an electronic brain. The Defense De
partment has also revealed that it is working on atomic
antiaircraft weapons. One indication of this is that the cur
rent atomic tests in Nevada are to include a blast high in
the Air. Such an explosion could wreck a whole formation of
enemy planes; pinpoint accuracy would not be necessary as
with traditional antiaircraft shells. If a guided missile such
as the Falcon were equipped with an atomic warhead, it is
difficult to see how enemy bombers could escape. Many
believe that the airplane will soon become obsolete as a
fighting weapon.
JUNGLE HOLDOUTS
Some of the strangest stories from World War II were
of soldiers who hid for months or years to avoid capture by
the enemy. Perhaps the last of these stories has not been
completed. Four former Japanese soldiers have finally re
turned home after hiding out in the jungles of New Guinea
for nearly ten years. They were the only survivors of a force
of 2500 which was cut off by an Allied drive in 1944. They
went into the deepest part of the jungle, where they had a
constant battle for survival against malaria and starvation.
They did not know the war was over until they were found
by the Dutch last fall. Meanwhile their families in Japan
had long considered them dead. 211
April 6, 1955