Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

provocation"Current EventsBy Prof. William H. Russell, Ph.D.U. N. CONDEMNS RED CHINACommunist China's imprisonment of eleven U. S. airmenhas become a major international issue. The U. N. GeneralAssembly adopted a resolution condemning the action ascontrary to the Korean armistice, and asked the SecretaryGeneral to try to have the men freed. The vote on thisresolution was 47 to 5, only the Communist bloc opposing.U. N. Secretary General Hammarskjold quickly offered tomeet Premier Chou En Lai personally to discuss the issue.At this writing, however, the Peiping government stilldenied U. N. jurisdiction. Red China may plan to use theeleven Americans as hostages in international bargaining,perhaps for admission to the U. N.; but they certainly willnot win our vote in this way. One reason they may beso aggressive is the recent completion of our mutual defensetreaty with Formosa. Premier Chou denounced this as a"warlikeeven though it is purely defensive.In the U. N., Russia introduced a resolution condemning ouruse of Formosa for acts of aggression against CommunistChina, but the resolution was defeated.SPREADING THE DOLLARSThe Administration seems to be turning toward economicaid in an effort to work out a long-range policy for dealingwith the Communist threat to Asia. President Eisenhowerhas set up a new agency, the Council of Foreign EconomicPolicy, to coordinate work in this field. The Council willbe headed by Joseph M. Dodge, former Director of theBureau of the Budget, and will include the Secretaries ofState, Treasury, Agriculture, and Commerce, and the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration. The cabinetis divided over increasing our aid to Asia, with Dulles infavor but Treasury Secretary Humphrey opposed.Foreign economic aid is now costingus a little over $4billion a year, or about one-eighth what we spend on ourown armaments. Recent reports indicate that the Administration budget for fiscal 1956 will call for expendituresof about $63 billion, about three billions more than theexpected receipts. Hope for a balanced budget has beenvirtually abandoned, but the deficit will be kept as lowas possible. If we cannot balance the budget with the nationin prosperity and the world about as peaceful as it is likelysoon to be, when can we hope to end the annual deficits?NEW NAVAL MIGHTThe Navy has launched the greatest warshipwe haveever built, the aircraft carrier Forrestal. It is to be the firstof five or more supercarriers planned for jet aircraft, andhas many new features. There is sharp controversy overthe future usefulness of aircraft carriers, but the atomicage may make their mobility of special value, since onebomb could wipe out a fixed land base. The building of theForrestal came after a long and bitter fight within thedefense Department. It was finally ordered in 1951, andwork begun in 1952. Its flight deck covers almost four acres,and its overall length is 1,036 feet, a few more than theQueen Elizabeth. The Forrestal will be able to reach speedsof more than thirty knots and carry at least ninety planes.The cost, without planes, is about $200 million.JAPAN IN TRANSITIONPremier Shigeru Yoshida of Japan and his cabinet haveDecember 22, 1954resigned, and power has passed to another conservativeleader, Ichiro Hatoyama. Yoshida's Liberal party has held185 out of 467 seats in the Japanese Diet. The Democrats,a newly formed group headed by Hatoyama, held 120,but were also able to get the support of the Socialists tooverthrow Yoshida. However, Hatoyama had to promise thatgeneral elections will be held next March, and the Socialists expect to increase their strength then. In the meantime Hatoyama will merely head a "caretaker" government. Yoshida had been premier since 1947 and cooperatedwell with the United States. Hatoyama was purged fromthe government under Gen. MacArthur, which may be anadvantage to him with the resurgence of Japanese nationalism. He has been in favor of diplomatic and economicrelations with Red China. There seems to be little'prospectof political stability for several months,point the outlook is not good.INDONESIA THWARTEDand from our viewThe U. N. General Assembly has voted down a resolutioncalling for new discussions between the Netherlands andIndonesia on the future of western New Guinea. The Dutchstill control this area, the last remnant of their East Indianempire. It is inhabited by the Papuans,an uncivilized peopleof Negro stock, who have no more in common, physicallyor culturally, with the Indonesians than with the Dutch.The Indonesian cry of "colonialism" is therefore invalid.Indonesia's government is plagued with chronic revolts byminority groups, and has the support of a growing Communist party. The general feeling is that she should solveher own minority problems before takingon more. U. S.delegates granted the justice of the Dutch claim, but abstained from voting for fear of appearing to support "colonialism."SLOW PROGRESSIn 1951 India began a five-year plan for economic development, covering power projects, irrigation, and industrialexpansion. A three-year progress report by India's ambassador at Washington claims an increase of 13 to 14 per cent innational income. Some industries have already achievedtheir 1956 targets, and industrial production has risen morethan one-third. Agricultural production, which accounts forhalf the national income and occupies three-fourths of thepeople, has increased more slowly. Perhaps the most hopeful sign is that a new enthusiasm for self-improvement isbeginning to replace India's traditional apathy.SPEEDY FIGURESA new electronic calculator, called NORC, is now inoperation in New York City. Built for the Navy, it will workon complicated problems connected with guided missilesand nuclear physics. Its official name is Naval OrdnanceResearch Calculator. It contains 9,000 vacuum tubes and25,000 germanium dioes, cooled bya large air conditioner.Problems are absorbed from high-speed magnetic tapes atthe rate of 70,000 characters a second, and the machinecan perform 15,000 calculations a second. The slowest operation is printing the answer, which is done at the rate of300 figures a second. Even faster machines are being planned, but this one can already do more in one day thana thousand human calculators in a life time.387