Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

security"Current EventsProf. William H. Russell, Ph.D.THE LAW'S DELAYOne of the most serious defects in American government is the delay in our courts. In some Federal DistrictCourts, a plaintiff must wait for more than four yearsto get a case to trial. Such delays are expensive and oftenprevent justice from being done. The Justice Departmentis now making a strenuous effort to reduce the backlogof federal cases, and has lowered it by about 12 per centin the past year. Judges will be required to work throughthe summer months if necessary.Attorney General Brownell has also presented President Eisenhower with a program to speed up justice in thefederal courts. He would create twenty new judgeships,and set up special "task forces'' to go into districts whichare not keeping up with their work. The handling of federaloffenders would be improved by the building of two newcorrectional institutions in the Middle West, one for youthful criminals and the other a "maximum prison.VOTE FOR SELF-GOVERNMENTThe people of South Viet Nam have voted overwhelmingly to reject the rule of Emperor Bao Dai, legal heirto the throne of the old native state of Annam. The 42-yearoldBao Dai has spent most of his 23 years as "emperor"on the French Riviera, doing little if anything for his country.To the people, he became a hated symbol of French colonialism and corruption. Nearly five million of the South VietNamese voted against Bao Dai, and in favor of allowingPremier Dinh Diem to lead them toward republican government. Diem took over when Viet Nam was partitioned lastyear. His government still faces many difficult problems,but he has overcome the internal opposition stirred up bythe French, and is a staunch anti-Communist. A constitutional assembly will now be chosen to draft a new planof government. Communism may yet be defeated in Indo-China if democracy can succeed in South Viet Nam.V. N. POLITICSThe U. N. General Assembly has become deadlockedon the election of a non-permanent member of the SecurityCouncil. The six non-permanent members are elected fortwo-year terms, by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly. Theseats have usually been rotated on a regional basis, withone each for East Europe, West Europe, Latin America,British Commonwealth, etc. Turkey's term expires thisyear and the Soviet Union announced that it would backPoland for the seat. The U.S. chose instead to support thePhilippines. After a brief deadlock, the U.S.S.R. switchedfrom Poland to Yugoslavia. This might have been acceptable if we had not already promised to back the Philippines. Some of our non-Communist friends are displeasedat our stand, for they feel that the Turkish place shouldbe taken by another East European state. Our support ofthe Philippines may win favor in Asia, but the islandsstill have too many ties with the U.S. to be consideredneutral.next year. It would decrease the number of states from28 to 16, with only two usingmore than one language.Some of the smaller states would be abolished, and otherboundaries rearranged for geographic or economic reasons.Next year India will begin her second five-year planIt will shift emphasis from agriculture and power production, prominent in the first five-year plan, toward industrialdevelopment. Much of the new industry will be governmentowned,since Prime Minister Nehru and his Congress partyfavor socialism. The five-year plan will seek to create 11million new jobs; but many more are needed. Unfortunately, the people of India still think that machines eliminatejobs instead of creating them. Thus there have been strikesagainst the introduction of textile machinery, without whichIndia cannot compete in the world market. Gandhi did notbelieve that India should industrialize, and he still hasmany followers.WELCOME, COMRADESSeven Russian journalists are now touring the UnitedStates. Their visit was delayed three months by a wrangleover their travel plans. Our State Department has barredmore than a fourth of the U.S. to Russian citizens, in retaliation for similar restrictions in the Soviet Union. TheRussian newspapermen are not allowed to see Detroit ,butare visiting New York, Cleveland, Chicago, and other largecities. This is the first important group of Soviet writersto tour our country since 1946.Ten Russian housing administrators also have visitedAmerica. They were interested mainly in mass-productionmethods and apartment buildings, for they consider ourindividual homes inefficient. They seemed quite skepticalof the value of American kitchen gadgetry and other modern"improvements."SAAR DECISIONThe people of the Saar, the rich industrial valley between France andGermany, have rejected by a two-to-onevote the proposal to Europeanize their little state. Theplan, agreed to by France and Germany last spring alongwith Germany's entry into NATO, would have placed theSaar under a neutral commissioner, and continued its customs and currency union with France. But the SaarlandersareGerman-speaking and pro-German parties put on afierce campaign for union with the "Fatherland." Immediately after the election the pro-French premier, JohannesHoffman, resigned. The outcome is also embarrassing toWest Germany's Chancellor Adenauer, who had urged ratification of the plan he and the French government had developed. The Saar will remain under its present status untilthe Allies sign a peacetreaty with Germany. Meanwhileit will continue to be a source of friction between Franceand Germany.MEDICAL PRIZEThe 1955 Nobel Prize in medicine has been awardedto Dr. Hugo Theorell, a Swedish bio-chemist for his workREMAKING INDIAThe government of India has announced a plan forpolitical reorganization, which it hopes to put into effect290in the field of enzymes. These substances promote variousvital processes, such asdigestion, without themselves being(Continued on next page)COVENANTER WITNESS