The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-20

EULL reports on the 18th
4 Congress of the Commu-
mist Party of Great Britain,
which was recently concluded,
are not yet to hand. But re-
ports of the first few sessions
show what great strides for
ward are being taken in the present
critical situation in Britain. From
Lands End to John o'Groat's." said
the London Daily Worker on Feb. 2.
the whole country is in mass fer
ment against the dastardly attack Of
the National Government on the
unemployed whose scales of relief
under the new regulations of the
Unemployment Assistance Board
have been cut to the bone"
In this situation, the Congress
called for the development of a one.
day national strike on Feb. Is in
protest against the cut in relief. The
Cambrian Combine Committee (rep-
resenting the Welsh miners have
already decided to strike in South
Wales.
Declaring that the class struggle
has reached the sharpest point wa
have ever known" Comrade Pollitt
secretary Of the Party declared the
supreme issue Of the hour was the
forging of the united front against
war and faScism. The essential con.
dltlon for the victory of the workers
over the increasingly fascist policv
OF the National Government, for in
surfing the united front, and for
speeding the march to a Soviet Brit
ain, was the building of a mass
Communist Party.
british imperialism instructed its
- c. I. D., known in detective
stories as Scotland Yard, to keep
Comrade Marcel Cachin, leader of
the Communist Party of France. out
of the country so he could not at
tend the congress.
James Maxton, member of Parlia-
ment for the Independent Labor
Party, who attended the Congress
as fraternal delegate, brought his
warm greetings to the delegates. He
said the Communist Party and the
I. L. P, chad much in common, in
principle and in aim, and objective
and in recent years they had shared
q common task in the fight against
fasclsm and war, and against at
tacks on the workers standard of
life"
He called for a united front strug-
gle against the India Bill, the new
slavery act against the Indian peo-
pie. He told of the refusal of the
National Council of the Labor Party
to meet with the Communist Party
and the L L. P. to discuss a united
front against the new unemploy-
ment relief scales.
FOR a few days, the American
4 press carried some brief tens on
the terrible epidemic sweeping Cey-
lon. They reported 10000 had died
of what they called green malaria"
In fact, there are seven plaques
gripping Ceylon. One in every five
of Ceylon's population is stricken,
One million people are suffering,
and in the background turks famine
for all
In the district of Kegalle where
the f1ercest plague, malaria, began.
1000 inhabitants died in two
months Malaria was followed by
dysentery, smallpox, pneumonia, and
other diseases, Crowds of cater
pillars are sweeping the fields, con-
Stunning crops that are not burned
by the sun. The peasants are too
weak to tend the fields.
MO respite is expected until April,
~ when the monsoon rains will
cleanse the mosquito-ridden swamps
which British imperialism does not
find profitable to wipe out.
AS originally pointed out in this
column, the main responsibility is
on the heads of the British slave
holders. They did not find it profit
able enough to send sufficient quiz
nine supplies to the malaria infested
districts, And at Columbo, where
most of the imperialist administra-
tors live, sanitation has made their
haoitations comparatively safe.
THE illegal organ of the Commu-
mist Party of Italy, "LUnita,'
gives the following details on the
appropriation of Greek peasants on
the Dodecanes Islands by the Ital.
ian imperialists: The Italian au-
thorities on the Island of Seros
called upon the peasants to pro-
duce documents by Oct. / this year,
proving their property rights to the
land which they are cultivating,
otherwise the whole of their prop
erty passes into the hands of the
Italian state. But since these peas
ants have never heard of property
registers, or any other documents
with regard to the distribution of
the land, since the time of the
Turkish rule, they will not be able
to meet this demand, and are there
fore all threatened with expropria-
ton. This gigantic bandit raid by
Italian imperialism on the property
of the peasants of the Dodecanes
furnishes the cause of the recent
peasant conflicts among these
| islands.