The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1951-03-22
Calls For Probe
OF Slave Labor

Y
Santiago, Chile (LPA) - There
are somewhere between two and
20 million persons in the Soviet
Union performing slave labor, US
Delegate Walter NJ. Kotschnig told
the United Nations Economic g.
Social Council meeting here.
Warmly backed by Great Bri-
tain, the American spokesman off
cred a resolution calling for COM
mittee of five to investigate the
use Of slave labor behind the So
Wet border and elsewhere in the
world. The investigators would be
named by UN Secretary Trygve
Lie. The Canadian delegate sug-
gested that a group of three per-
sons, one from Europe, one from
Latin America and a trade union
expert, make the survey.
Kotschnig told the council that
according to the very lowest esti-
mates the Soviet Union had two to
three million "unfortunates who,
for political or economic reasons,
are confined to prisons and concen-
tration camps, and who are COM
PEELED to work in or near their
enclosures" Other estimates Of the
number of persons so placed were
five, seven, thirteen and even
twenty million, he continued,
charging that such conditions were
permitted by a corrective labor
law approved Aug. /, 1888, and
similar legislation.
my government" said Kotsch-
mig, sis lifting its voice to chal-
lenge the present rulers Of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
for having instituted on their ter
ritories and these of the countries
under their control an inhuman
system Of forced or corrective
labor, which is employed as a
means of political coercion or of
punishment for holding or express
ing dissident political views, and
which is on such a scale as consti-
tutes an important, nay an essen
tial, element in their economy"
The American delegates case
was supported by Miss Toni Send
er, spokesman for the International
Confederation of Free Trade
TTniopc apd A III oovz,,I@op4 - 49,
United Nations. Miss Sender pre-
sented photostats Of Soviet docu-
ments including a 75-page hand
book of regulations Of May 81,
1887, published for officials of
Ukhtapechora camp located two
degrees north of the Arctic Circle.
The photostats were made avail
able to the ICFTU by refugees
from Communist-controlled ma
tions.
At Ukhtapechora, managed by
the Soviet secret police, the basic
diet for prisoners amounted to just
under 1900 caIories day for pris-
oners performing a norm" of
work, the handbook revealed. At
the same time, a dog more than six
months old was entitled to 1888
calories. Other documents indicated
the existence of camps in the Tx
raine, Siberia, the Urals, Far
North Central Asia and other So
Wet areas. Kotschnig reported that
slave labor was being used in
Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, too.
Said Miss Sender: what a great
contrast is this picture compared
to the Soviet paradise we have had
depicted here. If the Soviets have
a clear conscience, let them permit
an on-the-spot investigation
The free world will not be silent,
as are these unfortunates in the
camps"
To head off the demand for an
inquiry into slave labor in the
Soviet Union, Serafin Soto Of the
Communist-run World Federation
Of Free Trade Unions said raising
the issue was merely a means of
war propaganda at the
Russians. He charged that slave
labor existed in Colonial areas of
Africa and in the nations of Latin
America. The day before, Soviet
Delegate Pavel NJ. Chernishev told
the council US workers were so
badly off that some of them had to
sell their blood to hospitals to sup
port their families.