Freedom First

Summary

This is issue 118 of Freedom First (March 1962), the Bombay-based classical-liberal periodical associated with the Forum of Free Enterprise circle. The issue opens with domestic Indian politics — a defence of press freedom against what the editors see as Nehru’s growing intolerance of criticism, occasioned by the North Bombay election contest involving V. K. Krishna Menon and Acharya J. B. Kripalani — and a first-hand account of the February 1962 general election campaign from a Jana Sangh candidate reflecting on the state of Indian democracy. The rest of the issue turns outward to Cold War themes: the philosophy and practical history of political neutrality (with Switzerland as case study), OAS plastic-bomb terrorism against journalists and publishers in France and Algeria, an account of Somali students fleeing Czechoslovakia after disillusioning treatment under communist rule, and a report on open Sino-Soviet discord within the international communist peace movement. The issue closes with two regular clipping/quotation features, “Without Comment” and “With Many Voices,” which reprint contemporary Indian press items and quotations from Nehru, Krishna Menon, Frank Moraes, M. R. Masani and others on the 1962 election and Congress politics.

Essays

Press And The Prime Minister

By S. N. Aiyer

S. N. Aiyer argues that the North Bombay election contest between the Nehru-Menon camp and Acharya Kripalani has exposed the Prime Minister’s growing hostility to press criticism. Nehru is accused of branding newspapers favourable to Kripalani as “reactionary” and “capitalist,” and of failing to unambiguously condemn a Congress-instigated bonfire of the Indian Express and Loksatta, allegedly inspired by Deputy Home Minister Violet Alva’s remarks equating the burning of an English daily to the freedom movement’s boycott of foreign cloth. The essay contends that most major papers being owned by big business is unfortunate but does not make them dishonest, and warns that Nehru’s own enormous personal popularity has blurred, in his mind, the line between popularity and sound policy, making him increasingly intolerant of legitimate criticism on issues like China, Tibet, and state trading.

• The North Bombay contest (Krishna Menon vs. Kripalani) brought the issue of press freedom into sharp relief.
• Nehru is said to have called pro-Kripalani papers ‘reactionary’ and ‘capitalist’ and to have targeted Jayaprakash Narayan indirectly for similar criticism.
• Congress workers and fellow-travellers staged a bonfire of the Indian Express and Loksatta; Deputy Home Minister Violet Alva is implicated as having encouraged the idea.
• The author says big-business ownership of major papers is regrettable but does not by itself disqualify their editorial judgement.
• Nehru’s unmatched personal stature has, in the author’s view, made him unable to distinguish popularity from correct policy, fostering an intolerant attitude to criticism from the press and public men.
• The piece calls for consistent, fearless assertion of public criticism against Congress leadership’s intolerance.

The Art And Science Of Being Neutral

By Melvin J. Lasky

Melvin J. Lasky’s essay uses Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty exchange to frame a meditation on the slipperiness of the word “neutrality” in Cold War discourse, contrasting American historical hostility to the idea (from Roosevelt-era isolationism to Cold War alignment) with the practical, tested neutrality of Switzerland during the Second World War. Drawing on Jon Kimche’s study of Swiss neutrality, Lasky credits General Henri Guisan with maintaining Swiss independence between 1939 and 1945 through firm military preparedness and psychological deterrence rather than passive non-alignment, contrasting Guisan’s resolve with Federal President Pilet-Golaz’s more accommodating stance toward Germany.

• Lasky opens with the Humpty Dumpty/Alice dialogue from Through the Looking-Glass to dramatize how ‘neutrality,’ ‘peace,’ and ‘freedom’ mean different things to different speakers at the U.N. and in Cold War rhetoric.
• American attitudes to neutrality have swung from Roosevelt- and Cordell Hull-era entangling-alliance avoidance (1936-1941) to post-war hostility toward non-alignment, as with John Foster Dulles.
• Switzerland is presented as the paradigm case: for six years (1939-1945) it survived encirclement by Axis powers.
• General Henri Guisan organised Swiss military defences, trained soldiers, prepared demolition plans for Alpine tunnels/passes, and maintained morale, in tension with civilian political leadership.
• Federal President Pilet-Golaz favoured accommodation with German demands, while Guisan favoured resistance; the two approaches nonetheless shared the same underlying goal of Swiss independence.
• Kimche’s conclusion (quoted at length) is that Swiss neutrality survived not because belligerents respected an abstract principle, but because Switzerland had prepared to fight and made the cost of invasion too high.
• Lasky extends the lesson to contemporary ‘neutralism’ and ‘non-alignment’ claimed by newly independent nations at the U.N., arguing that rhetorical neutrality substitutes for the genuine, costly preparedness that made Swiss neutrality real.

Gresham’s Law In Politics

By MA Venkata Rao

M. A. Venkata Rao, writing as a Jana Sangh candidate for the Lok Sabha (Bangalore) and the Mysore State Legislative Assembly (Basavangudi) during the February 1962 general elections, reflects on the state of Indian democracy as observed during his campaign. He reports a widespread cynicism among voters of all classes about politicians’ honesty, alongside a countervailing shrewdness in judging individual candidates’ character, and argues that the Swatantra Party and Jana Sangh together represent the strongest ideological counterweight to Congress and communist influence, with the Chinese invasion having alienated much of the educated electorate from the Congress government.

• Venkata Rao frames Gresham’s Law as a social tendency, not a strict law, applicable to how bad political actors can drive out good ones in democratic and aristocratic politics alike.
• He was a Jana Sangh candidate for Lok Sabha (Bangalore) and the Mysore Assembly (Basavangudi), writing before the February 1962 election results were declared.
• He found no real difference in political sophistication between educated and uneducated voters regarding assessments of democracy and corruption.
• Widespread cynicism exists that all politicians are alike and self-interested, yet voters show shrewdness in judging individual candidates as persons.
• The Chinese invasion and rising prices have alienated large sections of the educated electorate from Congress.
• Swatantra and Jana Sangh are presented as the chief organized opposition to Communist influence, though the essay (continued on page 12) argues Swatantra’s flirtation with separatist elements weakens its own strategy while Jana Sangh is gaining ground via cultural and national appeal.

The Plastic Bombers

By Jean Bloch-Michel

Jean Bloch-Michel reports on the escalating campaign of plastic-bomb terrorism carried out in early 1962 by the OAS (Secret Army Organisation) and other French Fascist groups claiming to act for ‘Algerie Francaise.’ Initially haphazard (a bomb at Orly airport, one at Gare de Lyon, the killing of the Mayor of Evian), the bombers increasingly targeted journalists, publishers and intellectuals known to favour a negotiated peace in Algeria, including an attack on the Congress for Cultural Freedom’s Paris offices, the homes of Le Monde journalists, and André Malraux’s home, where a bomb blinded a four-year-old girl. The essay argues the OAS’s true aim is to spread generalized fear to silence dissent, and situates the violence within a broader crisis of the French Fourth-turned-Fifth Republic’s authority following the Algerian ceasefire negotiations.

• OAS and allied French Fascist groups have carried out an escalating campaign of plastic-bomb attacks since the previous year, beginning with an Orly airport bombing and the killing of the Mayor of Evian.
• Targets increasingly include journalists, publishers, and organisations favouring a negotiated Algerian settlement: Le Monde journalists Philippe Herreman, Jean Planchais and Jacques Fauvet had their homes bombed; André Malraux’s home was bombed, blinding a four-year-old girl.
• The Congress for Cultural Freedom’s Paris offices were attacked for its publications’ calls for a liberal Algerian settlement.
• Bloch-Michel argues the OAS’s underlying strategy is to generate generalized fear among the public to silence dissent, not to achieve a coherent anti-communist goal.
• The essay situates the terrorism within France’s political vacuum since 13 May 1958 and de Gaulle’s assumption of power to resolve the Algerian question, suggesting French civil society’s public response to the bombings has been to reaffirm its own liberties.

Young Somalis’ Adventures In Prague

By Fritz Schatten

Fritz Schatten recounts how six young Somali students fled Czechoslovakia in late 1961/early 1962 after a disillusioning experience at the Dobrushka language institute near Prague, where they had been sent on government scholarships. The students describe pervasive surveillance, censorship of foreign news and mail, pressure to join a Communist-front ‘Union of Somali Students in the Socialist Camp,’ compulsory Marxism-Leninism courses, religious discrimination against them as Muslims, and harassment when they sought exit permits, eventually escaping via appeals to the Italian Embassy after their leader Mahdi Ismail’s own scholarship (originally granted after four years as a committed Communist) was revoked and he was briefly abducted by police.

• Six Somali students at the Dobrushka Institute near Prague broke publicly with Czechoslovakia’s communist authorities in December 1961, following an earlier pattern of young Africans denouncing treatment in the Soviet Union.
• Students describe severe restrictions: opened and delayed mail, no access to independent news, a common-room radio rigged to receive only approved Czechoslovak broadcasts.
• They faced pressure to join the Communist ‘Union of Somali Students in the Socialist Camp’ and to take Marxism-Leninism courses; refusal was treated as a hostile political act.
• As Muslims they were mocked for religious observance and deliberately served pork despite alternatives being available.
• Their group leader, Mahdi Ismail, a former convinced Communist and interpreter to Somalia’s President, had his scholarship cancelled and was briefly arrested by police in front of the Italian Embassy before being released after Italian diplomatic protest.
• The group eventually obtained exit permits after appealing to the Italian Embassy (representing Somalia’s interests) and spent nights in the cold and in the Embassy library before departure.
• One student, 23-year-old Adam Abdi Ahmed, is quoted saying the experience taught them ‘the difference between freedom and constraint,’ and the group intends to publicize their experience in Africa.

Cat Among The Peace Pigeons

By Ernest Kux

Ernest Kux reports on open discord between Moscow and Peking within the international Communist peace movement, surfacing at the Moscow WFTU Congress, the Albanian Youth Congress, and especially the World Peace Council meeting in Stockholm ahead of the planned 1962 World Peace Congress. Chinese delegate Liao Cheng-chih and others argued the peace movement should prioritize anti-colonial national liberation struggles over disarmament and reject subordination to Soviet diplomatic line, a position challenged by Soviet delegates and their allies (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France, India, Portugal) who insisted disarmament remain the movement’s central theme; the Stockholm session ultimately sided with the Soviet position, rejecting the Chinese proposal, though Kux concludes the internal Sino-Soviet rift has damaged the peace movement’s usefulness as an instrument of Soviet policy.

• Sino-Soviet discord has spread into communist front organisations: tension surfaced at the Moscow WFTU Congress and the Albanian Youth Congress (where Russian officials were heckled by Albanian hosts).
• At the Stockholm World Peace Council meeting, Chinese delegate Liao Cheng-chih argued the peace movement must prioritize supporting anti-colonial national liberation struggles over exclusive focus on disarmament, criticizing reliance on ‘personalities from the highest social strata.’
• Chinese delegate Liu Ning-yi argued that general disarmament should not be treated as subordinating national independence movements, citing Laos, Algeria, Angola and the Cameroons as priority struggles, and criticized Khrushchev’s pursuit of Russo-American bilateral summit diplomacy.
• The Albanian delegate Misha went further, demanding the 1962 World Peace Congress confine itself entirely to national independence rather than disarmament.
• Soviet delegates and allies (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France, India, Portugal) insisted disarmament remain the movement’s central theme and pointed to progress in Russo-American disarmament talks.
• The Stockholm session ultimately decided to hold a world congress on universal disarmament and peace, rejecting the Chinese faction’s proposal to prioritize national independence, though a resolution was passed expressing support for national liberation movements as a concession.
• Kux concludes that this internal Sino-Soviet rift, alongside negative world reaction to Soviet atomic tests, has limited the usefulness of the communist world peace movement as an instrument of Soviet foreign policy.

---

Generated by the v1.5 extraction pipeline. Awaiting editorial review.