a. 8 plan for a network of forest shelters had been complete and water erosion of topsoil might never have reached its ae certian extent, a Soviet journal said on March 5th, The plan to 'transform nature! was adopted in 1948 and called for the afforestation of nearly 15 million acres, more than half of collective farm land, over a l5-year neriod, But by 1965 only one-fifth of the plan had been fulfilled, writes Vladimir Chivi-= likhin in the current issue of the literary monthly Moskva. "Many people think today, not without justification, that if all had gone normally it would probably never have been necessary to unload foreign grain at the ~ ports of Odessa, Nikolayev, Kherson and Novorossisk, ' he says, ‘Nor would the pure gold, in which our people's toil for ages has been concentrated, now be lying in American vaults,! "Stalin was not a specialist in farming or forestyy, says Chivilikhin. ‘He was a great revolutionary and statesman" (sic) "who, to judge by the numerous oral and printed memoirs knew how to husband the State Treastiry and to heed specialists," The latter point was made in carparison with Khrushchov but, perhaps more to the point, S,ali ew how to deal with dissident writers. It could very well be that it is the latter talent that sections of the Soviet leadership feel in need of, More closures and sackings One can hardly ever pick the newspapers up without reading of some factory being closed or some major redundancy, Although the general trend has been for unemployment to fall this has been modified by the tendency for factories where the workers are highly organised to be closed, Unless this is taken note of by the trade union movement we could see a fall in the number of organised workers even if unemployment goes down,
Among the closures announced in the last few days are: (1) The former shipyard of Alexander Stephen and Sons, oldest on the Clyde and now the Linthouse section of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' Group. This will be shut down within the next few months, The future looks grim for the big majority of the 2,000 workers, Estimatesvary, but it seems that all but between 200 and 500 will have to go, (2) As part of company reorganisation BSA is to close its Sterling Metal Compmnents factory at Crewkerne, Somerset. 100 workers will be declared redundant and the work will be transferred to Birmingham, (3) Union leaders at Loewy Robertson steelworks, Bedford, have been told tha dismissals will start in the first week of April. 411 500 production workers and office staff are to leave by May 31. The works are being closed as part of a £3m, take-over deal by the Davy—Ashmore group. (4) A.E.I.'s research laboratory at Harlow is definitely close on April 30, On “exch 4 100 of the 120 research staff were given official redundancy notices, The closure follows the take-over of A.E.I. by G.E.C. (see previo reports),