THREAT FACES ESKIMOS AND LAFPS
OF OE I RE a ES RN SS SNE NS A RE
At the closing session September 24 of a conference of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, held in Nairobi, Kenya, Francis Bourliere, president of the organization, reported on the extreme concern felt by the rld's ecolocists over the possible effect of nuclear explosions on the balance of species.
An early discovery, he said, was that lichens are natural collectors of fallout material. The poisoning of lichens endangers reindeer that feed on them in Canada and Scandinavia. Reindeer were found to have strontium-90 and cesium in their bones three or four times the lethal dose for humans.
People who eat such meat, he.said, therefore risk absorbing a lethal dose.
Reindeer are not widely eaten in countries that have been producing nuclear fallout; but they are part of the ciet of Eskimos and Lapps.
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Dennis Brutus, president of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee, who was shot twice in the stomach at close range by South African police, was reported to be convalescing September 2€.
; The Johannesburg police said that they fired a single shot at the well-known teacher to stop him after they had chased him for four blocks as he sought to escape by fleeing. /See last issue of World Report.7
Although the victim has far from recovered, he was bundled into a wheel chair at the hospital and security police pushed him to a waiting ambulance. He was then taken to Johannesburg's principal jail, "the Fort."
In accordance with the fascist-like laws in force in South Africa, lir. Brutus is being held without charge. He is alleged to have attended a banned meeting. In addition he has sought to have South Africa barred from the coming Olympic games.
The case continued to reverberate internationally. Dr. George Msibi, the prominent Swaziland political figure who was seized together with Hr. Brutus by Portuguese secret police in Mozambique, cabled the British Colonial Secretary Duncan Sandys anc. Harold Wilson, head of the Labour party, demanding a full inquiry.
Dr. Msibi was badly injured by. the Portuguese police and a woman companion was beaten.
All three had been cleared by Portuguese officials at the ‘border. Mr. Brutus was on his way to Hurope. Later he was “seized by the Portuguese secret police, PIDE. ‘hen Dr. Msibi saw his friend being handcuffed, he demanded an explanation. The answer he got was a beatings and solitary confinement in a cell.
His condition became worse and a doctor ordered an operation. Dr. Msibi refused, demanding his own medical kit so that he could treat himself. This was refused for several days.
The British consul was not informec of the arrest for five days. When he protested the delay, Portusuese authorities justi-. fied their action by alleging that under Portuguese law political suspects are denied contact with anyone for five days.
Dr. Msibi and the woman were finally allowed to return to Swaziland. Meanwhile Portuguese police had handed lir. Brutus
7 49.
over to South African police although he was a political refugee in Swaziland and came under British passport jurisdiction.
For the first time: "A Soviet Artist Speaks His
Mind." Full text of a speech by a leading Soviet film
artist against those who seek to preserve Stalinisn.
Mace at a meeting in Moscow.
The September 29 issue of The Observer, a London weekly reports another startling cease in South Africa. The account is as follows:
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Dr. Neville Alexander, a prominent non-white scholar who was detained in Cape Town under the 90-day detention clause in July is to be tried for sabotage. He will appear ‘in the Supreme Court on November 4.
Dr. Alexander was committed for trial at a brief hearing in a magistrates' court. Bail was refused.
In 1958 Dr. Alexander became the first non-white from South Africa to be awarded an Alexander von Humbolt bursary for postgraduate stucy at a West German university. He took a lMaster's degree and in 1961 was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy for a thesis on the German dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann.