A BIGGER THREAT THAN FORMOSA?
A LTHOUGH the world's eyes tend to be on the Formosa region it is probable that a far greater threat lies in Laos, whose name one rarely, if ever, hears in the West.
In this country. lying alongside Vietnam and Cambodia, political developments give more immediate cause for concern-even than in Indonesia whose Communist Party now numbers more than 1.000,000, the second largest outside the Iron Curtain.
It may be recalled that some time ago the terrorists in the jungle wanted the government of Malaya to make an agreement with them under the terms of which there would have been an amnesty and then the Communist Party would have been free to operate freely and legally.
Growing
The Malayan Government refused to come to any such terms and the " Emergency " has continued.
In Laos, the Communist guerrillas made a similar proposal, which the Government accepted. The strength of the Communist Party is, as a consequence, now growing by leaps and bounds.
Organisations of every type -even the Catholic trade unions are being made the objects of infiltration. The Communists are least successful with the Catholic unions but all too successful in other directions. Whole areas in various parts of the country are virtually under Communist control, particularly in the remoter regions.
'lake a look at the map and you wi.11 see that the kingdom of Laos is the size of France. If Laos goes it will be very difficult, to say the least of it, to hold the other countries. And together they form the very heart of the South-East Asian mainland.
BUSINESS THE IDOL
Danger of Sunday work
AN international treaty to retain
Sunday as a day of rest was proposed at the meeting of the council of the International Union of Catholic Employers' Associations in Cologne.
The proposal provides that the same limitations on Sunday work be adopted by all countries to avoid unfair international competition.
During the meeting the union's general secretary, Dr. Wilfrid Schreiber of Cologne. reported on the demand for a so-called "rotating work week" by many German industries, including steel, cement, glass and chemicals. In a rotating work week employees would get their day of rest after every five days of work.
The Labour and Social Security Ministry in Cologne is preparing a bill on Sunday work to replace earlier legislation.
The German Bishops have several times protested against the adoption of the rotating work week, pointing out that observance of Sunday as a day of rest should not be abandoned for economic motives. "The loss of Sunday with its religious and human values will remove man from God. Business will become the complete ruling idol," the bishops declared.
HUNGARY
said to be less than normal while in others people left the church when the priest started to' read the letter.
Commenting on the fact that three Catholic priests were included in the list of 338 deputies, the Vatican City newspaper Osservatore Romano, said "The three priests have already been excommunicated for very grave infractions of ecclesiastical discipline. In fact they had refused to relinquish their parliamentary mandate despite the (Holy See's) order they had received."
The paper remarked that one of the three priests had dared to eziebratc a public Mass in spite of his excornin unicat ion.