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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 7. June 25, 1951

Peace Comes to Vuc

Peace Comes to Vuc

The campaign for signatures for the Stockholm Appeal began early. (It was presented to VUC at a Special General Meeting early in 1950 when no one knew quite what to make of it. It was passed in a much amended form.) Of the 400,000,000 signatures claimed by September, 1950, the vast majority came from the East. It is claimed that the entire adult population of the USSR. Poland, Roumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Albania have signed. Signatures from the West are proportionate to the local strength of the Communists, consequently with a poor response in Britain, Scandinavia, and New Zealand (20,000). It seems fair to say that nearly all the Western signatories had no idea that they were signing a piece of Soviet propaganda against their own countries.

Whatever the nature of the signatures, (the Soviet can claim a solid mass of support for Soviet policies. It is not clear what will be done with the petition, but an obvious use is in support of the contention that the people of the West (as distinct from their Governments) sympathise with the policies of the Soviet.

A next stage which might be envisaged would be the claim that the majority of the people of the world support Soviet policies as expressed by the World Peace Council, a stage at which Soviet disowning of the United Nations foreshadowed by Stalin's statement in February to "Pravda" could be completed.