Major Targets

"These came to the college recently, addressed to the 'Captain of the Football Team,' " said the president of Assuit College, Egypt, holding up copies of a magazine called Students of the World. "We have no football team, so I opened them. They are sheer and unadulterated Communist propaganda . . . published in Prague . . . I have no doubt similar literature has been sent to football captains and other student leaders in educational institutions in Egypt and perhaps in other parts of Africa."

As Walter Crosby Eells, onetime adviser on higher education to SCAP in Tokyo, heard the story, he was neither shocked nor surprised. He was near the end of a two-year swing through the school and college campuses of 39 nations of Asia, Africa and the Near East, was already convinced by scores of similar stories that the campuses of the world have become major targets of Communist policy. Last week he published his ominous findings in a special report--Communism in Education in Asia, Africa and the Far Pacific (American Council on Education; $3).

Thought for Each Day. In Japan, says Eells, Communism remains a powerful influence among teachers and students even though the government has taken stern anti-Communist measures. In the spring of 1950, at least 130 student Communist cells were registered with the office of the Japanese Attorney General. The total membership reported was 4,526, including more than 100 professors. More recently, the chief of Japan's security investigation reported to the Diet that there are 100,000 party members in the country, and that of these, seven out of ten are "young men and women in their 20s." Meanwhile, the teachers seem to be doing their bit: the Japan Teachers Union sponsored the violently anti-American movie Hiroshima, and the union of the Yamaguchi Prefecture recently published a student-and-teacher almanac with a "thought for each day" on "American imperialism."

In Hong Kong at least a dozen private schools have been displaying the Communist flag on holidays, and one night school has been shut down as a Communist propaganda center. In Thailand students at the University of Moral and Political Sciences in Bangkok still publish a thinly disguised party-line paper, and one observer told Eells that "probably the majority of Chinese schools in Thailand are pro-Communist . . ."

Lenin for a Rupee. The policy of the Burmese government is so neutralist that "there are even two rival 'All-Burma Student Unions,' with identical names, one Communist, one anti-Communist." There has been no serious effort to ferret out Communist teachers from the nation's 211 Chinese schools, or any effective attempt to counterbalance the active (100 members) Marxist Chinese Students Association at the University of Rangoon. In Indonesia the problem is much the same. There are some 100 Chinese schools in the country, and many of these show their sympathies by displaying huge portraits of Stalin and Mao Tse-tung. Since university facilities are limited, Indonesia provides a special opportunity for Communism: in 1952, for instance, 200 Chinese students, unable to get into an Indonesian university, accepted invitations to the campuses of Red China.

At India's University of Calcutta, says Eells, "the best estimate it was possible to obtain . . . was that about 8% of the students were card-carrying members of the Communist Party, about 40% were fellow travelers, and at least 70% were anti-American." Communist students spend much of their time distributing pamphlets and papers through nearby villages, are able to pick up Soviet literature at any bookstall for comparatively little--11-c- for a Life of Lenin, one rupee (21-c-) for his complete works. In Delhi, he adds, "we learned of the policy of the Soviet Embassy to invite all students of the university during their senior year to a series of informal entertainments."

In Iran Director Abdollah Faryar of the U.N. Information Center in Teheran told Eells: "The Communist effort lately has been concentrated on teachers and students . . . It is true that the Tudeh party has been outlawed, but we have now instead the 'Young Democrats,' the 'Supporters of Peace,' and so forth . . . I judge that 40% of the teachers are Communist sympathizers . . ."

The Lonely Ones. An education officer in Kenya described how the Communists are willing to reach halfway around the world to win their African converts. "Some of our Kenya young men have been sent to England for advanced study. But they have been lonely in London . . . Communist agents . . . are on the lookout for just such young men. They are very friendly. They invite them to tea and to evenings of discussion. The lonely students respond quickly . . . and before long they are well on their way to becoming full-fledged Communist agents."

To counteract all this, says Eells, the U.S. should double its own efforts in the field of education. But in doing so, it could well take a cue from the Soviet. In not one of the countries that he visited, says Eells, did he hear of "any reports of cuts in the staff or services in any of the Soviet information services and libraries."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.