A Red Peace Corps

The Communists have always delighted in attacking the U.S. Peace Corps as a sinister propaganda scheme and "a haven for youthful American spies." Apparently, they have also envied its success, since they have now set up one of their own. It is called the International Youth Service of Solidarity and Friendship and has nearly 1,000 volunteers from Russia and Eastern Europe at work. Last week it announced that it will raise its strength to 2,500 (v. the U.S. Peace Corps' 14,000). The boss of the Red Peace Corps is Bulgarian Ivan Ganev, who runs the outfit from a crumbling villa in Budapest.

Organized by the Moscow-dominated World Federation of Democratic Youth, the organization has already sent volunteers to twelve countries, including Ghana, Tanzania, India, Pakistan, Cuba, Mongolia and several Arab nations. Their activities usually parallel those of the U.S. Peace Corps, and the two groups, in fact, often work in the same towns. The Communists say that their new volunteers will be sent to teach in the Sudan, set up a clinic in the Congo, and build a school and irrigation dams in India, a youth center in Somalia, a sanitarium in Mongolia and a hospital on Cyprus. Averaging between 23 and 33 years old--about seven years older than the U.S. volunteers--the Communist corpsman signs up for a minimum of three months, takes a cram course on his host country and, once on the job, receives free board, lodging and $3 a week in spending money. To guard against defections, candidates are carefully screened, and those finally chosen travel and work in large groups, remaining where possible under the ever-vigilant eye of local Communists.

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