Book Review: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Forced Labour
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205400900117 |
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
| Author | Martin Levinson |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
65
threatened
to
destroy
the
alternative,
if
slower,
means
available
-
the
Party.
This
more
than
anything
else
may
have
influenced
the
Soviet
Union
in
its
decision
to
withdraw.
But
to
assert
against
Mr.
Van
Wagenen
that
the
diplomatic
pressures
didn't
count
would
be
sheer contrariness.
Obviously
they
did
count, and
the
unassailable
conclusion
of
his
study
is
that
they
made
their
impact
in
the
Security
Council.
University
of
New
Brunswick
FRANK
MILLIGAN
REPORT
OF
THE
AD
Hoc
COMMITTEE
ON FORCED
LABOUR.
Inter-
national
Labour
Office.
1953.
(Toronto:
Ryerson
Press.
621pp.
$3.75)
Many
in
the
democratic
world
are
apt
to
regard
accounts
of
large
scale
atrocity
with
a
certain
degree of
scepticism.
Because
mass human
enslavement
or
destruction
is
so
foreign
to
us,
we
are
inclined
to
take
the
view
that
accusations of
such
a
nature
are overstated.
Or
perhaps,
as
a
psychological
defense
against
the
unpleasant,
we
postpone
facing
the
facts
until
proof
becomes
overwhelming.
Certainly,
this
was
often
the
reaction
to
Hitler's
treatment
of
the
Jews
in
Europe.
Today
it
is
often
the
reaction
to
charges of
forced
labour practices
within
the
Soviet
orbit.
The
numerous
personal accounts
of
conditions
in
the
Soviet
and
satellite
"slave" camps,
published
since
the
end
of
the
second
world
war,
have
been
met
with
considerable
indifference
in
this
country.
One
of
the
factors contributing
to
this
situation
may
be
the
feeling
that
persons
who
have
fled
from
such
camps
are
prone to
exaggeration,
that
they
cannot
generalize
from
their
particular
experiences.
It
is
more
difficult
to
explain such
in-
difference
in
light
of
the
increasing
amount
of
reliable
material
which
has
been
issued in
recent years
on
this
important
question.
The
report
of
the
special
United
Nations
-
International
Labour
Organization
Ad
Hoc
Committee,
should
serve
to
arouse
world
opinion
on
the
problem
of
forced
labour.
It
is
a
document
of
over
six
hundred
pages
-
the result
of
a
twenty-month
en-
quiry
conducted
by
three
internationally
recognized
persons;
Sir
Ramaswami
Mudaliar
of
India;
Paul
Berg,
former
President
of
the
Norwegian
Supreme
Court
and
Enrique
Garcia
Sayan,
former
Foreign Minister
of
Peru.
The
report
analyzes
allegations
of
forced
labour
brought
against twenty-four
countries
and
is
a
gold
mine of
carefully
compiled
evidence
and
information.
Of
neces-
sity,
it
is
difficult
reading
and
one
would
hope
that
the
United
Nations
will
see
fit
to publish
a
popular
summary
of
the
findings
in
the
near
future.
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