Review Published weekly by the Tribune Publishin - Canada and British Commonwealth countries (except Australia), Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. EDITORIAL PAGE TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager. g Company Ltd. at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia, U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50. Comment Authorized as second class mai), Post Office Department, Ottawa eee bag Tom a LONDON Wr a population of roughly eight ~ Million, it would be stating the ob- Ylous to say that traffic in metropolitan ndon is just about ten times the den- Sity of that of Vancouver. Despite this _ Vast difference, the facile smoothness fe eulation of London traffic is amaz- __ Very rarely does one see a traffic Policeman anywhere, even in the dens- ®st traffic ‘around Trafalgar Square, ‘Aecadilly, the Strand or other busy sec- Ons. Nor are the London “bobbies” Sut hanging up parking meter tickets “cause London, for all the complexity its parking problem, does not use Parking meters to clip the motorists. Yet cars park and the stream ‘of traffic ®Ws smoothly and steadily. _ The London Transport busses are a Minicipally-owned concern. All are double-deckers” and, regardless of Mme, place or rush hour, London bus qual pay) are extremely polite: and 9 assist the commuting public. More- Ver, these conductors see that every One has a seat, as there is no standing allowed in London’s busses (B.C. Electric Please Note!). Fares are charged on a 0nal basis and in all cases considerably below _B.C. Electric rates. — : As these streams of automobiles and busses. meve along at busy intersections, Ome cannot help noting an absence of taucous horn-blowing or irate drivers ‘9sSing insulting invective at each other, all of Which indicates a concern of the Mdividual driver for his fellow motorist. Actually London busses are equipped % heard across Granville Street. _By Vancouver standards the London bus drivers” wages are lower, approxi- Mately $45-50 a week. Hours of actual Tiving are slightly shorter, and there #e no “split” shifts in operation. — -_ A London bus inspector told me in a -transport—‘‘to give the public a maxi tum service at a minimum cost.” The Prevailing tariffs, ®ration, and the friendly and helpful _ *ttitude of bus conductors generally to l@ commuting public, proves that stat- €d aim to be much more than an empty Slogan. ; itude sometimes find their way into the law courts. This case, featured in he press in the last few days, empha- _ Ses the point. ae A pedestrian had boarded a bus while t% was stopped at a red light crossing. a Not having boarded at the regular stop- Ping place, the conductor ordered the Commuter off the bus. Incensed at such treatment, the latter took the case to Court E The judge ruled that since there was Ro law which said a commuter couldn't ard a bus while it was stationary, the ‘Diaintiff was quite within his rights to Set on and stay on, and held the London Transport conductor in error for eject ing him. vt : _ Unlike the B.C. Electric transit mon- Poly, the London Transport is organlz €d, operated and directed in the public interest and service. What is equally Temarkable is that it can show an an - Qual profit in the process, and is con- tinually expanding such services. inge contrast to Vancouver's perpet- fenders! - “ ‘Onductors, men and women (they get _ fendiy and readily go out of their way Pumper to. bumper, fender to fender, ‘With a warning siren which could hardly . few words the policy of the London the smoothness of oP- ~ Rare exceptions from this general at- . ual fare boosts, bum service, and bent Z Cruwars Ener oe Birco cone SANA REDS! 7 Hiding, Premier Bennett ? HE eighteenth century Bour i Date nothing on the mem- bers of the Public Utilities Com- mission. In reply to a request from the City of Vancouver that. the commission submit its reasons for the decision to increase transit fares, two of the commissioners refused because, in the words of Russell Potter, “If we gave rea- ‘sons, that would be giving our hand away to the appealers.’’ This arrogance is paraded in- the face of a rapidly mounting storm of opposition to the in- crease, and a demand that the commissioners be fired. Ratepayer organizations and municipalities, trades councils, Local Council of Women, and senior citizens’ groups are all joining battle against the decision. In the meantime, Premier W. A. C. Bennett is ‘‘not available.’ He continues to remain in hiding. — But the public is demanding action in no uncertain terms. Come out of the woods, Premier Bennett. Do you. stand behind - this latest barefaced action of the commission, or are you going to repudiate it? The people insist on knowing now. What do you say, Premier Bennett? Nice going, Marilyn » Att Canada has thrilled to Marilyn Bell’s history - making swim across Lake Ontario, and the Pactfic Tribune joins in the general con- gratulations to a great-hearted Cana- dian girl. \ The modesty and naturalness. of a teen-ager who represents the best in Canadian youth provide a refresh- ing contrast to the raucous ballyhoo . and sexploitation that are character- istic of U.S. culture. es The simple unaffected patriotism of a young Canadian who put up a terrific battle because she wanted to- ‘do something. for her country has struck a responsive note in her coun- trymen. ~The ordinary people of Canada . have done their best to wipe out the shameful treatment the young swim- mer got at the hands of the CNE directors. : ; Now British Columbia must put ‘out the welcome mat and see that she swims here not as part of a cheap promotional stunt but for the good jt will do Canadian sport. Trackless wilderness -- U.S. style GTARTLING confirmation of U.S. | designs on Canada’s Northland were revealed in Montreal last week. It was learned that the U.S. Navy has charted northern Canadian waters along the Labrador coast, and is keeping the charts as its priv- ate preserve, refusing access to them to Canadian and British shipping. Since our department of trans- port has, either by design or through some monumental oversight, failed to chart some of these waters, Cana- dian and British ships trading along our northern coast are denied use of an indispensable navigation aid. The Pacific Tribune’s informant declared that captains of Canadian and British _ ships have been refused the use of these charts. ; they cover. Following are the serial numbers of three of these charts and the areas They are known as H.O. (Hydrographic) Publications, “U.S.N. and are marked ‘‘Confiden- tial’: 9540-206 Hebron Harbor; 9540-204, Seven Islands Bay; 9540-. 214 Cape Harrison. gees The anomaly of a foreign power charting Canadian waters and with- holding the information from our shipping, and the failure of the de- partment of transport to chart the | waters, bear further witness to the St. Laurent government’s abdication of our northland to the United States. _ — the newly created ministry of northern affairs notwithstanding. ~ Hal Griffin | Vee CoN aE, the most beautiful city in the country, is also the dirtiest. You can walk through the streets of Montreal or Toronto, Winnipeg or Ed- monton, in the reasonable expectation of ending up without smuts on your face, but not Vancouver. Our smog laden atmosphere touches on both our personal and civie pride. ; What brings this to mind is the re- port issued by Joseph Satterthwaite, Vancouver smoke inspector, this week. Having noted, almost defensively, that - the amount of smoke and dust in the city’s atmosphere has been reduced from 32 tons for each square mile in 1949 to 19.6 tons in 1953, Sattehthwaite proceeds to expound his difficulties. From a sci- entific viewpoint, his report is encourag- ing. Housewives however, may be ex- cused if they observe no improvement when they take their washing off the line. : ¢ _Even Vancouver School Board, weary of continuous complaints about the dirty flag flying from its offices at Broadway and Fir, has decided to remove its flag- pole from the roof to the lawn. Smoke from industrial plants along False Creek causes flags to become dirty and rot after being flown for a short time. Satterthwaite complains that the city has no control over ships in Vancouver Harbor. Neither has it any authority over mills on the North Shore. The citv has complained to Ottawa, asking for power to prevent ships from sending clouds of greasy smoke over the city, but either the department of transport is ignoring the request or it is waiting for Washington’s opinion on it. 5o7 % 5o3 ; From Seymour Mountain one day this week I watched two freighters in the harbor pouring their smoke over the downtown section. Farther out smoke from a tug obscured the Lions’ Gate Bridge. But by far the heaviest smoke hung over Granville Island and around False Creek. ee Across the inlet the Shell refinery sent its smoke over Capitol Hill and a similar pall of smoke from the Imperial refinery hung over Ioco. - For a year now ratepayers’ organiza- fions in North Burnaby have been cam- paigning against the smoke and smell from the Shell refinery. At times, the smell is. strong as far away as North Vancouver and central Burnaby. Action would have been taken long ago against any ordinary citizen committing a lesser nuisance. But Shell Oil is a corpuration with great influence. It must be 4ealt with tolerantly, even if citizens have to suffer. ¢ 2s ; So this week the committee appvinted by Burnaby Council reported that Shell Oil had spent some $125,000 trying to eliminate‘the nuisance and this presum- ably excuses the fact that the nuisance continues. To this the committee added the fatuous excuse that the flare of which residents complain cannot be moved be- cause it must be in sight of the control tower. But the reason residents ‘com- plain is because the flare is often so high that it can be seen from a control tower miles away. In fact, ships in the harbor ‘might well use it as a beacon! It all adds up to this: To carry the necessary authority smoke control must _ be on a met¥opolitan basis and to be ef- fectively enforced it must have the sup- port of elected representatives wiil. - courage to act against the big corpora- tions which are the worst offenders. Otherwise Vancouver may yet have lethal fogs of the kind that have brought death to other cities in recent years. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 17, 1954 — PAGE 5