Coalition's BCHIS scandal HIS is still the top nightmare that disturbs the nutial slumbers of the Tory-Liberal bedmates in “Victoria. Last week it broke out into a new rash of accusation and counter-accusation in Coalition cabinet circles. The special legislative committee inquiring into the ramifications of BCHIS throughout the province is discovering some queer trans- actions in the much-touted “sound administration” of Coalition govern- ment, and has said so. Health and Welfare Minister Turnbull has attempted to “explain” some of these transactions, and has been promptly rapped down by his cabinet colleagues. Now Turnbull is experiencing a touch of Coalition “thought control,”’ and has been told, according to press reports, “not to talk’’ without cabinet approval. In short, Turnbull has been “blasting’’ the legislative inquiry board; some of the members of the board have been “blasting” Turm- bull; and to end all this “blasting,” which is not deemed to be “‘in the public interest,”” the Coalition cabinet has ordered Tumbull to “dummy up.” Meantime, BCHIS administration, like ‘the contents of a garbage can in hot weather, has not improved with time. All of which points to one happy portent—that BCHIS is still British Columbia's Number One Coalition scandal which can compel ~ retirement of that unholy political alliance come next election. Fearful of this eventuality, the Vancouver News-Herald this week dolefully editorialized: “It was hoped politics would never creep into anything so important to the people as hospital insurance. There are now signs hospital insurance may become a modern political football, like roads and railways and public buildings of old.” _ Such charming naivete is almost unbelievable, especially when an exorbitant and compulsory paid-up hospital premium is still no guar- antee of a hospital bed, if and when needed by an ailing BCHIS “beneficiary.” But then, according ‘to our morning journal, the Coalition’s promise of insurance that doesn’t “insure” is not political. But if it isn’t political, why the BCHIS “blasting” and gag-rule gripping the inner circles of the Coalition at Victoria? Munich still lives! HIRTEEN years cai: in the fall of 1938, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, returned from Munich, umbrella in hand— the same umbrella that was to become the.symbol of betrayal to fascism. Solemnly he assured the anxious crowd that the agreement he had reached at Munich meant “peace in our time.”” This Munich — “*peace” was the fruits of an evil deal consumated between Chamber- ‘lain, Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini. For this scrap of paper, the representatives of British, French and Yankee imperialism handed over the people and the territory of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. A monstrous and shameful betrayal, unparalleled in history. Less than one year later the whole world learned with stark reality the extent of that betrayal—and the worth of a Nazi-imperialist “promise.” At bottom, the Munich betrayal of Czechoslovakia was an anti- Soviet deal—a “‘gentlemen’s agreement” between Nazi murderers and imperialist brigands, that Hitler would throw his Nazi war machine against the Soviet Union, with the Western powers posing as “‘non- interventionists,” as they picked up the profits and territory they hoped would accrue from their dastardly scheming. History crossed up their schemes—with the blood and sacrifice of millions of workers. All that was thirteen years ago, but the spirit of Munich is still ithe guiding principle underlying the “‘peace’’ strategy of the new Yankee would-be Hitlers and their dollar-subsidized imperialist satel- lites. The treason and shame of Munich is inseperably woven into every pact made, from the North Atlantic Pact, down to the Dulles Japan- ese “peace” burlesque staged a few weeks ago at San Francisco. Anti-Sovietism—now widened into a new Munich and directed against the Soviet Union, People’s China, the New Democracies of Europe, and the colonial peoples of Asia and the Near East differs little in objective from 1938. Like Hitler, the impenalist brigands ‘talk “‘peace’’ while they feverishly prepare for war. Like Hitler, they assert that they don’t want territory, but a tortured Korea throws the Tie back in their teeth. And like Hitler, they are doomed to disas- trous defeat. on ‘Thirteen years later, the free peoples of Czechoslovakia remember ‘Munich, and in building a happy and prosperous nation, despite the threats of the Wall Street Munichites, pledge, their martyred dead cand their unborn generations—‘‘Never again.” “The common people everywhere, and in our own Canada, have also good reason to remember Munich, and to say with the Czech people, “Never again.’” The bitter lessons of Munich are an im- portant part of the fight for peace. ‘ a zi a i i: po SUNS tiled ascent eas cal f te = og ue Coe atlas sectltogaiaiy Maia deas ven pe divert YPublished Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C. By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD. Telephone MA. 5288 Tom McEwen Editor Subscription Rates: 1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, $1.35. “Printed by Union Printers Ltd:, 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C. Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa 4 CU ee ee TT eee Te TE TE NE SE VE TEE Ta EE TE TO TE 0 TT “pany of Canada? , JN his Deserted’ Village the great Irish poet, Oliver Goldsmith, traces the havoc. wrought by the Foreclosure Acts of 1765-70, which provided for the . mass eviction of the Irish peasantry from their ancestral homes in the county of Westmeath. These ruthless evictions took place to provide adequate hunting grounds for the rising aristocracy of British capitalism. ‘ Goldsmith saw the humble farm homesteads of his people razed to the ground and their inhabi- tants cruelly evicted. In their place arose the palatial lodges and elaborate residences of a vested parasitical class, transforming a beauty-spot of his beloved country into a parasite’s paradise. Of this dispossessed people he wrote: . “The mournful peasant leads his litile band, And while he sinks, without one arm to save, The country blooms—a garden, and a grave.” That was a long time ago. Such things “don’t happen” in our enlightened age. At least, that’s what the powerful propaganda agencies and spokes- men for modern monopoly capitalism tell us. But they do happen; and because they happen right under our very noses, unlike Goldsmith, we sometimes fail to see that they are happening—until it is too late’ {| { In the provincial elections of 1949 the Johnson- Anscomb Coalition trumpeted its political virtues far and wide before the electorate. Among these “virtues” were that of “sound administration” and its ability to “attract capital investment” to B.C. Today most of these “virtues” look like a ragged edition of Aesop’s Fables. The Coalition’s ability to “attract capital,” how- ever has been tragically successful. So much so, that some of the richest areas and resources have been handed over, holus bolus, to Yankee monopoly capital, and with a callous unconcern and disre- gard for the fate and fortunes of British Columbians residing in such areas. Who hasn’t heard of Alcan-Aluminum Com- It should have been AI-U.S.-Can because the . of Canada” is little more than a gratutious gesture on the part of U.S. imperialism, which, -having annexed most of our country, leaves us 'the husk of geographical identity in lieu of our independence. _ ‘Aided and abetted by the Johnson-Anscomb government, Alcan has grabbed off a territory about the size of Ireland in the heart of British Columbia. This territory, which includes Tweedsmuir Park, “dedicated to the people in perpetuity,” is to be- Gome another monopoly empire, dedicated to the production of “essential” war material, and super profits for the Molochs of Wall Street. designed by Nature, with its hardy pioneer settlers of 50 years or more residence, is to be blotted out by a 1951 version of the Foreclosures Acts of 1770— the flood waters of Alcan’s massive war project. — “ In place of hunting lodges and palaces, as in Goldsmith’s Deserted Village, great smokestacks and company-dominated towns will arise in industrial | splendor, while scores of small farm homes, repre-- senting the toil of a lifetime to their pioneering owners, will lie submerged at the bottom of an As We See It — by TOM McEWEN MACHU MEM ELLE A garden > PHU RTE ETE De eee Di Te Loh i “Alcanized” Ootsa, Lake. Of Ootsa Lake Gold might well have written his famous lines: “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey» | Where wealth accumulates, and men decay; Princes and lords. may flourish, or mey fade A breath can make them, as a breath is made; But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, _ , When once destroyed, can never be supplied. All that, of course, is less intelligible than ee scrit to the Coalition Charley McCarthys in Victo a who serve as the perennial yesmen of big business BC! _ The best criterion of just how little the Jonnse” Anscomb gang are concerned about the welfare ie the people of B.C., in contrast to their solicitor” concern for the interests of this ‘profit-hungry *2 kee monopoly, is seen in their cold-blooded dismiss of the representations madé to them, by a delegation of the Ootsa Lake residents, facing eviction fro their homes by the floodwaters of Alcan. smith Z Common decency would expect that in the giving away of the mineral, forest and power resources " this rich area to Alcan, the Johnson-Anscomb ie islators” would have made some provisional ts mands for the just compensation of B.C. residen’ so ruthlessly uprooted from their lands and homes: Not so with Coalition government of big pusiness: Common decency is not a Coalition virtue. as doesn’t bring as many votes as Alcan’s slush fund: to Coalition coffers can buy. Just as Oliver Goldsmith wrote the requiem Li the Irish peasantry evicted by the ruling class ts his day, so also in 1951, the Ootsa Lake residen= facing a. like calamity must plead with their sg opolist evictors, and not with their governmen compensate them for their homes and lands. This was the advice given by Premier Byror Johnson to a delegation from the Ootsa Lake até in Victoria last week. “This” said our top McCarthy, “is a matter between the company ~— can) and _ yourselves.” It’s like the hang™m4 _apologizing to his victim for springing the trap. Thus does Pilate wash his hands of responsibilit¥ for turning a garden of British Columbia into ® modern industrial grave, where monopoly PY? take precedence over the homes and livelihood ° x our pioneer settlers. : ¢ . Tweedsmuir Park can now be “dedicated 1D) ey perpetuity” to the greater glory and profit np Yankee imperialism. What are a few score of niet farm and trapper homesteads compared with “Home, Sweet Home,” at the bottom of Ootsa " and “be it ever so humble,” you'll take our pe and get out! In effect Alcan says: This land almost worthless when you hold it. Tt. 18 30h valuable to us. And the rising waters of Ootsa ia will decide—in our favor! “Boss” Johnson repe® monopoly’s grasping refrain: “Ve friends of truth, ye statesmen who survey - The rich man’s joys increase, the poor’s decay’ T’is yours to judge how, where the limit stands, Between a splendid .. . and « happy land.” The Coalition government has left the «juds- ing” in the hands of the monopolist gravediggel* ~ Consumers need public hearing, too j T has become common practice in “our free enter- prise way of life” to smooth over public indigna- tion at being rooked by profiteers of one sort or another to set up a so-Galled public hearing, at which every one except that main section of the public concerned, is heard. In British Columbia this procedure has attained a very high standard of efficiency, as witness the long years of hearings conducted by our totally-deaf-on-one-side Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Like the little dog on the Victor records, this body has shown a remarkable aptitude at hearing its master’s voice but remaining totally deaf in its hearing of public protest. Today, as a result of the crisis in milk produc- tion and consumption, where the producer and con- sumer are being equally robbed by profiteering monopoly, we have a Milk Board. This body, sired by.the Johnson-Anscomb Coalition, has demonstrated itself to be an exact twin of the PUC. Milk Board “public hearings” to date are dis- criminatory in the sense that the board chooses to hear only what it thinks the public milk consumer — should know. J. G. Gould, Coalition MLA for Vancouver-Burrard, and legal “mouthpiece” for the organized milk distributors, doesn’t want his con- stituents—or the people of Vancouver—to know what the profit balance sheets of the milk distributors (et The Milk Board agrees with Coalitionist It wouldn | “milkid e same reveal, Gould, and keeps mum on the subject. be “in the public interest” to know who is the milk producers and consumers with th monopoly milking machine! ( A “public hearing” is either what its na Kk plies, or it is a gigantic hoax, intended to hoodwin the public and put it through a prices sauee wringer. During the first hearing for producers the milk Board okayed an “interim” price’ hoist of three cents per quart of milk. i, ‘ A “public hearing” must ‘be just that, or abe? nothing more than a sham. hundreds of housewives and mothers who are kK compelled to cut down on their children’s mil a The profit balance sheets of the milk distributo® must be produced and made available for information at a public hearing. “Any attempt of the Coalition government, i Charley A w me im- ms public ‘ It should be hearing peins » Milk Board, or Coalitionist J. G. Gould of Vancouve™ Burrard to withold this information from the pu : is tantamount to a conspiracy to hijack milk price* ruinous to both producer and consumer. : Let the Milk Board hearings be public in conten as well as in form. Then British Columbians wi know who is emptying their milk bottles and fore” ing farmers to slaughte. their dairy herds. » ae PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 2, 1951 — PAGE § plic, ties eho abnor een