EDITOR [IAL PAGE
The test ban talks

“The mixed crew

Scrap the lot

Defense Minister Paul Hellyer

announced last week the probabil-

ity of scrapping the Diefenbaker

_ government’s $375-million dollar

warship building program. That is

alltothe good. But Canadians

_ shouldn’t break into “hurrahs” too
‘soon.

With Washington calling the
Pearson government’s shots, and
particularly as these may relate to
so called “defense’’, we may find
Mr. Hellyer’s government bringing
> in something equally useless, ob-
- solete before it gets into the water
or off the ground, and probably
equal to or over Dief’s $375-million

_ worth of “frigate” sub-chasers?

. For TV viewers Mr. Hellyer-
spoke like a man who knew what
he was doing. So also did Mr.

Harkness. Both had one thing in
common; the readiness to “live up

_ to commitments” —that is to pour

_ more millions down the nuclear

arms drain whenever the Pentagon
says so. Like Britain’s “Skybolt-
to-Polaris” Macmillan, they stand
ready when Washington calls to
fill Canada’s “defense vacuum”
with billions of the people’s tax
dollars.

The Diefenbaker governu...it
wanted $375-million worth of “fri-
gates” to chase Polaris subs with.
We're not quite sure yet what
Pearson and Hellyer want tc
chase, but whatever it is Washing-
ton will call the shot—and it won’t
beless costly (to the taxpayers)
‘than the Harkness “frigate” fan- ©

| Pacific Tribune

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‘tasy?

Nor will it provide any more
“defense” in a nuclear war, since,
as Mr. Harkness the Tory and Mr.
Hellyer the iberal have both dem-
onstrated what the harassed tax-
payer already knows, there is none.

However, the fact that Mr. Hell-
yer has been compelled to doa _ bit
of “‘defense”’ scrapping is, as we
said, all to the good. A growing
public pressure to continue the
process might force a return to san-
ity and extricate Canada from the
“heavy dues” and death penalties
in Washington’s nuclear club?

T he three-power nuclear fost
ban talks open in Moscow on July
15.

The people of the world, who
fervently desire the banning of

tests, are anxiously watching the:

outcome of these talks.

A few days ago the secretary
of the United Nations, U Thant,
said in New York that, “in the con-
text of present attitudes, I very
much doubt that a test ban will be
concluded this year.”

The UN secretary didn’t spell
out what these attitudes were, but
there might be some significance
in the fact that he made this state-
ment only hours after U.S. Presi-
dent Kennedy’s “rousing” speeches
in West Germany and West Berlin.

Newscasts from West Berlin
report that Kennedy’s tour of West
Berlin “was a triumphal progress;
the like of which Berlin had not
‘seen since the days of Hitler.”

This pretty well sums up in a
nutshell the reason for the frenzy
which seized the President’s audi-
ences in West Berlin, and the new
dangershis speeches have helped
unleash. .

About three weeks ago the Pre
ident, speaking in the U.S., talked
of the mutual interest of the So-
iet Union and the U.S. in peace,
cand of the need to take definite
steps to prevent war.

But in West Berlin he poured
out all over again the old danger-
ous cold war battle cries. Instead
of seeking to restrain the West
German and West Berlin leaders,
who are impatient to get nuclear

armsintheir hands,he promised them

complete backing for their aims.

Comment

He poured fuel on the already
smouldering fire.

If, as he claimed in Washing-
ton, he stood for peaceful co-exist-
ence, in West Berlin he repudiated
that position.

Is it any wonder, then, that
people everywhere are deeply con-
cerned lest the test ban talks fail?

’ There is more than the Presi-
dent’s performance in West Berlin
to cause anxiety. While making
speeches about the need for stop-
ping tests and putting the blame.
on the Soviet Union for not having
one, the U.S. is pushing through
the most dangerous policy of
spreading nuclear arms around the
world.

Not only are they pressuring
their NATO allies to give in to the
demand for creation of aNATO
mixed-manned nuclear force,
which would put the German fin-
ger on the nuclear trigger. They
are also spreading nuclear arms to .
the Mediterranean area, to NATO
forces in Europe and elsewhere.

Last weekend at Comoxa large
demonstration protested the build-
ing of a nuclear storage dump in
the heart of Vancouver Island.
This, and other pressure on Can-
ada to accept nuclear weapons, is
part of the U.S. drive to eee A-
arms.

How is it possible, in the light
of this, to take seriously the Presi-
‘dent’s claim that the U.S. wants
a ban on nuclear tests?

At this point it must be said
the main hope for a test ban lies
in an aroused world-wide public
demand to compel the U.S. to ap-
proach the need for a ban seriously.

his is something of a “guest. col-
; umn” from the South African
weekly paper Spark (now banned)
by its versatile columnist Howard
Lawrence. From childhood up Mr.
Lawrence knows what evil race
segregation does to a family and

a nation. Here’s how Lawrence
sees~ “apartheid” from the family
fireside.

“When my mother met my
father, she was White. But under
the laws of Verwoerd’s apartheid
(race segregation), the moment they
were pronounced man and wife,
my mother became an ‘Indian’.
Then I was born and my father

I could not be classified as a Col-
oured, which I would have been,

So I am classified as “other Col-

‘oured.” :

“If the laws of Verwoerd are
strictly applied, then it means that
my mother will not be allowed to
visit her brother or other relatives
who are still White in the eyes of
the law, unless she gets a permit
which allows a Non-White to be in
‘a White area. As an Indian she
would have to get a permit to visit
me also, because as an ‘other Col-
oured’ I would have to live in an
area set aside for other ‘other Col-

was an Indian and not an African,

if my father had been an African. |

oureds’ or, if there are not enough
‘other Coloureds’ to merit a sepa-
rate area for them, I would have
_ to live in a Coloured area which
is an area set aside for the offspring
of an African-White marriage.
“Now my father is dead and I’m
wondering what that makes my
mother. Is she still an ‘Indian’ or
does she now automatically become
‘White’? And if she marries ag White

man will they be prosecuted under

the ‘Immorality Act’?
“And I have married a ‘Colored’
_ girl. We have a son. I do not know
what he is, legally, because I have
not yet come across an official clas-
sification for the offspring of an
‘other Coloured’ and a ‘Coloured’.

“But after thinking about the
ethnological composition of the
people of South Africa, I wonder
if my son isn’t perhaps composed of
the ingredients that will one day
make a truly multi-racial South
African. What do you think?

“And while we’re on the subject

of. what people are made of, do you
know that they have come across
a new scientific curiosity in Amer-
ica? It’s a G.I. with bones made of
chewing gum and blood made of
Coca-Cola. Instead of a brain he’s
got a television aerial. He passed
his army tests with flying colours
and is considered excellent mater-
ial for field service, provided he
doesn’t stray too far off i TEN:
channels. :

“Pity we're never likely to see
him in this country.

Just before the Spark was offici-
ally strangled in March of this year,
-and the Voerster gag clamped tight-

raiding and wrecking the Spark

ly on its courageous staff, the Spark
gave a breakdown of the latest fas-
cist edict being clamped upon the
South African people, the Publica-
tions and Entertainments Bill
which will make it possible for the
government to—

@ prohibit the circulation of any
South African newspaper
which is not a member of the
Newspaper Press Union (the
big monopoly press).

@ prohibit the circulation of any
book, either imported or prini-
ed in South Africa.

@ to close Gown any stage or
film show or art exhibition
which it considers to be in any
way undesirable.

@ to ban the work of any South ©
African artist, novelist, poet
or sculptor.

@ to prohibit the importation of
all paperback books costing
less than 50-cents without a
special permit.

@ to prohibit the importation of
all publications published by a
special publisher or which
deal with a specified subject, ©
except by special permit.

As these Hitlerite edicts were be-

ing passed in the S.A. parliament,
Verwoerd’s ‘special’ police were

offices in Cape Town and Johan-
nesburg, while Spark's heroic staff
were setting the front page head-
line for their final edition;—

“We Say Goodbye —Bnt Wet
Be Back”.
The Lawrence ‘family album”
confirms that promise. Africa will
not be silenced, and multi-racial —
democracy will take the place of

the ‘white’ bullwhip.

~ July 5, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4