head

Were Liberal rebels

Is the projected sellout of northern British Colum-
bia’s resources to covetous’ American interests the bribe
Premier Byron Johnson is holding out to Liberal rebels
to maintain the Coalition?

Citizens concerned with the development of their
province in the people’s interests have good ground
for asking this question.

Premier Johnson has returned from eastern Canada
without the agreement for joint extension of the Pacific
Great Eastern Railway he went to get. Both the CNR

and CPR turned him down cold. The banks are report-
ed to be equally unresponsive to proposals for purely
provincial development,

Now the oft-discussed project for developing the
PGE with American aid—a project that fits in with
American war plans in Alaska and the Canadian north-
land—is being taken up again,

Premier Johnson sees the Project as serving his
own: political ends. Some Liberals are talking publicly
and many more of them Privately about breaking up

bribed by U.S. sellout deal?

the Coalition. They contend that the Conservative im-
print on provincial legislation enacted by the Johnson-
Anscomb government, particularly on the sales tax
and ICA Act, and Steadily growing popular opposition,
is harmful to the Libera] Party provincially and feder-
ally. They fear defeat if the Coalition goes te the
people on its record alone.

But if the government Can advance a program,

Continued on“ back page
See COALITION

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IAN WAR GRAVES

World public opinion has been inflamed by the brutal treachery
of the Dutch imperialist attempt to assassinate Indonesian freedom.

(See page 3).

At press.time an LPP. protest delegation was interviewing the
Dutch -consulate. in Vancouver to. charge the Dutch. with defiling
by their aggression the graves of Canadian soldiers in Holland.

Violating all agreements, the Dutch moved on 17 hours’ notice
by land, sea and air to reimpose one of the most blood-stained col-
onial despotisms in history on a disarmed and weakened republic.
“Law and order,” was the excuse.

But the occupation has been unchecked because while the Soviet
Union has demanded action by UN, the robber-nations hold a major-
ity and are up to their necks in the same dirty game as the Dutch.

The Security Council has not yet branded the Netherlands an
aggressor, nor invoked sanctions to bring her colonial monopolists to
their knees. Instead it asked the Dutch to cease fire, without even
having to retreat to former positions. To this the Dutch coolly
replied that they would “consider” it, and a week later, their cam-
paign seeming all but over, said they would wind up the shooting
New Year’s Eve. They also agreed to release—under surveillance
—captured heads of the Indonesian Republic, provided they would
not lift a finger to restore that Republic.

Dutch action was not only aimed at destroying Indonesian
freedom. It was also a product of inter-imperialist antagonisms. An-
erican monopolists had been working through Indonesian puppets to
win the lion’s share of the spoils from this fabulously rich corner
of the earth, With the Dutch, as with the British and French, the
men of Wall Street had been using their superior productive power
to replace the old colonial chains with brand new Marshall Plan
fetters, fetters applied to older imperialist motherlands as well as
to old imperialist colonies.

r h

U.S. eyes Canada $ nort west The Dutch action was of a pattern with British mass murder
; Hich built by Americans and Canadians during the dark days of 1942-3 to in Malaya and the French war on Viet Nam. _Likewise the British

The: Aleska Highway, fascist. aggression, now forms an important link in the United States’ and French in the Security Council exerted full influence to sabotage
help defend Alaska from ge 3 rojected ‘T'rans-Canadian-Alaskan Railway was abandoned when peace action. The US. would have accepted stronger action to
network of war bases in Alaska. h FAttans Now the plans are being brought up to date, and British allow its Indonesian friends to function, but in the long run wins
the Japanese Seer ples ee ie rat Reston Railway becomes another important link in U.S. _ either way, whether it exploits the East Indies through Dutch puppets
Columbia's provincially 1c see their rich territory into a special military area of exploitation the people or Indonesian puppets.
war plans. Against saa hh ke dj ng roads and railways to serve their interests by -facilitating their access The rest of the world, and particularly such Pacific trading
ogre reas meu development of their resources. countries as Canada, loses either way, and peace for all peoples is
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struck a heavy blow.
Growing flood danger alarms. Valley

People’s action against the Dutch and pressure on the UN
through their governments is rising to reverse the tide.

Australia’s two largest organizations of maritime workers, the
Seamen’s Union and Waterside Workers’ Federation, are already
meeting to consider action against the aggressors. The waterside

Do members of the Coalition
government read _ their oe
weather reports? Apparently
they don’t. This was indicated by
their ignoring of flood poesia
issued long before last sp ss
disastrous floods in the uae
Valley and elsewhere in the P

vince, ay:
But people in the Fraser Val

ley do, and they’re perturbed by there is a possibility of another

a statement made this week by
Cc. E. Webb, head of the Do-
minion weather bureau’s Van-
couver office. “This year, there
is already more snow than there
was in the disastrous spring of
1948,” he said. “If similar condi-
tions prevail during the balance
of the winter, and if spring wea-
ther and temperatures are right,

flood ‘this spring.”

On Lulu Island and many oth-
er danger points along the Fra-
ser River, however,, the Coali-
tion government refuses to
change a policy that has obtain-
ed for 50 years. Finance Minis-
ter Herbert Anscomb is praying
for another “act of God” to avert
a flood.

workers (longshoremen) boycotted all Dutch shipping throughout the
previous Dutch aggression in 1946 and 1947.

Toronto youth are picketing the Dutch consulate there.

Many Vancouver veterans of the campaign which liberated
Holland from Hitler are considering similar action in Vancouver.

The B.C LPP delegation going before the Dutch consul if

Continued on back page
See DUTCH

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