John Bradfield’s design for a Canadian flag.

CABINET EMBARRASSED

Is Red Ensign now
our distinctive flag?

E issue of a distinctly Cana-
dian flag continues to come to

the fore. In Toronto recently,
John W. Bradfield, a prominent
srehitect, disclosed in a speech
to the Young Men’s Canadian
Club that he had designed a flag
for Canada which , reportedly
drew praise from government
circles, including Prime Minister
Louis St. Laurent. (The govern-
ment has considered scores of

flag designs but, has yet to move »

on any of them).

In Ottawa, around the time
Bradfield made his disclosure, the
’ Canadian Trade Marks Journal,
official publication of the trade-
marks division of the patent of-
fice, proclaimed the Red Ensign
to be the distinctive Canadian
flag, causing thereby consider-
able embarassment to cabinet
ministers and MPs.

The Trade Marks Journal car-
ried the following. notice:

“At the request of the Gov-
_ ernment of Canada, the registrar
hereby gives public notice un-
der Section 9(1) (E) of the Trade
Marks Act of the adoption and
use by Canada; as a distinctive
Canadian flag of the Canadian
Red Ensign, i.e., of the Red En-
sign with the shield of the coat
of arms of Canada in the fly, as
portrayed above.”

All cabinet ministers, includ-
ing the prime minister and the
secretary of state, under whose
authority the notice was publish-
ed, denied knowledge or respons-
ibility for it. Many MPs were
quite indignant. They pointed
out that this was the first time

Red Ensign had been proclaimed
as a distinctive Canadian flag.

Coming at this moment, when
the demand for a Canadian flag
is gaining momentum across the
country, the publication of the
notice in the official Trade Marks
Journal was consi a slight
and affront to the tens of thou-
sands of Canadian patriots who
desire a national flag.”

(At last year’s Regina conven-
tion of the Trades and Labor Con-
gress of Canada a resolution ap-
proved by the delegates repre-
senting 600,000. trade unionists
called for a distinctive Canadian
flag).

* 50 %

In an interview, Bradfield said
he had designed his version of a
Canadian flag as his own con-
tribution towards national unity
in the country.

“Canada is an independent na-
tion,” Bradfield said. “We have

in the history of Canada that the.

certainly reached tee - stage
where we need our own distinct
flag.”

The original design which
hangs in his office is divided in-
to quarters, with lions in gold
on red in the upper left, gold
fleur-de-dis on a blue background
are in the lower right quarter.
Red maple leaves on a white
background are on the other two
quarters.

The Toronto architect sent a
copy of his design to the prime
minister about a year ago. While
ke received an acknowledgement
and heard indirectly that St, Lau-
rent liked the drawing, no action
on it has been forthcoming. —

Asked for an explanation of
his ideas in designing the flag the
way he did, Bradfield said:

“The lions symbolize our Com-
monwealth connections. The
fleur-de-lis are a tribute to our
French-Canadian brothers, the
pioneers who did so much , to
build .our country’, out of “the
wilderness. The maple leaves
represent Canadians of all races
and origins, past, present and
future. :

“Make sure,” Bradfield stress-
ed, “to say past, present and fu-
ture. We are all Canadians,
whatever our origin. All of us
made a contribution towards the
upbuilding of this great country.”

Being himself of British des-

cent, Bradfield has great admira- >

tion for the Union Jack. But it
eannot be Canada’s flag, he said.
We are an independent nation
united with the Commonwealth
as such, and not through another
nation. i

a

Many flags in the world, he ex-
plained, are exactly the same as
the red ensign, particularly those
of the British colonies. The only
difference is in the badge, which
in our case is the Canadian coat-
of-arms.

“ButI have yet to speak to any-
body,” he added, “who knows
what the present Canadian En-
‘sign contains. If our present flag

is flown next to that of the Brit-

ish West Indies, hardly any dif-
ference will be noticed.”

‘Commenting on criticism of his
design, which has appeared since
it was announced, Bradfield said.

“I feel keenly the need of a
national flag. I realized that
something had to be done. If I
-haven’t the answer, someone else
may have it. If my idea is of
some value, it will help the coun-
try. If it’s not acceptable, it will
at least start people thinking. It
may get our officials out of the

rut of present thinking, which’

_Teads thgm arid us exactly no-
where.” .

Ss

BILL KASHTAN’S LABOR

COMMENT

Significance of workers’ fight +
fo win guaranteed annual wag

RAVELLING through Western
Canada I’ve been asked time
and again “what about the guar-
anteed annual wage”? There is
a great interest in it everywhere
—although often coupled with
doubt as to whether it can really,

be won. Indeed, some trade
unionists feel it is a “utopian”
demand. ; °

Some of these trade unionists
have forgotten that it was the
militants in the labor movement
who first raised the slogan of
“work or wages” during the thir-
ties and aroused hundreds of
thousands of working people to
fight for it. While these strug- ~
gles were unable to achieve that
objective some significant gains
‘were nevertheless won. a ee

In many respects the guaran-
teed annual wage parallels the
‘fight for “work or wages” — with
this important difference: the
trade union
here and in the U.S. is in a much
better position teday to win
something like it than it was 20
years ago.

5e3 % :

It is easy to understand how

the demand for the guaranteed

TEN YEARS AFTER VE-DAY

movement both

‘annual wage or, as some call it,
the guaranteed employment plan
should take hold the way it has,’
particularly in the auto industry.

The auto industry is again re-
turning to the “good old days”
of speedup production for six
months and lavoffs for another
six months. In addition, automa-
tion which appears to be more
advanced in auto than most other
industries, has posed many new
problems for the workers in that
industry.

The problems autoworkers may
face shortly are not only ones of
seasonal layoffs, but of perman-
ent separation from the industry.
In face of that, their battle today
for the guaranteed annual wage
is part of their battle for jobs
and maintenance of their pur-
chasing power.

It must be noted that when

‘United Auto Workers president

Walter Reuther signed the 5-year
contracts in General Motors he

“was basing. himzelf’ on a war

economy and a war perspective.
Now, when the autoworkers are

' preparing to do battle for the

guaranteed annual wage, they are

preparing to fight for employ-

=

so do defeate

Ee the last few weeks of the
Second World War, while the
Red Army was smashing its way
into Berlin, the thinking of Brit-
ish and Nazi generals merged
around the issue of how to “stop
the Russians.” This was reveal-
ed this week in news dispatches
from Bonn and London. ‘
‘ \Lord Montgomery told a Brit-
ish television audience that his
job at the end of the war was to
stop the Russians. Pointing to
a map to illustrate his point, he
said: : :
“The Russians were moving up

there, trying to get to Denmark.

I was moving up there to stop
them. I stopped them.”

The broadeast, made on the
night before the final ratification
of the ‘treaties to rebuild the
Nazi» armies, recalls the infamous
Churchill telegram to Field Mar-
shal Montgomery instructing him
to stack German arms for pos-
sible use against the Russians.

At Bonn, Germany, this week
five of Hitler's generals made a
post-mortem examination of their
defeat and agreed with Mont-
gomery that “stopping the Rus-
sians’ was’ the real purpose of
both the British and the Nazis
in the final stages of the war.

Biggest Allied “blunder” was
failure to heed Churchill’s ad-
vice to strike through the Bal-
kans, in the opinion of the de-
‘feated Nazi generals. Such a
strategic move would have. “stop-
ped the Russian advance outside
of Occidental terrain.”

Field Marshal Albert Kessel-

ring, last commander-in-chief in-

the west for Germany, and now
president of a Nazi veterans’ or-
ganization, said:

“After Stalingrad, or at latest
after the fall of Tunis (May,
1943), it was apparent that Ger-
man vietory could not be count-
ed on. Wise, far-sighted West-
ern policy —if Casablanca had
not stood in the way — could
have worked for a peace settle-
ment that would not cripple
future progress,
could have shortened the war

bere Bee

Montgomery con

and perhaps»

Ten years after Col.

one to two years. ;

“Tn no case should ’the south-
ern French landings have been
carried out after the Normandy

invasion had gained such exten-

sive ground. An attack through
the Balkans, or from northern
Italy, into the area east of Vien-
na, would have stopped the Rus-

sian advance outside of Occiden-.

tal \ terrain.

Vice-Admiral Helmuth | Heye,
now a deputy in the Bonn parlia-
ment, who commanded one-man
torpedoes, frogmen and all small
combat units in the German
navy, said:

“Just-as Churchill proposed in
the First World War to break
the ring of Central Powers at
one of their weakest links, name-
ly in the Dardanelles, I believe,
in studying the Second World
War, that Churchill was: on the
right track, not ‘only politically

firms Churchill

d Nazi generals —

General Gustaf Jodi
document conceding Germany’s unconditional surrender, 5
generals-are back proclaiming their unity of purpose with the mer
of the Western countries. But the peopls of Western Europe Fo
ber that they were the first victims of Nazi occupation. z

_ settlement

“War against the Soviet

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY. 13, 1955 — PA

ment ina peace economy. THe '
difference is significant and
stantial. eh
Those who question the. de
mand, whether they are #2 thes as
auto industry or in other indus —
tries, because it ee
who popularized the demand
most widely, fail to see the forest
for the trees.
The question isn’t who mawes —
the proposal’ but what is being
proposed. ;
While the guaranteed anaual
wage won't eliminate economic
ctisis, it will if won, shield i
workers against the worst fiers
of layoffs. By raising the f
chasing powers of those who ate 4
laid off it can help influence
trend and tempo of the economic
cycle. It is a demand which should
receive the full support of ?”
the trade union movement.
Such solidarity support Pee
s00n be needed. It is evides
that neither GM, Ford or chryslet
will accede to the demands of eo
autoworkers and their uniod-— 4
may result in one of the D
struggles the trade union move-
ment has been confronted W"
in recent years. :

(centre) sige? si

but also militarily,.
the invasion of
Europe.”

What does Heye
“not only politically” P-
Precisely what Kesselrin :

g
when he speaks of an atta®

to the area east of Vienn@

in propo? i
soutneaste™

mean by

would have stopped
sians.” an
As soon as they realiat wor

they had lost the Seco? wer? A
War, these Nazi generals pene
quite prepared to reach 2!
settlement that would not os :
future progress,” that 1 °
‘that would
Nazi and British forces’ '
in preparing for a Thirt

Churchill and Montgome <5
their own cynical ad) Vie
were thinking along bane | 5 t
—but they wanted to. dict
policy from the victors ©