THE NATION
4 Forrestal pushes
: Canada’s war plan

_ By CHARLES SIMS

AMES FORRESTAL, oil millionaire and in-

come tax evader, placea some stiff demands on
the table the other day. He met with the four
Senior cabinet ministers, Louis St. Laurent,
Brooke Claxton, Douglas Abbott and C. D.
Howe. Also present were the four chiefs of
Staff, General McNaughton and L. B. Pearson,
undersecretary for external affairs. Heeney,
clerk for the privy council was there to recgrd
the discussions and decisions; it was a very im-
' portant, official meeting! No courtesy visit this!

There have been sufficient leaks and inspired _

Official disclosures to indicate the stiff demands

made by the U.S. secretary Forrestal.
Forestal, U.S. secretary of defense, wants

Canada to spend about $1,250,000,000 a year on

War preparations, . pus
Present Canadian “defense” budget of $250 mil-

lions. U.S. imperialism is spending $14 billions. *

for war this year. The Wall Street demand
is that Canada should match this.

Forrestal and Claxton, it is admitted, spent
time discussing the Official Secrets Act, the cur-
Tent U.S. spy scare. Apparently the men of Ot-
tawa are considering some new hoax and scare,
Which, they hope, will soften up the public for
the big war moves they plan.

Forrestal wants a speeding up of the Arctic
and Northern Canadan chain of war bases, with
anada bearing a substantial part of the costs
amounting to billions of dollars, but with the
ankee General Staff in control.

"He also wants some of the biggest a
Plants, such as Dominion Arsenals, put im fu
Production. There was talk of an American
‘War contract of 150 millions for Dominion Ar-
Senals :
As we have predicted, the government ee
agreed that when Newfoundland joins Canada,
the U.S. will retain its control over the three
_ War bases there. c
It is clear that Forrestal also pressed nD
question of manpower in the talks. He eae
anada to adopt conscription and to maim
@ large standing army and air force. 3
The Financial Post, discussing the quesuan
Of universal military training for Canada in ie
August 21 issue, estimates that it would cost aye
lion dollars in the first year and Perse
million dollars a year. eee
Forrestal especially wants .a Sra
Atlantic Pact with Canada shouldering hea y
Commitments as a means of bolstering up som
Of the U-S. satelites of the Western See
The Americans are having serious difficulties
and i ould
and Washington feels that a pact which ition
Commit Canada to a war budget of over a
dollars a year and conscription would
War policy in Europe. PAG
To wind up their war parley, beet heat ate
Claxton’ journeyed to Ogdensburg, N.Y., Rhele
veil a memorial to the late President Roosé ,
SOsevelt would turn over in ae
new how papiiae bons had been a as
‘om his policy of American-Soviet frien : ‘2
Friendship between North sea an o,
Soviet Uunion is the only foundation tor aS se
ae Seerice Union is ready gs to: coop
© tor peace. Do the Canadian Sie
People Soe to experience the hell of Bee tsi
Suite sake of oil millionaires such Pa eiastcn
wt Rockefeller? No! The Forests’ 7

t for a break
Canada a catspaw
ankee imperialism.

War taiks should be answered by
€ctions. of the labor movemen
the policy which makes |
= Nd war base for aggressive Y

i all iS
With

He is not satisfied with the-

(Ss SSS . : !
~Gouzenko held for what?
some of their Western Union governments,

help U.S: .

his grave if he_

d American

i

i}

qt

po

RE

ally

Sub-standard budget

Hew does your weekly budget compare with the gov-

ernment’sofficial cost of living index? Here’s how
it is broken down, using July 2 figures. (Prices have
increased at least four points since then.)
Home furnishings

Item. July 2 1939
per week
Rood Sg: $17.45 8.62
Rent:< 3s 55 6.26 (1) 5.18
Fuel and light ....2.16 174
and,services .... 3.95 2.42
Miscellaneous. . 8.37 6.72
(Medical bills, recreation
insurance, transpor-
tation etc.)
- Total today—$43.89 1939—$27.97

The figure of 48.89 is several dollars less than the
allowance fixed by the Toronto Welfare Council for a
basis minimum diet required by a family of five (which
includes only $33 for rent). On the basis of govern-
ment figures you are expected to live in rooms the
rental of which is about $26 a month. Maybe Finance’
Minister Abbott knows where there are such places—
his government resolutely refuses to subsidize housing
projects to make ‘them available,

The government's index which stood at 156.9 on
July 2, is now estimated likely to reach 162 by the end
of August,

RANK WILLIAMS
; eee ; —OTTAWA.
OW long is the federal government going to carry
through the farce of maintaining Gouzenko under
RCMP guard at the expense of Canadian taxpayers?
Soon it will be three years since he began his career of
calumny, What is he being saved for? ;

_ Because he is a ward of the government, and can
only see such people as have the official okay of the
RCMP and External Affairs, every interview and maga-
zine article put over his name involves the government
itself. In sponsoring Gouzenko, the King government may

: t ha: e been as blatant or hysterical as the un-American
pauitee with its witch-hunt, but the harm done the

cause of peace is just as great.

The publicity seekers who operate the un-American
anti-Soviet committee in Washington outdid themselves
recently with the impudent proposal that a sub-committee
should come to Ottawa to take “evidence” from [gor
ee Such a committee could of course have no authority.
in Canada and not the slightest right to operate on Can-
adian soil. The fact that such a proposal was made at all
shows what these fascist-minded Congressmen really
think of .the relationship between Canada and the U.S.
The unnamed official of the external affairs department in
Ottawa who doubted that thé proposa] would ever come
to anything did no more than his bare duty and should
have done much more.

4

LABOR FOCUS
Labor can

elect the CCF

By BRUCE MICKLEBURGH

ples more than time to frankly discuss—in an

open, trade union way—the question of rela-
tionships between the CCF and the trade unions
in this province.

Everything that’s. happening in 1948's strug-
gle points to the need of labor tossing out the
CMA‘dominated Coalition government at Vic-
torias’ Most union men recognize that under
present conditions the way to do this is for

labor to go out on a big campaign to elect a
CCF government.

There is a trade union kind of political action
and a political careerists’ kind of political action.

The trade union way is the only way that works.

In the Ontario, Saskatchewan, Quebec and
Alberta provincial elections, and in the federal
by-elections, the Conroy-Millard-Mosher forces
pursued the disruptive policy of trying to re-
strict CCL participation to fund-raising and leg
work.

I,abor’s potential political power is seen in
that Ontario labor in spite of CCL-CCF fetters,
broke through to. register a big labor vote.
Danger of the right wing line is seen in that
labor also lost by narrow margins a number
of Ontario seats where unfettered labor political
action could have made all the difference.

In Quebec. due to the failure to mobilize the
CCL, the CCF’s labor vote dropped catastro-
phically. din Alberta, a big contributing factor
to the fizzle of the CCF campaign was that the
top CCL bureaucracy moved in to cripple a
move of Alberta CCL unions towards direct
political action.

Such hard lessons are important to bear in
mind at a time when B.C. unions are preparing
for conventions.

Grant McNeill, CCF provincial executive
member, told “Town Meeting”. that “Communists.
are out to wreck the trade unions they cannot _
control.” The voice might have been the voice of
Bob Morrison, notorious paid mouthpiece of big
business groups seeking the destruction of unions
in B.C.

What is the significance of such a remark?
ts significance comes from its context. The
CMA forces, the government, and such Trojan-

_horses as the self-styled IWA “white bloc” are

engaged in a co-ordinated conspiracy to destroy

_the leadership cf B.C. labor at a time of crucial

struggle—all under the pious guise of rescuing
the unions from “communists.” Those who join
this battle chorus indicate their involvement in
the conspiracy.

There is further ground for suspicion of ac-

tivities of the CCF right-wing leadership in re-

cent issues of the CCF, News, which headiines
the Financial Post theme on the CSU strike:
“COMMUNIST LEADERS SCUTTLE CON-
FERENCE ON CSU CASE.” The CCF News also
played up, without word of refutation, the Fadl-
ing attempt to smash the IWA from the real
through untruthful financial charges during cru-
cial contract struggles,

Labor needs to mobilize its full political

strength to become the decisive political force
- which can break the big business governments

at Victoria and Ottawa. This cannot be done
on a basis of partisan direction from outside the —
‘abor movement, but through labor spending its —
own funds and organizing its own campaigns to
win its own membership and the publie at large
to unite at the polls for the election of a
government. . :
= Labor is strengthened by a te eae

le who have made the CCF a political force
ieee part include those CCF members and
thousands of CCF voters who, along with other
workers of varied political opinions, are loyal
trade union members, staunchly defending therr
unions and moving towards unity for their basic
needs. It is for every trade unionist to defend
his union’s independence from attack. from any
quarter. Only from independence, unity and solid-
arity with other unions comes the union's econo-
mic and political power. 3

,. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 2%, 1948—PAGE. 2