Pearson tries to shape

press to gov't pattern

OTTAWA

Over the huge fireplace in the press gallery lounge, exclusively reserved for members, there is a la-
borious inscription, carved out of solid stonework, attesting to the power of words. A drop of ink, reads

the phrasing, may in the end make not thousands but “millions think.” :
Strong efforts are being made by government cold-war experts to reduce this powerful thought into

@ meaningless jumble of words, as
step by step, new and more serious
inroads are made in traditional
practices of the nation’s top news-
gathering association.

Most recent outrage was _ the
threat of press gallery Chester
Bloom to forcibly eject Timofey
Remizov, Tass Soviet News Agency
man, because he had for technical
reasons omitted presentation of
credentials from his agency.

The uncalled for brusqueness of
Bloom and his lack of the most ele-
mentary courtesy to Tass, is to be
understood only in the background
of an all-out effort now being made
by External Affairs to straight-
jacket newsmen on Parliament
Hill and bend the press gallery to
the every whim of Lester B. ‘Mike’
Pearson, external affairs minister.

Unable to directly intervene in
the affairs of the press gallery,
Pearson sought support of his cold
war politics by cancelling his week-
ly press conference, a vital back-
ground briefing essential for intel-
ligent coverage of Parliament Hill.

He let it then be known that he
had done this to. deliberately ex-
clude Tass. His intention was to —
gain allies for an eventual expul-
sion of the Tass man by members
of the gallery, on the grounds
that Tass “embarrassed” top gov-
ernment officials in speaking open- |
ly to ne en. Aided by
direct agents of the external af-
fairs department in the press gal-
lery, the machinery was set in
motion for expulsion,

Strangely enough, Pearson over-
played his hand and the plot to
expe] Tass backfired. On two se-
parate occasions cold-war specia-

lists like Bloom went down to dis-
mal defeat.

_ The first time was when the re-
tiring Simeon Scherbatykh of Tass
was thrown the biggest going away
party ever given a foreign corres
pondent, over the strenuous resis-
tance of a small “cabinet clique”
who opposed the suggestion that
the popular Simeon or “Sim” be
given the traditional send-off to all
members. There was an overwhel-
ming support given the idea of the
party and “Sim” himself got a
nice brief case as a gift.

The second reverse for Pearson’s
boys came when a meeting of the
press gallery voted almost unani-
mously to turn down a motion de-
signed to bar all government-spon-
sored press agencies from the gal-
lery, regardless of political com-.
plexion. While clearly aimed at.
Tass, the clumsy framers of the
motion brought into play still-re-
maining democratic sentiments in
the gallery who expressed sharp
hostility to the motion. ‘

One of them correctly pointed out

that the trend in modern times

was to government sponsored or
owned press agencies. He noted
that. France, India, Israel and in

large measure Reuters of Britain

were similar in the sense of gov-
ernment sponsorship as Tass, and.
that the move would be discrimi-

' matory and hostile in the extreme
to the principle of freedom of in-

formation,

It is recalled even now that the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency is not
permitted a seat in the gallery.
Sources here reveal that JTA was
barred in the early post-war period

_ because it was a Jewish agency and

not for any technical reasons.
It is significant that barring of
Canadian Tribune correspondent
Mark Frank from coverage of
Parliament Hill goes hand in

hand with a broad attack on

news coverage as a whole.
It is a well known scandal on
the Hill that radio reporters are

absolutely denied use of the gallery

privileges or membership, despite
the fact that radio reportage has

become one of the most popular

means of communicating news.

Along with this complete ban there
is a fanatical minority in the gal-

Jery who oppose all progressive

change in the constitution.

Mayor says council intends
to ‘survey’ purchase of BCER

Prodded into a ‘show of action
by the Civic Reform Association,
Committee for Public Ownership
and an angry citizenry, Mayor
Charles Thompson announced this
week in his inaugural address
that the 1950 city council will
“make a survey” on the BCElec-
tric question and consult with the
provincial government on _ the
prospects of buying out the BCER.

“Under terms of the franchise
agreement with the BCElectric by
which we reserve the right to
purchase at each five-year interval,
we will be required to give 12
months’ notice by December 30

if we should wish to
the mayor said.

this year,
purchase,”

While the “take over the BCER”
campaign waged by Effie Jones
and the “street poll’ conducted by
the Committee for Public Owner-
ship were largely instrumental in
forcing Mayor Thompson’s hand,
it is doubtful if the present Non-
Partisan council will do more than
“shadow-box” with ‘the problem.
Unless continued pressure is exert-
ed by the people, the NPA op-
ponents of public ownership are
likely ‘to sidetrack he demand for
civic ownership of BCER by as-
Suring that the “survey” is a
negative one.

TENANTS CAN WRITE ROBINETTE

be. decided. 7

trol rental ceilings.

eration.

Court through him.

Association.

Legion joins fight
to hold rent line

Counsel for the Dominion Branch of the Canadian Legion
this week filed notice in the Supreme Court of Canada that the
Legion will seek permission to intervene in the January 30 court
hearing when the question 6f federal authority to control rents will

The Canadian Congress of Labor. has already received per-
mission, to intervene and will argue, along with the Legion spokes-
man, John McKenna, and J. J.
the government to represent tenants, that an emergency does exist
in housing ard that parliament continues to have the right to con-

At a meeting with the Quebec Federation of Tenants, Robin-
ette.declared: ‘““The government has the power under the constitu-.
tion to continue to control rents because of the housing emergency.”
He said he would consider the brief presented to him by the Fed-

Robinette can be reached by wire or letter at his Toronto
office at 330 University Avenue.
through their organizations, can‘put their case before the Supreme .

The federal justice department will be represented by A. J.
McLeod, and arguing against federal controls will be R. W. N.
Chitty of Toronto, counsel for the Canadian Property Owners

OTTAWA

Robinette, K.C., appointed by

Tenants, individually and

‘Saddening loss to Canadian labor moverrent’ -- Tim Buck

4

Thousands mourn death of ‘Ol Bill’

spread
across

Thousands of people
throughout Canada and
three generations of the labor
movement were saddened this
week at the death on December 31
of William Bennett, who only two
weeks: ago took up his pen for
the, last time to write for the
Pacific Tribune the “Short Jabs”
column that earned him, as “Ol’
Bill”, a love and respect accorded
to few other Canadian writers.

With his passing a chapter in
the history of the labor movement
came. to a close, for he was, virtu-
ally the last of a generation of
socialist pioneers in this province
who, when the communist move-
ment was founded at the beginning
of the twenties, denounced the so-

cial reformist organizations into
which so many of his erstwhile as-

sociates took refuge from struggle
and carried forward into the Com-
munist party the best traditions of
the early working class leaders.

From logging and mining camps,
from fishing settlements, from
working class homes in cities

throughout the province, tributes
te OF Bill have been pouring into
the Pacific Tribune’s offices -all
this week.

“T heard this morning over the
Vernon radio of the passing of
Ol Bill,” wrote Joe Ivens from
Okanagan Landing, a close friend
and co-worker with Ol’ Bill from
the early days of the old Socialist
Party of Canada. “It will be a
great shock to the whole working
class. Surely he wrote his own
epitaph in his last column. Two
old stalwarts gone. Yes, it will
take 20 to fill their places, indeed
40 to fill the place of Ol’ Bill.”

Tim Buck, for the national ex-
ecutive ,of' the Labor-Progressive
party, shut the following message:

“The passing of our late. com-
rade Bill Bennett is a severe loss
and a saddening a to the La-
bor-Progressive pa and the
Canadian labor movement as a
whole, Bill Bennett was one of
the oaks of the Canadian working
class, one of the founders and
publishers of the Red Flag when
the Western Clarion was sup-
ear during the First World

ar.

“A strong advocate within the
Socialist Party of Canada of ad-
herence to the line of Lenin
against right-wing social democra-
cy, and of affiliation to the Com-
munist International, Bill was one
of the founders and organizers of
the Communist movement in Can-
ada, being elected a member of
the national committee of the
Workers Party of Canada at its
constituent convention. ‘

“Bill Bennett was tireless in the
fight for working class organiza-
tion and in defense of working
class interests. He was unflinching
and uncompromising in the fight
against opportunism and attempts
to smuggle bourgeois ideology into
the Communist movement.

“The Labor-Progressive party
dips its banners. in profound trib-
ute to the great comrade whom
we respected and loved. We call
upon all Canadian Communists to
redouble their efforts to build the
party and strengthen the forward
march to the ideal to which Bill
Bennett devoted his every living
day: peace and a Socialist Can-
ada.”

Nigel Morgan, for the LPP pro-
vincial executive, of which Bill
Bennett had been a member, stat-
ed: “In the passing of Comrade
Bill Bennett the labor movement
has lost one of its most loyal
champions, one of its staunchest
defenders. In his fifty-two years
in the Communist and earlier so-
cialist movements,, Comrade Bill
never let a struggle of the work-
ing people pass without contribut-
ing generously and enthusiastical-
ly of his many abilities.

“Above all else, it was the fight
for the Communist viewpoint and
the struggle to build the Commun-
ist movement which characteriz-
ed this grand old veteran of the
working class. Particularly out-
standing was the rich contribue
tion he made to built the party
press, and the sharp pen he wield-
ed to the very end against the
warmongers, the racists and the
exploiters of mankind. j

“As one of the early pioneers of
the socialist movement, Bill Ben-
nett played a big part in the
founding of the Marxist-Leninist
movement in Canada. As such he
represented one of the few re-
maining links with that movement
out of which
movement of today sprung.

the . Communist

“One of Ol Bill’s greatest joys
was that he lived long enough to
see those ideas to which he de-
voted his life victorious over. one
third of the world. In spite of his
advancing years, Comrade Bill took
the greatest of pride and got great
satisfaction out of every step for-
ward. Every member of our party
and thousands of loggers, fisher-
men, miners and working people
in all walks of life feel keenly the
terrific loss the labor movement
has sustained. The big gap his
passing leaves can only be filled by
intensification of our efforts to
build the party to which he de-
voted himself so untiringly and by
the emulation of his fighting, cru-
sading spirit. This is the greatest
memorial we can build to Comrade
Bill Bennett. May his memory
stimulate others to grasp t
torch of peace and democratic ad-
vance which fell from his hands,
and which for over half a cen-
tury he held so high.”

Michel Miners Union, through its
president, Sam English, wrote:

“It is with deep regret we hear
of the passing away of Ol’ Bill.
Miners of the Crow’s Nest Pass,
as other workers throughout B.C.,
will regret the passing of One of
the most outstanding comrades
_who could always be depended
upon to speak out for labor.”

Among the many old comrades

and close friends who sent mes-}|

sages were E. E. Leary, whose tri-
bute was placed in verse form, and
Jack Butler, who said:

“I met Bill Bennett. in 1909 in
Vancouver in the barber shop he
was running on Main Street in the
basement of the old Ivanhoe Hotel.
I went in to get a shave and a
hair cut because he had been re-
commended to me as a good barber
and a real fighter for the workers.
He was already a member of the
Socialist Party of Canada. We got.
talking while I sat in the chair and
he cut and shaved. That was the
beginning of a friendship and com-
radeship in the labor movement
that has lasted forty years. <

“Ol Bill was my encyclopoedia.
Whenever I wanted to get clear on
any of the problems we workers
had to solve, I went to Ol’ Bill.
When I would be out at sea for
months at a time, cut off from the
news and from people who had the
vision and understanding that only
Marxism can give, I would think of
OV Bill. That would cheer me up,
for I knew that when I got back

to port he would be there ready

the |

and able to put me up-to-date on
the progress of organization.

“I know that I am not alone in
this, for I know that to thousands
of workers all over Canada, Ol’
Bill was the fearless captain who
could always keep his ship into
the head of the gale, and I am
only sorry that he could not keep
going until he had seen the work-

‘ers’ ship of state safely into the

Port of Socialism here in Canada.
Though he did not live to cast
anchor in the peace and prosperity
of a Socialist Canada I’ know he
could see the land ahead, and
that he knew that whatever storms
we may have to face, we will
surely make port soon.

“My memories of my grand and
glorious old pal shall never die.”

Dropped by beard

’ Washington, with Ottawa’s aid,
is now dictating to Canada who
its representatives should be on
the Canadian Advisory Board to
the International Pacific Salmon
Fisheries Commission.

B.C, salmon seine fishermen’s
representative on the board, Uni-
ted Fishermen. and Allied Wor-
kers’ Union president George
Miller (above), has been dismis-
sed. Excuse: non-attendance at
board meetings. Oe fd

Truth: the only meetings not at-
tended by Miller were those held —
in the U.S. Miller did not attend —
because U.S. immigration autho-
rities would not let him cross the
border.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 6, 1950—PAGE 6

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