V.I. ratepayers emand probe NANAIMO, B.C. George Bonner, president of Vancouver Island Rate- payers’ Association, sound speakers, came here last weekend, produced two and persuaded Nanaimo Ratepayers to ga lode with four other ratepayer groups in agreeing to present a resolution on power charges to Premier W, A. C. Bennett. Before pre here Bonner ha from ratepayers berni, Courtenay, River and Duncan. He will present the follow- ing resolution to the premier: “That a Royal Commission cha rged with the responsibil- ity of investigating and bring- ing in recommendations on the whole hydro-electric power situation in the province of British Columbia be set up and ne new hydro-electric power developments be carried out until a report of the request- ed Royal Commission ‘inquiry is presented with recommenda- tions.” Action was sparked by a re- cent announcement of rate in- creases by B.C. Power Com- mission. Ratepayers feel that BCPC should be able to give electricity at cheaper rates than it is doing today. Ralph Reading of Nanaimo, senting his case ad won support in Port Al- Campbell A statement issued by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union dealing with the hae sonality cuJt” has “clarified < number of historical and aia tical questions,” says a state- ment released for publication jiast week by the national ex- ecutive committee of the Labor-Progressive party. — Text of the LPP statement follows: The national executive com- mittee of the Labor-Progres- sive party has considered the statement published on June 30 by the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, “On Overcoming the Personality Cult and Its Consequences.” We greet this statement. It clarifies a num- her of historical and political questions, and is an expression of the fraternal relationships of the CPSU with other Com- munist parties. The June 30 statement of the central committee of the CPSU deals frankly with these questions. It does not in any way minimize the magnitude of the excesses and crimes that were committed, but it gives a Marxist analysis of the ob- jective and subjective factors which made it possible for the Leninist standards of party Cemocracy and collective leadership to be undermined and the cult of the individual around Stalin to arise and assume® much monstrous pro- portions. The statement explains that in the circumstances which had arisen. Stalin could not have been removed earlier because: “, . . opposition to Stalin president of the Vancouver Is- lend District Electrical Asso- ciation, told the meeting: “The Power Commission could generate electricity at a cheaper rate than any private enterprise, although private utilities are issuing propagan- da in an attempt to prove that public ownership is wasteful.” He referred to several cen- tres on the American contin- ent in which publicly owned utilities had “raised the stand- ard of living, opened up indus- stry, and opened up empires.” Although opposing any new hydré developments until the probe is held and a report brought down, the ratepayers telt that present operations should not be held up. Ernie Knott of Nanaimo po:nted out that some 3,000 men are now employed on one préject at Buttle Lake. reets would not have been under- stood by the people; it was not at all a matter of personal courage. Clearly, anyone who opposed Stalin would not, in this situation, have had the support of the people. More, such opposition would under the circumstances have been regarded as opposition to the building of socialism, as an ex- tremely dangerous attempt to undermine the unity of the party and the country, sur- rounded as it was by capitalist forces.” The CPSU _ statement ef- fectively refutes the slander of John Foster Dulles and other spokesmen of the capitalist monopolies that the cult of the individual and its evil con- sequences in the Soviet Union arose out of the conditions which are inherent in social- ism, and not from definite historical circumstances. The statement makes it clear that the violations of socialist democracy and, the serious harm done, did not change the socialist character of Soviet society.. Political power and the means of production were, and are, firmly in the hands of the working people. Socialism is making sweeping advances towards a classless society and is proving itself in all spheres of social life to be superior to capitalism. Demo- crecy and the creative life of the people are expanding. It is to the high credit of the leadership of the CPSU that they boldly exposed a serious deviation from Marxism- Leninism and its grave conse- Development of the rich north country in B.C. new $2,000,000 X-L refinery at Dawson Creek, which went on stream The refinery specializes in bunker fuel, quences. We welcome their action and the steps that they ere taking to rectify the situa- tion. The national executive com- mittee of the LPP is confident tnat the central committee of the CPSU will press further and deepen its Marxist-Lenin- ist study of all questions in- volved in reassessing the past period and eliminating’ the consequences of the cult of the individual. As this goes forward in the new writings on history and the play of opin- ions in science, further light will be thrown on some ques- tions and issues that are not yet fully clarified, including those relative to the role and situation of Jewish citizens of ithe Soviet Union. This continuing process of study and correction, and the ideological strengthening of the CPSU are illustrated in the important changes being made in the revision of the Soviet legal code and judicial pro- cedure, the improvement of electoral procedures, in the new pension laws, the going over to the seven-hour work day, the decéhtralization of economic planning and con- trol, the striking progress in the carrying through of the Sixth Five-Year Plan, the struggle for creative Marxist thought in intellectual life, and the transfer of greater ex- ecutive powers of the Union Republics and the renewed development of cultural activ- ities of the Jewish people of the USSR. The beneficial effects of Soviet peace policy in the re- cent period are to be seen in the relaxation of international tensions, the bright prospects fer an enduring peace and the growing recognition of the necessity for the peaceful co- existence of states with differ- ing. economic and _ political systems. The enemies of socialism are t