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The People’s Advocate “#«.”

Leading Progressive Newspaper =

MRR Ee

Western Canada’s

FULL No. 154 <== Published Weekly VANCOUVER, B.C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1937 Single Copies: 5 Cents VOL. HI, No. 50

| LOYALISTS WIN SMASHING NEW VICTORY

r y u

Scorched Earth © 2 2s tocomtive wncciea by Chins took wave T eru el C aptured
After Seven-Day

Surprise Attack

which would prove of use to thé invading armies of Japanese imperialism.
before they retired, and (left) tanks employed by Japanese to spread death in

P Mog Won Oo my ein

Spanish People’s Army Fights Through
Blizzards To Strike At Fascist Stronghold
On Eastern Front Military Experts Believed
Impregnable

VICTORIA YOUTH DIES OF WOUNDS

VICTORIA, BC, Dec. 22.—Word has been received here
by Engineer-Captain L, Backler and Mrs. Backler that their
sen, Charles Licnel Backler, third in command of the Mac-
kenzie-Papineau Battalion of Canadian Volunteers in Spain,
has died in hospital of wounds received in action on the south-

ern front.

Backier, who was born at Tavistock, Devon, Eneland, and
came to Vancouver Island with his parents in 1913, was a
former reporter for the Daily Times here. A Ioeal group of
ie PHends of the Mackenzie-Papineau, Battalion is named in

is honer.

i i fata da

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aA IE orale Ne ideteely NE

. > VALENCIA, Spain, Dec. 22.—To their smashing yictories 4
P J . a nee R d e t at Guadalajara, Brunete and Belchite, loyalist armies this 4
4 = f | q fa, week haye added a fourth—Teruel. i
<a apanhese No ratific in a ig & ath epu la € Capture of this fascist stronghold from which Franco con-
a : ducted his abortive offensive against the provincial capital

of Cuenea earlier this year not only relieves the threat against
the Madrid-Valencia highway, but also frustrates fascist
plans to drive a wedge to the eastern seaboard to isolate Cata-
lonia from the rest of eastern Spain. ; =

While some 60 fascist planes were routed in one of the
greatest air battles of the war after being ambushed over the
Aragon front by a fleet of 40 loyalist planes, and while fascist
attacks on the Aragon front, behind which Franco had
massed large numbers of troops, were repulsed, the Spanish
People’s Army struck at Teruel, considered by the fascists.
to be impregnable. -

Youhill’s

Statement

Trades Council Flays
Victoria Unionist For His
Praise Of Compulsory

shown their disapproval by support
of the boycott. Aill peace-loving or-
ganizations, all trade unions, should
see to it that the Mackenzie King gov-
ernment receives an immediate pro-
test.

Liberals
Arrested

Police Action Is Seen As
Evidence of Mounting
Opposition Of People To

ee spectacle of four Japanese
buyers from the Orient now trav-
elling in Eastern Canada to arrange
purchases of $4,000,000 worth of
chrome, nickel, aluminum, and boast-
ing of “‘unlimited resources at our dis-
posal,’’ will make tempers of tens of
thousands of Canadians flare high.
At a time when the buying powers of

Every member of the federal
House should be made to understand

ESE Se Sa ee dotnet

War the thousewife and the man on the the universal hatred of Japanese im- | Arbitration Act fe Nee ao: Oeion oe oar ne
=== ° . perialism that has developed in the age eee Soul, Were taken alter ferce
street are diverted from Japanese im- : 2 fighting as the loyalists drove through the hills in zero

MP IS JAILED ports, these gentlemen cooly wander ‘Yecent period, in order that pressure

=

URGE UNION DRIVE. | weather marked by intermittent blizzards which blocked the
= — — . |roads and kept fascist aircraft grounded.

Government planes, however, took the air in a fifty-mile-
an-hour gale which seemed to make flying impossible, blast-
ing the city’s steel and concrete fortifications and thwarting
fascist attempts to break the siege by rushing thousands of
reinforcements, including vaunted Italian and Moorish shock
troops hastily recalled from the Guadalajara and Aragon
fronts, to Teruel. :

__Lhe Spanish People’s Army earned its title of the finest _ 4
fighting force in Europe when its battalions stormed Teruel’s “
defenses in face of a withering fire, repulsed all counter.
attacks from fascist reinforcements and drove the city’s gar- a
rison back through the streets in hand-to-hand fighting. :

will force the government to tell these
Japanese ‘“‘merchants of death’’ to
count Canada out when it comes to
assistance in killing and maiming of
an unaggressive people. :

through Canada en a buying spree of
death-dealins metals, promising a
huge market to Canadian millionaire
mine owners.

Apparently the recent insolent at-
tacks on British and American na-
tionals mean nothing to the Canadian
government which winks at exports
of munitions, knowing full well that
the majerity of Canadians have

TOKYO, Japan, Dec. 22.—Dis-
solution of the Japanese Trade
Union Council and the Proletari-
an party bas been ordered by the
imperial government “in prosecu-
tien of the war.’ - : :
The guarded myth of a united
Japanese nation supporting imperi-
alist aggression against China be-
came known to the world as reports
leaking past the strict censorship
announced the arrest of hundreds
of individuals opposed to imperialist
policies, including the progressive

Vancouver Trades and Labor
Council will take under advise-
ment the question of a, province-
wide organizational drive, dele-
gates decided at this week’s coun-
cil meeting. Resolution to this ef-
fect was passed unanimously. 2

Sheed nab

+

Effective use of the short time
available before parliament opens
can place this issue first on the
agenda to force an end to this in-
famous traffic.

.Question of formation of a
British Columbia Federation of
Labor will also be pursued further
as a result of adoption of a motion
moved by Pete Munro, street rail-
waymen’s delegate, that the com-

cli j 1 - it it £ th £ Vi : ! 3

pee ee eet eon ero injured Ini 1993 i ne ee conference: oot The whole offensive, launched at a time when Franco’s 2

Well known writers and educators e fe Arthur Evans i active immediately. President aac drive on the Madrid and Aragon frcnts was te A
were arrested by police, charged N im M Hi F ght 3 z | 2#mieson reported that the execu. | have started, again demonstrated the government's ability ne
with being eavorable’ to the idea’ of ana oO Iner as ou 2 pe ot ae ee ae Cons to organize and carry through its plans. Government lines of ‘
of the “Popular Front” and of VY T. ° e oe : ady communication, blocked with snow, were cleared rapidly b 4
spreading anti - war sentiment W. e t communicated with on the matter, = Sas ? : 3p PV: ce
ae is Sunstee. ears (@) In Compensa 10h while letters had gone ont to « |ractor-driven Snowplows. The government’s army proved a

Blanket nature of the arrests is nuniber of unions in the province. |GNce more than it can execute involved manoeuvres under ;
Shown in the general charge read- By HAROLD GRIFFIN difficult conditions and that its attacking power as revealed <= is

ing:

“Tt has been decided to arrest
all persons violating the Peace
Preservation law by opposing the
private property system.”

Revelation that British Colum-
bia’s big employers of labor—the
Shipping Federation, the BC Log-
gers’ Association and others—had
asked the provincial government for

at Brunete and Belchite knows no obstacles,

Word of the victory, flashed throughout loyalist Spain,
wes greeted with wildly enthusiastic demonstrations every-
where.

NANAIMO, BC, Dec. 22.—“Follow the road across the
tracks and it’s the house on your left at the foot of the hill.”
they told me at the corner grocery when J enquired where
Joe Aston lived.

The military clique which has
long boasted the extermination of
communism in Japan now admits
to the world that Communist sus-
peets are numerous in universities
and trade unions. j

Under the “dangerous thoughts”
law raiding police confiscated quan-
tities of literature for distribution
in the movement against war and
fascism. Documents showing world-
wide connections with democratic
and peace organizations, numerous
resolutions framed against the gov-
ernment’s suicidal war policy, and
a call to workers and peasants to
Strugele against feudal slavery and
Starvation wages were taken.

Among the arrested are influen-|

tial Liberals who have assisted the
Japanese movement for peace and
democracy.

Japanese Seeking
Canadian Metals

OTTAWA, Dec. 22—Openly de-
elaring their visit to Canada is to

> I found the place easily enough
7 stay, weatherworn building
Standing back from the road, half-
hidden among trees as old as it-
self. ;

The wooden gate swung rheu-
matically back after a minute’s
fumbling with the reluctant latch
and f followed a grass-zrown path
to the back porch. It was dark
here after the thin winter sun-
shine, dark and cheerless, and the
broken window pane told its own
“story.

A girl came to the door in an-
Swer to my knock and hesitantly
asked me what I wanted. “T'lj get
grand-dad,” she said and went into
a back room.

Presently a short. sturdy old
man hobbled to the door, leaning

Jap Goods |
Boycotted

City Christmas Shoppers
Refusing To Assist In
Financing Of Japanese
Agsression

Sy THE ENGUIRING REPORTER

Not only are Jap oranges being
rejected by overwhelming numbers
of people but a tour of Vancouver's
department stores by the PA’s en-
quiring reporter this weelx showed: |

mark.

Looking over celluloid dolls, metal
soldiers and wooden playthings, sure
enough some thoughtful present-
seeker had conspicuously turned up

So this is Joe Aston, I thought,
as I followed him through the
dingy kitchen—its worn linoleum
contrasting with its clean scrubbed
boards—into a back room where

who is superintending construc-
tion of the modernistic Crostion

educational home at Keefer Street
in Vancouver.

Terror Reigns In

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec.
22.—Virtually the whole population
is in revolt against President

if they were over to compliment the
government on the bill,” Bengough
commented.

the council, interviewed the govern-
ment just before the council’s own
delegation.

annihilation for some of our unions,”
Bengough stated, adding that while

amendments to the present act had
been rejected, they had succeeded in
eliminating some of the worst feat-
ures.

a year’s hoist of the Compulsory
Arbitration Act was made Tuesday
night by Secretary Perey Bengough
in reporting to Vancouver Trades

rend labor Council on the executive's

efforts to secure passage of a genu-
ine trade union bill.

“This was surprising, because
they had at least got something
there. In fact, IT asked some of them

The employers’ delegation, he told

“As it stood, the bill meant virtual

‘Silver Bullets’ Campaign

engaged in a financial drive,
expansion of the party’s work
ing of more organizers in the f

ment.
In an interview with the PA this
week, Fergus MeKean, provincial

bullets to fight the battles of the

working class,” was advanced by
Tim Buck, Gommunist party leader,
to a huge audience in the Arena on
the occasion of his first publie ap-

Communist Party Of BC
Starts Financial Drive

___ Its slogan, “Silver bullets to fight the battles of the work.
ing class,” the Communist party of British Columbia is now

immediate purpose of which is
throughout the province, plac-
ield and training of new leaders

in order to strengthen the entire labor and progressive move.

2
!

that nearly everyone is passing up! heavily and painfully on his sticlx. : they had not been successful in ob- eer aay : |
the innumerable toys and gadgets “Come on in,” he exclaimed in Island Republic taining the bill endorsed by the Vic- Peat Sei peg eres | A OF the Air
Stamped with the Japanese trade-|a loud, high-pitched voice. toria conference and many of their e Ban, ARES

Beginning next Sunday,
January 2, the People’s Ad-
vocate will be on the air

negotiate an immediaite $4,000,000} 0 ong a chubby looking doll or ex-| everything bespoke a struggle |Stenio Vincent’s passivity toward Rope Gouderaued EE eae neuecuves iouOwane dus) VaLY. Sunday TROT RIE | at

shipment of nickel, chrome and 3 ee aE. a i me r the recent massacre of Haitian On motion of Charles Stewart | Tease ff om Kingston penitentiary. S:45 over radic station
DE ; posed the tell-tale mark on a saw-| against poverty. | s At that time, McKean said $975 C F :

aluminum, Japanese | representa- dust-filled monkey. From a score of old-timers I had | workers and peasants by troops of | @¢legates voted unanimously to re- é Sear ~CKMO (1410 kilocycles).

| ives of Sumitomo Hosha, Litd., arm-
ament manufacturers, are now in
Ontario seeking “reasonable prices.”

“We have unlimited resources for
Such purchases,” a spokesman for
the group declared.

{
$18,000,000 RELIEF

already gleaned frasments of Joe
Aston’s history. They had been
eager to tell me of his popularity
“As a matter of fact, we're not,” |in Nanaimo. They had toid me
she returned smilingly. “Por every | of his charitable work among the
one who buys, nine turn them down. | sick after his wife and two chil-
Somehow I fee] mad when I wrap | dren died from typhoid. But it re-

from one
“Selling

Exepecting short shrift
busy salesgirl, I asked,
Jap-made goods?”

President Rafael Trujillo of the
Dominican Republic.

During the past two weeks a
reign of terror has gripped this
Wegro republic in the West Indies
following strikes of government

bas

pudiate statements to the press
made by W. C. Youbill, president,
Victoria Trades and Labor Goun-
cil, in which the Compulsory Ar-
bitration Act was referred to as
‘the Magna Charta of labor in this
province.”

was contributed by working people
to the 1935 federal election cam-
paign fund of the party.

“But it isn’t only at election times
that the Communist Party conducts
its campaigns,” declared McKean.
“The buildings of the trade unions,
assisting: in the strugzeles of the un_

This additional service
for PA readers, sponsored
by Dr. Llewellyn Douglas,
prominent Vancouver dent-
ist, will feature provincial
and local news.

up a Japanese toy.” |mained for Joe Aston himself to employees, students and workers ae sgeaes 3 -| employed, raising of funds for the
+ OTTAWA Ont.—Agrifulture Min- Christmas shoppers at Spencer's tell me of his long struggle to|as protest against the govern- ee Spe ee eels Pe Esse of Spain: sive einoaras | Readers and salesmen are
y ister (Gace said last week pre- | and the tired lockine salesgirls had win compensation for the mine ac-|ment’s inaction. : More than 100 are certainly didn’t expect anes ai Bae movement for peace and for the l asked to note that next weelc.
liminary estimates placed this year’s | precisely the same reactions. They | cident which left him a cripple. persons are estimated to have | é preservation of democratic rights = es ieee z

€Ost of direct relief, feed and fodder

weren't buying Japanese goods and
the girls weren’t anxious to

sell (Continued on page 5)

to Saskatchewan and/ Alberta at

)

be 318,000,000.

See “iINER”

them.

Ze LED EN AD EY OA TOAD AD PEN OAD, TEEN ez}

‘A Wishes All Its

=. te =. te

been killed, prisons are filled to
capacity and martial law is in ef-
fect.

(Continued on page 5)
See “LABOR”

lers Season’s

(Continued on page 5)
See “DRIVE”

because of the holiday, the PA
will again be published on
Thursday.

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