Pege Two

THE PE OP EE Ss

ADDN GCATE

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing
Association, Room i0, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. Phone Trinity 2019.

Three Months_____ $ .50
Single) Copy == $ .05

Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C., Friday, August 12, 1938

The Courts As

Strikebreakers

f(s extent to which the employ-
ers of labor, aided by the pro-
vincial sovernment and the courts,
will go in their campaign to smash
trade unionism in British Columbia
was shown in the trials of the Blub-
ber Bay strikers, including officials
of the union local involved in the
strike.

During the weeks preceeding the
strike and during the strike itself
Labor Minister Pearson, chief union
smashing tool of the employers,
used the new Labor Industrial and
Conciliation Act to assist the Pacific
Lime Campany to go through with
its discrimination against men who
exercised their legal right to organ-
ize into a trade union.

HE trials of strikers and their
supporters furnished an ex-
ample of police-boss frame-up as
despicable, as shameless, and as
transparent as anything ever pulled
off anywhere in North America.

It is no wonder that defense coun-
sel took the position that any at-
tempt to defend the accused, no mat-
ter how obviously innocent they may
have been, was futile in face of the
government-Pacific Lime Company-
court determination to kangaroo the
victims. It was plain to all that the
desire of the company to defeat the
strike was all that counted. Wit-
nesses for the defense were ar-
rested on trumped-up charges in
order to terrorize them against ex-
posing the frame-up.

@
UN ION organizers were held up as

criminals who had no right to be
-at Blubber Bay where members of
the union they were elected to lead
were on strike. It is no wonder that
defense counsel branded the whole
proceedings as “‘a monstrous piece
of political persecution.’’

Savage sentences were given men
who were far from the scene of the
alleged assault. Although there was
irrefutable evidence that the union
secretary, John Hole, intervened
only to protect his wife who had
been struck by Campbell and other
policemen, the magistrate sentenced
Hole to $20 or 20 days.

@
(Peak Or got away with the in-

famous Industrial Conciliation
and Arbitration Act which outlaws
strikes until the government, the
employers, the police, and their
aides prepare to smash any strike
called if arbitration fails.

And when the workers have so
strong a case and are so well or-
ganized in their union that even the
delays of official palavering are un-
able to thwart them, then Pearson
interprets the law in favor of the
bosses. And when that fails, the
bosses, still backed by Pearson,
bring the police and courts into ac-
tion.

The Pattullo government is be-
coming more reactionary every day.
It assisted the Shipping Federation
to destroy unionism on the water-
front and in Corbin, and did all in
its power to aid the boss loggers to
kill the organization of the lumber
workers.

The Pattullo-Pearson gang was
able to do this and to disgrace BC
with its anti-strike legislation be-
cause the progressive movement is
disunited and, as a consequence,
relatively impotent. It is high time
that not only the trade union move-
ment, but the political parties of
labor and progressive organizations
united to put a stop to the shame-
lessly reactionary attacks of the Pat-
tullo government against labor
unions and bring about the repeal
of its anti-labor legislation.

Who Are the Provokers of War?

CTING on the principle of unlimited brutal aggression,
content with waging robber war in China, not satisfied with supporting their partners in
the Berlin-Rome-Tokio war axis in a murderous attack on Spanish democracy—have launched
a provocative invasion of Soviet territory.

This monstrous unprovoked in-
eursion onto Soviet soil is but
the most recent of a whole ser-
iss of such episodes, every one of
which the Soviet Union has met
with firm resistance and with
the utmost concern for the pre-
servation of peace.

Firm resistance to the endless
and increasingly audacious ag-
g@ressions of the fascist powers is,
in fact, the only way in which
to prevent the outbreak of an-
other world war.

This latest Japanese invasion
of Soviet territory is more ser-
lous than any experienced here-
tofore. it shows the insatiable
territorial greed of the Japanese
imperialists and it reveals that
the fascists are becoming more
and more desperate. That des-
peration, unless firmly checked,
will finally involve the world in
a new and more horrible world
conflict.

The desperation of the Jap-
Banese military clique has ade—
quate causes. Meeting with heavy
defeats recently in Central China,
facing mounting difficulties at
home, they are willing to take a
gamblers plunge.

Their partners at the other
end of the axis are in no better
circumstances. In Spain what
was to be a triumphal fascist
march on Valencia has petered
out and now the fascist legions
are being battered by a new and
powerful loyalist offensive across
the Ebro.

Economic ruin more and more
menaces fascist Italy, the sub-
stance of which is being con-
sumed by a@ voracious war ma-
chine, which finds increasing
Shipments of men and war ma-
terials to Franco a terrific
strain, and which discovers the
fruit of its Ethiopian conquest
to be increasing expenditures and
mounting debt

Hitler’s Reich is in
difficulties;

similar

UT these very troubles which

fascism is encountering bring
the world that much eloser to
war. When internal difficulties
mount to the breaking point the
policy of fascism always is to
seek to overcome them by reck-

lessly violating its neighbors’
frontiers and ‘extending armed
conflict.

This is the spirit which is ani-
mating the Japanese militarists
in their attack on a country
which is a bulwark of peace,
which has never coveted an inch
of its neighbors’ territory, but
which is determined to hold
every inch of its own.

And yet in this situation we
find Canadian papers such as the
Toronto Globe and Mail acting as
agents of the Tokio war propa-
ganda bureau and spreading the
brazen lies of a sinister potential
enemy of this country whose
piratical forays are being closely
and apprehensively watched by
the Canadian department of na-
sional defense.

@
iE Soviet Union
with peace

was born
inscribed on its

banners and its first official act ~

was to propose an armistice to a
warring world.

Tt showed its aversion to for-
eign conquest by Sgiving the
peoples of Finland, Esthonia, iLat-
via, Lithuania, and all the other
Subject nationalities of the Tsar-
ist prison-house, full liberty and
sovereignty. Tt voluntarily and
completely gave up all the privi-
leges wrenched from China by
Tsarist Russia that contradicted
the sovereignty of China.

Now let us call to mind the
long train of hostile acts—con-
tinuous raids on Soviet territory,
raids on Soviet diplomatic insti-
tutions, the chain of provocative
acts on the Chinese Eastern
Railway—which Japan has sys-
tematically conducted against the
Soviet Union. To recall these is
to recognize at» once that the lat

the Japanese militarists—not

est Japanese attack is part of a
deeply laid plot to conquer So-
viet territory and subjugate the
Soviet people. The people of Can-
ada recognize this. So the friends
of the Japanese war incendiaries
here try to confuse Canadian
minds by retailing the propa-
ganda which the Japanese propa-
ganda bureau issues to mislead
the Japanese people.

Could the Soviet Union take
any other course than it has
taken in the face of this insolent
invasion of its territory? Can a
man do anything else but resist
a robber who is trying to break
into his home?

OSCOW has learned a lesson

which Tondon, Paris, and
the rulers in other world capi-
tals have yet to learn. That is
that every inch conceded to the
fascist aggressors only stimu-
lates their insatiable appetites
and makes them attempt to take
a mile. For the Soviet Union to
display weakness in the face of
the present Japanese attack
would not only imperil the ter-
ritorial integrity of the Soviet
state, it would imperil the peace
of the whole world.

Last week we fittingly observed
the 24th anniversary of the out
break of the last world war by
pledsine to do all in our power
to prevent another such world
disaster. Only by doing every—
thing to promote a policy of col-
lective security against collective
aggression, only by resisting and
Quarantining the fascist . war-
makers, only by recognizing that
the fascist enemies of the Soviet
Union, of Spain, of China, are the
enemies of all humanity, can we,
the people of Canada, carry out
this pledge.

Meanwhile we can have noth-
ing but -praise and support for
the Soviet Union’s resolute de-
fense of its own borders against
the Japanese frontier violators.

Litvinov States USSR Stand

By Pat Forkin
MOSCOW, USSR.

N AW official interview granted Japanese Ambassador
Shigemitsu last weekend, People’s Foreign Commissar
Maxim ILitvinov declared that the Soviet Union will under no
condition cede any territory and will fight for such territory
as can be indisputably shown to belong to the Soviet people
and that any discussion on the question of redemarcation of the
frontier by mixed commissions must be preceded by the com-
plete withdrawal of all Japanese troops from Soviet land.
Dealing with the clashes in the area of Lake Khassan, the
Japanese ambassador declared that the Tokio sovernment had

intensions of settling the

“incident” as a local one by peaceful

means. Therefore, he said, he was under instructions by his
government to propose the cessation of hostilities on both sides
and the adoption of a method of diplomatic negotiations.

iuitvinoy replied that if the
Japanese government really had
peaceful intentions, the actions of
the Japanese military authorities
did not in any way correspond

‘to them:

The armed crossing of the So-
viet frontier and the night at-
tack upon a Soviet frontier out-
post with the use of artillery
certainly could not be termed
peaceful action, he sarcastically
reminded the Japanese ambassa-
dor.

The “incident” had arisen only
as a result of these actions and
without them there would have
been no incident at all, he con-
tinued. If the Japanese ceased
their attacks on Soviet territory
and recalled those remnants of
their troops which might still
be left on Russian soil, the Soviet
troops would have no reason to
continue hostilities in reply and
the Soviet government would
then be ready to proceed to the
diplomatic discussion of any pro-
posals the Japanese government
might desire to make.

However, the inviolability of
the Soviet frontier as established
by the Hunchung treaty and an
appended map would have to be
ensured beforehand, Litvinoy em-
phasized.

e

HE Japanese ambassador said
: that he did not intend to re-
new the dispute about the fron-
tier or about the responsibility of
one or the other party, because,
he claimed, both sides have no
common opinion on the subject.

He recognized the validity of
international treaties but said
that Manchukuo, after its separ-

ation from China, had its own
data.
He declared it was the first

time that Japan had seen the
map appended to the Hunchung
treaty. Therefore, he claimed, it
would not be “reasonable” to set
tle the incident on the basis of
such a map. The Japanese gov-
ernment, however, was prepared
to proceed on the spot to con-
erete negotiations on the basis
of the treaty and the map.
“Wegotiations between the So-
viet Union and Japan for making
the frontier more precise had al-
ready been carried on previously
and agreement was reached on
the creation of mixed commis—
sions,” he said. “But if one should
use only maps as a basis then

MM. LITVINOV

there would be no point in talk-
ing about mixed commissions.

“Bor the time being, however,
one must talk in a practical way
about the cessation of hostilities
and the restoration of the situa-
tion which existed prior to July
alias

27)

IN - RiP. to. the

elaims tne people’s
commissar declared:

“Frontiers between states are
defined exclusively by interna-
tional agreements and maps, and
not by the subjective wishes or
opinions of governments and mil-
itary cliques or unofficial] data.”

To the official decuments pre-
sented by the Soviet side, the
Jaanese could only bring forward
declarations that it deemed a dif-
ferent frontier desirable.

“But between the USSR and
Manchukuo and Korea there can
be only such frontiers as are es-
tablished by agreements and
treaties concluded with the Chin-
ese government and indicated in
the appended maps,” the Soviet
commissar replied.

“Occupation of Manchuria by

Japanese
foreign

Japan,” he continued, “does not
give it the right to demand
changes in the frontier. In any

ease the Soviet government has
not consented and will not con-
sent to any revision of the fron-
tier.”’

“It is not our fault,’ he said,
“if Tokio has no treaties and
maps, which the Chinese govern-
ment had and Manchukuo must
have. And if Tokio reaily has not
got them, the ambassador could
of course request us to give him
copies of these treaties and maps
for examination.

“But the Japanese troops pre-
ferred the method of direct ac-
tion and invaded the territory
beyond the line shown on the
map.

Se
HE Soviet government does
mot retract its consent for
the creation of mixed commis-
sions on the definite conditions
which it had stated, but at that
time the matter concerned not
the establishment of new fron-
tiers but the demarcation (in-
stallation of frontier posts) or
redemarcation of the frontier on
the basis of existing agreements

and maps.”

“If the Japanese government
tells us clearly,.’’ said Litvinoy,
“that it recognizes the Hunchung
agreement, we will be ready also
to include the border indicated in
this agreement into the scope of
the mixed commission, but only
for redemarcation.

“But there can be no question
of substitution of the Hunchung
agreement by another.

“As to the cessation of hostili-
ties—if the situation which ex-
isted approximately up to July 29,
that is, up to the time when the
Japanese forces attempted to

seize the Bezymyannaya Hill and .

the Zaozzernaya Hill, is restored
and the Manchurian side discon-
tinues attacks upon Soviet ter-
ritory located beyond the zone
indicated in the Hunchung agree-
ment, and also discontinues fir-
ing upon this territory, and if the
remnants of the Japanese forces
which may still be left in this
territory are withdrawn, then
jhostilities will be discontinued
also by the Soviet side, because
they would then become purpose—

less, since the Soviets do not
need the Manchurian land.
e
HE Japanese can convince
themselves after their at-

tempted seizure of the Zaozer-
naya Hill that no preparations
had been made there for offen-
sive actions and that no fortifica-
tions were erected there.

‘“"This is the best proof of the
peaceful intentions of the Soviet
side.

“The Soviet people, however,
cannot become reconciled to the
presence of foreign troops even
on a small piece of. territory
which the Soviet people consider
indisputably theirs, and will not
hesitate, no matter at what sac-
rifice, to remove them.

“As long as attacks upon So-
viet territory are made or as
long as a single Japanese soldier
remains there, the Soviet gov-
ernment must reserve for itself
freedom of action in connection
with such a situation.’’

SHORT JABS &

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Ol’ Bill

T remember when a British renineee
Useless was Made up of two regular line bat
Training talions and one or more militia bat

talions. These militiamen were six-week soldiers,
short-job lads, whose training was very perfunctory, |
The regulars held them in supreme contempt. Gy |
one occasion, a corporal brought in a file of recruitg {fF
for the resulars, twenty-one in number, to the bar |)
racks at Maryhill, Glasgow. The sergeant-major —
gave them the once-over, then commanded: “Pit |
yer hands up all youse that was in the militia
Ten hands went up. “Ten has,” he said, “ and eleven
hasn’t Well, that’s eleven of yez has a lot to learn
and ten of yez has a dam sight more to forget.” is
He might have been speaking to the Chinese
goose-steppers trained by the German advisers of |
Chiang Kai-shek’s army, and the new fighters who
have had no training whatever, now being taughi i
in the 8th Route Army Staff Military Academy at 4)
Yenan how to conduct guerrilla warfare against j
the Japanese fascist imperialists. Hie

Money one esi week, while I was waiting: 3
iend at the entrance to the.
Needed Flack Block, an old weather-beaten
worker whom I didn’t know came up to me and
handed me a dollar for the boys in Spain. All he
would tell me was that his name was Tom Jones)
Now if I could stand all day every day for a month ‘
in the Flack Block doorway, I might get our fifty |
dollars for trainings guerrilla leaders that way. But’
I cannot do that, so send your donations to they
office.
it is not necessary, either, that donations shoudl ;
come from individuals. Contributions can be made
by organizations. So if you can’t help financially” :
off your own bat, use your influence in any group
you happen to belong to: | |

A good example of what can be done by a few ens ;
thusiastic members is provided by the Lettish -
Weorkers’ Club in the drives to aid the boys wha
are fighting for democracy in Spain. Although
numbering only about fifteen members, the club”
stands high in the list of comforts contributed tg)
the Mac-Paps, while at the same time accepting
responsibility for shipments of the same kind 6) |
fellow-countrymen who are serving with the Span-)
ish government’s artillery batteries. Jack Chivers
tells me they have raised $26 in cash and parcels i
every shipment.

A little help like that from organizations wit
ensure our fifty dollars to Mao Tse Tung, even
maybe raise the ante. Are you helpings? This week's
donations: Mollie Rose, $1; Bob Law, $1; S. BF

right, $2; Joe Keenan, $1; George MacGregor, $1;

nemployed, 25¢c; Tommy Scott, $2. Total $1175. 4

More Capitalist the capitalist press still lies” y

Press Lies about the Vancouver 24°
hour general strike in protest against the murder
of Ginger Goodwin.

In the Province newspaper “Twenty Years Agom.
column, on Aug. 2, we read that “Goodwin, armed
with a hunting rifle, was instantly Killed by Gon-
Stable Dan Campbell, who says he fired the shot to”
save his own life.’’

If the management responsible for this lying Bre |
sertion were desirous of publishing the truth they
could easily have learned from the inquest and trial
held later that Ginger was ambushed, that the mur |
derer, Campbell, was hiding in a tree by the side of
the trail, and that Ginger was shot without warning
in the back fo the neck. This is how police thugs)
“save their own lives.’

And of the general strike on Aug. 3, the same
column says the strike Iasted only ten hours, be:
cause the Street Railwaymen’s executive committee, {
considering the strike had accomplished its purpose -
and to “appease” the rum-filled mad dogs, allowed’

;

Even after twenty years,

one street car to leave the barns close to midnight |

: it speaks of the bosses’ blacklist of |
Blacklists the strike leaders slated for depor- :
tation, but says nothing of the blacklist compiled by
the unions, the only one that was made effective,
Sinee the organizer of the rabble of drunken hood-
lums who created all the trouble that day, George
Bushby, manager of the Marine Ways, left Vancou-
ver never to return.

But the cream of the lying is in the following
paragraph: “One hundred yeterans, most still un-
dergoing military hospital treatment, marched to
the longshoremen’s hall this morning, took charge,
and in plain unyarnished language, told them how
they would regard them if they decided to strike”

This is a lie. The incident occurred at eleven
o'clock, on Saturday, twenty-three hours after the
longshoremen had been on strike. The invaders
were told to get to hell out and stay out, and they
did, and the longshoremen decided to stay on strike
till Monday morning. And they did.

The officer-deluded “heroes” came back in the
afternoon with reinforcements, but not one of them
entered the longshoremen’s hall, because every
longshoreman and hundreds of other unionists were
Waiting for them.

Thus the bosses’ hirelings write history: by down-
right lying and lying by inference.

;
‘
4

Air Losses Heavy

ie TERESTING indications of the growing strength

and skill of Chinese aviators are revealed in fig-
ures just published showing losses sustained by the
Japanese.

Since the war started the Japanese have lost 2
total of 600 planes, while many of their best pilots
have been killed or wounded.

Among these is the man known as the “best pilot
in the world,” Lieutenant Takhahasi, and Lieuten-
ant Sioda. More than 28 pilots have been captured.

Despite the fact that the Japanese have operated
on the basis of 800 to 900 airplanes, and also despite
the alleged superiority of technique, 248 of these
planes were shot down in actual combat.

Of the remainder, 138 were destroyed in the air-
dromes, 163 shot down by anti-aircraft batteries;
26 were destroyed on Japanese territory.

“Despite the inequality of our forces,’ declared
the commander of Chinese aviation, “we can suc
eessfully fight against the Japanese.”

Commenting on allegations that the military
clique can rapidly finish the war thanks to the
Japanese superiority in material, an article by the
Chinese Air Command, just published, declares:
“Reality has denied these suppositions. During ths
year of war just concluded the Japanese army has
suffered a defeat and real losses. The reason is due
to the high level of morale among our Chinese air
men, who are ready to sacrifice their lives for their
country, and the insufficient training and absence
ef fighting spirit among the Japanese airmen.”