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BRITISH COLUMBIA’S PROGRESSIVE HOME NEWSPAPER

FOR PEACE,

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PROGRESS AND DEMOCRACY

FULL No. 241.

VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1939

<== © 5 Cents

Pardon

—Garfield King

City Barrister
Gives Evidence
In Bridges Case

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal. —
Pardon of Earl King, Marine
Firemen’s union official, was
held out as a bribe by US Im-
migration Officer Shearer in
return for an affidavit linking
West Coast CIO Director Harry
Bridges with the Communist
party, Garfield A. King, Van-
ecouver barrister, told Examiner

James M. tfandis here this
week.

Garfield Bins declared that
Shearer, stationed at Vancouver,

BC., was used by R. P. Bonham,
Seattle immigration commissioner,
to induce him to advise his brother
Barl now serving a life sentence in
San Quentin prison on an alleged
murder charge, to sign the affi-
davit framing Bridges.

Hing related how Shearer had in-
Vited him to his office, where
Shearer had laudeqa Bonham as
having influence with judges and
certain government officials in
order to make his brother’s release
appear a certainty in return for evi-
dence apainst Bridges.

Shearer read a letter from Bon-
ham stating there appeared some
deubt as to Marl Kings’ guilt and
went on to relate how the Com-
munist party had invited the labor
prisoner's wife to go on a tour with
a prominent public man, which she
refused.

This made Garfield Kine suspici-
ous, Since his brother is unmarried.

“Tf Garfield A. King would ad-
vise Earl Kine to make an affidavit
to establish that Harry Bridges was
a member of the Communist party,
the letter stated. Bonham ‘would
use his influence to secure for Earl
King a pardon.”

“You understand there things are
arranged on the basis of the parties
concerned having fish to fry,”
Shearer told Garfield King in a
further effort to advise his brother
to sell out.

Polish President

Mosciecki of Poland, presi-
dent of a country Chamber-
lain schemed to betray to
Hitler, head of a people the
British Tories would give
over te Nazi rule. ss ee

Call Rally
For Sunday

Malcolm Bruce, veteran Com-
munist leader and director of
the party’s provincial education
department, will be the speaker
at an open-air rally to be held
on Powell Street grounds next
Sunday, August 27, at 8 p.m.

The rally was called this week
by the provincial committee of the
Communist party to deal with the
many questions raised by the inter—
national crisis.

Vancouver East constituency
committee has also arranged an
open-air meeting in South Hill for
this Saturday evening Speaker will
be Bob Lealess.

On the Communist party’s reg-
ular weekly broadcast over CKMO
this Priday at 9:45 p.m., Bruce will
also speak on current international
developments.

_ Appraisal Of BC Electric
In Victoria Ordered

VICTORIA, BC.—Issuing of an order for appraisal of BC
Electric property here was the Public Utilities Commission’s first
move towards determining whether light and power rates of the
company are “unjust, unreasonable or insufficient.”

S.-M. R. Weston, former chief en-
Zimeer of the New SBrunswick
Power commission, has been au-
thorized by the commission tu
undertake this appraisal, which will
take many months to complete.

Authorized by a special commis-
sion order announced by Dr. W. A:
Carrothers, chairman, the enquiry
will have two phases:

1. To determine what rates should
be charged in conformity with the
Provisions of the Public Utilities
Act;

2. To ascertain by appraisal the
Yalue of properties of the British
Columbia Filectric Railway com-
Pany and its associated and sub-
Sidiary companies.

it will cover all phases of com-
Pany services, light, power, heating,
water, gas and transportation.

Company will be given power to
charge costs of investigation against
its own operating expenses over a
i@-year period.

ADGY Major revision of rates must
wait till completion of the appraisal,
Dr. Carrothers 4nneunced, but
minor applications may be heard
in the meantime.

PORT ALBERNZ, BEC—Indignant
at refusal of the Wational Utilities
Corporation, BCE lectric subsidiary,

to consider any reduction in rates,
city council here is considering
plans to interest other companies in
the power plant or to establish its
own plant.

Reporting his conversation with
T. Bird, local manager, Mayor W.
G. Hamliton declared the company
stated it “is unwilling to consider
any reduction at this timé, and is
inclined to let the matter go to the
Public Utilities Commission for in-
vestigation and action whenever the
commission is ready to act.”

Since the commission probably
could not take up Port Alberni’s
ease for about two years, aldermen
wrathfully pointed out that National
Utilities would be enjoying the bene
fits of its present high rates for all
this period. :

“One way to get lower rates,’
Mayor Hamilton declared, “is to ap-
proach the Utilities and offer to buy
them out, At Jeast we can find out
what amount they would be willing
to sell for.”

“Another way is te instal our
own plant,’ Alderman Cook re-
torted. “Ladysmith did it and made

a success of it.”
Wo action will be taken, aldermen
decided, until formal notice of the

company’s position and intentions
had been received in writing.

CHAMBERLAIN’S POLIC
LEADING WORLD TO WAR

IES

Plans of British Tories To Embroil USSR
In War With Germany Smashed By Soviets

Non-Aggression Pact Frustrates Machinations of British-French
Reactionaries, Throws Rome-Berlin-Tokio Axis Into Utter

Confusion As Chamberlain Chorus Howls Dismay

Tories
Obstacle
To Peace

Canadians Must
Make Voice Heard,
Say Communists

TORONTO, Ont. — Declara-
tion that the “main obstacle to
the achievement of collective
guarantees to stop fascist ag-
gression has been and is the
Tory Chamberlain govern-
ment,” which, “far from want-
ing to sign a pact of mutual as-
sistance with the USSR has

used the negotiations for the
purpose of plotiing further ap-
peasement to gain cheap political
capital among the British voters,
and to allow the basic aims of
Nazi domination of Europe to be
carried through,” is made in a
statement issued by the Dominion

executive committee of the Com-:

munist party here this week

The statement emphasizes that
the proposed pact between the
USSR and Germany is one of non-
agsression and not, as the majority
of the commercial press is infer-
ring an alliance. :

Full text of the statement fol-
lows:

The main cbstaczre to the
achievement of collective fuar-
antees to stop fascist aggression
has been and is the Tory Gham-
berlain government For. years,
and especially in the past critical
year, the USSER has repeatedly
offered to conclude non-aggres-
-sion pacts with any European

State. it will be remembered

that while the League of Nations

was still a functioning body, the
delegation from the USSR con-

Stantly proposed wumniversal dis-

armament to no avail

The proposed pact does not mark
the slightest change in Soviet for-
eign policy, which was stated in
clear and forthright terms by
Stalin in March of this year, and
by him as far back as 1932 If Ger-
Many accepts now the lons-stand-
ing offer of the USSR of a pact of
non-aggeression it will be 4 further
confirmation of the correctness of
the consistent fight of the USSR
for world peace. it will hinder the
mad dogs of fascism, whom Cham-
berlain wishes to unleash upon the
USSR.

Especially,
USSR has

Since Munich, the
offered to conclude
pacts of mutual assistance with
the great powers, principally Bri-
tain, because of the invincible fact
that no Gnme country could save
peace, but that only a bloc of the
peace-loving countries could put an
end to aggression and the threat
of war and conquest.

The British government is the
indispensible factor Mm the con-
elusion of any reliable system of
mutual peace guarantees. Since
March, British diplomatic and now
military missions have been in
Moscow, at all times without the
power or authority to conclude the
workable pacts with the USSR.
Qn one occasion, the situation be-
came so intolerable that Andrey
Zhdanov was compelled to write
in the Soviet press to give the truth
to the world and to expose the di-
latory and disastrous stalling of
the British delegations.

¥t becomes clear that Cham-
berlain, far from wanting to sign
a pact of mutual assistance with

(Continued on Page 5)
See STATEMENT

The Soviet-German non-aggression
circles in London and Paris where the

By Malcolm Bruce

pact caused consternation in Tory
Chamberlains and Daladiers and

other pro-fascist Fifth Columnist pletters were about to consummate ano-
ther betrayal of democracy and push the werld further along the path to
universal war. After getting away with their great betrayal of Czechosio-
vakia last September they were confident that by employing somewhat dif-
ferent methods, the public, more alert than it was a year ago, again could
be fooled and an even worse betrayal than Munich consummated. The
press of the world is forced to admit that the plotting governments of Brit-
ain and France have suffered a stunning diplomatic defeat at the hands of
the Soviet Union, which means thai the forces making for world domina-

tion by fascism and fer world war have

checkmated.

, tor the moment at feast, been

Counfounded, bewildered, and angered by the news, the enemies of democracy and of the
the dramatic turn in events according to their class prejudices

Soviet Union Union reacted to

and their several roles in the service of reaction,

very important admissions.

The Liberal London Star admits
that the humiliation and exposure
of the Chamberlain government
was brought on by the government
itself, and adds: “Whe delays and
wobblings of our government must
be held partly responsible for the
new situation.”’ But it omits to
say that the “delays and -wob-
blings” were deliberate and calcu-
lated to facilitate the capitulation
of Poland to Hitler.

The Daily Mail said that the im-
pending non-aggression pact ends
the Soviet French mutual assist-
ance treaty and admitted that it
wrecked the German-Italian-Jap-
anese-Spanish fascist front. But
what the Daily Mail did not say
was that the Soviet French mutual
assistance was violated and broken
last September by the Daladier

Fovernment by the betrayal of
Czecho-slovakia.
The Liberal Wews Chronicle

placed the blame on the Chamber-
lain government for its failure “to
accept the Soviet offers of co-oper-
ation since March and for having
Paid more attention to German
than Russian feelings,’ which is
another way of saying that Cham-
berlain sabotaged the negotiations
with the Soviet Union.

But it was the so-called labor
Paper, the Daily Herald, that coyv-
ered itself with infamy by its com-
ments. Says this ardent supporter
of Chamberlain and inveterate en-
e€my of the Soviet Union: “It (the
pon-aggression pact) represents
one of the most astounding and
Shocking reversals of policy in his-
tory ...a bigger betrayal of peace
and of Buropean freedom even
than Munich.” Surely this state—
ment reaches depths of cynical im-
pudence and hypocrisy.

“Shockine”’ to whom? To Gham-
berlain and his fellow plotters, of
course; and that is what riles the

Distortion Rife

Reactionary social - democrats,
ever on the alert to slander the
Soviet Union and prevent unity of
the labor and peace forces, were
not slow to take up the ery of re-
action and howl about the Soviet
Union “betraying peace,” while the
counter-revolutionary Trotskyists
seek to distort and misinterpret
the pact as they endeavour to mis-
interpret the great Communist ef-
forts on behalf of republican Spain
and the people of China.

All these misrepresentations,
whether of the Daily Herald and
other labor leader supporters of
Chamberlain, the counzier-reyolu-
tionary Trotskyist advance guard
of reaction, or honest persons who,
because of their lack of Marxist
Leninist analytical and interpreta-

2

while the capitalist press is forced to make some

Soviet Premier

Vyacheslaff Molotov, Soviet
premier and commissar of
foreign affairs, who signed
the Soviet-German non -ag-
gression pact for the USSR
this week.

organ of Chamberlain’s labor lead-
er collaborators and OQOdham’s
Press.

The Daily Herald admits now
that Munich was a betrayal of
peace and European ireedom,
but it did not admit it either be-
fore, during, or after Munich, at
which time God blesseq CGham-
berlain and hailed him as the
Saviour and not the betrayer of
Peace.

tive equipment, and affected by the
propaganda of professional and
amateur sowers of Confusion and
falsehood—all proceed from the
false assumption that Chamberlain

has been striving for peace and for
mutual assistance, anti-aggression
pact which would include Britain,
France and the Soviet Union.

If Chamberlain and his kind are
defenders of democracy, if they are
opposed to fascist aggression and
desirous of uniting with the Soviet
Union in resistance to fascist ag-
&ression—if all of this is true, then
the entering of the Soviet Union
into a mon-ageression pact with

(Continued on Page 6)

Advocate
Broadcasts
Statement

Editor Gives

Commentary
On Crisis
Utilizing its twice-weekly

news broadcast over CKMO,
the People’s Advocate on
Tuesday was able to bring its

readers a prompt commentary
on the international Situation
in the following Statement

made by its editor, Hal Griffin.
Popularity of Labor News High-
lights, sponsored by the Advocate,

in Co-operation with Dr. D. Lilewel-
lyn Douglas, city dentist, was at-
tested by the numerous requests
for copies of this commentary
Since received. While a limited
number of cSpies had been prepar-
ed for distribution, the supply was
soon exhausted.

Text of the statement, also given
to the Federationist in an inter-
view with Griffin requested by the
CCF organ, follows:

Soviet diplomacy has delivered
what might well prove to be 4
knockout blow at the Plans of
Prime Minister Chamberlain and
Daladier, who for weeks have been
negotiating to satisfy Nazi Ger
many's demands on Poland.

The same newspapers that last
October held Munich to be the sal-
vation of world peace and Cham-
berlain the greatest statesman of
modern times have lone since had
their arguments shattered by the
turn of events. Today they are
still trying to uphold Chamberlain
as the guardian of peace, but they
cannot escape the fact that he has
been put on the spot by the Soviet
government. This is the essence
of the Soviet Union's move, that
the Chamberlain government can
no longer follow a2 policy of dupii-
city and evasion without exposing
itself.

While the press has repeated-
ly asserted during the past few
months that the Chamberlain
government has stiffened its at-
titude towards WNazi Germany

(Continued on Page 6)
See SOVIET UNION