THE AadvoOcATE ae September 22 THE ADVOCATE (Formerly The People’s Advocate) Published Weekly by the Advocate Publishing Association, Room 20 163 West Hiastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRinity 2019. EDITOR - HAL GRIFFIN One Year $2.00 Three Months Half Year eee 00 Single Copy Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate Vancouver, B.C., Friday, September 22, 1939 Civic Rights Threatened iL YEAR Vancouver citizens weakened the stranglehold of big business on civic politics by electing their first labor mayor and defeating anti-democratic proposals for managership. Since the day Mayor Telford was elected, reaction has con- ducted an unceasing campaign for his defeat, endeavoring by every means to discredit him in the eyes of the people. In this campaign it has had the assistance of the city’s three daily papers, none of which has confined its attacks to its editorial columns. During the police probe just conclided all three papers dropped their pretense of “objective” reporting and brazenly colored their news reports to suit their political bias. It was significant indeed that after the Wews-Herald had, in a front-page editorial, offered a direct affront to the mayor by questioning his sanity, General Clark, representing Police Chief Foster, similarly sought to provoke the mayor during the hearings. Reaction’s latest move is apparent in the effort to deprive Vancouver citizens of the right to elect their mayor by direct vote. Instead, it is proposed, the people will elect a city council and the council will choose the mayor. Inclusion in the city’s charter of an amendment to this effect would make it still more difficult for the people of Vancouver to elect a mayor and council representing their interests. Van- couver, as we have pointed out before, has the most restricted civic franchise of any city in Canada. Thousands of our citizens are denied the vote. Big business, with its slush funds, has hitherto been able to secure election of its nominees. It fought to prevent Mayor Telford's election. Now, while it fights to discredit him, it is also seeking to make election of a labor mayor in the future even more difficult. If the Province, which supports the indirect election pro- posal, is sincere in its desire for democratic government, then it will demand, not a charter amendment depriving citizens of the right to elect their own mayor, but an extension of the fran- chise so that all citizens may have a voice in the city’s govern- ment. The Province, however, sees an advantage in the proposal because it would remove the police administration “one step further from the ruck of civic politics.” Here, too, the Province would deny a democratic demand, repeatedly voiced, for the right to elect the police commission. One thing is certain. The people of Vancouver are very weary of a city council which consistently favors big business interests, while civic services are negletted. What is required is sound, economic civic government in the interests of the peo- ple. This, it is apparent, the present council has no intention of providing. Such constructive proposals as Ald. Helena Gut- teridge has brought forward have been rejected. Mayor Telford has been rightly criticised for not having brought forward a more constructive program, yet it must be admitted that he has met with resistance all down the line from the majority of aldermen. In the coming civic elections voters will have an opportunity to place in office candidates pledged to serve their interests. The opportunity should not be missed. a city Tories’ Sinister Designs =| Eee Canadian people this week were given a foretaste of how Tory reaction intends to take advantage of the war emergency in Canada to abrogate democratic rights and force through its anti-democratic measures. Ald. Stewart Smith of Toronto is a Communist. Last Janu- ary he was reelected to Toronto city council for his third suc- cessive term by an increased vote, despite an unparalleled cam- paign of red-baiting led by the millionaire-owned Globe and Mail. The Toronto Star, in endorsing Ald. Smith, declared he had served the people of Toronto conscientiously and well. -Of- ficials of the ratepayers’ association in Ward 5, which Ald. Smith represents, have answered the current vicious campaign for his removal from the council by stating that in their opinion he is the “best alderman on the council.” But Ald. Smith had the temerity to eriticize Prime Minister Chamberlain’s policies. He denounced “appeasement.” Headed by Ald. David Balfour, who only a few months ago was linked by Ald. Smith with Italian fascist propaganda, and supported by the Globe and Mail, Toronto aldermen raised the cry of “sedi- tion.’ They are conducting a campaign intended to force Ald. Smith to resign from the council. We can only conclude that they are less concerned in removing fascist sympathisers from their midst than in attacking one who has consistently advocated a program in the interests of Toronto citizens, one whose forth- right statements have proven embarrassing to them on occasion. Ald Smith exercised his democratic right to eriticise Prime Minister Chamberlain. Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George also exer- cised that right last week when he commented on the Chamber- lain government’s rejection of the Soviet government’s plan to give military aid to Poland, stating, “The tragic story of the re- jection of this plan has yet to be told and the responsibility for the stupidities that lost us Russia’s powerful support affixed and sternly dealt with.” If Toronto’s aldermen are to be believed, then Lloyd George should be impeached for treason. A factor distinguishing the democratic form of government from the fascist totalitarian system is that the individual has the right to voice his opinion and to criticise. Toronto’s aldermen, while waving the flag of patriotism and vowing support of the fight against fascism, would conduct this fight by mrtoducing anti-democratic Measures. Canadian people will do well to bear in mind M. J. Coldwell’s recent warning in the House against “encroachment on our civil liberties.” It is difficult these days to keep up with all the lies and dis- tortions appearing in Vancouver daily papers. But the Vancou- yer Sun is not even an original liar. An editorial denouncing the Soviet Union which Vancouver's home-owned newspaper published as its own on Sept. 8 was not even the product of its home-owned imagination, but taken, almost word for word, from sn editorial carried in the San Francisco Chronicle of Sept. 4, which, in turn, admittedly eribbed it from the New York Sun. wAZES FOILED IX URRAIA Fifteen Million Ukrainians, White Russians Saved From Nazi Domination : oéqt IS still too early to pronounce any final verdict on the motives or consequences ter Chamberlain, addressing the British House of Commons on Wednesday. He government in ordering the Red army to cross its borders and occupy the Western Ukraine and White Russia without waiting | By R.W.W. for the Nazi armies to overrun these territories. NDEED there are none so blind as those that will not see. What are the consequences of this decisive historic action? As far as the population of the territories is concerned it means tnat about 15 million people have been saved from being converted jnto beasts of burden for fascism. ING wonder then, that the ra- pidly advancing Red army col- umns were greeted by the popu- lation as an army of liberation. To get an understanding of the joy with which the Soviet advance must have been greeted by the population the reader would be well advised to speak to Ukraini- an, Russian or Polish workers and farmers in this country who have relatives in tnat part of Europe. gS MET a Ukrainian woman whose parents and brothers live in 4 village about 50 miles from the Soviet border. “This is the happi- est day in my life,” she told me and one look in her face showed she was not exaggerating” her feelings. About the Soviet-Polish border G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole in their book The Intelligent Man’s Review of Europe Today, point out: “Phe frontier between Russia and Poland stretches in a long curving line from a point al- most level with the northern part of Lithuania at one ex- treme to the confines of Bess- arabia in the south. Save where the Pripet marshes form near the middle of this long line a ereat natural barrier, the fron- tier is from the geographical noint of view almost every— where purely artificial, neither rivers, nor mountains, nor ever nills running along it for any considerable distances. for a long way west of the existing frontier, Poles form only a tiny minority among White Rus- Sians and Wicrainians.”- The Treaty of Riga signed be- tween the Soviet Union and Po- Behin EWS stories published by International Press Cor= respondence of London as far back as 1935 provide an en- lightening background to the present situation in the Western Ukraine and Byelo (White) Russia, populated by some 8,000,000 Ukrainians and 3,000,000 White Russians, handed over to the tender mercies of Polish landlords and police after the first world war. In July, 1935, an International Commission of Enguiry to Poland, issued the following statement on its findings: For 13 days we have been tour- ing Poland. We have listened to the demands made by the prole- tarians of the different towns, and were present at the general strikes in Warsaw, Lodz, Lvov, etc. We have seen the wretched situ- ation of the peasants in the West Ukraine, where a match has be- come an article of luxury, and the children do not even know what sugar is. We saw a village where a punitive expedition had been sent with rifles and machine guns in order to “make peace.” We visited the Brigidki prison in Lyov, and spoke to the political prisoners, whereby we ascertained THE POSS WISHFUL THINKING By WILLIAM BAKER I | SHE Financial Post is a rec- ognized spokesman of big business interests in Canada. Its expressions of opinion are therefore always significant as expressing the hopes and fears, the aspirations and ana- themas of the economic rulers of our country. In its issue of Sept. 16 the Financial Post’s Ottawa corres- pondent, reviewing the special session of the House of Com- mons, declared: “The CGE party is not split on the war issue: it is shat tered. Mz. Woodsworth was immovable in his pacifism. The party managed to work out a formula of agreement approving of participation in the war only in the economic field. But A. A Heaps of Worth Winnipee promptly bolt- ed his party, refusing to cir- cumscribe Canadian participa- tion in any respect. And it is quite evident that among these who supported the amendment on this line, on Monday, an- other four or five in reality are in favor of complete participa- tion. The impact of war on land in 1921 after the Polish- Soviet War, they continue, even “pushed the Polish frontier tar to tne east of the line originaliy contemplatec by the Allies at Versailles.” i=) Hf social consequences are no less clear. Impoverished peas- ants are already grazing their eattle on the lands hitherto held by an aimost feudal ruling group of iarge landowners. Factories will be run by the working pec- ple. The news will spread rapidly in adjoining territories and even the conscripts in the German ar-— mies in Poland fed only on Wazi propaganda cannot be stopped from thinking, if as yet only silently, on the remarkable con- trast between the reception they received as an army of fascist conauest and the reception ac- corded to the Red army as an army of socialist liberation. Soon- er or later they will draw the conclusions from these experi- ences and these thoughts. Doubts and a feeling of help- lessness about Hitlerism- on the part of large sections of the Ger- man people will more rapidly turn to detestation and desperate ac-— tivtiy to overthrow the Nazi re- gime as a result of what has hap- pened in Poland in these last weeks. @ ITTLER has thus been consid- ably weakened. In his speech at Danzig he was compelled to eat bis own words and declare that he had no intention of sn- nexing the Ukraine or reaching” out to the Soviet Urals. His pres- ent declaration can of course no more be trusted and believed than uny past or future statement But the whole world—and Hitler, too —can now see clearly that the Soviet gcvernment is not relying on Htiler’s promises to check Nazi plans of aggression and conquest. Hitler regarded the non-ag- eression pacts he signed with Chamberlain and Daladier as mere scraps of paper because Ae believed on the basis of his past experience that he could attack Poland without becoming engaged in a major war, or even if so en- gaged there were hopes of reach- ing 2 speedy peace. So far his calculations have been proven incorrect. The Soviet action is a reminder to him that there is even greater danger in- volved. in regarding the Soviet- German non-ageression pact as a serap of paper. The fact that the Soviet Union has, it is reported, 100 divisions in the field and on its Western borders, the fact that the Polish population in the territories over- run by the Nazi armies will con- tinue to fight and sabotage his plans in every possible way, even if and when all islands of con- tinuing army resistance disappear make it essential for him to con-— tinue to maintain large forces in the East. The fact that the Red army did not wait for the Nazi armies to come to the borders of the Soveit Union but went out to meet them announcing their continued neu- trality in the war between Ger- many and England and France proves to him that the Red army is not only strong (he knew that before), but also unafraid. e : REFORE Hitler must at all eosts keep the Soviet Union as a neutral. If the Soviet Union ceased to be a neutral, defeat would be imevitable, rapid and erushing. ; That is quite clear. What is not so clear is why the same re- actionary circles that before the war began, pursued a policy of “appeasins” Hitlerism continue now that we are at war ostensibly to ‘destroy _Hitlerism’”’ to play into Hitler’s hand. Ss EF SOMEONE who had been jsolated in the bush for a couple ef months had come into town last week and picked up the Sun he couid be excused for coming to the conclusion that war The Scenes In that they were frightfully tor— tured. - @ E RECEIVED more than one hundred delegations sent by the families of prisoners, by po- litical workers’ organizations and factory workers’ clubs. We were received by the League of Human Rights, by anti-fascist intellectu- als, authors, artists, and scien- tists. We had important conver- sations with the leaders of the Left parties; especially with Depu- ty WNiedzialkavski, the leaders of the Socialist party of Poland, with Alter from the Jewish Bund, the delegate of the Second Interna- tional, and with the representa— tive of the Communist party. We received representatives of the press, and the newspapers which published our statements were confiscated by the govern- ment. We attended the national congress of the trade union of Leather Workers, as well as a street meeting held by 5,000 mem-— bers of an illegal Warsaw work- ers’ organization. We took part in the demonstrations of the popu- lation in front of the Serbia pris- on in Warsaw. We spoke at a magnificent and enthusiastic meeting at Lvov. At every place we visited we were received by impressive street demonstrations, at which anti- fascist slogans were shouted, and the Socialist party undoubted= ly will shatter it beyond res- toration.” The wish is here obviously the father of the thought. And be- hind_the wish stands, so it seems to us, a threat. First we have the declaration that the CCF is not simply split but shattered. Then at the end the intimation the war “undoubt- edly will shatter it beyond res- toration.” Tf this is not a threat then it is simply unadulterated non- sense. For the last weeks the capital- ist press have been full of false reports about splits and deser- tions in every Communist party in the world. It is unfortunate that some malicious or naive persons have repeated or believed these falsehoods. Now we find similar sources setting out to play the same trick on the CCF. We can only hope that it meets with as little success as it has in relationship to the Communist Party. What are the facts? Reading carefully through all the speeches as printed in Han- sard, it is obvious that of any group in the House the CCE spokesmen took much the best stand. ; the police frequently powerless. The political prisoners in Yron- ki, Ravicz, Sieradz, Piotrkoyv, War- saw, and Jiock sent us messages. Wever before has such close con- tact been established between a delegation and the masses of the workers in a country under the rule of terror. The members of the delega- tion: Lahy-Hollebesque, professor at the Sorbonne; Rene Arcos, author; Carol King, lawyer from Wew York; Zimmermann, dele- gated by the French workers’ organization; Voycik, delegated by the Polish emigrants in France: Ivaszyszn, delegated by the Polish emigrants in Canada. stood by e N OCTOBER 1935, Interna- tional Press Correspondent published the following account of punitive expeditions sent inte the Ukrainian districts: Wews reaches us from Volhynia that punitive expeditions, sent by Polish imperialism, are ravaging the Volhynian villages and that many Ukrainian peasants have lost their lives. Since May 1 this year, when the Volhynian peasants in @ number of sub-districts carried out dem- onstrations, the Polish govern- ment has been carrying on con- stant guerilla warfare against those Ukrainian villages which sent a large number of peasants Wor was there anything that could justifiably be called a “split,” still less a “shattering” of the CCE. Je Ss. Woodsworth differed from M. J. CGoldwell, whe read the official statement of the CCF, in that he favored a policy that Ganada should declare its neutrality in the present Wwar- From the viewpoint of defend- ing the interests of the people of Canada much more important than this difference are the many points of agreement sharp- ly differentiating the attitude of the CCE members in the House from that of all the others. OTE Woodsworth and Cold- well agreed 1) That this war might have been prevented if policies of col- lective security had been fol- lowed, if the League of Wations had not been scuttled. 2) Canada should have pur- sued an independent foreign pol- icy, and not simply served as the tail for Chamberlain’s kite. 3) Wo expeditionary force should be sent to Hurope at this time and conscription for this war should be resolutely opposed. 4) Profiteeringe of any kind of the Russian action,” said Prime Minis «| was referring to the action of the Sovie™ —s 4 oo had be2n declared on the Sovie — Unicn whilst he was away. a No wonder that the Proving = evidently worried by the opinion | expressed in all quarters, carrie | en editorial Jast week heads” “Don’t Let It Get You Down,” bers ginning. - ; “Tt is, amongst a great many | other disagreeable things, unm | doubtedly a very puzzling war © You can make a long list og these puzzlements for yoursell —anyone can — and wnHen yor are done it is just as puzzling | as ever.” Es The conclusion drawn by 4h Province editorial writer is fat § ously futile—‘a great deal of ti; puzzlement will cease to puzzle jie we stop letting it.’ In other word: 4 if the people were to stop thint- ing for themselves everythin” wouid be lovely. ; But that is the worst advice the could be given. On the contran 7 now more than ever we need { - be always thinking, always cool} }, and calmly analytical of Every thine we hear and read, alway | determined to defend the best ii terests of the workings people Canada. Anyone who thinks over t& events of the last week canno but come to the conclusion tha © Feresus McKean, provincial sec retary of the Communist pary svas fully correct when at th beginning of this war he stated ~ “Twenty-two years of viru tent slander from many quar ters, expected and unexpected, have been more harmful to those ~vhe spread or believe such non- sense than to the Soviet Union | The truth is that the Soviet Un- ion is well able without alles: to defena the safety of her own peoples and borders, both dipio- matically and militarily. “The truth is that to defeat fascist ageression with the sreatest assurance and the leash loss, to make its repetition im- possible, the help of the Soviet Union was and is needed and must be obtained.” oland to take part in the May demor ; strations. ; In the Kolki district there hay been serious conflicts with the pe lice, who attacked the demonstr so meena OD reheat are PRINT AOMORI aE? tors with the utmost brutalit and fired into the defensele: erowds. Similar conflicts hay { taken place in other places. Dui ing the whole of the month & May, and far into June, the pe lice, armed to the teeth, devas fated the Volhynian villages, rot bing, plundering and murderinj Even today it is still difficult t gain an victims, as the villages visited b the punitive expeditions are sui rounded by police patrols. During the last few weeks fres struggles have arisen in conne tion with- the resistance of th Volhynian peasants against 65 ploitation, taxes and usury ani this has been followed by fres punitive expeditions. News come © from Volhynia that 15 more peas ~ satin serrenclee idea of the number ¢ ’ ant men and women have bee} murdered by the police. The fas i" cist censorship in Poland does no © permit a word regarding thes events to be published, We appeal to the workers ahi peasants of the whole world t ff put an end to the machination © of these imperialist executioner § We appeal to all amnti-fascist ©! = ganizations to raise their voice § in protest. i should be stopped by drasti practical legislation and enforce ® ment. : 5)