Hepburn Gov’t Attacks Trade Unions TORONTO, Ont. -- The campaign of terror unleashed against the Ontario | labor movement by the Hepburn government when it struck at the Cla rion, | labor weekly here, was this week intensified and widened to include the trade union movement. No friend of the CIO, which has continued to srow despite persecution and intimidation, the Hepburn government on Wednesday ordered its pro- vincial police to arrest Charles H. Millard, CiO organizer and prominent CCF member, for alleged contravention of the War Measures Act. Charges against Millard, who was held without bail, were reported to be based ona speech he made last week at Timmins, Ontario mining center where the mining magnates behind the Hepburn government have long sought to prevent organization by the CIO Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers’ union. The AD ~ former organizer for the ‘CIO United Automobile Work- ers union, Millard was active in the 1937 strike at Oshawa, so bitterly opposed by Premier Hepburn. At Sudbury, where hun- dreds of Finnish workers are employed by International Nic- kel, provincial police on Tues- day raided the offices of Va-= paus, Finnish language daily, seizing documents and papers. Simultaneously, in this eity, po- lice raided the Finnish Organiza— tion of Canada’s Don hall on Broadview avenue and ga Finnish bookstore on Queen Street West. In Windsor, on Monday, police seized 500-odd copies of the Mid-— West Clarion, Winnipee labor weekly, in a raid. The issue seized carried a head- line, ‘Lift Ban on Glarion, Gana- dian Public Calis,’ and contained an article exposing recent state- ments by Col. George Drew, Ontar- io’s No. i red-baiter, as ‘direct lies.’ The article was written by Toronto’s Ald. Stewart Smith, who has been under constant attack from reactionaries since his refus- al to endorse the Ghamberlain gov- ernment’s policy. - Police also were reported to have arrested J. P. Manning, alderman-— ie candidate in Windsor’s Ward 4, charginge that statements he made in the civic election campaign con- travened the War Measures Act. FOR PEACE, PROGRESS AND DEMOCRACY VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1939 FULL No. 256. FINN PEOPL FORMED, C Red Army Breaks Throug Mannerheim Defense Line RIOSCOW, USSR.—With the advancing Red Army in Finland this week was the newly-formed First Corps of the Finnish people’s army, recruited from the workers, peasants and inteliectuals of Finland eager to strike a biow for the real independence of their country. ; + A proclamation issued to the Finnish people by the First Corps states: “We pledge all our energy, and, if need be, our] @ ; f lines re the freedom d real ind de f the Fim= Dean Gives ose beeen and veal independence. of the! Fin eo es Opinion On government and declare that we are against a criminal war e Finn Issue against the USSR.” Far from Red Army soldiers, reared in a socialist society, Bernard Shaw, | Wells Comment On Oust Non-Partisan Candidates Of big Business By FERGUS McKEAN This year the big business interests of Vancouver have in- tensified their campaign to gain complete control of Vancouver’s Civic administration. ~ e Now that Canada is again involved in an imperialist war, the question of what interests control the municipal councils assumes additional importance. ©- = = 4 we er Se e = “ Therefore, it is not surprising that cation of the so-called Non-Par S = = = tisan Association. ae ae een ierore a aes The executive of this orzanizz- eonuneted at ae a Bee ation reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ oP Bees © FERRE. ee w ae £ directory for Vancouver. Com- BeHOnaTY ne SS ae ‘SPU | pesed of generals, stockbrokers, coe OU OF 2 3 BBA Ove | ein tycoons and commercal ; magnates, it is doubiful if any of So far reaction has chalked up a the local erop of muiti-million- number of victories, notably the Clarion Manager Spain Veteran Attorney-General Conant has al ready announced the sovernment’s intention of preeecedings asainst Douglas Stewart, arrested business manager of the Clarion, under in- dictment. Qn Thursday he was committed for trial; with bail at $5000. Stewart served with the loyalist armies in Spain, was promoted to the rank of captain. When Eranco’s forces broke through the Bilbao front Stewart and a small sreup left behind to destroy military sup- plies and superintend distribution cf food to the eivil population was trapped at Torrealoveasa, With 11 others he escaped to sea in a small boat, was picked up by a British warship after 36 hours. Arrested for selling the Clarion baving deserted to the Finnish armies commanded by Baron Mannerheim, fighting desperately to retain the capitalist yoke on Finland, as fantastic stories from Helsinki claim, prisoners taken by the Red Army are appealing to Mannerheim’s soldiers to come over to the people’s army with increasing response. An appeal issued by these ‘pris-¢ oeners’ to their former comrades aires have been excluded. Finnish Parleys By PHILIP BOLSOVER. LONDON, Ens. — (Passed by British Censor)—Amid the storm of press denunci- ation of the Soviet Union, following its action in Fin- land, some influential voices “have been raised in opposi- tion to the anti-Soviet cam- paisn. _., While George Bernard Shaw, the aged Trish sage, was most outspoken in challenging the press campaign, he was by no means alone. Such influential persons as Hi. G. Wells, Sir Stafford Cripps and eyen the Dean of Canterbury, ore of the most prominent mem- bers of the Church of England, speakins before the outbreak of _military activities, expressed doubt as to both the justice and wisdom of the Finnish govern- ment’s position. Shaw, as quoted in The Lon- den Daily Mail, commented: “Finland has been misled by a very foolish government. She Should have accepted the Rus- Sian offer for readjustment of territory. “Finland would probably not have refused the Russian offer had she been acting on her Own Or in her own interests, but Russia believes that Fin- land thinks she has the back- ing of America and the west erm powers. “INo power can tolerate a fron- tier from which a town such as Leningrad could be shelled when She knows that the power on the other side of that frontier is be- ing Made to act in the interests of other and greater powers menacing her security. “Is America supporting Win- land ? “Well, Finland obviously be- lieves so or she would not have behaved as she has. “It is not all a question of Russia attempting to subject Finland. It is a question of Rus- Sia seeing to her own security.” H. G Wells wrote, “There is much to be said for the- preven- tive security measures being tak- en by the Soviet government. (Gontinued on Page 5) See BRITAIN. still with White Guard armies de Glares: “Soldiers of the Finnish army, workers and peasants in soldiers’ uniforms, you must exert every effort to support the people’s government and its army which brings the Finns liberation from the yokes of capitalism.” Soviet armies, continuing their advance on all fronts, have broken through the Mannerheim line and are steadily penetratins northward and westward. rapidly Events followimeg |upon the Red Army’s crossing of the Finnish ‘trontier have sadly damaged the arguments of those who contend the pres- ent European war is one for de- mocracy. Diplomatic circles in every European capital have been thrown into a furore with the governments of all coun- tries seeking to solve ‘this strangest of all wars, as Prime Minister Chamberlain termed it, each to its own advantage, and encountering contradic- tions at every turn. Some very undemocratic cham- pions of Finnish ‘democracy’ ap- peared on the scene this week, chief among them Mussolini, whose ‘volunteer’ armies helped to crush the Spanish republic, and General Franco because of whom thousands ef democratic Spaniards are in exile and thousands more in jail. To the Spanish people’s govern- ment were sent no British planes, no British arms. Lo a Finnish gov ernment headed by the Bank of Finland’s governor, British arms will go without delay. And the League of Nations, mori- bund long since by reason of the death blows dealt it by the British and French governments, is to be resuscitated to haunt the Soviet Union. Today in Finland a new anti- Soviet strategy is being shattered, just as the conclusion of the Soviet-German Don-agseression pact Shattered the old strategy, still, however, not completely abandoned. All the facts point to a new plan which called for an attack on the USSR toe come from the north and south, replacing the old east-west formula. Finland was to be the (Continued on Page 2) See FINLAND City Finns Remember "18 Terror ‘Miannerheim Most Hated Person In Finland,’ Says One By J. D. WILSON Despite the bitterly anti- Soviet tone of the daily press there is a strong conviction among Finnish people in British Columbia that Fin- land is being used by outside powers for imperialistic aims, while the Finnish people are struggling for a free people’s sovernment something they have not had since the 1916 elec- tions swept out of power the four-house parliament and estab- lished a socialist sovernment. This was the impression IT fained this week in interviews with a number of Finns resident in various parts of the province, some of whom served in Finnish White Guard regiments under General Gustave Mannerheim and the German General Yon der Goltz in 1918 when more than 100,000 people died by firing squads or by starvation in prison camps. “Mannerheim is the most hated man in all Finland to- day,” I was told by Mrs. Wick strom, of this city, whose hus- band Karl witnessed the exe— cution of 200 prisoners in one group after they had been forced to dig their own graves. He also saw a young child im- paled on a picket fence for no other crime than its father was 2 red partisan. She is convinced that the fighting is highly magnified and distorted, and opined ‘that out of it will be established 4 peopile’s Sovernment, call it soviet if you (Continued on Page Five) See FINNISH. defeat of the labor council in Re- fina. On the other hand in several contests their jingoistic campaign was a failure. Both Winnipeg and Calgary returned a good number of labor candidates. im Vancouver, reactionary inter- ests are conducting their campaign behind the slogan ‘Keep Politics Out of the City Hall’ For sheer hypocrisy the use of such a slogan is hard to beat. Municipal elec- tions are, and always have been, political campaizns wiih all®of the attendant features of intrigue, pat- ronage and the serving of group and class interests. What is really meant by the coiners of this slogan is ‘Keep the Representatives of the Working Class Qut of the City Hall’ The political machines of the Liberal and Conservative parties Lave always been involved in Van- couver municipal elections and have usually elected a majority of their prominent members. “The only new development in this re- Sard in recent years has been the formation of a united front of the two parties of big business by the Control of our civic administra— tion by representatives of big in- terests not only Suaranmtees civic policies which place the burden of administration costs on the shoul- ders of the small home owners and store keepers, but also places them in a favorable position for keeping down wage standards. Probably the best example o£ such use of civic control was that expressed by the notoricus Mc- Geer administration which ex- pended some $80,000 of the tax payers’ money to create a special police force for use in erushing the waterfront strike of 1935, while the mayor himself acted as the chief spokesman for the Shippins cious propaganda against the strikers. Unfortunately the unity attain- ed in the ranks of big business has no counterpart, as yet, in the ranks of the working and middle class people of Vancouver. This weakenss is due primarily to the fact that the CCE leadership has, See ELECTION. (Continued on Page Five) Those convicted inelude Kate Paulkes, who was found esuiity last Friday, May Robbins, Fred Duncan, George Hall and Walter Graham, who pleaded esuilty and received the same sentence, being placed under bond of $100 each to ensure that they will not engage in distrib- uting any more Communist litera- ture for the duration of the war. EH. A. Lucas, CLD counsel, de- fended the accused. Sam Matinik, charged with yvag— rancy when arrested while solicit— ing funds for defense of the five accused, was allowed his freedom by Magistrate MacKenzie Mathe— son when he appeared for trial in police court Tuesday. “J could find you euilty,” said Pamphlet Distributors Get Suspended Sentence Suspended sentences were imposed on two women and three men when they appeared before Magistrate H. S. Wood in Van- ecouver police court Monday after being convicted of distribut-— ing a leaflet over the name of Tim Buck, general secretary of |}the Communist party, entitled, ‘The People Want Peace,’ contravention of the War Measures Act. in Magistrate Matheson, as he studied the calendar Wowever. he dis- missed the case, telling Malnik that if he wanted to solicit funds he should apply to him for a permit. A committee to continue work of organizing a Canadian Labor De fense League branch in Hastings East community was elected at a meeting in Clinton Hall Wednesday- Residents of Mount: Pleasant and Little Mountain districts interested in joining the CLD and continuing the work of that orzanization are invited to attend a meeting at 5106 Walden street, one block east of Main near 33rd Avenue, this Friday at 8 p.m. and held on $5000 bail is Pranic Towers of Oshawa, veteran of the last world war and Holder of the bronze cross, feneral Service and King’s medals. Towers helped to establish the United Automobile Workers’ union at Oshawa, is president of lecal 7, United Farmers of Ontario. Complete Blackout Of Rights Feared TORONTO, Ont— Complete blackout of individual liberties and civil rights already dim- med by the War Measures Act by the Hepburn government, is planned accordins to a memor- andum this week sent out to all police authorities, crown pros- ecutors and mayors by On- tario’s Attorney-General Con_ ant. The memorandum advised authorities how to proceed in arresting persons and raiding homes of those Suspected of yvi- olating the Act. “Phe provincial police force js now organized on a wartime basis. There are Over 11,000 men armed and in uniform,” the memorandum States, addins that “we will spare no effort, no necessary expense to prevent sabetase and the dissem-— ination of subversive doctrines. Prevention of the offense can be accomplished only if the police throughout Ontario are alert and aperessive as all times to seize Subversive literature and to render every possible assistance in polic-— ing and advising in the Pprosecu- tion of offenders” Canadian Labor Defense Leasue officials here stated it was evidence that Attorney-General Conant in- tended to use ‘the unlimited pow- ers of the War Measures Act against the labor movement’ and Said ‘it will not be SUrPrisineg if a veritable reign of terror against the rights and Privileges of the individual results. “While this new order may seem to be directed against Communists and their peace efforts, there is every indication that the Hepburn Severument, like the Duplessis re- gime, will use it to strike against organized labor just as the padlock law was used first against the Communists and then against the trade unions,” it was stated.