| which would have lon bad it gone fully Vrocess of mediation, Yi! ¢o isolate the UMWA R st of the labor move- fxiners have long been teganization and a pro- he in the life of the = Lewis is now seeking WNGion to the kite tail atist American First Wheelers, Fishes, et al. ' his personal hatred and his hostility to eB minds of the public tho would disrupt the en #rat- Dhis is shown by ne p28 holdout against a fans anagement production Hy coal fields. seank and file see these kppreciate the enor- effect of a complete § he entire labor move- US has joined with Sa pressing for a set- hi }eir demands. The gov- Oj proposed a guaran- m¥veek, which would in- liners’ earnings with- = Roosevelt's recent ex- t@er freezing wages. nt was apparently is week, accord- ids, Pointing to Sec- *0 to cease operations to the timber. of year (end of Aug- ated out that scarcely any logging outfit that had done so the preceding fall had -estaped without heavy property losses. 4 The Forest Branch insisted, and finally a Batco official, accom- panied by a forestry expert, spread 300 gallons of good deisel oi] over eight million feet of merchantable timber, and watched it go up in smoke. 5. The -Forest Branch, having levied a $10,000 fine on Batco for failure to burn slash in January of this year, has threatened to seize their rafts of logs unless the fine is paid. This action, say Blat- co officials, will mean the stopping of all their operations at Oyster River. “We haven't paid it, and we don’t intend to pay a fine for failure to destroy merchantable timber,” Batco president A. E. Simpson, Jr., Stated this week. “Whether we were forced to burn and waste the warneeded produc- tion capacity of 100 men may not Interest anyone but ourselves, and whether we burn one acre or 1,000 acres does not alter the principle of destroying timber. “We have proved it practical to log this so-called waste, and to Sell it on the open market as lum- ber logs, and also to mill it in our sawmills. “At our operations, through the penalties imposed by the Forest Branch, we have lost several mil- lion feet of timber log production each month, because several con- tractors have been forced to dis- continue their contracts with our company. “The policy which the Forest Branch has adopted may force the cessation of our logging oper- ations, thereby depriving the war effort of 40 million feet of logs.” IWA International Board Mem- ber Wigel Morgan declared this week that “the Batco operations are clear proof of the practicabil- ity of utilizing the so-called slash logs. which in hundreds of other operations in BC’s fir belt are be- ing left to waste and rot. The present policy of allowing this was- tage in the BC woods, while our Douglas fir stands are rapidly be- ing depleted, is nothing short of criminal, District Council of the TWA has meanwhile endorsed a resolution urging the premier of the prov- ince, minister of lands, and the forestry branch, to reconsider “ex- isting regulations with a view to the maximum utilization of our rapidly diminishing forest re- sources.” Deaths in the Woods Before the end of 1943, more than 60 men who are now en- gaged actively in one important BC war industry will die. The majority of them will be killed by falling objects, several will be crushed by logs, and the odd one or two will die from injuries caused by sawmill machinery. The important war industry, of course, is the BC logging industry. Approximate fisures were given out this week by Bert Melsness, of the IWA, following the an- nouncement in the union paper, BC Lumber Worker, that 18 lumber werkers had been killed since the beginning of the year. The figures are based on those of 1942, when 30 lumbermen died in the last three months alone. Last three men to die were Hjalmer Sjokvist, 50-year-old saw- mill worker, instantly killed when struck on the forehead by a plank thrown from a power saw. Mr. Palasky, crushed to death beneath a pile of lumber which fell on him, and Eino Sutelo, who died from injuries received when struck by a sapling during logging -op- erations in the Queen Charlottes. All three died within the past week. “This year the number of fatal accidents will probbaly be greater than last year,” Melsness pointed out this week, “because this year more man hours are being worked. “The number of fatalities must be decreased,” he said. “Some head injuries could be prevented by the compulsory use of protective helmets. The best way to prevent accidents is by the establishment of safety committees of men on the job, given authority to make periodic check-ups of all machin- ery and equipment, and to declare any piece of equipment unsafe. No man must be required to work on unsafe machinery until it is repaired.” Even greater numbers of fatal accidents took place in pre-war years, when loggers used to figure that one out of every three men boarding a boat for the camps would either be killed, receive ser- ious injuries, or be injured to the extent that compensation ‘would be awarded. Mining The Union Comes to Ineo Spurred on by the example set by fellow miners in Trail, Copper Mountain and Kimberley, workers in the notoriously anti-unior Inco mines are building a union, and promise to have a membership of 90 percent of the men before June. Sudbury union offices where, fif- teen months ago, files were looted, furniture smashed, and two organ- izers beaten and sent to the hos- pital, are now buzzing with ac- tivity. Seven thousand union mem- bers stood for two hours in drizzling rain on May Day to hear Reid Robertson, president of In- ternational Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, and to celebrate the anniversary of their Local 598, TUMM & SW. Local 598 had asked the Interna- tional Nickel Company to arrange —zhe change of shifts at two of the mines to coincide with the anni- versary celebration. In reply Inco vice-president R. L. Beattie stated that it would be impossible, and would result in “irrecoverable loss of production.” The union plan, however, would have resulted in no loss of produc- tion, union men maintain. Union President Robinson stated, “Men are standing here in the cold and rain because they want to do something to make democracy real. We are organizing to win the war in the quickest way and to bring democracy to all the people. Cor- porations such as Inco are exploit- ing the workers in the name of pa- triotism ... “Workers are streaming into the union in BC and about 3,000 have organized there in the past few weeks. We are goiong to pay back the debt in Kirkland Lake because workers don’t leave any unpaid bills. “We are going to be so organ- ized after the war that we are going to defeat those who will not give us a share in what we pro- duce ... The IUMMSW is in Can- ada to stay!” —s : é Lssorre™ 1863 Field Risener #Rie GDA “My crime? I fought Hitler and Mussolini back in 1937!” Free France Viehy Influences Freneh Unity Against the background of continued imprisonment of thou- sands of anti-fascists in North Africa plus the rising popular support for General Charles deGaulle’s French National Com- mittee, clearly revealed by the mass demonstration. of his supporters in Algiers on May Day, General Henri Giraud’s insistence on “conditions” for the projected unity meeting between he and de- Gaulle indicate that certain ex- Vichy men still are more interested in placing obstacles than of finding a common basis for negotiations. Giraud’s latest proposal is for he and deGaulle to meet at some secret spot outside Algiers. This has met with sharp criticism from deGaulle’s committee, which holds that “union between Frenchmen cannot be clandestine,” that on the contrary a visit by the Fighting French leader to Algiers would do more than anything else to crys- tallize the unity of all French anti- fascists, in particular the under- ground movement in France, be- hind the anti-Axis war. The only basis for Giraud’s proposal, they. charge, is his apparent fear of the great popular demonstrations that would occur as a result of deGaulle’s visit, demonstrations that would leave no doubt as to how most French people feel about the pro-Vichy elements still in power under Giraud. : Further resentment was also pro- voked against Giraud’s North Af- rican “war committee” by the gen- eral’s statement this week on the questions of post-war France in which he declared there would be “no place for drones and profes- sional agitators” in the France of the future, interpreted as a direct threat to restoration of free trade unions, and his conditional accept- ance of amnesty for political pris- oners in Worth Africa under which large numbers would still be de- tained in concentrationscamps. Previously General Giraud had made public a memorandum giv- ing the basis on which he would cooperate with deGaulle. His plan Was concerned largely with details of France's post-war reorganiza- tion, and in essence refused to give representatives of the French underground any real say in the work of mobilizing France for the second front. It was this memo- randum that called a temporary halt to unity talks and sent Gen- eral Georges Catroux of the de- Gaulle committee from London to Algiers for further parleys. The Giraud proposals, which are reported to have the support of both the British and American governments, would also maintain a Military regime, led largely by colonial governors and ex-Vichy generals in power for a long in- terim period from now until after France had been completely re- stored and peace reestablished. Specifically they would invest French sovereignty and both mili- tary and political administration in a new setup, a “French Council of Overseas Territories.’ This body would be made up of ex-Vichy col- onial governors and would Tule until after all French prisoners had been freed from German camps and peace fully restored. Then an election would take place for a new National Assembly to draft a new French Constitution. Frenchmen everywhere have re- acted strongly against this plan. French Republicans have a tradi- tional antipathy, arising from ex- periences after 1870, to any auton- omous rule by military forces. Rep- ublican and deGaulleist elements therefore feel that the Giraud forces in North Africa ought not to monopolize the leadership of resistance to the Axis. As a result of these develop- ments, grave doubts exist as to whether Giraud has left any basis for real negotiations, particularly since his position has the tacit approval of high government offi- cials in United States and Britain. It seems clear that pressure must be put on both London and Wash- ington before any change in the French political scene can be made in favor of the democratic forces.