PACIFIC ADVOCATE

i PEOPLE’S VOICE FOR PROGRESS

PL 1, No. 34 ~

LS

5 Cents

VANCOUVER, B:C., SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1945

Polish Trials Reveal

Anti-Soviet

Uae

rms of the Yalta agreement.
Held at the same time as dis-
sssions were going forward in
e Soviet capital between repre-
ntatives. of the Big Three-and

democratic Poles both from
loroad and from within Poland
self looking toward a solution

the longstanding issue, the
‘ials have become a sweeping
‘posure of both the Polish emi-
-es in London and all the So-
ethaters and Munich men who
e behind the curent wave of
stiSoviet hysteria and who have
‘en working frantically in re-
nt weeks to lay the ground-
ork for a new war against the
seialist state.

‘The current Moscow trials, and.
ie subsequent confessions of 15

the 16 defendants to the
yvarge of anti-Soviet espionage,
zecomplished two immediate
1ings:

@ Exposed the hypocrisy of
1e American -and British dele-
ations to San Francisco who ut-
ized the arrests of the 16 Poles
‘Ss an excuse for refusing to give
-oland a seat at the security con=
erence or to consider negotia-
ions- to reconstitute the War-
aw government under terms of
‘ne Crimea conference.

@ Administered a sharp set-
ack to those elements within
the Churchill government who

ire supporting the newly-formed |

2olish armiy-in-exile as.a weapon
igainst the European liberation
novements and the Soviet Union.
NEW “CORDON SANITAIRE”
The hearings have reportedly
srought dismay and confusion to
che ranks of the London Poles.
And well they might. For the
sestimony of the accused men
"nas brought out the facts, long
/@g0 stated by Soviet leaders,
that the so-called Polish govern-
_ment-in-exile had manitained re-
_jations with the Nazis, directed
by radio and underground sources
the committing of anti-Soviet
acts in Poland even while that
<ountry was being freed by the
Red Army, and has consistently

intrigue To Form New

Alliance

| The trial of the 16 Polish diversionists which opened this
‘sek before the military collegium of the USSR Supreme
jurt in Moscow has served to sharpen the need for a demo-
atic solution of the Polish question in accordance with the

worked the formation of a new
“eordon sanitaire’ comprising
Poland, Germany and Britain and
directed against the USSR.

Among the 16 Poles led by
Major-General

partial guilt- to the Soviet
charges, and 12 have pleaded
guilty to .all charges.

The trials pointed. up the dan-
ger implicit in tthe recent an-
nouncement by the British gov-
ernment that it is now arming
250,000 Polish troops under the
leadership of the London Poles
to take up positions in the Brit-
ish-controlled area of occupied
Germany. Behind this move was
the aparent hope of many Brit-
ish Tories that the Yalta agree-
ment on Poland would be inter-

preted to mean the reconstitution

of the Polish government around
the London Poles, and not by the
broadening of the existing War-
saw government.

MOSCOW CONFERENCE

This Churchill-backed trend in
British policy on Poland seems
to have been reversed as a result
of the conference now going on
in Moscow. Called by the com-
mission set up at Yalta compris-
ing Foreign Commissar Molo-
tov, U.S. Ambasador Averill Har-
riman and British Ambassador
Clark Kerr, it includes as well
as the leaders of the Warsaw
government such Poles. as form-
er Premier Stanislaw Mikolaj-
ezyk and Labor Minister Jan
Stanezyk. ;

The conference marks an im-
portant step forward in the hand-
ling of the Polish question if for
no other reason than because it
is taking place on the basis of
the Yalta agreement which, as
Premier Stalin recently. pointed
cut,’called for broadening of the
existing Warsaw government to
include all. genuinely democratic

Continued on Page 8
See—POLAND

Bronislaw Oku- |:
licki, 15 have confessed total or |

BOR UNITY IS IMPERATIVE

Labor-Progressive Party

Calls For Electoral Pacts
In Coming Provincial Test

A challenging appeal to labor and progressive forces in British Colum-
bia to unite their ranks both for a realization of labor’s postwar program
and for a victory for progress in the provincial election field was issued
this week by the B.C. provincial committee of the Labor-Progressive Party.

Pointing out that the vote in the recent federal elections was unfavor-
able to labor mainly because the labor and progressive movement was dis-

Assumption of supreme authority in Germany by the four
victorious powers was marked by the signing in Berlin of a
joint declaration by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, left, for the
U.S. and Marshal Gregory K.

Zhukov, right, for Russia.

Labor Asks Place On

Reconstruction

Reconstruction Minister C. D. Howe was asked by the
Vancouver Trades and Labor Council this week to state
when he intends implementing his promise of setting up
Regional Advisory Boards on reconstruction and employ-

ment problems.

Such boards, which would in-

clude labor representation, were
promised by the minister of re-
construction during a speech
made to the 1944 convention of
the Trades and Labor Congress
of Canada. Their purpose would
be to deal with all problems of
postwar reconversion of industry
and related matters of employ-
ment.

Motion to address the enquiry
to Mr. Howe was made by Dele-
gate Tom Parkin of the Aero-
nautical Mechanics’ Lodge, who
pointed out that many months
had passed since the eeting up of
regional boards was held out by
the minister, and that mean-
while their need had become
acute with the end of the Euro-

Board

pean war and the return home of
thousands of servicemen. ;

A second motion relating to
the same problem, by which
Council delegates unanimously
decided to draft a brief for pres-
entation to the Royal Commis-
sion on Veterans’ Qualifications
which will soon visit all major
Canadian cities, followed a report
by Council Secretary R. K. Ger-
vin, who sugested that all unions
immediately submit data upon
which the brief could be compiled.

One purpose of the Royal Com-
mission hearings will be to ob-
tain information and _ opinion
from organized labor as to how

Continued on Page 8

united, the LPP statement
declares that the B.C. govern-
ment can be won for progress
providing the split in labor
ranks is healed.

The LPP unity appeal
specifically proposes that in
the ‘interests of peoples’ vic-
tory in the B.C.. elections,
likely to be held within a
year at the latest, all pro-
gressive parties and groupings
come together in discussions
leading to the nomination and
election of one progressive can-
didate in each constituency.

Fergus McKean, B.C. provin-
cial leader of the LPP, in addres-

sing the special provincial
committee meeting held in
Vancouver Wednesday, empha-

sized that the federal election
results in the Pacific coast prov-
inee in particular “vindicated the —
policy of those who maintained
right along that only electoral
united could bring the common
people victory at the polls.”

“The CCF’s refusal to reach
electoral agreements both with
our own party and with the two
Labor candidates resulted in the
direct loss of 10 seats for the
labor movement,” -McKean em-
phasized. “The progressive vote
in a majority of the federal
ridings was larger than either
the Tory or Liberal vote. And
ii is erystal clear that with a
provincial election now a rela-
tively early possibility, electoral
agreements must be reached be-
tween all progressive groups, if
we are to win the government for
progress.”

The serious nature of the LPP
proposal was underlined this
week with the announcement of
the servicemen’s vote, which left
the Mackenzie King government
still clinging to a precarious ma-
jority dependent upon the dubi-
ous support of right-wing Que-
bee Liberals. The very instability
cf the Liberal government, the
added strength of the Tory oppo-
sition, together with the likeli-
hood that Prime Minister King
would swing to the right on poli-
cies, faced the labor movement
with the task of developing a
powerful pressure campaign to
implement the carrying out of
its postwar program.

So far as B.C. is concerned, it
was becoming clear this week that
the existing Liberal Tory coalition

Continued on Page 8
See—LABOR UNITY

See—LABOR ASKS