made to the final victory over

Score Action Of Council —
In North Vancouver

By JOHN NUTTALL
NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.—Those who read the

account of the North Vancouver city council’s request for the
repeal of federal legislation regarding residence qualifications
for relief were treated to a typical example of Tory contempt
and disregard for the splendid contribution that labor has

fascism in Europe.

The council petitioned the gov-

fied down by enemy bullets, marines take cover in a cemetery on an Okinawa ridge.
IS yy crouch behind the shot-blasted tombstones until the Japanese position can be spotted.

Housing Muddle

jation of the serious propor-
that the situation in the city:
| ceacheds

cording. to. information fe-
id. by Cowley, the::. Federal
~ament is prepared to take
- steps to relieve the pres-
firain. Proposals outlined by
ay,on his: return include the
fining of blocks of, housing
it reasonable rates. from the

1 zipality. to be built..on: by .2 !

ng administration;. granting
tax. concessions.-~-by civic
@srities for a* period of at
® ten years; purchase of the
ing units from the federal
nment by the civic author-
at the end of a.ten-year
i. ,In return, . the , federal
-nment pledges to fmance an
iad to" procesd: with con-

ys Control
effective

NTEVIDTQ. —Giharges
the Argentine-@regime has
fectively intervened in Axis
orises were made recently
2 democratic. weekly El] Pa-

&., which was raided and clos-

- the police last week. The

'y stated that only 120 Ger-
and Japanese - controlled

ii were intervened and that

fis only 40 interventors were

ated. Whén Argentina
Hi the Chapultepee — inter-
iean accords, she promised,

=,pther-things, to take ef=}':
Ee action against Axis in=<

PS.2 Ghee xt
Patriota charged that under
ntervention arrangements

interventor * was responsible
ai: average’ of three large en-
Bses* and that” this “made
Eetely — impossible the exer-
Sf£.effectivé control. It add-
at the German and Japan-

‘€ thus left free to continue
work. ‘The weekly also’ stat-
at no: inventory of the Axis
Was: thade by technically
tent’ personnel and that to
r discourage: the Anterven-’
sthey™ were’ paid’ very low
2s, ae

struction; grant labor and ma-

terial priorities for building and

expedite the flow of materials;
and construction of the necessary
roads and services- for the new
projects,

SIDESTEPPING THE ISSUES

Lack of materials and. short-
age of available manpower have
been expressed by many sources
as being directly responsible for
the inability of private contrac
tors to !meet requirements. The
City Council has on numerous oc-
easions echoed this plea, and
utilizedthe excuse extensively
as.a means of avoiding immedi-
ate action to meet the crisis.

Approaches have been made to
the municipal authorities for im-

| mediate’ action, but civic “authori-
-ties have so far sidestepped all

responsibility by pleading inabil-
ity to’ grant special tax conces-
sions due to legal restrictions of

-| the City Charter. Pressure from

contractors, real estate operators
and property holders have con-
tributed to the fear to set up
what is termed “a class of pre-
ferred property holders.”

The Rehabilitation Council rep-
resentative will consult with the
Provincial Prime Minister, John
Hart, and attempt to obtain def-
inite commitments from the
provincial government as to how
far they will go in aiding in the
situation. It is felt that if the
provincial government pledges
itself to offer assistance, the local
Civic authorities will be left with
no alternative but to take defin4
ite action.

Civic action has so far been

frustrated by the opposition to a
jow-cost housing plan as an im-
‘mediate prospect, by such ob-

*| structionists as Alderman George

Buséombe. Buscombe, a. large
property owner himself, has for
years championed the property

owners and real estate operators,
to the detriment of the citizens

of Vancouver. His ardent oppo-
sition to low-cost housing as -a
‘solution to the present. crisis is
reflected in the do- -nothing atti-
tude of city authorities.

The Ottawa government
‘formed Cowley that an inter-
departmental committee has been
set up to consider housing prob-

‘léms and facilitate the easy pas-

sage ‘Of measures which will aid

=” PACIFIC ADVOC ATE

| meet the

in. a solution to civic housing
problems. Minister of Recon-
struction Howe recognizes, Cow-
ley told P.A., that housing is the
number one problem in Canada
today and that Vancouver is the
“hot spot in the nation.”
PUBLIC SENTIMENT.
GROWING : .
Growing publie* sentiment ‘is
strongly against the present in=
adequacy of civic plans to cope
with the crisis. It is recognized
that of the hundreds of state-
ments which have eminated from
the council, promising an early
solution to the problem, very few
if any, have resulted in anything

that even remotely resembled a
definite step. The refusal of the
council members, led by Alder-
man Buscombe, to get off of the
tence on this important issue,
has led to a steady decline in the
housing picture.

The federal government has
committed itself to measures to
situation, and it is
hoped that the provincial govern-
ment will assume its responsibil-
ity in this regard. The civic
authorities will have to be shaken

,out of their,.present complacency

and. forced to take immediate
action. The public distrusts the
promises and future plans of the
city fathers. The present ‘policy
cf seeking refuge in the limita-
tions of the City Charter must.
be exposed as an avoidance of
responsibility. All obstacles to an
early solution of the problem
must be removed, and the hous
ing crisis, which the Welfare
Council estimates as responsible
for over 40 percent of the cases
of delinquency, must be met and
solved.. -

The grandiose schemes report-
ed in: the press, which purport
find the solution of the problem
in -prefabricated houses, have
been rejected by almost every
competent housing authority as

@ | misplacement of emphasis:

_-| Land must be made available by
in-4,

the civic: authorities: so that ‘their
plan, approved in February, may
be. consumated, and- any steps

-which will assure federaj backing
an ‘the fact. of the situation must

be taken without any falteri ing.

ernment, and urged the Van-
couver city council to follow suit,
| to amend the residence regula-
tions so that “immigrant war
workers” will not become the re-
sponsibility of the municipality
in which they reside when the
war is over, “at which time;”
council presumes, “they will all
be back on relief.”

The North. Vancouver couril,
which represents at most about
10 percent of the people of the
North Shore, here makes the fol-
lewing false assumptions:

The council is apparently re-
signed and, prepared for a return
to the “hungry thirties’? and: re-
lief rolls.

That the business people of
North Vancouver have played
hosts to “immigrants” at the cost
of a great deal of inconvenience
for which they have“received no
compensation.

That. all war workers in the
shipyard “areas ‘are from else-
where than B.C. (In point of fact
about 380 percent are natives of
the province.)

On’ all these counts the city
council is away out. In_ the
first place, Canada’s -war work-
ers are not prepared t6 zo
back on relief rolls even if it
means throwing every reac-
tionary politician from Vancou-
ver to Halifax out of office.

Italian Govt.
Strengthened

ROME — The appointment, of
Ferruccio Parri as Italian Prime
Minister _is regarded . here. as
strengthening, the hand of., the
Italian resistance movement,
particularly in the north, against
remaining -pro-fascist elements.
Parri is a former president of
the Committee of National Lib-
eration of the north and the head
of its. military’ commission,
which included General Raffaele
Cadorna, one of ames zew ariti-fas-

‘cist traditional “mitt Fo Tea aders,
and Luigi Longo: “a Fleadee of the
International “BMehde” in Spain.
The Action” Party, which Parri
represents, is strongly / commit
ted to an anti-monarchist policy.

Parri’s work during the Ger-
man occupation of North Italy
included the organization of gen-

and civil administration. His
anti-fascist record extends back
over 20 years, which were spent
mainly in jail or exile. He has
succeeded in bringing all six
parties into the new government.
Alcide de  Gasperi, Christian
Democrat, retains the post of
Foreign Minister; Socialist lead-
er’ Pietro Nenni is Vice Premier,
with'the job of preparing for the
election of a. constituent’ assem-
bly;; and Communist leader Pal-
miro Togliatti, as Minister of
Justice,. will supervise the purge
of fascists.

i

era] strikes, direction of supplies.

And if you examine the con-

tribution made by North Vancou-
ver shipyard workers to the last
eight Victory Loans, here is what
you will find:

They have contributed upwards
of 10 million dollars to Victory
Loans in the past five years.
They have built and launched
over 300 ships and repaired an-
other 200. They have done busi-
ness with the merchants of North
Vancouver to the tune of six to
eight million dollars, a transfu-
sion into the city’s economic
blood stream that. has helped
bring it out of a condition of eco-
nomic stagnation almost unequal-
led in Canada.

The impact of production, of

progressive thought, has resulted
in a return to civic democracy
and to the election of a mayor
and council for the first.time in
12 years. (The fact that the vot-
ers made a poor choice does not
matter here,)

Many other benefits. have ac-
crued to this city as a result of
of the great strides forward in
production which has undoubtedly
brought great wealth to the com-
munity. :

It would appear, in view of the
backward:-looking attitude of the
present council, that the only so-
lution is the election of a coun-
cil which is more in tune with
the times. That can be done by
every resident seeing that his or
her name is on the voters’ list
when poll taxes are paid.

North Vancouver needs new
leadership in civie affairs. That
much is clear by the council’s
latest action.

Vote Denied
Servicemen

LONDON — Over ‘one-fifth of
the British armed forces over-
seas will be unable to vote in the
July 5 general’ election because
their names are not in the elec-
toral register, a war office
spokesman stated. this week
Members of the services have
their choice of voting by proxy
or postal ballot. but some troops
have protested that they were
not notified that the register
closed last March 15.. Service
ballots will be counted in a three-
week interval after the polls open
en July 5.

An indication of the politic-
al views of British soldiers was
contained in a New York
Times report June 17 of a mock
election held» by a tank squad-
ron stationed in Germany. Out
cf 90-men, 65 participated in
the voting and the results were
32 for the Labor party; 16 for
the People’s party, a progres-
sive group invented by the men
themselves; 11 Communist and
6 Conservative. The Times: cor-
respondent pointed out that
most of the soldiers expressed
resentment toward the Con-
servatives, believing they . are
to blame for the holding of an
election on such short notice.

SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1945.

a