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dermen to receive their orders
from the top tycoons of the
Tory Coalition and relay this
as the voice of democracy is

the dicta- as near to the feuhrer methods
City Halil that our people will tolerate.
ada is a The Civic Fathers complete
ail to do disregard for the rights of the
Bais carn citizens is expressed by their

determination to deny the pub-
lie any voice whatever even in
such an important issue as the
selection of a civie center. For

‘our veter-
#1 to save

= . For al-

itruction Council

f£ the Regional Reconstruction Council
© O. Campney, K.C., has announced the
3 that committee appointed under au-
7 Dp: Howe, minister of reconstruction.

Norman Mackenzie, president of the
» : Colonel H. S. Tobin, president, Van-
_ vice-president, Canadian Manufactur-
t )r. Howard T. James, managing direc-
‘ Aines Ltd., and president of the Mining
_-.; Robert J. Filmore, vice-president,
. ind Railway Co. Ltd., vice-president,
4 ciation; John Y. Carter, McCarter and
and Horace W. Mackey, legislative
therhood of Locomotive Engineers for
7 of the B.C. Regional War Labor Board.

, this committee is an insult to the bulk

* r+ in this province. Heavily weighted
| es of the biggest industrialists of this
give any voice to the workers in those
© main trade union centers, AFL and
} ignored.

dication that in the eyes of Reconstruc-
-e and the federal government, coopera-
_eemed necessary to carry the war to a
/2.n is a thing of the past.

_t presented by Howe to parliament in
| projected attitude toward reconstruction
: ollowing words: “‘The government does
-e desirable or practicable to look to the
ernment enterprise to provide, to any
~idditional employment required. It fol-
®r and early task of reconstruction is to
-urage an expansion of private industry,
with other industries.”

ids, private enterprise is to be given a
orivate industry is on a sit-down strike.
mat the Ford strike means. It means that
‘laces smashing of the trade union move-
‘quisite to starting postwar production.
low wages and speed-up. It is apparent
ce industry fails to provide employment
‘will step in with—relief projects.

ne kind of reconstruction labor envisages,
= will get unless the Trade Union move-
qual and adequate representation on all
louncils.

eee ciced labor must be raised in pro-
imel of the B-C. Council.

‘1 Minister Howe should be inundated
ad letters of protest.

Or’s cooperation it would have been im-
the war. Without labor’s: cooperation it
‘e to win the peace. Labor must demand
ruction.

- PACIFIC ADVOCATE

instance, it required pressure
of a squabble in the inner
circles for the public to know
anything at all about the
merits and demerits of the pro-
posed site. Needless to say the
growth of Vancouver will al-
ways be retarded unless we
oust. the reactionaries who fun-
ction solely on behalf of the
vested interests. Even the city
engineer, though probably an
honest man, has by his associa-
tion with this crowd also iso-
lated himself from the people.

If the City Fathers had any
desire to serve the interests of
the people they would long ago
have imparted |knowledge of
civic plans through illustrated
lectures and in. articles in the
press. It is only the people who
can build and beautify a city
and make it a wholesome place
to live. A sense of civic respon-
sibiity and pride is necessary
to achieve this. Such a great
undertaking is beyond the puny
capabilities of aldermen as
they are limited to the little
orbit of ward heelers. At elec-
tion time we must let these
budding feuhrers know that
the people want representa-
tives, who will immediately
start the work of rebuilding
this city in accordance with
the wishes of the people.

; John MacKenzie

&

Chinese Unity

Editor P.A.:
The following' is a copy of a
letter sent to President Tru-

man by the local Chinese
Workers.

President Truman,
White House,
Washington, D.C.

This association views with
great anxiety the utilization
of American planes and war-
ships to transport troops of
Chiang Kai-shek. It is clear
that foreign support can only
serve to facilitate his civil war
against the Partisan forces of
North, China who were the
most consistent fighters
against Japan. Furthermore
we feel that the actions of the
United States military forces in
China will increase the existing
disquiet in the international

field. and bring upon the U.S. ~

the hatred of the teeming mil-
lions of Asia who seek a demo-
eratic way of life.

We firmly believe were it
not for the aid being given by
the U.S.A. to Chiang Kai-shek
that he would soon change his
policy to the cause of National
unity behind a truly democratic
program.

In appraising the situation
in China it is well to consider
that grave. as is the post-war
suffering in Europe the people
of our motherland have for
years suffered the same mis-
eries tenfold. It is our opinion
therefore it would be a great
step toward world tranquility if
the government of the U.S.A.
would exert its [powerful in-
fluence in the cause of demo-
eratic progress for a- United
China.

Signed
Chinese Workers Protective
Association.

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Short Jabs by Of’ Bill

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Freedom of the Press?

NGLO-AMERICAN press correspondents, which includes Canadians,
are very good at protesting.” They are protesting volubly at the
present moment, at what_they are pleased to call “the eurbing of the
press” which they see in the British Labor Party proposals for “na-

tionalizing” the press. It is to.-them a threat to the “freedom of the
press.”

They are concerned, too, at the refusal of the Soviet government
to allow them to concoct the same cock-and-bull stories to be sent from
the heart of the Soviet Union that they are at perfect liberty to manu-
facture, about the Soviet Union, the Soviet administration in the occu-
pied zones, the Red Army and its individual soldiers, where their kind
of “liberty’’ prevails.

“., . censorship in peacetime” they say, ofall dispatchies relating
to every aspect of life in the Soviet Union, destroys the value of foreign
correspondence in a free world and has created a general distrust abroad
of all news emanating from the Soviet Union.

Those who know the methods of the “press” will recognize that
the sore spot is not that curbs are placed on the freedom of the press,
for this happens daily in the offices of all capitalist papers, where the
business manager dictates the editorial policy and the advertising
manager instructs the news editor to cut news stories which may offend
the advertisers—and the so-much-concerned correspondents do not pro-
test by so much as a whisper.

What the Anglo-American correspondents are sore about is, ‘that
“nationalizing the press” as proposed by the Labor Party and the
censorship as practised by. the able and alert Soviet officials, will pre-
vent the pressmongers from manufacturing alleged news items designed
solely to destroy a section of the people of this earth whose interesits
are opposed to those of that kind of correspondent and those who pay
him his Judas silver.

The Red Star, Soviet Army newspaper, had occasion to go to bat
with these correspondents a few days ago in defense of the personnel
of the Red Army. The slanders on the Red Army soldiers which are the
subject of the Red Star article, have all been published in the Tocal B.C.
papers as in all papers of ‘their kidney in the English language.

“Soviet. soldiers everywhere are drunk, attack Germans in the
English zone in Berlin, plunder, burglarize houses, rape women and
kidnap ‘technicians.” This is the list quoted by the Red Star. We
also read that Red Army soldiers, including a general were gathered into
the dragnet in the Tiergarten blackmarket.

_That, of course, is not evidence: it is newspaper correspondence,
although as evidence’it is sufficient for George Weaver of the CCF
News. No names are needed; only a general, sweeping statement, the
purpose of which is to influence the large masses of unthinking people
whose combined likes and dislikes make up public opinion. It is the
work of ink-coolies doing the bidding of their master, who wish to de-
stroy the unity that defeated fascism, to create an unbridgeable gap
between the capitalist and the socialist sectors of the world.

The picture of the Red military administration in Germany, painted
by the indignant correspondents, is ‘wiped clean off the canvas when
someone who has no axe to grind, writes about them and the lying work
of these same correspondents is exposed for what it is.

No Axe To Grind

I have in my possession at this moment, a letter from an old friend
of mine, a man who went with the Mac-Paps to do battle against Nazism
and Fascism when many of these squawking correspondents were root-
ing for Hitler and Mussolini. He is a Switzer and speaks German more
easily than he does English which he also speaks very well. I will
quote part of his letter to show how the people are being misled in
the liberated countries where the correspondents have the full “freedom
of the press.’ Quote: .

“In Holland the majority of the people seem to think the Russians
are beasts. These people seem to think we hate the Russians and like
to hear people speak badly of them. After the capitulation I was on
a job outside of Amsterdam. One day a lad of about 23, five feet eight
in height and about 180 pounds weight, was brought in by the guards
because he did not have papers to go north with. He was a picture of
young manhood and was wearing a Russian uniform. Looking up and
seeing that lad in front of me I thought I was looking at a real Russian.

“IT asked him the usual question; who he was and where he came
from. He was a Dutch soldier taken prisoner by the Germans and
liberated by the Red Army. He had been sent home with the others
right after the capitulation, after a stay of three months in Russia.
Then I’ asked him how was it, as a prisoner of war ang what did he
think of Russia:

“Being a prisoner of war was terrible; no food and bad treatment,
but it was not much better in Russia, nothing to eat, ete. Looking att
him standing there I don’t think he could have carried any more fat or

meat on his frame without looking out of proportion. One could easily -

see he was not undernourished, which is more than I can say for myself
then or now..

“T proceeded then, in a roundabout way, to question him ‘about what
actual rations and what kind of food, he and others in Russian hands,
received and how much he thought his weight was when he was liberated
from the Germans and what kind of clothing he was wearing at that time.

“He answered that he thought he was about 150 pounds at the most
and that he was wearing nothing but rags. He said he was now about 180
pounds. I suggested that the food the Russians gave him could not have
been so bad either in quantity or quality if he had put on 30 pounds: in
three months. That certainly could not have been done on starvation
rations.

“He broke down and finally admitted that the food was plentiful, al-
though I told him that at the bottom of his heart he must be proud of that
greatcoat he was wearing with the red stars on it. But why, I asked
him, was he ashamed to admit it.

‘ His answer was that he had been told and had heard since he came
back that we did not like people to speak in favor of the Russians or
of the Red Army.”

SATURDAY, ‘NOVEMBER 10, 1945