Page Six

THE B.C.

LUMBER WORKER

June 27, 1942

EMERGENCY MEET
CALLED BY NCDR

TORONTO, Ont.—An emergency
conference on Democratic Rights has
been called to meet on Sunday, July
5, at the Royal York Hotel, com-
mencing at 10 a.m. to hear a full re-
port from J. L. Cohen, K.C., leader
of the delegation which appeared

before the Parliamentary Committee
to Review the Defence of Canada Regula~

tions recently. The conference will last
one whole day and will be concluded by
a mass meeting in the Concert Hall of
the hotel at night,

‘Members of the National Continuations
Committee of the NCDR include IWA
Int'l Executive Board Member Nigel
Morgan, who attended the conference in
Ottawa last February, and who presented
a brief then to the government on the re-
lease of interned anti-fascists.

Proposals submitted to the government
committee by the recent delegation were
as follows:

1, An amendment to the Defence of
Canada Regulations dealing particularly
with Section 21, “to remove the injustice
of making possible the internment of
citizens solely for holding political
opinions which, while not those of the
government, very definitely are for the
maintettance and defence of the state of
the Dominion of Canada.” “We believe,”
the brief stated, “that the government
should closely review the situation (a)
whereby avowed anti-fascists and sup-
porters of the war continue to be under
surveillance and arrest, while (b) avowed
anti-war and quisling elements still seem
to be able to function freely.”

2, “That all outstanding orders for the
internment of men like Tim Buck, et al,
be cancelled, as out of harmony with the
present situation facing our country, as
totally unjust and unjustified, and as im-
Pediments to the harmonious social rela-
tions which must be established as the
foundation of national unity to win the
war against Hitlerism.

3. “That all those men and women
of left-wing labor organizations now held
in internment in Hull, Que, Kingston,
Ont., and imprisoned in various institu-
tions in several provinces, should at once
be released by executive order, in view
of the fact that their continued incar-
ceration is out of harmony with the war
policies of the ‘Dominion, both on the
world front and on the domestic scene.

4, “That all left-wing labor organiza-
tions, newspapers, etc., which were de-
clared illegal” in 1940, and whose aims
are those of the government in fighting
for the victory of Canada and the United
Nations should now be declared legal.”

More than one hundred large unions
were listed in the brief as supporting
the sentiments expressed therein. Dele-
gates attended three sessions of the Par-
liamentary Committee and returned to
Ottawa for further sessions on June 16.
All sessions were held in “camera” and

Vice-Admiral Of
‘Annart? Married

Another one of the IWA eligible
bachelors went the way of all good men
last week, when Sam Alcock, vice-ad-
miral on the MV “Annart” under Ad-
miral John McCuish, got hitched to
Phyllis Andrew.

Most of the boys who were in town
helped Sam celebrate and showered him
with congratulations of both liquid and
practical form, at the wedding party held
last Friday.

A message received from the happy
couple reads as follows: “We wish to ex-
tend our heartfelt thanks to all the many
friends who made our wedding party one
of hilarity and happiness, and to express
our appreciation for the lovely gifts re-
ceived. — Mr. and Mrs. Sam Alcock.”

Some of us are a little worried in case
the Admiral himself might have picked
up a few ideas from his partner in
crime(?).

Spanish Veterans

Receive Collection
To the Editor:

May we use the service of your paper
to thank our many friends who contrib-
uted to generously to the collection of
$108, taken up on behalf of Tommy Pat-
terson and Marc Haldane, two Spanish
war veterans who are now in Tranquille
sanatorium,

The funds were badly needed and are
greatly appreciated. We thank you all
sincerely, THOMAS PATTERSON,

MARC HALDANE,

Ukraimiam Assoc.

(Continued from Page Five)

armed and civilian refugees. They
pledged full support and assistance in
the ARP organizations, and promised to
Provide all possible musical entertain-
ment from their splendid talent for the
troops in training.

The decision was made at this confer-
ence to change the name of the associa-
tion in order to emphasize the traditional
and historical background of Ukrainians
in Canada, Thus, instead of calling the
organization the Ukrainian Association
to Aid the Fatherland, it will be called
the Ukrainian Canadian Association, with
constitution and aims of true Canadian
outlook,

With a special declaration to Prime
Minister King, pledging its support to the
government to bring about a complete
and final victory over “our common foe,”
the convention concluded with a mass
parade of the delegates and some 1500
Ukrainian citizens to the tomb of the
Unknown Soldier to pay a tribute to those
who died in the last war.

the proceedings cannot be divulged, but
it is Imown that hundreds of wires and
resolutions have been received by the
members of the Parliamentary Commit-
tee backing up the demands of the dele-

gation,

Hotel West Ltd.:

FRED R. MARCHESE, Mer.
=

Moderate

Rates and

Centrally Located '

—~

PAc. 8374 — PAc. 8375

444 Carrall Street
PAPA

Vancouver, B.C.

Tommy Lawrence Writes
Of Brutal Prison Treatment

TORONTO, Ont—An article, entitled “A Peep Into a Fascist Hell,”
published in the “Steel Worker and Miner” of Sydney, N.S., exposes

the sadism and brutality existing in

Dorchester Penitentiary, where Tom

Lawrence, formerly resident of British Columbia, who aided organization
of the Nanaimo coal miners, served a sentence of two years on a political
charge laid against him while organizing miners in Nova Scotia.

Lawrence, now registered under the
name of Logan, has been held at Dor-
chester pending deportation to England,
since his sentence terminated last Feb-
ruary. This deportation order is to be
made effective despite all efforts of the
National Council for Democratic Rights
for his release.

The following letter from Logan is re-
vealing as to the conditions he has been
forced to endure. Protests against this
should be sent*to the Minister of Justice
with demands for Logan’s immediate re-
lease and also to the Immigration De-
partment, Department of Mines and Re-
sources, Ottawa.

“From May 17, 1941, when I went on
strike in protest against the worsening
of my prison diet until the present, I
have been on No. 2 — bread and water
— for 14 and 21 days, almost running
consecutively; complete isolation for 50
days, segregated from all other convicts
so that I could not speak or be spoken
to by them, In the latter part of July,
1941, Acting Warden Timlin put into
segregation, working alongside me
cutting stone, handling machine ham-
mers and chisels, a homicidal maniac,
an avowed fascist who got a life sentence
for smashing a guard’s head with a ham-
mer at St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary.
-.. The Acting Warden said he was too
dangerous to put working in a gang, but
he had no scruples about putting him to
work alongside of me in segregation,
with a new and inexperienced officer
present. He had a crazy spell, but in-
stead of going for me, he threatened the
officer with the harnmer and was shipped
back to the asylum.”

“Since Feb. 16, 1942, I have been locked
in my cell in complete isolation; even
the approaches to my cell block are
locked so that no convict can approach
within speaking distance. They smuggle
me out of a side door for approximately
one-half hour of exercise out of the 24
hours during the dinner period, when all
other convicts are locked in their cells,

“For more than 330 days I have been
on continuous punishment ranging from
segregation to complete isolation. Hight
Persons, some of them mere youths, have
been sent to the asylum from here in the
past 18 months; their mentality could not
stand the normal prison routine,- let
alone organized and calculated mental
torture. . . . As one officer remarked,
‘In all my 30 years as a prison officer,
I never saw or heard of a convict being
so vindictively punished as Logan.’

HASTINGS STEAM BATHS
164 EAST HASTINGS ST.
Government Registered Masseurs
in Attendance
J. WEPSALA, Prop.

Also Agent for Norwegian and Swedish
American Steamship Lines,
Highland 0240 ALWAYS OPEN

Office and Stand - -

Phone
PA cific

Ask for “GEORGE”

*& WEST TAXI *

Cars Fully Insured . . , Reasonable Rates

0936

Bloedel’s Crew
Blame Co., Gov’t

(Continued from Page 1)

ranged with Manager Sydney Smith
and company President Prentice Bloe-
del, in which IWA officials proposed as
a basis for a settlement that the men
return to work immediately and the
matters under dispute be settled
through arbitration. However, the com-
pany remained adamant and said they
had no intention of reopening the Men-
zies Bay camp.

A special meeting of the Bloedel crew
at Willow Point last Thursday and in
IWA District Headquarters in Vancou-
ver heard a report on developments in
the three-month-old dispute and unani-
mously adopted a resolution urging all
locked-out employees to return as soon
as possible, It appealed to the 70 resi-
dent employees already back on the job
to stand solidly behind the union and
fight any discrimination against their
fellow workers still laid off.

In a statement this week, signed by a
committee representing the employees in
the camp, the resident crew declared that
approximately three hours after the camp
was shut down some of them were con-
tacted by the company officials and asked
if they intended to resume work. The
men replied they didn’t quit and that the
camp was closed down by order of the
company. The camp superintendent was
asked if there would be any discrimina-
tion on the part of the company to any
of the employees who had left camp, He
replied that the former crew could re-
turn, without discrimination, if they de-
sired when the camp resumed full op-
eration.

At a meeting of the resident employees,
held the same day, it was unanimously
resolved that they select a Grievance
Committee, from those left in camp, to
look after their interests, but it was
made clear that this committee was not
at any time to sign an agreement or in-
terfere with the bargaining agency of the
IWA in the dispute. According to their
statement the resident Grievance Com-
mittee is only functioning on behalf of
the resident employees at present em-
| Ployed and will cease to function on July
1, 1942,

At the Willow Point meeting last Thurs-
day a resolution was unanimously ad~
opted requesting IWA District Vice-
President Bergren to attend a meeting in
the Menzies Bay camp on June 25 to as-
sist the resident employees to become
fully organized and to further clarify the
situation. The IWA is urging employees
to return to the job as soon as possible
and immediately strengthen the organi-
zation so that there will be no discrimina-
tion and the question of an agreement,
around which the dispute first arose, can
be taken up again.

West Hotel, 444 Carrall Street

8374