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ONDY

FOR the fourth year in succes-
sion there has been consider-
able talk in the legislature about

redistribution. But, as was the
case last spring, the session failed

to move any closer to a solution. °

The present legislative assem-
bly of 48 members can hardly be
regarded as representative. Elect-
ed last June on the basis of an
amendment to the Constitution
Act made in 1938 (itself a make-
shift derived from the 1931 cen-
sus figures). present representa-
tion and constituency boundaries
are only a caricature of fair and
equal representation.

How can there be fair repre-
sentation when 44,857 voters in
Delta have no more voice in the
‘provinee’s affairs than 1,488
‘voters in Atlin?

There are now nine constitu-
encies with more than 30,009 reg-
istered voters each, three with
more than 20,000, thirteen with
‘betweeen 10,000 and 20,000, ten
with less than 10,000 and seven

with less than 5,000: The popula- ~

tion of B.C. has more than doub-
led since the 1931 census and its
distribution is different. More-
over, it is more than 50 years
since B.C. had a thorough redis-
tribution.

All this makes a mockery of
representative government and
few will deny the need for eradi-
cating inequalities.

The Redistribution Committee

- was in fact making some head-
way until this week. Then, by.

their stand against proposals to
eliminate multi-member constitu-
Socred back - benchers

passe.
The move was sparked by two
Socred members, Tom Bate (Van-

’ couver-Point Grey) and William

Chant (Victoria), both of whom
come from three-member ridings.
No doubt Bate and Chant were
motivated by the fear that the
proposal to split their big multi-
member ridings into smaller
single-member seats would en-
danger their personal chances of
re-election.

At the same time there has
been somé*shiff in government
thinking on redistribution.

All parties, and particularly the
party in office, view redistribution
and the voting system in the light
of self-interest, although they
may delude themselves as_ the
Coalition did. But the fact is
that a complete overhaul of con-

stituency boundaries and the vot- .

ing system is long overdue and
the people’s interests must not
pe allowed to suffer because the
government finds it politically in-
expedient.

The people’s interests require
overhaul of existing boundaries
and creation of new ridings to
give additional representation to
heavily populated centres. They
require changes in the voting
system to provide for genuine
proportional representation and
safeguard the rights of minority
parties. -

This session is ended, but the
next session must be compelled
to act. ;

|
\

BONDS

fact that few of their readers can |

read Chinese anyway. But the

inscription proves their story to

be a fake.

The bond is not the current
national construction issue which
went on sale in January this year
and has already been oversub-
scribed, but the 1950 series which
similarly was oversubscribed with-
in a short time of being issued.
it has not been on sale in People’s
China itself for more than three
years and certainly is not being

‘offered for sale by mythical “Red

agents” in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Sun‘s yarn was
too much even for Kuomintang
spokesmen and leaders of this
city’s Chinese community who
show little sympathy for People’s
China.

Interviewed by the Vancouver
News-Herald this week, an offi-
cial of the Chinese Benevolent
Association said: “If it weren’t so
ridiculous, it would be an insult
to the Chinese of Canada.”

A representative of the Chinese
Times was quoted as saying, “We
ourselves have been looking for
some of these bonds which alleg-
édly are being sold and haven’t
been able to find any.”

Even a Kuomintang spokesman
dismissed the idea that bonds
were being sold on an organized
scale as part of a blackmail
scheme. It-was much more likely,
he said, that the odd Chinese re-
turning to this country had dis-
posed of a few bonds.

Now “sales of Red bonds, as
reported exclusively in the Van-
couver Sun,” are to be investi-
gated by the department of ex-
ternal affairs. Howard Green
(Conservative, Vancouver Quadra)
asserted in the House of Com-
mons that Chinese in this country
were being threatened if they re-
fused to buy bonds and External
Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson
promised that his department
would investigate.

The department will discover
what the Vancouver Sun already
knows—that there is no organized
sale of People’s China bonds in
this country. But the story has

- been published to harden public

opinion against People’s China,
and that was its purpose.

Continued

ARTISTS

Leonid Zhdanov, ballet soloist
of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Included in the nine-member
Soviet group are Galina C. Maxi-
mova, accompanist and Vadim N.
Nekrasov, interpreter.

The group will give perform-
ances in Toronto, Edmonton, Sas-
katoon, Winnipeg and other Can-
adian cities. :

This week six Canadians left
by air for the Soviet Union, where

they will spend three weeks as ~

guests of the USSR Society for
Cultural Relations with Foreign
Countries.

Representing various branches

of the arts in Canada, the group
includes F. H. Varley, Toronto

painter and one of the Group of |

Seven; Eric Aldwinckle, of Toron-
to, muralist, designer and painter;
Miss Micheline Legendre of Mon-
treal, best known for her work

_in the field of puppets; Wilfred

Lemoyne, Montreal poet and lit-
erary critic of the Montreal week-
ly L’Autorite; Pierre St. Germain,
Montreal newspaperman; and Mrs.
Madeleine Perron-St.
social worker.

Germain, |

rasps at
ian Arctic

TORONTO

Some details of a secret pact by which the Canadian North is being turn
over to United States control as a vast war base were disclosed in Ottawa and W
ington last week, confirming an earlier report published by the Canadian Tribune fe

A joint announcement issued on April 8 by the Canadian and U.S. governments
revealed that last November the chiefs of staff of the two countries met in Washingto®

Drive against
Bill 7 continues ©

to plan a network of air, naval
and radar stations across Canada
from Alaska to Greenland.

The new chain is to augment
the nearly completed ‘Pinetree
Chain” further south, which has
been under construction for the
past four years. The communique
was issued by National Defense
Minister Brooke Claxton, who has
just returned from a visit to the
Arctic bases.

That the U.S. Air Force and
Navy will have bases strung
across Canada is indicated in the
official communique whieh de-
clares:

“In overcoming the various
technical problems involved, the
United States Air Force is work-
ing closely with the Royal Cana-
dian Air Force .. . the U.S. gov-
ernment is extending the early
warning barrier across the north-
eastern and north-western sea-
ward approaches to North Am-
erica. The Alaska radar system
is coodinated with those in Can-
ada and the continental United
States anid the development of
airborne radar is well advanc-
ed.”

The official communique con-
firms a report carried in the Can-
adian Tribune November 23, 1953,
charging that at the time Presi-
dent Eisenhower was visiting Ot-
tawa, and at the time a new
economic pact between the two

countries was announced (Novem-

ber 12, 1953), Canada had signed
a “secret war pact” in Washing-
ton. Similar reports were car-
ried in British and European
newspapers and an official denial
was issued in the House of Com-
mons by the departments of ex-
ternal affairs and defense.

The Canadian Tribune story
quoted some of the text of the
agreement and named the gov-
ernment and armed forces offi-
cials who sat in on the talks. The
pact, according to Robert S. Allen,
Washington correspondent of the
New York Post, was “‘a far-reach-
ing understanding on joint mili-
tary and economic measures
(which is) unprecedented in scope
and significance. In effect it
amount to setting up a North
American NATO.”

The Canadian Tribune's charges
last November that the govern-
‘ment was concealing details of
the pact from the Canadian peo-
ple are confirmed by the April 8
communique—although the full
details of the agreement, includ-
ing the sections declaring that
the two countries ‘“‘will integrate
their resources,” have not yet
been officially acknowledged.

Another aspect of the war-base
pact not revealed in the April 8
statement is reported by the New
York Times the following day:

It explains that the Canadian
plan of defense, known as the
“McGill Fence,” worked out by
‘McGill Uiversity scientists had

been pushed aside in favor of _

the U.S. “Lincoln Project” de-
signed at the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology. The Can-
adian plan called for extension
outward from the present Pine-
tree Chain. The U.S. plan calls
for extension from the outside in
—giving U.S. forces more effec-
tive contro! of large sections of
the Canadian Arctic.

TORONTO

The campaign to defeat the anti-democratic and anti-labor feat
ures of Bill 7 is far from over, according to Thomas C. Roberts,
national secretary of the League for Democratic Rights.

In a press statement issued.,last week, Roberts urged “all those
who have expressed concern” over such measures “to renew theif

efforts so as to persuade the Sen-
ate-to make further revisions that
are required to protect civil lib-
erties in Canada.”

Bill 7, passed by the House of
Commons on April 8 will go be-
fore the Senate when it recon-
venes after Easter, May 4 — al-
most two years after the Criminal
Code revisions were first intro-
duced into parliament.

Roberts observed that during
this two year period, “the pro-
tests of the Canadian people, es-
pecially those from’ the labor
movement, have won improve-
ments in those sections of the
bill which affect civil liberties.”

The debate last week, he said,
brought further “beneficial
changes.” But in the opinion of
the League for Democratic Rights,
“all these sections and some oth-
ers, notably the section dealing

with sedition, require further
changes or they will imperil civil
liberties and trade union rights.”

Roberts drew special attention

‘to sections 46-48, 50, 52, 64-69,

365 and 372 as requiring ‘further
changes.

If the people could persuade
the Senate to make changes in
these sections, he said, such
changes would then have to be

referred back to the House of
Commons for approval “and i
therefore would be useful to co™
tinue to urge NPs to correct thé
undemocratic features in the bi
which were allowed to pass i
week.”

Despite the warning by a tea
ing Canadian jurist that they
were dealing with legislation th#
marks “a final step into a police
state” for laJor, almost 200
deserted their duty from
House last week by absentin®
themselves during debate on con
tentious Criminal Code amet!
ments in Bill 7. f

Thomas J. Hurley, dean o
criminal lawyers in B.C. and of@
of Canada’s outstanding leé
minds, had told the B.C, Brothel )
hood of Electrical Workers (are
that the anti-labor section
“makes it possible. for. a- pro vit’
cial government to remove’ 8
tually all of the rights labor h
won throughout the centuries.” of

But the vote to alter section
365 was 68 against to .33 for f
total of 101 MPs of a House
261 members. Other votes W®
considerably smaller. tO

Hurley’s opinion was read 12”
the House record by H. W. an
ridge (CCF, Kootenay West) §@ fe

the

that MPs present were aware °
its grave warning.
ed

TIC KETS AVAILABLE AT

MA. 5836,

TA. 3622.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 16, 1954 — PAGE

ONE APPEARANCE ONLY

SOVIET ARTISTS
- CONCERT

OUTSTANDING WORLD ARTISTS —
VIOLINIST, PIANIST, SINGERS,
BALLET. DANCERS

Exhibition Gardens
Friday, April 23--8 pt Mm.

PEOPLE’S CO-OP BOOKSTORE,
337 WEST PENDER STREET,

MODERN MUSIC STORE, ;
536 SEYMOUR STREET,

-Auspices: Canadian-Soviet Friendship Sociely