i ae ti ~~ So ie ae 4 By SID. ZLOTNIK What part did BCE have in Gee ouster ? gs July 5 a revealing news item appeared in the Vancouver Daily Province. According to this report, “International Bro- therhood of Electrical Workers ‘AFL) has ‘rebelled’ against a solid front stand opposing B.C. Electric Company’s application to distribute natural gas to the lower mainland.” “The 6,000-member union has written to Public Utilities Com- mission that ‘it is in the. public interest’ for BCE to supply na- tural gas. IBEW representative Jack Ross said the union is pre- pared to testify in support of BUE before the PUC natural gas nearing now in session.” One wonders who gave Ross the mandate to speak for the union in opposition to the policy agreed upon by Vancouver Trades and Labor Council to which the union is affiliated. It could not have been the membership of the once-power- ful 2,800-member Local 213. Proof of this is to be seen in the sus- pension of local union meetings by International President J. Scott Milne many wéek ago. If it wasn’t the membership, who shen was so.determined to have this union speak up for the B.C. Electric? Perhaps the question is best answered in an article published by the Powell River Local of ‘the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Work- ers in its June bulletin. Under the heading “Devious Methods,” the bulletin reported: “On April 27, 1955, Mr. Main- waring, vice-president of the BCE, wrote to Brother oP: Burke, our international: presi- dent, protesting against our special edition of this bulletin, dealing with the power ques- Babs. “Mr. Mainwaring informed Bro- ther Burke that, ‘many of the statements in this bulletin’ were untrue. ... Among other things, Mr. Mainwaring stated the special edition was the ‘brain child’ of individuals of completely social- istic ideology. This is similar to the ‘McCarthyism’ that is in vogue across the line where it is used so often to draw public attention away from a main issue. _ “Mr. Mainwaring is well ‘aware that: publicly-owned hydropower - has the active support’ of prac- tically all unions in North Am-. erica; that the B.C- Power Com- mission was the ‘brain child’ of the Liberal administration under Premier Hart; that the Winnipeg Hydro was the ‘brain child’ of a free enterprise government; that the Ontario Hydro was the ‘brain child’ of a Conservative govern- ment; that one of the main planks of the Democratic party in the U.S. is ownership of the power resources of the USA. “President Burke’s reply lived up to the best traditions of our international. It read in part: “gs think I should explain to you, Mr. Mainwaring, that in our international each local union has a great amount of what we call Jocal autonomy.’ The issue about which you have written me is a local one. It is an issue that does not. affect our international © union as a whole. “Would it not be presump- tuous on my part, as president of this international union, to try to decide, for the members of our Powell River Local 76, a question of whether a private or a public utility could render better ser- vice to the people of Powell River and vicinity. The members of Local 76 would resent, ‘and right- ly so, were I to attempt to in- ftuence their thinking one way or another. ... “J dare say the issue of public power vs. private power will be = live one for years to come in both the United States, and Canada’.” But while the international president of the Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers, turned a deaf ear to Mainwaring’s de- mand, the international president 5f the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers apparent- ly was more disposed to listen favorably to the B.C. Electric. . This is borne out by a story in the Financial Post of January 2 this year entitled, “Gee No Whiz Now—He’s Suspended,” it said: “From labor hero to union dis- favor in less than a year—that’s the story of George Gee, suspend- ad Vancouver official of the In- ternational Brotherhood of Elec- . trical Workers. . . . He had fought a fantastically involved battle and succeeded in getting the IBEW certified as representative ot the natural gas employees of the B.C. Electric Company. “During the course of the fight —begun because Gee saw natural gas development undermining The position of the electrical union—Gee got the IBEW consti- wution changed to include gas workers. .. . “The result: Gee got his wish. ... But things soon began to look dark for “Gee. Employers somplained to the Washington headquarters of the international about Gee... .” It thus becomes clear that the B.C. Electric—determined to re- move all obstacles to high profits and its monopoly of power distri- bution—was the prime mover in the expulsion of Gee. Whoopers’ nesting ground studied The long-sought nesting grounds of the whooping crane, now believed to be in the Fort Smith district, are to be studied by wild- life experts this summer. in flight. _This picture shows two of the rare birds The only remaining flock numbered 21 when the birds were counted on arrival at their Texas refuge last winter after the long flight from the north. Recently, the federal government issued a stamp depicting the birds as part of the campaign to save them from extinction. ANNE WEBSTER First Eskimos given health posts | The first ‘tentative steps to- ward a measure long advocat- ed by the progressive move- ment, that Eskimos be trained as doctors, nurses and teach- ers among their own people, will be taken by the federal government this year when these two girls leave for the Arctic. Anne Webster (left) is the first Eskimo girl to be train- ed as a registered nurse and the first to be appointed to a. federal health post. Twenty- two-year-old Paulette Anerod- luknis (right) is returning to her people to act as official in- terpreter under a federal ap- pointment. : PAULETTE ANERODLUKNIS j es Appeal to St. Laurent LOUIS KON, Montreal: Recent- ly I sent a letter to Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, dealing with the Soviet invitation to exchange parliamentary delegations. In my letter I said, in part: As a resident of Canada for 48 years, a Canadian citizen for 45 years, and being in age your contemporary, I hope you will not think me presumptuous 1n addressing this letter to you. I have just returned from a tour through the Soviet Union, Poland, Eastern Germany, Czecho- slovakia and France. During ithis trip I looked into many phases of the political, economic, social and cultural life of people in these countries, and also their personal conditions of living. I wish to stress that I was not - just looking at something new for the first time. I was renew- ing acquaintance with countries and peoples whose conditions of living were well known to me in the days before I came to Canada. I visited ‘these countries again as secretary of the Canadian Econ- omic Commission to Siberia in 1918-19, and I spent some months in the Soviet Union in 1928-29, being commissioned by Sir Ed-s ward Beatty, then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, to see and report on conditions in the USSR-at that time. What really qualified me to see, the conditions as they actu- ally are, to judge and compre- thend them, was my educational _ background acquired in my native Russia, in Germany, Switzerland, and in Belgian educational insti- tutions, as well as my practical experience of many kinds of life throughout nearly a half century of living in Canada. My know- ledge of the languages of the countries I visited permitted me to ask questions on whatever subject I chose, to whomever I wished, in his or her own' langu- age, and to receive direct answers in the same tongue. : Being an old man, I am. com- petent to distinguish between grain and chaff. Not everything that glitters is taken ‘by me for gold; neither is wool pulled easily over my eyes. However, I am not too old mentally to under- stand that while planes fly over- head at 750 miles an hour, it is inconceivable to have social con- jitions appropriate to the days of ox-eart transportation. I remember very vividly one _of the speeches of Sir Wilfred Laurier in which he emphasized that no Canadian who breaks all> ties with his native land or the land of this ancestors, can be a truly good Canadian. I have al- ways prided myself on being a good Canadian, and am determin- ed to remain one until my last breath. - . According to press dispatches your government has been invit- ed by the government of the Soviet Union to exchange parlia- mentary delegations. The purpose -of such a visit ‘is that we may get to know each other, and to make an actual, serious step to- wards normal relations in every- day life, in trade and commerce, and in culture in all its aspects. That without doubt would be the initial step towards dispelling ill- will ‘and distrust; towards nor- mal, friendly and peaceful inter- course. During my sojourn in the So- viet Union, I visited many places and spoke with men and women of many occupations. They spoke of the advances made in their country, and said: —. “Let us both beat our swords into ploughshares, push forward the progress of science and tech- nique for better and fuller lives for everyone everywhere.” How better can this be begun than by sending and receiving Gelegations of the representa- tives elected by the people them- selves, thus permitting our Can- adian people to learn of their way of life and. of their aspira- tions through reports of their own elected representatives? Our real “position of strength” would be truly enhanced by a report from a Canadian parlia- mentary commission after an ex- change vi8it to the Soviet Union. It would also be the first concrete step towards banning another carnage like the last one, in which the life of my only son— an RCAF flying officer — was snuffed out just as it had hardly begun. ; Thanks from Combat PIERRE GELINAS, Montreal: The editorial board of Combat, French Canadian labor paper pub- lished in Montreal, wishes to con- vey its deep appreciation to its Vancouver friend who, under the name of Paul Bunyan, sent a con- tribution of $100 to the annual’ financial campaign of the paper. Misplaced humor. EDWARD W. GREEN, Vancou- ver: With unemployment soaring, the Vancouver Herald sees fit to print items like these: “Many people think the world not only owes them a living, but they consider themselves prefer- red creditors.” “Some of the new cars can do what some people cannot. do: shift for themselves.” This is humor? I see nothing funny in ridiculing the unemploy- ed. ‘Such mockery should arouse the wrath of all people who be- lieve in decency and a fair deal for everyone. pening very well, bul "1 pad _ PA PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 15, 1955 : Liked Canada Day isst® el W.B., Vancouver, B.C: je I must’ tell you how muc joyed your Canada Day issue 9's narticularly liked Tom Mc) ts?” niece, “Who are the pate oll and Hal Griffin’s very fine Page “Song of Canada,” whic Tee clipped out and intend to aids I thought that both of them wt :n different ways, what S$? m of us feel. Articles on Goodwin OLDTIMER, Burnaby, BC voy articles on Ginger GoodWiP *"— nave been publishing brought back memories as I ‘was one of those W 0 -nart in the strike of 1918. teh I was working on the © oad front in those days a he hard for anyone ing there to describe the feline Bert Whyte did a good J)” he y me fo ‘ofl ‘elling what happened % jing didn’t quite get the * among the workers. positio? There was a lot of OPF ors. to the war. among the wor Anse thing about the way we fer ae we heard about the slaue” se che front. They will 1s member the war scanda’s: was only afterwards that U™ ere tacts came out, but thel? iopt plenty of rumors aroum 4 waste and graft. ap” Then we ian what wes ast pening in Russia. useue know the true facts becah™ tue daily papers distorted ¢ pele facts just as they do now wn? were plenty like mys® didn’t understand what ht SJ pathised with the people Wy taken things into their one al and were trying to end hot The returned reba eo {9 break our protest >: "iT whipped up by the daily peiot and by some of the adh aod employers who stayed | or made their pile out of We Gee tracts for which we 80 me ynio? wages than our trade, ay got strength won for us and the cost-plus. — hem We The daily papers told ae as were “sabotaging” the - pind some of them were top? by the flag they never Sun ote, see who was waving i i on to attack the organlZ@’ apt ers were the same ones “ ed to smash the unions el could pay the “eretur metul lower wages when they i ; 10 their jobs. 3 Some ee these returned, {he didn’t learn the score — 1g jou thirties when there WT 15 ig? for them and they h@ gery jor relief, Then May jo Mi McGeer told them 10 “vou to the breadline where long.”