LPP candidates JACK PHILLIPS Morgan, Phillips run. in Vancouver East Tee Morgan, LPP provincial tiie T, who contested the consti- ti ney in the last provincial elec- on, Van sborProgressive candidate for eee East. As his running ener in the two-member constitu- ei ie nominating meeting held j wes en Hall here Monday this trate named Jack Phillips, city unionist. sae becepting nomination, Mor- Mie out at the give-away meni es of the Bennett govern- ed. «i, premier Bennett; he charg- ston 1s pulling another Lord Alver- € on us.” Readin mad '§ quotations from speeches . by Socred cabinet ministers, of Fie their similarity to those north Titish judge who gave the coaee ‘half of British Columbia’s is Tea to the U.S. saying, “It Usele ing but a squabble over a %, a bit of land . . . nothing - able mparison with the inestim- ae Sain of American goodwill.” har the loss of the Alaskan Pan- orga Was a hard blow to B.C.,” Pie N declared. homes that we allowed the €tn part of this province to Shut off from its natural ocean ndary. “G ip \ ae ut that is nothing to what we allowed er if this government is to the 12 Set away with handing Mineral, control of our gas, oil, “outs,” orest and hydro re- at moe levelled harsh criticism ture, OPPosition in the legisla- ae oP failing to make a stand HUB HUMOR >. “Have lately? ‘ Our stock of Men's Suits, Top- the Rect Furnishings is one of Sure ede in town. You'll be hers © find your size and style Hugs you can buy with the FREE CREDIT PLAN. You seen Junior around “LTO? 45 EAST HASTINGS has again been nominated|_ “We have lived| against the government natural gas give-away. “Not one member had the cour- age to stand up and challenge the government handout to the Okla- homa monopoly,” he said. “Last week when the proposal to build a publicly-owned gas pipeline was up, it took the government pre- cisely 17 minutes to dispose of it. “Just imagine, 19 members in the opposition; yet all the argu- ment they could muster in favor of cheaper gas for our homes and industry took 17 minutes. “As a result, the people are go- ing to be left at the mercy of the B.C. Electric and this U.S. mon- opoly. Gas which could be brought into Vancouver for 35 cents per thousand cubic: feet is going to cost the public almost as much as the present manufactured gar. The “17-minute giveaway,” he concluded, emphasized the need ‘to elect LPP members to the legisla- ture to fight for the people’s in- terests. Mill rate down-- if MacMillan paid fair taxes VICTORIA, B.C. Port Alberni could reduce its 1955 mill rate from about 43.5 mills to 27.69 mills if the Mac- Millan-Bloedel lumber monopoly paid its fair share of civic taxes on its $8,300,000 plant in the Val- ley city. MacMillan - Bloedel pays only $30,000 annual taxes under a fix- ed assessment arrangemnt with the city made in 1945 for 20 years. Efforts of the city to get a fairer deal will be blocked if the legis- lature passes amendments to the “Assessment Equalization” Act to exempt the big monopoly. Actual value of the MacMillan properties in Port Alberni is ‘lequal to 41.12 percent of the total of lands and improvements on the city taxation roll. But under the agreement, the company pays only 7.2 percent of the taxes, ‘homeown- ers having to make up the differ- ence. These startling figures were com- piled by Port Alberni officials and presented to the legislature by John Squire (CCF, Alberni) in an argument for the revision of the fixed assessment | agreement. hall entrance, RCMP intimidat aired in legislature « | «+ VICTORIA, B.C. Labor-Progressive party charges of RCMP intimidation during the party’s recent city convention in Vancouver were brou Opposition leader, this week. The charges were contained in a Ji letter sent to Attorn Maurice Rush, Vancouver LPP secretary. Webster asked Bonner to deny the charges. “There must be no suspicion of intimidation of our citizens who gather to carry on activities in public,” he said. Bonner replied that Rush’s let- _|ter had been turned over to the RCMP commissioner for appropri- ate action. He suggested that there was some doubt whether the charges did in fact involve the police. He added that in any case neither he nor the government nor provincial jurisdiction were in any way concerned. ‘Certain phases of RCMP activity are not under the control of the attorney-general but of the minister of justice,” he said. Arthur Turner (CCF, Vancouver East) pointed out that the LPP was a legal party, stating that it had “every right to carry out any activity that any other political party does in the way of conven- tions, public meetings and _ so forth.” If the matter came under the federal authorities, he said, the attorney-general should protest to Ottawa against such practices being carried on in B.C. “where we value citizenship for every- one.” In Vancouver this week, Maur- ice Rush released to the press the text of a second letter he has writ- ten to Attorney-General Bonner protesting his handling of the LPP charges. Text of the letter read: “In my letter you were notified of the protest made by the Greater Vancouver convention of the LPP concerning the actions of the RCMP in attempting to intimidate the delegates by parking just out- side the convention hall, examin- ing everyone who entered the hall, and drawing attention to them- selves by slowly driving by the then backing up again, an act which they repeated many times in direct violation of the traffic laws which prohibit parking on that side of the street,’* Rush wrote. “On behalf of the Greater Van-| couver committee of the LPP, I must strongly protest your action in referring this matter to the as- sistant commissioner of the RCMP. It is our opinion that the protest we have lodged with you must rightly be dealt with by your de- partment. _ “We consider the action of the RCMP as aimed against the civil rights of all Canadians and un- less checked by civil authorities can open up the door to police state practices in our land. “We are of the opinion,” con- cluded Rush, “that your action in referring our protest to the RCMP strengthens the tendency towards police state practices in British Columbia. We demand that the attorney-general’s department take up this matter with the necessary authorities in order to ensure that the police forces are not used to intimidate, spy upon and other- wise interfere with people’s or- ganizations.” ght to the floor of the legislature by Arnold Webster, CCF ey-General Robert Bonner by MAURICE RUSH He protested RCMP _ intimidation. Bennett for jobs too -- he says VICTORIA, B.C. Indirect answer to the big. Labor- Progressive party delegation that picketed the Legislative Buildings protesting the giveaway of natural {resources has been provided by Premier W. A. C. Bennett him- self. Bennett is obviously’ feeling the pressure of the public campaign throughout the province against . the water power: and natural gas deals made by the Socreds. Smarting under opposition charges that He planned to turn the water.power of the Yukon in Northwest B.C. over to the Alum- inum Company of America to use in an Alaskan plant, Bennett rose to defend his position. | | | } | HON. R. W. BONNER He turned protest over to RCMP. ARNOLD WEBSTER He raised civil rights issue in legislature. Crown Corporation for steel mill sought VICTORIA, B.C. Setting up of a crown corpora- tion to operate a steel mill on Van- couver Island has been proposed to the legislature by Robert Strach- an (CCF, Cowichan-Newcastle). “We must have a steel mill be- fore we get the diversity of indus- try this province needs,” said Strachan. According to Bennett, “this premier and this government have never said” that they were in favor of any deals that would hamper the development of in- dustry in B.C. At the same ‘time, he admitted that he was continuing negotia- tions with Aleoa to bring it in with Frobisher on’ the Northwest power scheme. He defended this by saying he was trying to get the best deal for B.C. If the ‘govern- ment dealt with only oné com- pan, it would be at that company’s “mercy,” the said. : Echoing the LPP slogan “Stop the Export of Jobs,” Bennett said that power should be “used for Canadians to give employment here.” Bennett’s attempt to combat the unfavorable publicity given the Socreds on the natural resources policy came as the pot continued to boil on the Kaiser dam deal. ‘Lands and Forests Minister Rob- ert Sommers made a further de- fense of the agreement with the U.S. aluminum interests. His chief argument was that the Canadian part of the Columbia must be in- tegrated with the U.S. portion in an overall plan. + Sommers claimed that Mica Creek could not be developed for the 800,000 at-site horsepower alone. “We must cooperate with the U.S.,” he argued, revealing that negotiations with U.S. inter- ests to build the dam were con- tinuing on the basis that they built the dam and B.C. installed the generators. The minister’s speech drew an - eloquent plea from Randolph Harding (CCF-Kaslo-Slocan) for a program of industrializing B.C. “If you are geing to export natural resources and power to the U.S., we'll never become an industrial province,” he said. “Let us give jobs to Canadian workers.” Harding said that the Arrow Lakes dam would flood thousands of acres of agricultural land along the lakes and would disrupt com- - munications. He argued for an early start on the Miea Creek project. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 4, 1955 — PAGE 7