THE NATION

By TIM BUCK

Stop Liberal-Tory-CCF maneuvers
by defeating the war pact

AS WAS forecast by the Pacific Tribune, the St. Laurent ~

; government is already using the present session
of parliament to make sure that, if Wall Street and
Washington succeed in getting the third world war
started, Canada will be in it. Even more, Prime Minister
St. Laurent is evidently so keen on committing Canada
to Wall Street’s war alliance of all the imperialist
States that he is trying, aggressively, to emphasize the

fact that the Liberal party is the sponsor of the scheme. ,

The completeness with which the St. Laurent gov-
ernment is basing itself upon a policy which is exactly

. the opposite of the policy the people voted for in 1945
'S revealed by the jingoistic manner in which St. Laurent
and his war minister Brooke Claxton are supplanting
Mackenzie King’s promises of continued mutual did and

international cooperation for peace by emphasis upon’

their scheme to help Wall Street organize and arm
the Marshall Plan countries for war.

It was revealed, yes and spotlighted in the House
of Commons on Friday, January 28, by the manner
i which the prime minister went out of his way to
assert the “leadership” of the Liberal party over the
Progressive-Conservatives in the. political campaign to
Make sure that, in the event of war, Canada shall be
involved even, as St. Laurent has said, if 99 percent
of the Canadian people want our country to maintain
neutrality. “
©

In the course of his speech on the address from
the throne, the prime minister took a leaf out of the

E's book and pretended to believe that Colonel Drew’s
devotion to warmongering is weakening. He chided
Drew for not having given unqualified support to the
So0vernment’s proposal to sign Wall Street’s war pact.
He deplored the fact that Drew had “found it sufficient
to devote but one or two short .phrases” to the question
that St, aLurent proposes to answer by officially com-
mitting Canada in advance to participate in a war in
Europe, if it starts.

Pretending to believe that the Tories are divided
on the basic issue of war and Canadian sovereignty,
St. Laurent reminded Drew that the Tory convention
Which elected him national leader adopted a resolution
‘Committing the Progressive-Conservative party to sup-
Port of “the concept of” a military alliance of capitalist
States in almost exactly the same terms as St. Laurent
Uses in his advocacy of Wall Street’s present plans.

The illuminating. fact about these exchanges,
Whether between CCF spokesmen and the Tories, or
Liberal spokesmen and the Tories is that the roles of

€ parties are seemingly reversed. The Tories, tradi-
tionally the jingoistic warmongers, are being chivvied
for their “pacifism” by the Liberals and the CCF—
Parties which, hitherto, spoke against committing Can-
ada to war in advance, parties which have hitherto
asserted that the question of whether or not Canada
< Should declare war should come before parliament, and
© answered by a vote of the House of Commons, at
€ time, when the conditions are known.

The seeming reversal of roles is largely illusory
because as M. J, Coldwell and St. Laurent know, the
reason Drew is not “sweeping the floor’ with th
by his advocacy of more aggressive warmongering is
2&cause the Progressive-Conservative party, in coopera-
“On with Maurice Duplessis, intends trying to capture
2 few seats in Quebec first. With that objective in
mind, Ivan Sabourin, the Quebec provincial leader of
a® Tories, declares in Quebec that, in his opinion,
eee might well remain neutral in the event of war—
t Drew, in the House of Commons tries not to con-
tadict Sabourin,

; Louis St. Laurent is anxious that the Tory trick
Shall not succeed. He is committed to the task of
hog-tying the Canadian people and delivering our youth

@nd our resources overseas if Wall Street starts a
War. He intends to go, through with it, (unless Presi-

cl He knows that the

ent Truman changes his mind).

People of French Canada will correctly condemn the’

Signing of such a pact, will consider it a betrayal of
anada, and .he wants to prevent the Tories fro
_ making political capital out of his action.
What democratic Canadians should do is clear.
Defeat the cynical schemes of both of them by
defeating the scheme to bind Canada to the mis-
named North Atlantic “Security” Pact. Every man
and woman who loves Canada and wants peace
Should join now in the LPP campaign to stop
the government from signing the war pact.

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Not in ‘the St. Laurent government's legislative program

Civil Rights body

contests Padlock Law

G Committee for Democratic Rights has engaged

legal counsel to contest the Padlock Law in the
courts, and is issuing an appeal to democratic organ-
izations and individuals across the country for im-
mediate financial support.

Gordon McCutcheon, committee secretary, states
that the CDR, in cooperation with other organizations,
plans to develop “a nation-wide campaign of protest
against the use of the vicious, undemocratic Padlock
Law which suppresses political freedom.”

- The civil rights action follows renewed use of the
Padlock Law by the Duplessis government. With the
entire labor movement closing its ranks to smash Bill
5, the fascist-style labor code proposed by tke Duplessis
government, which Catholic Syndicate president Picard
has denounced as a “lockout on thinking,” Duplessis
attempted to intimidate opposition by ordering police
to carry out another “thought control” raid on the
home of John Switzman, and the offices of the Canadian
Tribune and the Nationa] Federation of Labor Youth
located in the same building at 5321 Park Avenue,
Montreal. _

Acting under signed orders of Attorney-General Du-.
plessis kimself, police invaded the home of Switzman,
organizer for Cartier LPP Council, entered the offices.
of the Canadian Tribune and the NFLY in the front
of the house and seized what they declared as “one
ton of subversive literature.’ After forcing Switzman,
his wife, and 20-months-old baby out into the streets,
they padlocked the house, :

“He and his family are now homeless because Du-
plessis has the power, and, apparently, the desire, to
wipe out the rights of all who oppose him,” the CDR
declared.

IN ALBERTA-MANITOBA

US bases prepare

Canada F or Wear

EN SWANKEY, Labor-Progressive leader in

Alberta, speaking at the LPP national convention,
branded current rapid expansion of Alberta’s oi] in-
dustry as “‘part of Wall Street’s war drive.”

He described the rapid militarization of Edmonton
and told delegates that Alberta occupied its own strategic
place, economic and military, in the plans of the war-
makers, :

“A thinly diguised Tory government’’—this was
the description he applied to the present Social Credit
regime, terming it “the darling of the big oil, hydro,
coal and banking interests.” This government, he
claimed, was now aligned with Drew and Duplessis in
a Tory plot to capture power at Ottawa.

Social Credit’s promised “‘something for nothing”
has finally been awarded in the shape of oil and natural
gas resources. Imperial Oil, Swankey charged, was at
the center of the trough, nosing out all others, and he
commented, “‘No wonder people believe the Alberta
gevernment is well-oiled.”’

Edmonton was described by Swankey as the begin-
ning of the Alaska Highway, an American air base for
bombers and fighters, supply base for the far north, and
headquarters for the RCAF’s northwest command.

,

Another LPP provincial leader, William Ross of
Manitoba, told the convention that signing of the At-
lantic Pact would only formalize a policy and a pro-
cess “‘that has been in effect in this country for some
time and is cold-bloodedly bringing war to Canada..”

“In Manitoba we can already see the physical
preparations for that war. The war strategists are try-
ing to create.a springboard for attack across our north-
land, to make our province another link in the chain
of U.S. war bases,” Ross stated.

He cited war-bases already set up at’ Rivers,
Shilo, MacDonald and Churchill as evidence of the
desire to make Manitoba a strategic center for Ameri-
can war plans. He also, poimted to a whole series of
maneuvers which were carried out in the north under
jomt U,.S.-Canadian command, but with American
strategy dominating.

“The first victims of the cold war are the workers
and farmers of Manitoba,’ he declared. ‘*Ten thous-
and homes are needed in Winnipeg alone. but barracks
and war camps come first.

-  **The farmers need roads to. market their products,
yet the only substantial road building is the Emerson
highway linking Manitoba with the U.S.

“Our resources are being turned over to Wall
Street. : 5

“Coldwell told the farmers a year ago that the
Marshall Plan is a ‘generous plan of a generdus gov-
ernment.’ He can’t say that today because U.S. econ-
omic dictation prevents them from selling beef, potatoes
and flax.

““Manitoba’s economy is being driven into crisis as
a result of the Marshall Plan. The struggle against’
the Atlantic Pact assumes real. meaning in preventing
a foreign power from dominating our policies.”

‘Arts control. next?

—TORONTO

“The proposed Royal Commission in the arts and
sciences in Canada is, in the light of the St. Laurent
government’s war-pact policy, a new scheme to bring
cultural and scientific workers more closely under gov-
ernment and big business control and influence,” the
LPP cultural commission declared last week in a
statement. :

“Hon. Vincent Massey, reported Ottawa's choice to
head the commission declared in New York last week
when he spoke with Alan Dulles head of the U.S. secret
policy in Germany: ‘Beware of voices which cry peace.’
Obviously such a man is not qualified to be given such
a post.” . :

The LPP group demanded a thoroughly democratic
Royal Commission composed of representatives of the
various arts and science organizations in Canada. It
further demanded that hearings be held in every part
of the country in order that local representations may
be heard from cultural, trade union, citizens and other
such organizations. f

“Such a commission without protest from labor and
other people’s organizations, will set out to wreck the
CBC, the National Film Board and direct the cultural
life of Canada more and more along the path of a war-
culture. It must not be allowed to succeed and we urge
every group to prepare briefs and recommendations for
the enrichment of our culture and demand the right to
be heard by the Royal Commission.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 11, 1949 — PAGE 4

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