Nagas continued from page 1 tome — the latter the second city to be af ed — each devote 10 per cent tivities Municipal budgets for peace “ a Hiroshima mayor said the two cities i ahosstently made an appeal for the s lition of nuclear weapons through ch. ination of information about the ‘og ture of atomic bombs, so that the = y.. ‘Shall not be repeated. ha Y enduring grief and overcoming past se, the citizens of Hiroshima. . pledge &S to co-existence and the propersity 4. Mankind,” he said. DDropri Said he considered it “most rf 7H fate and significant that the citizens dinin, ouvert are holding a peace festival” Ye, °,tHe United Nations International 0! Peace. itm a be present at the peace sympo- ie ch begins Thursday at the ae Theatre. The three days of dis- stor featuring notables such as econo- Mace Kenneth Galbraith, Generals for Mii, Under Gen. Gert Bastian and iy €xpert on Canada/U.S. affairs ver Churkin, will produce the “Van- tina Proposals” to be read out at the B ination of Sunday’s Walk for Peace Th ‘C. Place Stadium. pee festival opening ceremonies tik th the powerful rhythms of Katari >the Vancouver Japanese-style drum Inte Wt have played at several peace . ane the Peace Arch park rally in €y in turn introduced the Rainbow up ac a recently formed Haida Vidson €r the direction of artist Robert Polke: cig eer Bob Bossin led the crowd ina : ane Toronto composer Ed McCur- » otenowned anthem, “Last Night I Ina m Strangest Dream.” S the Oving moment Harcourt read out, ting “Udience of parents and children in, the “Gentle Promise,” which Promise to use all my power to . Peace on earth.” Miser OT then signed the “Gentle MUver -. Peace book proferred by Van- Rap. tent Melanie Hooper. lon we in his remarks made no men- OWnar ve uve U.S. warships docked across il llantyne Pier, despite last-minute 0 Persagy Peace activists and councillors Mop. wtde the federal govenrment to Ihstes + 2Vitation for the visit. ‘ling th »he concentrated on the positive, Ntobe ©audience that it is they “who push “Py; + City of peace and hope. “ee 9, NOt World War II, This is World N€ — the abolition of hunger, pov- dh, an o ” . Maus disease,” he said to strong Ne ayors reaffirm pledge for peace Hiroshima Mayor Takeshi Araki (c), a survivor of the atomic blast that levelled the Japanese city in the closing days of World War II 41 years ago, is greeted by Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt at the commencement Saturday of celebration marking Vancouver's nine-day peace festival. Tories pressed on warship visit Lead ts of British Columbia’s peace movement and organizers of the Centennial Peace Festival called on Vancouver-Centre Conservative MP Pat Carney April 16 to do everything possible to change the visit of U.S. warships and, failing that “to pass a message to the Canadian military in future to show more concern for the people of Vancouver.” A delegation from End the Arms Race, together with Bruce Yorke, chair of the city’s Peace Festival Committee, met with Carney’s assistant, Raymond McAllister, in a final effort to cancel or alter the visit of five nuclear-capable U.S. warships which were slated to dock at Vancouver’s Ballantyne Pier at the same time as the opening of the peace festival. EAR chair and Vancouver and District Labor Council secretary Frank Kennedy said that the visit of the warships would “create concern at any time but it creates much more.concern at this time. . .since it appears to a lot of people to be a provoca- tion towards those in the peace movement and to the city of Vancouver because of the city’s position as a nuclear-weapons free zone.” EAR vice-president Gary Marchant emphasized that the peace movement was particularly upset by the visit because the vessels in the port “are probably carrying nuclear weapons. “Having nuclear weapons a few hundred metres from our peace festival is a real slap in the face,” he said. McAllister read a statement from Car- ney, acknowledging that the timing of the visit was “unfortunate” but suggesting that nothing could be done to change it because it was organized several months ago and little time was available to change it. She said that she had met with Associate Dep- uty Minister Harvie Andre to’seek a post- ponement but was unsuccessful. Marchant echoed delegation members’ appreciation of Carney’s efforts but emphasized that the Canadidan Navy, which extended the invitation for the visit, “did know significantly ahead of time that the visit coincided with the peace festival but went ahead with it anyhow.” He asked McAllister to “send a messgae to the military through Pat Carney — this visit was not a wise move and, in future, to show more concern for the people of Van- couver.” The five vessels arrived in Vancouver April 18 but unlike other Sea Festival visits when they have been open to the public, they have been closed off and have minim- ized contact with the public. British Columbia Communist Party leader Maurice Rush called on Attorney- General Brian Smith Monday to launch an immediate investigation into a Nanaimo- based group which is collecting military equipment to “fight Communism in Cen- tral America” and which has been linked to recent incidents in which lcoal Com- munist Party offices have been pasted with © swastikas. The call by the CP was prompted by the appearance of a poster in Nanaimo last week which urged Nanaimo residents to contribute to the “Soldier of Fortune El Salvador/Nicaragua Defence Fund (to) help Nicaraguan freedom fighters and Salvadoran Armed Forces fighting your war against Communist aggression in Central America.” The poster named a post office box in nearby Cedar asa collec- tion point for “compasses, binoculars, fatigue uniforms, combat boots” and var- ious pieces of weapons equipment, includ- ing ammunitiofi pouches and belts. It also solicited cheques to the fund at a Boulder, Colorado address for Soldier of Fortune magazine, the U.S.-based right- wing mercenary journal. The appearance of the poster also coin- cided with the swastika-stickering of the Communist Party’s campaign offices April 12 and 13 and of CP candidate Deborah MacDonald’s car, parked, at the time, outside her house. Both incidents are considered the work of the Cedar group. Whether related or not, a fish boat, the “Bounty Hunter” has also appeared in Nanaimo’s Boat Basin flying a Nazi war flag along with the Canadian flag. “The Communist Party considers the activities of this group and those responsi- bile for these activities as a threat to every democratic-minded British Columbian,” Rush stated in his April 21 letter to Smith. He emphasized: “There is much talk of fighting terrorism but here is a group which obviously is involved in collecting support for terrorist actions while at the same time attempting to intimidate B.C. citizens.” He called on the attorney-general’s department to launch an immediate inves- tigation “into the activities of this group and the individuals responsible” and to take steps to “end their pro-fascist, unde- mocratic and pro-terrorist activites.” MacDonald said she has also written a letter to Smith urging that his department investigate the recent swastika vandaliza- tion. She added that they were not isolated incidents since Chinese and Vietnamese corner grocery stores have also been targets in recent months. “This sort of action is a direct attack on, and a violation of democratic rights and freedoms and I call on the public to be aware of this hate growing in our com- munity and to take all the necessary legal steps to prevent the growth of fascist organizations,” she said. She added that peace groups and Second World War veterans were being contacted to take up the issue. “Whether you agree with the Commu- nist Party’s policies or not, we are a recog- nized legal political party in B.C. and we have the right to run freely in this provin- cial election and not to face illegal intimi- dation from anti-democratic neo-fascist groups.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 23, 1986 e 3