THE NATION

By FRANK ARNOLD

a 17 more Quebec municipalities
endorse Petition for Peace

MONTREAL

$e LL CITIZENS of Lacadie want peace.”
j That was written across the petition bear-
ing the signatures of 35 citizens of the munici-
pality of Lacadie, Co. StJean, including the
Mayor and the municipal council. The develop-
ments of Korea and the growing danger of Cana-
da’s involvment in this U.S. war have raised
sharply the question of the fight for peace across
the Province of Quebec.

» In the course of last week, 17 more muni-
Cipalities have endorsed the Peace Petition,
_bringing the total to 39 towns as to Friday, July
mi was learned from the Montreal Peace Coun-
cil,

At the same time, the Quebec City Peace
Council announced that it had collected 1,000
Names in its first week of the campaign; steas
confident of raising more than the 10,000 names
it set out for its objective. ;

Here is the list of the 17 new municipalities
of the Province of Quebec which have endorsed
the Petition for Peace:

Ste.-Bladine, (Co. Rimouski) : Mayor A. Proulx
and the members of the Council.

St.-Zephirin de Courval, (Co. Yamaska) : Mayor
Emile Lemire and the members of the council.

Ste.-Helene. (Co. Kamouraska): Dr. Adelard
Lapointe, mayor and the members of the council.

Ste.-Marguerite de Joliette, (Co. Dorchester):
Mayor O. Boissoneault and the members of the
council.

St.-Ephrem, (Co. Beauce): Mayor Napoleon
Roy and the members of the council.

St.-Prime, (Lac St-Jean Ouest): The mayor

and the council.

Lacadie, (Co. St-Jean): Mayor Phillipe Tou-
pin, Dr. P. A. Lecuyer and the members of the
council.

St-Nazaire, (Co. Chicoutimi): Mayor Laprise
and members of the council.

St-Philippe de Neri, (Co. Kamouraska) : Mayor
Alban Michaud and the members of the council.

Ste-Ann de la Pocatiere, (Co. Kamouraska):
Mayor C. E. Bouchard and the members of the
council. :

St-Albert, (Co. Arthabaska): Mayor Joseph
Chabot and the members of the council.

St-Jean-Baptiste les Ecureuils, (Co. Portneuf) :
Mayor Willie Vadeboncoeur and the members of
the council. ; ;

St-Valere, (Co. Arthabaska) : Mayor (Rene Pro-
vencher and the members of the council. _

St-Fulgence, (Co. Chicoutimi): Mayor Nil
Tremblay and the members of the council.

West-Hatley, Massawipi, (Co. Stanstead) : May-
or K. T. Little and the members of the council.

St-Fabien, (Co. Rimouski): Mayor J. P. Roy
and the members of the council, — ge.

*

St.-Maurice, (Co. Champlain): Mayor Moise >
‘LPP COLUMN

Lapointe and the council.
A test for all

HENEVER there is a sudden great turn in world
events, our understanding of the struggle and
our ability to influence it are put to the test. \
ap We are experiencing such a test eesael ecu
Wh ress launched its offensive o
uherintat Fearon in agent base so ane
re} J
suaie Dedieaabye sie 3 Speratata the impact of a
‘And, even more im-
we rip it apart
content, and
talking to
jn the shop,

put across the truth,
the workers around us,
on the street?
How is our
our stamina?
Our very
Communists,

Miss with individuals, so with our

tees and clubs. :
committees BSF responsible com-

initiative, as well ‘as

being, as Canadian
is put to test.

out. Instead of recognizing in practice as
words that an emergency existed, were: panama
failed to carry their thinking through to the Poln
New actions to meet @ NeW situation. ener
A directive of the national executive a: cae
demands that we draw “some vitally ee Nawal
tical conclusions for the party organizal een’
bmg responsibilities compel “a drastic 5%
ng of our work for peace.
all, “« the volume and tempo
that we “step BP. Ra weitation—our Us
Tribune and our press as & to te
truth about Korea; ut of ay to sh
and neighborhoods, based on the a
statement of July 3; meetings of all. orts,
small, to reach the widest ex nbailon of press and

along these lines? fi
Far from diminishing our

effort in support of

_ter-offensive for peace were not in reach.

an obstacle to strong initiative as the underestima-_

the Bomb!
signatures, and found the response far more favor-
- paigning for peate, workers have been brought into

500 homes, got a most favorable response to the

By STANLEY RYERSON

C ists
the Peace Petition, we shall increase it, in line with
the call.of the peace movement. The united front
against a new world war is ‘the key responsibility .. .
the utmost initiative, imagination and flexibility are

called for in working to build unity for peace among
every section of the people.” _

e i

In another area, our comrades tended toward the
opposite error to the one mentioned above. They
concluded that the turn of events was so catastrophic
that work on the Petition was “out of date,” that
possibilities of strengthening and broadening the coun-

This fatalist defeatism was of course just as much .

tion of urgency in the the first instance.

The turn of events tesis our ability to keep our
heads, to combine a drastic stepping up of tempo
with firmness. in pursuing the mass policy of the
Party; unity for peace, as set forth in the National
Executive Committee Letter to the Membership and
the July 3 statement of Comrade Buck.

Our party as a whole is reacting strongly and
‘well to the new crisis-situation. ; ot é

In one plant our comrades working with the
Peace Petition got the signatures of almost all the
workers there, whose reaction was that now really
is the time to get moving on the demand to Ban

In another instance NFLY comrades went to
work with new gusto on Street-corner collections of

able than they had previously.
As a result of the action of LPP members cam-_

the party in a number of important areas. In one
industrial city, three women canvassed no less than

Petition, and in the course of the work won new —
active workers for peace. : : '

The gravity of the crisis caused by Truman’s de-
cision to commit the U.S. to subverting the UN for
imperialist purposes and unleashing open armed in-
tervention in Asia, presents us with the heaviest re-
‘sponsibility and the biggest job we've ever undertaken.
. ‘As the party of struggle for peace, we shall meas-
ure up to this test with honor. :

z

a

. but right on the paper general’s desk was a des-—

- get projects an income of 433 billion roubles and an ex-

ult

THE PRESS By LESLIE MORRIS

Paper generals
rush into battle

R. POULIOT, Liberal member of the Que-

bec constituency of Temiscouata, hit the
nail on the head when he said in the House of
Commons that the yellow press had already de- |
clared war on the Soviet Union.

The generals of the press are rushing into
battle. General Hindmarsh of the Toronto Daily
Star is in the vanguard. He is hauling out his
box car type which has lain rusty
since the “spy cases” and, while.
a bit put out because Korea ran
rival to a manhunt, is pursuing
this motto: “The bigger the dis-
aster, the better the Star likes
he
+ When a couple ‘of trigger-_
shappy Yank airmen made the

acist crack that “Koreans could-

= “n't fly planes like that, the pilots
must be Russians”, General Hindmarsh flaunted
the screaming banner line, “RUSSIANS BOMB”.
Ordinarily, this would have meant world war —

patch directly quoting General Stratmeyer of
the U.S. Air Force that no evidence of Russians piloting
North Korean planes had been found. The Star printed
that statement in a later edition, only to change the ban-
ner line to: U.N. REDS PACK: That gave the impression
the Soviet Union was withdrawing from the United
Nations, which General Hindmarsh would dearly love to
see. What was the “news” behind this howler? Jacob Mal-
ik, chief Soviet delegate to the UN, was going home on an
ordinary holiday, Constantine Zinchenko, UN assistant
secretary-general, also intended to go home on leave.
Next day it was announced that he was staying.

e

When the Soviet Union refused to fall for the “U.S.

e 2 : :
The aim of these papers is to stampede the Canadian
people into a warlike frame of mind. War is good business.
On the eve of the Korean crisis the brass check press de-_
clared that the Soviet defense budget was the biggest in
the world and formed the largest percentage of the 1950
budgets. of any of the great powers.
That is a lie. The Star could print the following facts —
if it wanted to. It doesn’t. aa ; ei
The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., meeting on June _
12-19, adopted the State budget for 1950. According to the /
press and Mr. Pearson, this was on the eve of “Sovietag-
gression” on: Korea, while the U.S. was trying to “keep
the -
Policies reflect themselves in budgets. The Soviet bud-

penditure of 428 billions, of which 164.4 billion goes to the _
national economy, 120.7 billion to social and cultural im-
provement, altogether two-thirds of the budget to raising
living standards. Vices a. wee
On defense, 18.5 percent of the budget will be spent,a __
reduction from 32.6 percent in 1940, the year the Soviet
Union was attacked by Hitler. ae : a :
U.S. military expenditures grew from 22.5 percent of _
the budget in 1939-40 to a projected 76 percent in T9505. <<
~ Bogged down in a colonial war in Malaya the British _
government’s military budget rose from 760 million pounds
in 1949 to 1,200 million in 1950, France is spending 57 per-

cent of the budget for war—mainly in Indo-China.

There are the facts—to which must be added that the ~
Supreme Soviet endorsed the World Peace Pledge to ban —
the bomb and declare a war criminal the first government _
to use it. That’s a pledge to the Soviet people by their _
own government. Dare Britain, France, Canada, the US. _
governments do likewise? eee eo es

General Hindmarsh may declare war, but his facts
aré as phony as his politics, ee . ‘

By J. S. WALLACE ~
We are a sovereign people
Slaves of no foreign will =
But whenever they cough in Washington
They spit on Parliament Hill.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 14, 1950—PAGE 9

Coincidence