tA) e -Coalition’s ‘generous’ record aa Byron Johnson’sstatement to the people of British Columbia on the stewardship of his Coalition government, carried in the daily press and on the radio is, in some respects, @ unique document. To the political observer who gives a little study to “Boss” Johnson's statement between the lines, it will be seen that the - greatest “achievement” of the Johnson-Anscomb Coalition, has been literally to give away our forest, mineral, power and other resources to the big monopolies. Billions of dollars of the people’s Natural wealth have been laid in the lap of big business. So bare-faced is this squandering of our provincial resources that even the Vancouver Sun’s aging Liberal weathercock, Roy Brown, was moved to sound a note of alarm in a recent column, _ Brown points out that “both government and people should take ‘ Paci piCeeerrnes eee : } i ot Fok fui j = | eS eu AR bie eed TOUS ONIN: @ good look at it.” Certainly it is high time the people took at least a “good look at it.” When a government hands over approxi- ‘Mately three million acres of, timberland, (a territory more than two-and-a-half times the size of the province of Prince Edward — Island) to the ‘Celanese Corporation of America for one project - _alone—that is something to look at! Add that to what this foreign ‘monopoly has already received in land and power grants in North- ern B.C. and the total is staggering. These Coalition “achievements”, ‘to quote “Boss” Johnson, will . . ereate opportunities for employment .. .” He omitted to mention ‘that they would also create unprecendented: profits for the Monopolists and virtual company rule over the resources and- _ territory so freely given away by the Coalition. : “Boss” Johnson’s statement to the people of B.C. should really be entitled, “How We Gave Away Your Birthright,’ because that is its essence and content. WABUBTBIEL Trt tit ti) ty it ny fey fe ts) a) (RUBE BRU BS BUR RDB BB BNE: As We See It by TOM McEWEN TE a LDERMAN R. K. GERVIN, like the proverbial cat on a tin roof, is a very busy man. He re- minds us very much of that illustrious knight, Don Quixote, who spent his days tilting at wind- mills and rescuing fair maidens from the clutches of ruffians, but is ‘totally lacking in that worthy knight’ s sense of chivalry. ‘ No sooner had his fellow aldermen vetoed his wild desire to put a length of chain on all of Van- couver’s pooch population, than he mounted his \Non-Partisan-sired charger Rosinante and rode full-tilt at the Civic Employees Union (Outside Workers). To make a long story short,-it appears that this union has consistently refused to swap its trade union democratic rights for a Trades . Congress-cooked “red herring,” not even with TLC vice-president Car] iid serving in the cap- acity of head chef. With the workers standing by their union - and demonstrating the only kind of unity and ’ solidarity ‘the bosses and their labor fakers fear, the Labor Relations Board could do nothing else except certify the” Civic Employees Union (Out- side Workers). The overwhelming vote received Ne - ‘py. the union showed that it was the choice of the Dismiss the PUC €IGNS have not been lacking during recent weeks that the BCElectric and its Public Utilities Commission were getting ~ Set to clamp a real fare hoist. on the commuting public. Now the cat is out of the,bag so to speak, and a straight 15-cent ride or _ two for 25 cents is mooted. _ As if that weren’t bad enough, the PUC has extended its oe field of operations and, to give the fare increase a boost, is now -Tunning interference in the wage struggles of organized labor. If the workers (in this instance the street railwaymen) get a Wage increase, it must, according to the PUC be handed on to the Consumer. On no account must the sacred profits of the monopol- ists be endangered. \it seems that PUC’ers D. K. Penfold and OR. E. Potter think wages are “too high” -anyway, so up with ectric profits, and down with wages! . t This poses some very specific demands upon provincial and Civie authorities. It démands that Premier. Byron Johnson effect te dismissal of these two BCElectric Charley McCartys forthwith. It raises in sharper focus than ever before the need for public Ownership of the BCElectric holdings and services, not only as 8 Solution to a long overdue problem but to save the people of 2 a from further rooking. Finally, it demands an all-out mobilization of ‘citizens, by peti- _ tion and delegations, to impress upon Vancouver City Council peters ‘demand for rejection, of this latest BCElectric-PUC blackmail. i Cenaian-Soviet friendship igs Canadian- Soviet Friendship Society with headquarters in Toronto designated January of 1952 as “Friendship Month. 4 . 3 Already ‘Lester B. Pearson, Canada’s minister of external affairs, 4nd the cold war columnists of the commercial press have taken - their Snide and cynical cracks at this gesture. The fact remains, disturbing as it may be to Senbhan apie _ 0f the powers-that-be, that a deep sentiment for real friendship With the Soviet Union and its people is widespread and growing in Canada. A number of Canadian trade union and cultural dele- ~ Bations visited the Soviet Union in 1951 and brought back impres- -Sions which diverge widely from the stock cold war anti-Soviet Propaganda, the Canadian people are being fed daily. Thus an Interest. in getting at the real truth, instead of the usual propa- on Soper is also a factor in the growth of friendship sentiment. The Canadian-Soviet “Friendship Month” will end with a big Conference in Toronto *on January 26-27, at which it is cae _ hunareas of delegates from all over Canada will attend. A powerful. Canadian-Soviet Friendship movement ins our _ Sountry will help the working people for peace and social progress. ay the —¥ the efforts in the Toronto conference be crowned with success. { UD : S <= feet =e ie i! ponent es wviflbeeusnnet sree DA - Pubtistiea ea at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C. ; ie THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD. Telephone MA, 5288 ‘ Tom McEwen Subscription Rates: 1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, $1.35. a by Union Printers Ltd., 650 Howe Street. Vancouver. B.C. ec ethoxined as second class mail, Post Office Dépt., Ottawa workers. All this, of course, aroused Alderman Gervin’s wrath. Hence our doughty knight in not-too- shining: Non-Partisan armor, charged headlong into the fray; with wild swipes of his lance, and wilder accusations against the Civic Employees Union and the LRB anent the “menace of com- munism.” ; “Even the Vancouver Sun, in an editorial, “Mr. Gervin. Sees Red,” tried to curb that knight’s wrath, moaned about his lack of consistency in “red” wind tilting—and saw red itself in “a major defense plant involved in atomic produc- tion.” That battle salfely over, our aldermanic knight scans the horizon for new fields to conquer. “Ha,” he croaks, as he clambers aboard Rosinante, ‘“To the Bastille! Giddap!” A citizen named Wollos- chuk got himself locked up for a round -the-clock stay in thé local Bastille over a difference of opin- ion between himself and city police on use of automatic signal gadgets on his car. Finding the service and accommodation didn’t quite come up to Hotel Vancouver standards, Wolloschuk howled to high heaven about the chow, the linen and the cultural entertainment provided. The Vancouver Sun, which never misses an opportunity to take a poke at Police Chief Mulligan, took up Wollos- chuk’s complaints and there was a regular to-do about it all. ‘ At this point Gervin charges onto the scene astride Rosinante. He has the fullest confidence -in the Bastille. “I am not particularly concerned,” says our doughty knight, “about what happens to anybody in ‘the city jail... people that go there usually have done some wrong.” It is clear that the Non-Partisan gang which tutors ‘'Gervin in his public bleats will have to take its “labor” knight to task. For public con- sumption, at least, the capitalist theme is that jails are for “reform” purposes rather than puni- tive. All the hullabaloo that goes up’ when the lid is periodically lifted from these “homes away from home” is intended to impress all and sundry that our jails are ey desirable places to relax in. A great many things happen to-those confined to prison, while in prison, which are not included in their sentences. Men-have died in jail through neglect, ill-usage and worse. What happens to the inmates of prisons is very much the concern of all decent citizens. Obviously the knightly Alderman R. K. Gervin doesn’t belong in this category. He. has the inveterate jailer’s | complex, undoubtedly a hangover from his RCMP ~ days, before he chose to carve ot a career for himself in the labor movement — with a Non - Partisan dull knife! . ._ Watch for the thrilling adventures of Don Quixote Gervin in the coming weeks—there are bound to be more of them. Most Canadians will agree that the whole idea of “security screening” is a ticklish one, to say thé least, and particularly when we hear so much about “our free democratic way of life.” Obviously there must be some serious flaws in a democracy that is under the necessity of “screening” the thoughts, habits and parentage of its citizens. - To freedom-loving people the Hit- lerite technique of thought-control has no place ~in a democracy. And then, of course, the 64- dollar question: who “sereens” the “screeners?” In his “Backstage at Ottawa” column in Maclean's Magazine, Blair Fraser gets himself into a bit of:a dilemma on the subject. “Police — men,” says Fraser, “don’t like a loyalty board because they’d have to‘ —— witnesses, and they can’t, afford to.” ; _That scan’ t afford to” has nothing to do with money or the ‘high cost of living. It means that -government “screening” agencies have to expose — their stool pigeons, finks and other specie of hu- | man vermin, and once these are used publicly, their future use in ratting upon and lying against their fellow Canadians is rendered’ more diffi- cult. Hence the “can’t afford to.” — Fraser gives as an example, the use of RCMP Inspector John Leopold, alias Jack Esselwein, in the trial of the Communist leaders in 1931. He | also cites the use of such vermin as Louis Budenz — in the recent “trials” of the American Communist leaders. Fraser should widen his reading. In - the first place the Canadian Communists knew Esselwein was a stool pigeon long before the’ Communist. party expelled him. And no one © would be more hurt than Inspector Leopold him- self at the suggestion that he has been unable- _ to do any ratting or stool pigeon work since. And in the Un-American witch-hunts no one | has-been more active. than Louis Budenz. Of “course, they didn’t make Budenz an Inspector — in J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. They did better than that and bought him a silver-lead mine in Peru. He can now appear before a “loyalty” witch-hunt — tribunal, not only in the capacity of a professional — informer,’ but as a mining magnate, with a defi- nite stake in our “free enterprise, democratic way of life.” ~ Blair Fraser _ computes the use ork stool pigeons in modern “screening” enterprises. much — as the men of St. James and Bay streets tally — up their profits from the sale of gilt-edged securities. But in cold-war Cage oa hoger two don’t always make four’ , ‘ Injustice, yes-but to our war me worssss and Yathers of Canadian soldiers who did not come back from the Second World War, please take note, Macleans Magazine de- mands justice be done. More, it implores the Supreme Court of Canada to take matter under immediate and serious review, and render a ver- dict, commensurate of.course with present aay. cold war. requirements, ie “Tt is important,” says Macleans Maoseng in its leading editorial, “that we repair, so far as possible, the wrong that has been done te Kurt Meyer.” We must be getting a bit senile. For a num- ; ber of years we had been under the impression that the people wronged were helpless, unarmed, ‘Canadian prisoners of war, brutally assaulted and shot to death on the orders of SS Nazi General Kurt Meyer. We held to this opinion even after ~ the St. Laurent government, with much twisting and turning and lame explanations, released Kurt Meyer from Dorchester Penitentiary, to go home to Germany and romp with his children in com- ‘parative freedom. ‘Now it appears that it- was not a group of murdered Canadian soldiers who were wronged, — but Kurt Meyer. Maclean's ne laments | that Kurt Meyer was tried under laws which © denied “the first principles of British justice,” — and thus he was “unjustly tried,” “unjustly con- _ viet ” and “unjustly jailed!” f We sometimes wonder, if dead Canadian soldiers could tell us, what would be the’measure of justice they received at the hands of the Nazi killer, Kurt Meyer and his kind. And if they were able to tell us, whether a sense of decency, — or the urgency of having a professional Nazi killer as an ally and “champion and defender of democracy” would weigh most in Maclean’s ultra- modern scale for measuring the “justice” it SO for a Nazi murderer? Our “national gonsclencé” suffers, not because we have failed to “repair . . the wrong that has been done to Kurt Meyer,” but because we can so readily forget the wrong done fo his victims— _ by his guns, and our goverment s cold war lunacy. - PACIFIC TRIBUNE | = JANUARY 17, 1952 — . PAGE 5 :