Vole 3. Now 25 My LER AIG HL cee 4, y LULLED i 482 otiaed Cae - Price Five Cents : Vancouver, British Columbia, June 23, 1950 ‘| tures was beginning. Leading Soviet figures sign Stockholm peace appeal! “LONDON At a press conference following the. session of the Bureau of the World Peace Committee here this month, Alexander Korneichuk, famous Soviet dramatist and chairman of the Su- preme Soviet of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, said that all leading public figures in the Soviet Union had signed. the Stockholm peace appeal, and the mass collection of signa- Day after day, the Soviet préss, including the central news- papers, popular magazines and such papers as serve the interests of doctors, school teachers, trade unionists, etc., devote much space to the spread of the peace movement. language edition of the international peace magazine, In Defence of Peace, is widely distributed at well-attended meetings where writers, composers and artists have come’ together to discuss ways of coordinating their work in. the service of peace. The Russian- ‘Save us’ dramatic appeal of Greek seamen to public On May 12,. the Pacific Tribune carried tae story of 12 Greek seamen who struck the SS Cno- saga and were held by the immigration department when the ship left them stranded in Vancouver. From inside the detention room at the immigration: building came a plea this week from tne 12 men, addressed to all newspapers and calling on all Canadians to support them in their fight to be released “If we are sent back to Greece,” say the young seamen, “‘it would to join ships and leave Canada. mean that we would be locked in concentration camps, in dark and damp dungeons under the most inhuman and terrible tortures, as is happening to thousands of Greeks — unionists and democratic people —__ who have been tortured and killed during the last five years. With no chance to live if deported, we, all 12 of us, have decided we prefer death by hunger strike in a Canadian Immigration shed to a slow death of torture and brutal beatings in a Greek concentration camp of the Dachau type.” Full statement of the 12 men follows: Continued on back page—See SEAMEN LPP asks full | Lilleoet River floods More than 600 acres and a number at Pemberton Meadows, east of Squamish. PINCH] LAKE — RICHEST MERCURY MINE IN WORLD —LIES IDLE of homes have been inundated: by flooding of the Lillooet River compensation for flood victims . **Full compensation for all flood victims in British Columbia”, was urged this week in a telegram sent to Premier Byron Johnson by the provincial executive of the Labor- Progressive party, over the signa- ture of LPP provincial leader: Nigel Morgan. “Already residents of Pember- ton Meadows, Princeton and oth- er communities have suffered ac- cutely,” said the message. “A considerable ‘number of. people have had to be evacuated in spite of government assurances that there was no flood danger. Farm production has been seriously dis- turbed. Over 1,000 millworkers in the New Westminster area have been laid off, causing for them and Continued on page 6 See FLOOD Cartel operations create B.C. ghost town | There’s a town in British Colum- bia which looks spick and span; hew homes, new stores, new of- fices, a fine bowling alley, movie theater and dance hall. But the town is deserted, save for a care- taker whd lives 28 miles away at Fort St. James. Here’s the story of B.C.’s queer- est “ghost town.” It’s the tale of Pinchi Lake, a mining town 70 miles north of Vanderhoof, aban- doned in 1944 at the very moment ‘when it was producing its greatest Stream of wealth. A whole mountain of mercury remains scarcely tapped at Pinchi Lake. It is the largest deposit of Mercury in the world. Yet Con- solidated Mining and Smelting Company shut down the mine in 1944, moved out. every miner, and Shows no signs of starting oper- ations again. , Why? The answer lies in the Word “cartels”, Far unless there existed a secret cartel agreement to buy mercury from fascist Spain _-where Canada now gets most of her suyply—there would be no reason for not mining the incred- ibly rich ore at Pinchi Lake. The town was born in 1939 when the mine opened. Within a few years between 600 and 700 miners and their families were settled there, producing almost all the mercury used by the Allied nations during the war years. In January, 41944, there existed a thriving community of 3000. Many miners began\ building their own homes, and looked forward to liv- ing in the town for many years to come. The price of mercury had more than trebled since 1939, and the miners were producing 1400 tons of ore every 24 hours, Millions of tons of ore remained to be mined beneath Glory Hole mountain, The future of the camp seemed assur- ed. Mercury — quicksilver — has many peacetime uses, and is vital in wartime (fulminate of mercury is a highly explosive compound used in percussion caps and deton- ators). Mercury compounds are commonly used in medicine, among them every-day mercuro- chrome. Quicksilver is used in tubes of barometers and thermo- meters. Mercury compounds are of considerable importance to the arts. The most important mercury mines of Europe are tHose of Al- maden in Spain and, of Carniola, Italy. There are mercury mines in California and Texas. There are known deposits in the Soviet Union, Hungary, Mexico and Peru. But the largest deposit of mer- cury in the world—-a whole moun- tain of it—is right here in British Columbia. Suddenly, in the spring of 1944, Consolidated announced that it was closing down operations at Pinchi Lake, Miners were trans- ferred to other jobs. The town was abandoned and its glories — including the famed Black Jack game- became only memories. Under strong pressure from the Mine-Mill union miners who had built homes were recompenséd for their investment. But no one has ever satisfactor- ily explained why Consolidated stopped mining Mercury at Pinchi Lake, or why Canada should have to purchase mercury from Italy and fascist Spain. If Censolidated gave the word, Pinchi Lake could again become a prosperous community, and the miners could get back or the job of turning out some 1200 tons of mercury every month. Soviet group at Canadian Slav rally TORONTO A four-man delegation appoint- ed by the Slav Committee of the USSR and headed by its ‘chair- man, Alexander Gundorov, will be among guest delegations attending the First Canadian Slav Congress next week, it was announced here this week. Secretary Ivan Vosny of the committee, Ukrainian writ- er Mykola Bazhan and Byelo- russian poet Maxim Tank (Eu- geny Skurko) complete the dele- gation. Opening session will be held at Massey Hall on June 29 and thousands are expected to wel- come delegates and demonstrate for peace and solidarity with Sla- vic lands across the seas. Main proceedings of the convention and opening rally will be conducted in English. A 300-voice all-Slav choir un- der direction of Chris Dafeff will sing at the rally. Sessions will be addressed by outstanding Slavic-Canadian lead- ers such as William Kardash, Manitoba MLA, M. Shatulsky, editor of Ukrainian Word, W. G. Doneleyko, former Manitoba M- LA, and Councillor Michael Bos- ~ nick of Crowland, Ont.