Top photo shows p picket:

; in Montreal on Dec. 19 expressing solidarity with
the people of South Vietnam. Picture below shows a similar demonstration in
Toronto on the same day.

‘End war in Vietnam!’

Placard-carrying Toronto and Montreal citizens paraded for an,
.end to U,S, intervention in Vietnam onSaturday, December 19, In doing
so they were marching in step with demonstrations in many of the
world’s major cities who sought the same objectives,

The actions were part of the “International Day of Solidarity
With the People of South Vietnam,” which was observed by peace
groups, trade unions and people’s organizations around the world,

In Toronto two lines of picketers braved the biting wind to carry
their message to the public, The Combined Universities Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament paraded through Toronto streets, while
a demonstration, organized by the Peace Centre, took place in front

of the U.S, consulate,

In Montreal various groups united in a “Committee in Support
“of the Call to End the U,S. War in Vietnam,”

MLF or ANF?—Both give A-bombs to

By ALF DEWHURST

hat is Canada’s policy toward

W a multilateral nuclear force?

There seems to be at least three
answers to this question,

1) More than once the Canadian

government has stated it is op-
posed to the spreading ofnuclear
weapons,

2) In Paris on Dec, 14, Cana-
da’s External Affairs Minister
Paul Martin said the Canadian
government’s position has always
been that it would not join a multi-
lateral force, :

3) But a day earlier, Dec, 13,
Martin said the Canadian govern-
ment will oppose any multilateral
nuclear force that would tend to
split the North Atlantic Alliance,
He indicated, in other words,
that if a formula can be found
which does not tend to split that
alliance, the Canadian govern-
ment will go along,

This is not consistent with op-

position to the spread of nuclear.
weapons.

Two plans are before NATO
countries for the creation of a
multilateral nuclear force, The
best-known is the NATO force
proposed by the United States—
MLF, The other is the British
government’s Atlantic Nuclear
Force (ANF),

MLF and ANF are proposed as
“Atlantic” forces to include the
U,S, and Western Europe, Both
contain the element of the mixed-

“manned crews, But ANF is great-

er in scope than MLF, which
projects only a force of mixed-
‘manned surface ships, ANF would
add _ aircraft, submarines and
other nuclear delivery systems,

MLF leaves control of the nu-
clear trigger in the hands of the
U.S, president, The French gov-
ernment is opposed to this, which
creates the tendency toward a
NATO split troubling Martin, Be-
sides, the French are working to

SASKATCHEWAN RATES COMPARED

Gov’t auto insurance
offers most to public

By BILL CAMPBELL

The following article was received

in the mail during the holiday week.
Written by a well Rnene NDP

member in the Interior of B.C., the
article compares the Saskatchewan
g0vernment-operated auto insur-
ance plan with private insurance
rates in B.C.

We believe that this article

strengthens the case put forward
by the PT for a government-owned
plan, and we are publishing it be-
cause we believe our readers will
find it of considerable interest.

f there are any motorists in
British Columbia who are
not angered and indignant over
the proposed/increase to be im-
posed upon hem by the insurance

companies in the New Year, let -

them ponder these facts, Not op-
inions, Just plain, straight facts.

That the Government - owned
insurance scheme in Saskatch-
ewan gave the same coverage,
for a far smaller premium, and
still ended up with a surplus —
returnable to the policy holders.
In 1963 this surplus was $4,000,-
000.

For this particular yeara 1958
Chevrolet Sedan, owner over 25,
no recorded accident, no driver
under 25, pleasure use only, rural
area, cost $45 under the Sask-
atchewan government plan and in
Prince Rupert, B.C. the figure
was $138!

And if you think that’s a little
out. of line, fasten your seat
belts and hear this one,

For a 1962 Chevrolet Sedan,
owner under 25, one accident
last year, rural area, the Sask-
atchewan government plan cost
the owner $89, In British Col-
umbia — and we better spell this
one out — the cost was five
hundred and fifty-two dollars!

The next fact. The insurance
companies are licenced to Op-
‘erate by the Superintendent of
Insurance under the Attorney-
General’s ministry, They have to
comply with the Insurance Act,
R.S. 1948, c.164, s,1, Unlike the
corner grocery store who can

develop their own nuclear strike
force.

The British, on the other hand,
say they want to scrap their in-
dependent nuclear policy, In an
attempt to meet French objec-
tions part way and also provide
a way for the British to deter-
mine when anuclear strike should
be made, ANF proposes joint
control of the nuclear trigger,

This would be done through
two. vetoes — one for the U,S,

ADVANCE
NOTICE!

~ Our Annual Book Sale starts
Friday, January 15. See next
week’s ad for details.

PEOPLE’S CO-OP BOOK STORE
341 W. Pender St.
Ph. MU 5-5836

operate with just a trade licence,
by the very nature of their field
they are, quite rightly, subject
to public control,

All motorists and organizat-
ions thatare prepared to at last do
something about the latest “price

gouge” would be well advised to:

take into account the established
public nature of insurance,

Then we come to the so-called
“justification” the insurance
companies put up for the pro-
posed raise in rates, Crying in
their champagne, they say, “1963
was the third bad year ina row
for auto insurers, But the ex-
perience in 1964 has been much
worse.” In their press release
they quote lots of figures from
the B.C, Motor Vehicles Branch’s
accident statistics showing a con-
tinual increase. They remind
their policy holders that, “over
the past five years across Can-
ada’ premium income from auto-
mobile insurance has increased
by 25 percent; but the amount paid
out in claims has increased by
63 percent,”

Obviously something wrong
here for, even taking into account
their administration costs of
around the 37% mark, (and for
“administration” to a large ex-
tent read “commissions” of all
Shapes and sizes), how do the
insurance companies explain
their very healthy over-all profit’
figure year after year?

The real answer to their prof- '
its is that the insurance compan-
ies are also in another business
as well,

This business is money-lend-

‘ing. You can be polite and call

it “sound investment” if you
please but in practice ‘it _is just
bad, old-fashioned usury,”

And we’re not talking only
about the smaller loan companies
that dish out two thousand dollars
at a time at a friendly 37% in-
terest, These auto insurance
companies are part and parcel of
the whole insurance field, are
highly monopolized, (out of the

(which supplies the bulk of the

Nuclear weapons), the other

Shared by West European coun-
tries participating in ANF,

Both plans enable West Ger-
many to move closer to becoming
a nuclear power, Nuclear experts

claim the West Germans now have -

the capability to manufacture A=
weapons, Participation ina mul-
tilateral nuclear force would give
them a first-rate opportunity to

study modern techniques of de-
livery, :

The U.S, is backing West Ger-
man demands. for nuclear
weapons because West Germany
is the cornerstone of U,S, strate-
gy in Europe, The U,S, prefers
to accomplish this while keeping
strict control of the bomb, which
MLF guarantees,

But if this is not possible, U,s,
strategists will have to consider
some other variant such as ANF,
Perhaps this partly explains

119 life insurance companies, for
instance, nine hold $ of the total
assets), and are deeply inter-
woven with the banks and trust
companies,

In addition, it is significant—
and disturbing—that a very large
portion of public borrowing by
governments and municipalities
originates from this unholy trin-
ity of the insurance companies,
the trust companies and the
banks.

The home-owner bears the
brunt of the monopoly-money-
lender’s “fixing” of interest in
the form of higher-than-necess-
ary taxes,

If he is unfortunate enough to
be a motorist as well he helps
to put up much of the capital in
the first place by paying the
premium on his automobile!

The thing to see is that these
huge concerns call themselves
“insurance companies”, In fact,
insurance is but one of the div-
isions of a monopoly finance
corporation.

It is important for every mot-
orist to understand this set-up
so that he knows what he has to
fight — and the methods he has
to use, too — to achieve the
obvious solution, which is a goy-
ernment-operated car insurance
plan,

Publicity of the facts of the
case, of. which this article is a
modest example, is essential,
But this alone is not enough for
success,

Just as the B.C, Federation of
Labor have taken the magnificent,
very first, practical step to com-
bat the drug price swindle by
planning their own retail drug
outlet in early 1965, so, too,

must. organized labor respond in

this insurance instance in pract-
ical ways.

Although these ways may well
be quite different to the B,C,
Federation’s retail outlet, they
must be sought for and found,

Bonn

President Johnson’s new orders
that U.S, personnel must be much
more tactful and diplomatic in all
their dealings with allies,

The British ANF is actually
worse than MLF for it would
place West German military fin-
gers on the nuclear trigger,

Those who argue for such
“equality” claim it does not mean
more fingers on the nuclear trig-
ger, but more fingers on the
safety catch, To this, the British
Daily Worker replies “nonsense”
The Worker declares that the
successors of Hitler are more
likely to release the safety-catch
than to leave it on,

It is suicidal to allow the West
German revenge seekers to move
even one little bit toward their
nuclear goal, The Canadian gov-
ernment should come out un-
equivocally against any multi-
lateral force,

January 8, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 2