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owt Department

Rummage
Editor, Pacific Tribune:

The recent rummage sale held
by the Fairview and Mount
Pleasant clubs, was a big suc-
cess, realizing $53.73. We had
Wonderful cooperation from all

© members and also received
Contributions from out of town
People.

The committee wishes to

thank all those who helped and

Contributeq goods to the rum-
Mage sale. Unsold goods were
donated to the Unitarian Church
which collects clothing for the
Spanish refugees,

I would advise other clubs
to get together and hold a
Tummage sale, as it is a splen-
did way to raise funds for the
Present Pacific Tribune press
drive. Let us fulfill our quotas
8S soon as possible and put the
drive over the top. It would

be interesting to hear from
other clubs on ways and means
of raising funds.

OLGA GRINKUS.
_ Vancouver, B.C.

Ireland

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

“In the column ‘Short Jabs’
written by Ol’ Bill in the March
21 issue of the Tribune, Ol Bill

Says in part, “Ireland was the.

only European country, besides
Rea eny. and Italy, to send a

of Franco against the Spanish
8overnment,” I cannot let Ol’
Bill get by. with a statement
Which is only half the ‘truth,
because what he does not tell
in connection with Franco’s
Trish Brigade is of considerable
Politica] importance in under-
Standing Irish Catholics and
their struggle against the hier-
archy.

Briefly General Eoin O'Duffy,
pectime Irish Chief of Police,
°Sether with Archbishop Fog-
arty, organized a battalion of
_ Some 1,200 youhg Irishmen to.
Support “Franco’s great Christ-
jan Crusade,” to “replant the
8s of Christ in Spanish soil,”
these boys mainly recruited
from amongst the backward
Peasantry and the remote moun-
tain regions of the country were
filled with lurid tales of the
horrors perpetrated by the Bol-
Shevik hordes,’ : -

A so-called ‘Irish Christian

ont? was set up to keep this
brigade in supplies. The brigade
Srrived in Spain at the time

co’s Moors were leading the
assault against Guernica. They
Were sent directly to the front
lines. When they got to the front
lines they found that the Moor-
ish troops fitted precisely the
escription they had been given
by their church leaders of the

Bolshevik hordes,’ :

A pitched battle took place
tween the Moors and the Irish

rigade. There were heavy cas-

Valties on both sides before the
fray was stopped. Priests then
Undertook to explain to the ‘ig-
_Rorant Irish’ that the ‘great

Christian crusade’ was lead by

 8nti-Christian Moors ang that
these Moors in the service of
Franco's Christ had a right to
Slay Basque Catholics. And that
‘fie murder of helpless nuns and
Priests, the raping of women
®nd butchering of children when
Performed by Moors in the ser-
Vice of Franco was a God given
Privilege. Be it said to the eter-
Nal credit of Ireland’s great
tradition of 800 years of strug-
8le against oppression and tyr-
anny that those young men re-
Jected their priests and Franco
4nd his filthy fascist cause, rec-
Bnizing it for what it was.
They demandeq immediate re-
Patriation to Ireland. They re-

: FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1947

Tigade to support the rebellion ~

fused to give up their arms.
They were returned to Ireland.
If my memory serves me right

they were interned. behind
barbed wire enclosures in an
attempt to keep them from

spreading news of what they
had learned. The interment did
not last long, however, in @
very short time an overwhelm-
ing majority of the boys had
broken loose and had spread
their news all over the country.

The Irish Christian Front col-
lapsed. Its leaders had to go
into hiding together with O’-
Duffy and Archbishop Fogarty.
_ Several hundred of the boys
who had been in O’Duffy’s bri-
gade joined Frank . Ryan and
the Irish contingent of the
British Section of the Interna;
tional Brigade, went back to
Spain and fought heroically in
defense of Spanish democracy,
against the fascist assault.

No Marxist should be guilty
‘of lumping the Irish people and
the Catholic Hierarchy into the
one heap. Nor can Ireland be
classed with Germany, Italy and
Portugal. McNally and his ec-

. Clesiastical friends do not and

cannot speak for the Irish peo-
ple any more than Donald Gor-
don speaks for the Canadian
people.
GARRY CULHANE.
Vancouver, B.C. .

Social allowances
Editor, Pacific Tribune:

I wish to call your attention
to the matter of social assist-
ance allowances; while there has
been a campaign for increased

old age pensions, you never
mention anything about  in-
creased social allowances, nor

does the daily press.

There are many aged and sick
persons drawing some sort of
social assistance, but no one
seems to care what becomes of
them. Some say, let them organ-
ize and help themselves, but
without help in this, such ad-
vice is useless.

Some time ago the city coun-
cil agreed to raise the’ allow-
ance to such people by $2.50
per month, but two cheques
have been issued since then —
without the above increase be-
ing included. The daily press
mentioned that the family unit
(husband and wife) allowance
was to be increased from $40
to $42.50 per month. I wish to
state that the family unit al-
lowance is only $32.60, and not
as the daily’ press had it. A.
Cheverton wrote a letter to the
Vancouver Sun on this matter,
and perhaps gave them’ the
wrong figures. Anyway I was
glad he brought the matter to
the attention of the public, and
I trust the Pacific Tribune will
raise its voice on this matter
also. ;

_ READER.
Vancouver, B.C. |
Deportee
Editor’s Note: The following

“is a condensation of a letter to
Bert Padgham

of Vancouver
from Hans Kist, former Van-
couverite, deported to Germany
in 1932 because of his active
work among Canada’s unem-
ployed during the early 30's.
We are sure it will be of inter-
est to many of our readers who
knew this German worker be-
fore ‘Iron Heel’ Bennett deliv-
ered him to the Hitler regime.

Dear Bert:

It has been a long time since
I wrote the last letter to you.
Now this terrible war is over

I want to try to get in touch

with you in Vancouver again.
Did I tell you already that I

~

Wate what you Pleate.

was in the concentration camp
in 1933? Of course we still were
organizing the workers. But it
went only until June. Then they
got us and put us where we

belonged according to their
policy. I have haq a time I

can tell you. You know, Bert,
we were locked up in ’32 in
Halifax at the immigration

sheds. That was easy compared
to the life and conditions at
the concentration camp.

Our work was to cultivate the
swamps all over Germany, That
wasn’t the hardest time I had
to go through but who knows
how it would have been if they
took hold of me a second time.
Yes, after the first half year
they were after me again.~ I
got away from Hamburg and
lived at my father’s place for
the next months unknown to
the police. Naturally, I couldn’t
stay long there,so I took to my
feet and my bike and travelled
through Germany without let-
ting the police know who and
where I was. After two years
time I came out in public again
but friends of mine tolq me
that the police were informed
of who I was so I escaped ‘into
Belgium and Holland for some
time. I had after to appear be-
fore the Gestapo a few times
and then it died down because
the war broke out. I was con-
scripted to the navy. Then I
was released until 1944. In Jan-

“uary of the same year they

hauled me up again. In May,
1945, I was a prisoner of war.
The Tommies got us at Wil-
helmshaven and in September
they sent me home. I had not
seen much of the war. You
know I belonged to a _ labor
unit not a fighting one.

If it had been a fighting one
I wouldn’t have been there very
long; the Tommies or anybody
else would have got me for a
prisoner.

I was prisoner interpreter for

the English and after I went
home this firm the AEG (Gen-

eral Electric Company) put me

to work with the Yankees at
the replacement camp.

‘You cannot imagine what
conditions are like here. Every
goddam city or fairly big town
is smashed’and blown to pieces.
Wesermunde-Bremerhaven  suf-
fers from the same _ disease.
Particularly Bremerhaven does-
n’t exist any more if it wouldn’t
be for the other two cities
connected with it. You see, Wes-
ermunde consists of what were
formerly three town, . Geste-
munde, Bremerhaven and Lehe,
which were amalgamated in
1934. Now we are short of
everything. Every week you can
receive four pounds of potatoes
and the Germans like potatoes
very much. It is far too little.
Fats, it makes no difference,
butter, margarine or lard, you
don’t get more than a quarter
of a pound every four weeks.
Terrible, isn’t it, and all the
other stuffs is approximately
the same. Of bread we are get-
ting now so much that you get
along just so. Reading mater-

jals are pretty poor and we

have nothing to educate our-
selves with. Party literature is
poor; you can buy some pam-
phlets but it isnot like it was
before 1933. Half of the popu-
lation is fed by the U.S. army
civilian kitchen, but only one
meal a day. It wasn’t splendid
when I was in Vancouver, but
better than in Germany today,
and I often think of you and
wish I was back again. Right
now we are fighting capitalism
again just the same as we did
before the war.” Sig ot

Yours, HANS.

Short Jabs by ol’ ut

IKE QUILL is one of the best-known union men in New York.
He is the leader of the Transport Workers’ Union. He is
not a’ communist, but he is a good union man just the same. He
has, like every other good unionist, been called a ‘Red’ by the
enemies of labor. His reply to that accusation is a very simple
one. He says he would rather be called a
Good and bad ‘Red’ by the rats than be called a rat by
the ‘Rede’.
“Pat” Sullivan, on the other hand, is different. Like Budenz,
one-time editor of the Daily Worker, he doesn’t mind being a rat
and seeking refuge under the skirts of a red-baiting priest. It is

hard on the rat of course, but when workers use that term they
don’t do so with any intention of insulting the rat.

In a book just published by Budenz, “This Is My Story,” he
confesses that his resignation from the Communist Party of the
U.S. was held up for months while “he fingered his rosary’ and
awaited the permission of Monseigneur Fulton Sheean to make

it public. It had to be timely and fit into the program of the red-
baiters.

It is apparent on the face of it, that the Sullivan incident is
part of a plan—to wreck thé Canadian Seamen’s Union and with
it the whole trade union movement in Canada, and further, as a
follow-up to the so-clled spy scare as a means to destroy the
LPP and dissipate its influence among the Canadian workers.

That it was planned may be seen from. two local news items.
First, a’ week before Sullivar. published his shameful confession,
members of the CSU were told by shipowner agents on the water-
front here that “by the end of the month, their union would be all
washed up.” Second, “Western Business and Industry” for March,
printed probably sometime in February, refers in its editorial to
the Sullivan sell out in these words: “Currently, Canadian news-
papers are making a big story of the resignation of ‘‘Pat” Sulli-
van of the Canadian Seamen’s Union. This, of course, is followed
by a venomous attack on the communists. Everything was set for
the “great. exposure.”

When Sullivan advises “all members of the CSU to quit the |
union” is he any way different to the shipowners who advised
them to do the same thing during their heroic struggle on the
Great Lakes for the eight-hour day a year ago, and at other times
too? Sullivan’s unwarranted advice, like that of all enemies of
labor, is_meant to create dissention, to confuse the workers and
render their unions useless as a wet rag so that they may be
exploited more thoroughly to the glory of their capitalist masters.

ELLING-OUT” is not a new phenomenon in the labor movement.
It has happened many times. In this case, on the evidence, it
is an open-and-shut’ case. _Harry Davis, acting-president of the
union, states that T. C. McManus, the union secretary, was offered
a bribe of $100,000 to sell the seamen during the discussions on the
Lakes strike, in the presence of Justice
Not all Judases! S. E. Richards. Aage Antonen, Lakes
=i vice-president, was also present and en-
dorses McManus’ claim. Richards, in answering} Harry Davis’
statement in a press release says the story is “definitely wrong. I
know how the rumor started but am not in a position to explain
the details.” That is the kind of evasion to be expected from a
lawyer. He is not in a “position to explain the details” because
there is nothing to explain. The word of two honest seamen is
worth more than the “explanations” of one capitalist judge any-
time. McManus refused $100,000. We wonder, how much did
Sullivan get? ‘

The pattern of action of these traitors is very similar. -Essel- _
wein-Leopold, when thrown cut of the Communist Party, disap-
peared, to become visible again only when he had to do the real
dirty work. Budenz disappeared into a Catholic seminary. Gou-
zenko has gone into hiding beyond human ken. Sullivan does the
disappearing act, too. On report says he has retired to a monas-
tery. He fears an “unavoidable accident.” :

Just why should Sullivan fear an “unavoidable accident”? Surely
not from the communists. Nothing happened to Esselwein-Leopold
in the twenty years or so since he was ditched by the communists
except that he has been made an inspector in the RCMP. —

If Sullivan can keep sober long enough, he may accident-

‘ally be made into a priest of one kind or another just as

Budenz was made into a professor in a Catholic college.

Of course there is always the chance that some of the Ca- _

tholic seamen whom he has sold out, may take a poke at

him—for good cause. \

All of these birds became patriotic but it is the patriotism Dr.
Johnson speaks of, “the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Gouzenko
says, “I was surprizeq curing the first days by the complete free-
dom of the individual which exists in Canada. ... What the
Canadian people have accomplished and are accomplishing here
under complete independence.” (Certainly not the ‘complete free-
dom’ of the seamen in the Lakes strike.) ‘

Sullivan writes: “As I watched the various new Canadians

receiving their citizenship papers, it made me realize what a won-
derful country we had here in Canada. ... I think I- have be-
come a Canadian citizen.’ Sullivan was a better Canadian citizen
before he sold himself, when he was fighting the battles of the
exploited, robbed and slave-driven seamen, than he is now. (By
the way, these two passages are written by the same “ghost” and
it is neither Gouzenko nor Sullivan.)
Esselwein-Leopold too, besides being a stool pigeon, is a pa-
triot. Ask Col. Hill. And Budenz is a patriot too. He has written
his book to prove it. The red baiters and communist haters all}
rushed to buy it (or at least to read it.)

They expected to hear exposures of “innocent fronts} and to
learn names, faces and accounts of activities of Moscow agents; of

‘nefarious plots” and so on. Max Lerner, in PM says if you read — a

the book from that angle “you will be disappointed.” 3
“You can read the book for its inner-party gossip. That was

the. part of its interest for me but it was terribly meager pick-—
ings.” About Moscow big shots, “his evidence is ‘nebulous’,” in

fact, Lerner doubts their existence.

John Chamberlain, in the N.Y. Times, writes that the antici-
pations which have been aroused, however, will not be satisfied.”
There is nothing in the book about mysterious Moscow agents. His

_ meeting with men from Moscow are fleeting and tantalizing.

But it is part of the campaign against the workers.
: : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5

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