Okanagan

By MAURICE RUSH

The St. Laurent Government's dollar policies by
closing the British and other ready markets,

threaten our apple growers with ruin

HE apple is king in the Okanagan.

This lovely and

fertile valley has grown fat in the last seven years
from its orchards, and the continued prosperity and secur-
ity of a population almost doubled since 1940 depends on
the marketing of such famous apples as the Mac’s and

Delicious.

But the kingdom of the apple is hein severely shaken
this year. There 1 is a widespread feeling of insecurity. Many
people feel the apple boom is drawing to an end. The

reason:

for the first time since 1940 there are no visible

markets for at least one third of the crop estimated this

year at about six million boxes.
than one third before the year is

The crisis in the Okanagan Val-
ley arises from the loss of the
overseas market—particularly ‘the
British market — and from the
profiteering of big business con-
cerns such as the railroads and
fruit brokers both of which are
putting the squeeze on the grow-
ers.

The loss of the British market
is a hard blow, and it hasn’t en-
deared the St. Laurent govern-
ment’s policies to the people of
the Okanagan. Those policies, by,
tying Canada’s economy to the
American dollar, are closing off
trade with countries like Britain,
which haven’t sufficient dollars
to buy our apples, lumber, and
other produsts, although sorely
needing them.

Among the growers in the
Okanagan there is a strong feel-
ing that some way should be found
to barter B.C. apples for British
goods-——-those we in this province
need and now have to buy from
the United States. They point out
that if such an arrangement
could be made it would be bene-
ficial to the British people as
well as ourselves.

The loss of the overseas market
has also been followed by a nar-
rowing of the domestic market.
In a conversation with a group of
growers I was told that the freight
rates increase early last spring
will cost the Okanagan growers
close to a million dollars more
to market their apples on the
prairies.

The result is that the price of
apples is being pushed up so that
consumers cannot afford to buy
them. B.C. apple sales are expect-
ed to drop sharply on the prairie
market this year. -

One grower gave me an ex-
ample of the “chunk” taken by
the railroads. A few weeks ago
he sent four boxes of apples
weighing 200 pounds to Moose
Jaw. The freight costs were $3.75
-—nearly two cents per pound!

But the railroads are only one
arm of the economic pincers. The
other is the fruit broker through
whom the BC. Tree Fruits sell
their apples.

I was told by some growers that
last year the brokers on the
prairie got a 10-cent margin on
each box. This year they are re-
ported to be demanding a higher
margin, which is expected to be
between 40 and 50 cents on each
box. :

No wonder many a grower is
concerned about his returns this
year. Some growers have mort-

And is may yet be more
over.

gaged their property and bought
new equipment, and there is feer
that if returns are small, they will
be unable to meet their mortgage
and equipment payments— and
everybody has a pretty good idea
what that means.

e

Wholesale dumping of Okan-
agan apples*seems to be in pros-
pect if some way isn’t found to
market the apples.

During the war years every-
thing, even the culls, was being
‘shipped. Now growers, scanning
their returns, find that as high as
50 percent of the apples they send
to the packing houses are listed
as culls—with charges for hand-
ling them deducted from their re-
turns.

Even with such a high percent-
age of apples rejected for trifling
blemishes, packing houses are
bursting with apples of all kinds.

The provincial government un-
der its marketing legislation is
responsible for the handling of
the entire crop—in this case
through the B.C. Tree Fruits
Ltd., a set-up, incidentally, which
is widely criticized by many grow-
ers.

So far officials have denied that
dumping of apples is anticipated.
Charles Halden, an official of the
fruit growers association, re-
cently stated: “There is no more
wholesale dumping. Every effort
is being made instead to explore

markets abroad and to stimulate _

a greater consumption of Okan-
agan apples at home.” But Hay-
den doesn’t say what will happen
if the markets are not found.

It’s no secret in the Okanagan
that there is a terrific waste of
apples this year through higher
grading, and using of tons of ap-
ples for juice, in order to cut
down the number of boxes to be
marketed. This cuts down the
return to the grower.

In a discussion with a group of
15 growers I was told that there
are at present 120,000 boxes of

‘Wealthy’s rotting in the packing

houses. It is of course hard to
verify this, but there is reason
to believe that there is some truth
in it. The Wealthy’s are being de-
liberately kept back so that the
higher priced apples can be mar-
keted.
eo

There’s a very large consumer
market for apples in B.C. and
throughout Canada, and there’s
no reason why apples should be
dumped or wasted. The people of
Canada are not getting enough
apples. But if a large part of this
year’s crop is not to be wasted,
and if a fair return is to be guar-

anteed to the grower. it will be
necessary for the government to
underwrite the apple crop; guar-
antee a minimum price to the

growers; and proceed to market
our health-giving apples at a price
which the people can afford. This
appears to be the only solution if

wholesale dumping is to be avert-
ed, and the Okanagan Valley
saved from a threatening eco-
nomic catastrophe this year.

The ‘black ghosts’ of Europe

E U.S. State Department is
accused here of “hindering,
delaying and obstructing” the
prosecution of German Foreign
Office officials, recently tried be-
fore the Nuremberg War Crimes
Tribunal in Germany. A decision
on the case, which concluded in
November, is expected shortly.
John J. Posner, 31 year-old ex-
army officer, charges that state
department officials seriously
hampered his efforts to unearth
the mass of evidence needed to
round out the case under the
“aggressive war count” against
Ernst von Weizsaecher, Hitler’s
secretary of state from 1938 to
1943, Gustav von Moyland, who
theld the position from 1943 until
the Nazis defeat, and four other
topflight diplomats.
As chief counsel assigned to
‘prosecuting the diplomats under

‘this count, Posner sought to do

this job well, “to make out the
best possible case against these
men, two of whom were known
as the black ghosts of Europe.”

They were the diplomats, the
brains behind Hitler’s political
machine, the men who softened
up countries on the political front
before Nazi armed might struck.
Von Weizsaecher “was the For-
eign Office” although Joachim von
sRjibbentrop held the wttitle of
foreign minister, Posner pointed
out. (Von Ribbentrop was hang-
ed after being found guilty of
waging aggressive war by the

Nuremberg International War
Crimes Tribunal in 1946.)
Busy im Nuremberg, Posner

asked state department officials
in Berlin to send him key docu-
ments which were the heart of
the prosecution's case against the
six Nazis.. But the state depart-
ment failed to cooperate. One
official tried to excuse the refusal
to assist Posner by saying the
state department was planning
a history of the period and needed
the documents itself.

After months of futile attempts
to get the. documents, Posner

went to Berlin himself and final-
ly received permission to trans-
fer two of his research assist-
ants to Berlin to work on the
project.

In the midst of preparing his
evidence, Posner was visited by
a man from Robert Murphy’s
office. Murphy was then and is
now the state department’s
political adviser to General
Lucius Clay. Posner said the
attitude of Murphy’s represen-
tative was “show me,” because
the wasn’t convinced “the Ameri-
cans had any case against the
Foreign Office boys.” Apparently
he remained unconvinced, since
the state department continued
its policy of non-cooperation.

In addition to its great reluct-
‘tance to hand over the Berlin
documents, Posner remarked, the
state also refused to “grant other
essentials which I requested to
implement my case—namely pass-
ports and visas—so that I could
visit countries to trace down
evidentiary leads.”

PLAYGROUNDS

LOTS

ge a
Effie Jones Says:
@ KICK BCER POLITICS OUT OF CITY HALL
@ WIN BACK LOWER FARES AND PASSES

@ BUILD MORE HOMES, SCHOOLS, PARKS, AND

@ INTRODUCE A GRADUATED BUSINESS TAX
e OPEN CITY- OPERATED DOWNTOWN PARKING

Our Next Mayor EFFIE JONES On The Air
Monday through Friday — CKMO — 6:55 p.m.

FOR MAYOR....ELECT

JONES, Effie |X

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 3, 1948 — PAGE 4