2,000 MAY RETURN

Sons of Freedom delegation
leaves for talks in USSR

A four-man delegation of Sons of Freedom Doukhobors is on its. way to Moscow to
discuss return of the sect to the Motherland its members left some 60 years ago to escape

Czarist persecution.

Freedomite secretary Bill Moojelsky of Shore Acres told the Pacific Tribune that Soviet
Ambassador Dmitri Chuvahin, who met with a Doukhobor delegation some months ago in
Ottawa, had arranged for the group to hold talks with a special committee of the Soviet
government which handles religious matters.

Tax arrears biting

into cash advances

By W. E. WIGGINS

. When Prime Minister John Diefenbaker gave prairie grain
frowers a pre-election promise to institute advance. payments
on grain stored on their farms for lack of space in the elevators,
farmers naturally assumed that such advances would be avail-
able to them to use at their own discretion. There are always
pileg up bills to be met from the proceeds of the harvest and
outlays ta be made for the year ahead.

- Now grain growers com-
plain that it’s not working
out that way for those most
in need of these advances.
The Saskatchewan Associa-
tion of Rural Municipalities
has already entered its claim
to priority of settlement of
arrears of taxes out of these
advances. In a published
statement the association
claims to have the support of
the federal minister of agri-
culture, as well as officials of
the Canadian Wheat Board
and the .elevator companies.
Rural municipalities natur-
ally suffer financially from
the fact that average farm

. Income over the last 30 years

has been about half as large
as non-farm income, as shown
in the report of the Royal
Commission on Agriculture
and Rural Life recently pub-

lished.

Back in the Hungry Thir-
ties a law was in operation
requiring elevator agents to
make grain cheques payable
jointly to the grower and the
municipality in cases where
taxes were in arrears. That
law still stands, but farmers
had hoped that the govern-
ment’s cash advances would
be exempt from its applica-
tion.

The Saskatchewan Farmers’
Union has come out strongly
for exception of cash ad-
vances from this proposed
seizure. Prime Minister Die-
fenbaker represents a Saskat-
chewan constituency and may
find it advisable, with an-
other federal election coming
up, to avoid the charge that
his cash advance bill was just
another Tory trick.

“We expect to. visit several
possible sites for relocation in
the USSR,” said Moojelsky.
“Tf we are satisfied with the
arrangements we have been
given authority to complete
the deal.”

Other members of the dele-

gation are Joseph Podovini- '

koff of Hilliers, John Cher-
noff of West Grand Forks and
Nick Kanigan of Appledale.

Some 2,500 Sons of Freedom
have already signed to make
the move from Canada to the
Soviet Union, and if the dele-
gation finds a suitable loca-
tion many more Doukhobors
are expected to join the mass
exodus.

Children seized by the
RCMP and now held in a san-
atorium “school” at New Den-
ver would be released to join
their parents if an agreement
is signed between the Soviet
government and the Freedom-
ite delegation. The children

were taken from their par-
ents when the latter refused
to allow them to attend pub-
lic schools, claiming that under
the B.C. educational system
war is “glorified” in the teach-
ing of history. The Freedom-
ites are a pacifist sect.

A delegation of four left Vancouver Friday last week
te discuss with Soviet embassy officials at: Ottawa possible
emigration of some 2,500 members of the Sons of Freedo™
sect to the Soviet Union. From Ottawa the delegation
fly to Moscow for further talks. Show here are two mem¥
bers of the delegation, John Chernoff (left) and Nic#

Kanigan.

Auto workers press
demands on Ottawa

WINDSOR

Hundreds of jobless auto
workers organized by United
Auto Workers locals, paraded
with banners through down-
town streets here just before
Christmas.

Action by organized labor
is bringing positive results to
laid off auto workers.

Persistent demand has

MOVING SALE

DRASTIC STOCK REDUCTION

‘There’s even a free table!

337 WEST PENDER STREET —- MARINE 5836

wrung an announcement fro
Works Minister Howard Ca
instructing Central Mortéa
and Housing Corporation °

ficials that where evicti@

threaten for non-payment
unemployed persons,
“stop any such action.”

No foreclosures will ta
place on CMHC houses own!
by unemployed auto work?
in Windsor. ‘

FIVE DAYS — January 10, 11, 13, 14, 15

Progressive Books — Marxist Works — Paperbacks

PEOPLE'S CO-OPERATIVE BOOKSTORE

& This will be the largest sale we have ever held. We expect to move to larger premises at the end of the month.
Take advantage of real bargains. |

January 10, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE