Cll Ce
m™ | sic am)
al A IDE

i erent

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28,

ni ee!

< E
wy i Nii i) EN BY

seed VA Wid iin [eh Sec

1951]

DiNiES;

avenue Bil

Protest sweeps

Burnaby

against

Standard Oil deal

BURNABY, B.C.

Burnaby councillors were warned this week taat thelr proposal to
sell a 72-acre-tract of land to Standard Oil in an area where Standard
and Shell Oil already have refineries threatens North Bumaby with,

potential disaster.

“‘Not only are you prepared to spoil one of the finest residential

districts on this coast,” declared
a spokesman for one of the dele-
tions which packed council cham-
bers Monday this weekg “but you
are jeopardizing the homes and
lives of every one in the district
by surrounding them with crack-
ing plants and tank farms.”

Since it was disclosed that
Burnaby’s CCF-dominated coun-
cil was trying to push through
the land sale to Standard Oil
without reference to objections
voiced by ratepayers’, community
and other organizations, the pro-
test movement has snowballed.

For two Mondays in succes-
sion councillors have faced dele-
gations sent by organizations and
protest meetings.

On Thursday last week, Capitol
Hill Ratepayers Association, after
hearing Councillor McSorley
(Non-Partisan) outline the coun-
cil’s position, voted to table a
protest resolution pending call-
ing of a special meeting on the
issue.

MecSorley came under the fire
of some members for his state-
ment that if the council was re-
quired by law to seek a. public
vote on the issue he was in favor
of getting ratepayers’ approval,
but if the council had the power
to proceed with the sale without
referring it to a vote then he was

in favor of concluding the sale
now. ‘ ;
“You mean you're only going

to let the pedple depide this issue
if you’re obliged to?” oye member
challenged him.

McSorley hesitated a moment.
“Yes,” he said.

He added that he did not be-
lieve public opposition was as
great as it was made out to be.
“But if you want to prove it to
us, why don’t you go around
with a petition?” he suggested.

“We'll take you up on that,”
retorted a member.

The petition, which already has
scores of names, was launched at
a protest meeting, held in Nor-

burn Hall the following Friday

night. Called by ‘Vancouver
Heights and Capitol Hill rate-
payers, it was addressed by Mrs.
Betty Griffin .and Miss Velma
Downton.

Charging councillors with lack
of vision, Mrs. Griffin condemned
the council's proposal to grant a@
66-foot easement across Confed-
eration Park in order to link the
tract Standard Oil wants to buy
on the east side of the park with
the present Standard Oil plant
on the west side.

“Confederation Park will be
squeezed between two oil proper-
ties,” she declared. “How long
will it be before Standard Oil
Sries to expand those properties
and encroach still further on our
park? If we hope to preserve
any waterfront facilities for our
children the time to do it is now.”

Mrs. Griffin contrasted Burna-
by council’s “too eager attempts
to hand waterfront tracts to in-
dustry” with the foresight dis-
played by Vancouver pioneers in
setting aside Stanley Park, and

reminded her audience that only
public vigilance had prevented in-
dustry “from grabbing sections”
of that park.”

Both Councillor McSorley and
Councillor George Isherwood,
CCF chairman of the council’s
special committee recommending
the sale, appeared at the meeting
but, sensing the overwhelming
sentiment against them, left af-
ter passage of a resolution op-
posing the park easement and de-
manding additional lands for
park purposes.
- headed by Miss Downton, was
elected, to present the protest to
the council. °

At Monday’s council meeting
two other delegations; one from
National Federation of Labor
Youth’s Burnaby club, headed by
Alec Kucher, the other from a
group of Capitol Hill ratepayers,
for whom M. Perrett acted as
spokesman, presented their pro-
tests. :

Reeve Beamish’s attitude was
expressed in-his lack of sympathy
for Miss Downton when, in her
nervousness, she became confus-

_ ed on one point.

“Why didn’t you memorize your
speech?” he sneered. “You can’t
be very convinced of your case?’

“Shame,” cried a woman.

“If the councillors would stop —

mumbling to each other I might

be able to state my case,” declar- -

ed Miss Downion.

A letter was read to council
from Standard Oil’s legal rep-
resentatives revealing that the
$75,000 purchase price for the 72

_acres was actually paid on Aug-—

ust 16. The letter high-handedly
demanded that the land be sold
only on an acreage basis, with
all interior lines (road allow-
ances) “ancelled and stated that
the land would otherwise be of
no use to Standard Oil.

Reeve Beamish said the coun-
cil’s position was not to oppose
Standard Oil’s demand, and the
letter was referred to the coun-
cil’s special gommittee.

Anothér letter, read at the coun-
cil’s previous meeting, from the

A delegation,

Gansdinn unionists on Soviet tour

Ten Canadian workers are on a goodwill tour of the Soviet Union to study first-hand living and

working conditions of Soviet workers.

shown above.

Mrs. Margaret Popoff, Harry Colegate.

Invited by the trade union movement, a
Left to right: Dewar Ferguson, Neil Jacobson, David Biderman, Archie Hamilton, ,

zroup of them are

Total of signatures
to peace petition in |

province exceeds 86,000

Bighty- six thousad people in Pritish Golgi have aeied the world-
wide petition calling for a meeting of tke five great powers to conclude a pact of

peace.

Council announced this week.
“Tn British Columbia we have concluded the organized collection of sig
’ Ray Gardner council executive secretary, stated. “Now

natures to thé petition,’

we enter a new phase of the campaign for a pact of peace: to open up discussion, to win support for a

The exact figure, as of Septer ber 25, is 86,440, British Columbia Peace

pact of peace among public bodies, among all manner of social, cultural, religious andilnbor orgenizations.”
He reported that Vancouver Peace Assembly will appear before city ‘council at 2 p.m. Tuesday,

October 16, to seek endorsation of the principle of a peace pact.
“As Dr. James Endicott has pointed out, our ‘proposition’ to the Canadian “ons is a simple

one: we must choose between peace through negotiation or war.
This is our proposal,”

through negotiation.

(Speaking in Toronto earlier
this ‘month, Dr. Endicott said:
“Unless there is a pact of peace,
there will be war. ‘here is no
other way; in the present tension,
to end the crisis, and make a new
start for peace, than through a

‘ meeting of the five great powers.

_ every farm, to every rural and ur-.

municipal solicitor, advising coun- ‘

cil that one strip of the easement
sought by Standard Oil was crown
land and could not be sold with-
out a public hearing, was stricken
from the agenda.

(‘That iss why my message to
the Canadian peace movement—
yes, to the Canadian people—is:
the fight for the five-power peace
pact has only just begun. The
campaign has only just startéd.
The thing to do is to take this
message into every Canadian
home, into every factory and to

ban municipal ‘council, to every

‘provincial legislatura and every

member of that legislature, to
every MP and to the federal par-
liament, to every church, every
union, every ratepayers’ associa-
tion, every youth group, ito every
community.

(“There is not a single Can-
adian who cannot be reached with
this message, who cannot be ask-
ed for an endorsement of the five-
power peace pact proposal.”’)

British Communist party
-to name 25 candidates |

LONDON
The continuous rise in living
costs in consequence of the Labor
government’s Tory-supported re-
armament program will be the
main Y\ssue in the British general
election October 25. Labor and
Conservatives are contesting all
615 seats, but the Liberals, with
478 candidates in 1950, may run
in less than 100.

‘

3 é
The Communists are entering
candidates in 25 ridings, else-
where calling upon working peo-

ple to defeat the Tory offensive

and compel social advance, in-
cluding support of a five-power
peace pact and J eagaee of the
armaments burden.’

‘John Campbell, ‘editor ‘of the
Daily Worker, will oppose Win-
ston Churchill.

.

Gardner said.

The only honest choice, then, is peace

Australia gives
smashing defeat

to Menzies gov't _

SYDNEY

By rejecting the Menzies government’s bid to obtain police state
powers through a national referendum the working people of Australia
have administered a defeat to the warmongers whose repercussions are

being felt around the world.

Although complete figures were
not available as this dispatch
was written, the government had
already conceded defeat with
“NiO” votes exceeding “Yes” votes
by more than 150,000. ,

The referendum, on which Aus-
tralians voted last Saturday,
would have empowered the fed-
eral government to outlaw the
Communist party and, in effect
all other organizations opposed to
government policy, destroy all
democratic rights and impose a
police state control over the poli-
tical activities 4na thoughts of
the people.

Prime Minister Robert Men-
zies’ Liberal-Country Party gov-
ernment originally sought to ob-
tain these powers by introducing
legislation at Canberra designed
to outlaw the Communist party,
bar Communists from holding
trade union positions and restrict-
ing ®other trade union rights.

The Australian Supreme Court
ruled that Menzies’ legislation ex-
ceeded the federal government’s
powers under the constitution.

Menzies then’ dissolved parlia-
ment and fought an’ election on
the false issue of anti-commun-
ism, using the campaign to whip
up war hysteria. His government
was returned with a small major-
ity.

Last Saturday,'after one of the ‘
most bitterly fought campaigns

in the country’s history; the Aus-
tralian’ people refused to vote
away their democratic heritage
and registered what was tanta-
mount to a no confidence vote
in Menzies’ policies of commit
ting Australia to American wat
adventures in Asia, signing away
- Australia’s Pens by agreeing
to Japanese rearmament, and
sacrificing the living standards of

the Australian people to war|pre —

parations,

To achieve their victory the
working people of Australia,
spurred by Labor and Communist,
trade union and peace leaders;
united their forces in a country-
wide campaign for a “No” vote-

Committees were formed i?
plants and cémmunities. Auto
cavaleades toured the country

holding meetings among farmers
and farm workers.

The outcome, as Herbert Evatt,
Labor party leader, declared last
weekend, was that “Australia has
given a verdict that will hearte?

~all true lovers of liberty through-

out the world and that becomes
the shining example of vitality
‘and vigor with which democracy
can assert itself in an hour 9
crisis.” ; \

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —. SEPTEMBER 28, 1951 — PAGE 1%