British Columbia in th

E. frantic preparations for atomic war place
British Columbia right in the front line. The

warmongers are already mortgaging our future,
and that of our children. They are preparing to con-
script our people, lending our territory for war maneuvers
against our neighbors and turning over our resources,
valuable uranium and heavy water from Trail, to a
foreign power—imperialist America. And this is only
~ the prelude to the plan to make British Columbia and
the Yukon the springboard for aggressive war against
the Soviet Union and the peoples of Europe and Asia,
_-through deals on the Alaska highway and the projected
_ American domination of the B.C. government-owned
Pacific Great Eastem Railway. The undeniable pat-
tern of this war-making plot stands out clearly.

This month British Columbia notes the 100th an-
niversary of the establishment of local government—a
“hundred years which have brought to light the rich re-
sources with which our province is blessed—a hundred
years of successive Tory and Liberal administrations
which have held from the people and diverted to the
spoilers and exploiters, the rich heritage which should
be ours.

Today their hundred years of misrule is crowned
by the fact that B.C. is being placed right in the cockpit
of a hell-bomb war. Not only have our skies been

for the transport of atom-bombers, our roads
and railways geared to the launching of war across our
north country, but our peaceful land is being violated
by the provocative thump of the war-boots of maneuver-
ing troops of a foreign power, the U.S.

Canada’s agreement for standardization of arma- ~

ments automatically leads to stock-piling on Canadian
soil, thereby endangering thousands of homes in arsenal
centers like Kamloops as immediate military targets in
the event of war.

But it is not only the horrible dangers of a war
that threaten B.C. The “‘cold war” is on—and the
consequences have already hit home, exactly as the
Labor-Progressive party over two years ago, warned
they would.

The policy of violation of Canadian independence
and subservience to Wall Street’s war plans finds ex-
pression in the ever-increasing penetration of American
capital. The struggle over whether the Alberta oil
pipeline shall service the B.C. interior or travel via a
U.S. route, the virtual giving-away of vast B.C. re-
sources to big American monopolies in the celanese and
aluminum industries, the shipment of iron and other
ores across the line for smelting, all represent the appli-
cation of this policy.

Between the years 1926 and 1947, U.S. direct
investments in Canadian businesses admost doubled, ris-
ing from $1,402 million to $2,544 million.

Economic crisis already here

eae Coalition government of this: province, no less
than the St. Laurent government, is a ready ac-
complice in Wall Street’s conspiracy, and is leading us
to disaster. It is clear today that the deluge of propa-
ganda regarding industrial expansion during the pro-
vincial election campaing (which the CCF night wing
leadership, by failing to expose it, played no small part
in helping to put over) was nothing but a hoax to cover
up the serious economic crisis big business knew was

about to hit B.C.

Unemployment has risen by over 40 percent in the
last three years, according to even the out-of-date, crisis-
hiding figures of the National Employment Service.

Last month over 15 percent of the working force
in B.C. was unemployed. In December the Social As-
sistance Bureau at Victoria admitted a 50 percent in-
crease in relief rolls. As long ago as last November,
the press reported more than 10,000 British Columbians
had run out of unemployment insurance credits, and
additional hundreds were running out weekly, as unem-
ployment spread and periods of employment in the basic
industries shortened. -oS"

Thousands face acute hardship, and there is actual

- starvation, as Vancouver City Welfare officials have been
compelled to admit. Among these victims of the “cold
war’ are heroes of World War II.

Ottawa, claiming the crisis is only “seasonal,”
evades responsibility and Victoria passes the buck by
refusing to take any action. Liberal, Tory and social
democratic politicians alike are trymg desperately to hide

the fact that another cyclical crisis is setting in over the
entire capitalist world.

Immediate cause of the severity of the crisis here
is the loss of vital export markets directly resulting from
the ‘“‘cold war’ policies and the Marshall plan, which

enjoys the ungestioned support not only of the Liberals:
and Tories, but to their eternal discredit, the Winches:

and Coldwells, the Alsburys and Mahoneys, the Mil-

lards and Conroys as well.

‘Cold war‘ ruins BC markets

RITISH COUMBIA is dependent on its export

trade for the disposal of 52 cents out of every
dollar’s worth of production. In normal times, states
the B.C. government’s “Perry” Rehabilitation Report
(1945), “Over 70 percent of our lumber and logs were
sold outside Canada; 100 percent of our base” metals

~ output was shipped out, of the province; 75 percent of

our fish products went to export trade; 75 percent of
our shingles, half our plywood, nearly all our doors, 90
percent of our pulp and paper, and 90 percent of our
fresh apples.” j

Just as the LPP warned over a year ago, British
Columbia’s market outlets are being slashed to the ruina-
tion point by the government’s subservience to the dic-
tates of Wall Street. Because of the Marshall plan
and Yankee-dictated currency devaluation, B.C. was
only able to sell Britain (our most important pre-war
market) 200 million feet of lumber in :1949—one-
seventh of the 1947 sale. A further cut for 1950 had
been indicated. And. while a market for a substantial
part of Britain’s former réquirements has been tempor-
arily found in the U.S., unemployment in the lumber
industry is mounting sharply there and powerful lobbies
are already in Washington endeavoring to get’ a ban
on Canadian lumber imports.

Another important basic industry of this province,
fishing, has been: similarly hit, with loss of the important
United Kingdom market for canned salmon.

The pulp industry, which saw rapid expansion
during the war years, was so severely undermined by
market curtailments that three of the province’s six big
mills were compelled to close down completely for a
good part of last year. Pulp orders have picked up in
recent months a little—but that may well be only the
results of the closing of the world’s largest mill in New-
foundland. The Canadian Western Lumber Company
was forced to abandon projected plans for construction
of its $15 million pulp project at Duncan Bay.

Farmers must be subsidized

GRICULTURE, our fourth major industry, has

_ been even worse hit. Loss of markets last year
through the Marshall plan struck a hard blow to thous-
ands of poultry, small fruit and apple farmers.

With Britain’s order of our famed Okanagan ap-
ples cut to less than one third of previous requirements,
and with scarcely half of the almost eight million box
crop of 1949 sold,-the B.C. Tree Fruits Board was
induced to donate a million boxes to Britain rather
than see them rot. But the worst part of this “Mar-
shall plan” deal to hold the British market and to help
the needy people of Britain was not what the apple
growers of the Okanagan lost on the million boxes of
apples they gave away free.

In the first place, the apples received free by Bni-
tain’s ‘Labor’? government from the Okanagan farmers,
are now being sold at the regular price to the needy
children and people of Britain, presumably to help make
up for the Marshall-planned dollar shortage. Secondly,
American apple growers, just a few miles across the
border in the neighboring Wenatchee Valley who gave
half a million boxes are being reimbursed in full out of
Marshall Plan funds, which are denied to Canadian
farmers.

But that isn’t all. This free gift will cost the
Okanagan growers an estimated $1,500,000 they can
ill afford in view of the lost markets. Here’s how it
works.

The big packing houses charge $1.10 per box for
grading and cold storage charges. Do they intend to

make their share to the contribution? Why, of course —

not! Do the box factories intend to donate the boxes?
Absolutely not, these are charged to the grower at 40
cents per box. Does the wealthy CPR with its all-time
high profits, intend to haul the apples free to the Pacific
Coast where they will be placed on boats at a cost of
26 cents. Of course not, full freight charges will be
chalked up to the grower. The total cost, quite apart
from the loss of the donation of the apples, amounts to

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 31, 1950 — PAGE ©

potatoes and other fruits and vegetables hav

$1.76 per box, which includes a nice slice of juicy
for the CPR, the lumber barons and the packing #
poly, while the grower holds the bag.

For that shameful situation the Marshall
responsible, in spite of the fact that Harold Wi
less than Byron Johnson and Herbert Anscomtl
not admit it.

The LPP supports the demand of the fa i

a government subsidy based on the average Pf
the last three years. Only such a policy can sav
from immediate ruimation. :

‘Dollar curtain’ shuts of

AST fall the United Nations Food and

tural Organization meeting in Washington °
ed the situation through its Director General N. &
as “‘a terrible paradox, which finds farmers in som
threatened with ruin by plenty, while millions in
lands are oppressed by poverty and hunger.”

That important pronouncement has bee?
real point in B.C. during this past wint
is well known that hundreds of thousands i
and China have died from famine and the rav4
floods and war. In China the people have tak
bold steps have been taken to solve the problem
ger, reconstruction has commenced. But Chian8
arid floods, have left deep scars. The immediat
of China and India are great and pressing if
are not to starve.

At the same time, tons of B.C. apples:

dumped or lie rotting because there is said t?
market for them. Our farmers today face 3
plenty,’’ because between Canada and her natural
markets, a terrible and deliberate “paradox”
created.
This paradox is the Marshall plan, where?!
customers are restricted in their purchases by 4
dollar curtain hung up between our abundance #
starvation. Britain can only buy from Cana
Ylankee dollars—which the Washington pa
are determined she won't have, except on their §
That there are markets a plenty for British”
bia’s agriculture, fishery, pulp, mineral and lumP®,
ducts cannot be denied. Increased freight rat
uation, rising costs to consumers, all these devel
have added to the crisis in B.C. agriculture, just a
have eaten into the living standards of the ind
workers.
But the market ‘‘paradox” is a Yankee m
designed to bring Canada to the heel of Wall
finance capital. Producing as it does 60 percent
goods manufactured in the capitalist sector of the

Trade with

Te ay of China would meat
tens of thousands of Canada’s 450s"
employed. There is a huge market in
foodstuffs, lumber, chemical fertilizers, ™
cotion goods, tools, telephone and telegraph
cement, gasoline, diesel oils, medical supplies
ticides, alcohol, radio equipment and scoré,
things needed for reconstruction and industt
which is already under way. 7

Trade with China would vitally af
tire economic life of Canada, and particu,
economic life of British Columbia which *
Pacific rim with this massive nation comPr
fifth of all manknd. One might well asks
we wailing for?

But what has China to trade for ths
pulp, fish, farm and manufactured produ
urgently want to sell? First, the China
(1937-45) shows that China has rich ™
serves, tungsten, manganese, iron, tin, a
phur, gypsum, antimony, gold, silver, ©"
bauxite.

As an example, a vast billion-P™,,
aluminum plant has been projected for the *
because of the ready availability of almos
and cheap hydro resources. Aluminum \
most useful metals is not found here ™