REPORT FROM PARLIAMENT HILL’ Canadian flag fries to unfurl even in harsh winds of Ottawa AT half-mast for nigh on 10 years now, the issue of a dis- tinctive official Canadian flag, is _ struggling hard to once again rise and unfurl itself in the harsh _ political winds that blow around Parliament. Hill. Most significant of the grow-. ing popular demands wais ‘the re- solution unanimously endorsed at last year’s Trades and Labor Congress Convention in Regina ‘when representatives of 600,000 unionists called for a distinctive flag and the singing of O Canada at its regular conventions. Back in 1945 a joint Commons- Senate Committee came up with a flag design — the presently used Red Ensign, with the small Union Jack in the lef-hand cor- ner and a golden maple leaf on the right. It was quickly hauled down, when the wind and the eyes.of ‘MPs first caught up with it. The British Union Jack symbol was the fly in the dintment. t + nm Jean Francois “Pouliot, Quebec EDITORIAL OFT MENTIONED, SELDOM QUOTED Liberal MP, in a speech to To- _ronto’s Board of Trade recently blasted the Red Ensign and its ‘three lions passant guardant, a lion rampant, a harp, three fleur- de-lis and three maple leafs.” In a bitter comment, he sug- gested. that those who think a distinctive flag is should let Canada “revert to the past and keep a Union flag alone —a full size Union flag—to show all countries that we have re- gressed a century backward to colonial status.” His own proposal is for a bright green maple leaf in the centre of a field of red-as a de- sign for Canada’s flag. Just prior to Pouliot’s speech there was the exchange in .the House of Commons, when an- other Quebec MP, and independ- ent, Fernand Girard wanted to know what Immigration and Citi- zenship __ Minister Pickers meant in a current widely quot _address when he said the Red “official Ensign was Canada’s flag.” premature Prime Minister St. Laurent re- plied that he could not find the word “official” in the minister’s speech, nor in the special order- in-council still in force which “re- quires that the Red Ensign be flown as the EUR Canadian Z flag. ” There was one new “break this year when first reading was giv- en on February 3 to a private bill outlining a procedure for getting Canada a new flag. It was introduced by A. H. Holling- - worth, Liberal’: member for York Centre. Hollingsworth is asking that the secretary of state prepare a design, submit it for approval to the cabinet and then bring it be- fore parliament. But there’s one thing missing, a clear direction as to the character of the design. The bill wil-k undoubtedly founder and die unless the .gov- ernment picks it up and does something with it to still the ‘growing clamor across the land for a new deal on the flag issue. MARK FRANK Daily Worker, only newspaper, sells ‘at its price, not its value’ RE you got a Daily Worker? All London was asking that question on Thursday last week when the paper resumed publi- cation after a lapse of 12 days -——the only London daily to pub- lish. The Daily Worker could not publish because its composing room staff stopped work on in- structions of the London Typo- graphical Society’s executive. _ The dispute which still prevent- ed other London dailies from pub- _ lishing this week is between the Newspaper Proprietors’ A’ssocia- tion and the Amalgamated En- gineering Union and Electrical Trades Union. , People besieged the Daily Worker office this week. Com- munists eager to ‘boost sales, hewspaper sellers anxious to earn a living, spivs ready to cash ‘in on the city’s hunger for news. But because of the agreement with the London Typographical Society. which limits the number of copies the Daily Worker may print to the maximum printed im any week during the past six months there was an acute short- age. A copy of the Daily Worker was displayed in the window of the Communist party’s West London area office in Rochester Row—and the crowd trying to read it caused a traffic jam. In Soho, where they specialize in offering the elsewhere unob- — tainable at a boosted price, copies of the Daily Worker changed hands at one shilling a copy. But Editor J. R. Campbell, speaking at the annual staff din- — ner, observed drily: “The paper should be sold at not at its value.” Because of the strike, the Daily Worker’s editorial, “Sack the lot,’ was referred to—but ‘not G quoted—by daily . papers Canada and the Pe This is what it sai The evil that Sa pene lives after them—and this is especial- ly true of Tory prime ministers. There will be much hypocriti- acrass cal slush spoken and written about Churchill during these coming days—all of it grist to the Tory election machine. — During the last general elec- —— a goons conviction grew APR “a danger to peace. central office was upset that he at its price and among workers that Churchill’s attraction to military glory was The Tory should be regarded by so TORY as “a warmonger.” After the election, a carefully crganized and sustained campaign was developed to break this down. He was presented as a great man whose final ambition was to ensure peace in the world. Many of his bitterest oppon- ents thought that he had become at long last a reformed charac- ter. On May 11, 1953, he played his trump card, the call for talks at the highest level. On May 13 the Tories won the Sunderland byelection. Britain waited ex- pectantly—patiently—impatiently. But the trump card turned out to be a joker. His talk of peace was gross deception, one of the most shameful in political his- tory. All too many peace-loving peo- ple were lulled into day-dreaming of peace. That day-dream was rudely shattered when at Wood- ford last December he revealed, almost with gusto, that as far back as the latter stages of the war he had been preparing to arm the Nazis and to march with ™ them as new allies against the oid allies. Since Woodford, the evidence of his deception has poured out. He had hoaxed the people and to the end tried 2 maintain the hoax. In handing over to Eden, he can be sure of a worthy disciple who is, if anything, even more attached to the Tories’ American masters, tice may be expected to pursue with even more vigor the hoax and with it the preparations for hydrogen war. With Eden will be Macmillan to intensify the cold war abroad, and Butler to intensify the cold war at home. ‘ The Tory party bosses repre- sent vast interests—the biggest property owners, monopolies and moneybags. They are few in number, and these three are the worst of the few. If all who love this land of ours, -all who want to preserve _its people and its beauty from the nightmare of the hydrogen bomb were to exert their great strength, this gang would be blown clean from office in the coming general election. Sack the lot. You are a giant & Seven short words give the score: They liked Ike but Ike liked war. Must we copy their mistake ec: Go to war for Wall Street’s sake? See our cities worse than sacked? All depends’on how you act. Leave the problem up to Mike? He’s an errand. boy for Ike. Yee History waits on “your commands: ; Peace or war is in your hands. ]. S. WALLACE Hum Ut The sorcerer’s appren-. This design for a Canadian flag chris the North Star and Big” Dipper in silver on a green background with the maple leaf if bronze. : submitted to Ottawa. . Fixed assesments FRANK BOTTNER, Port Al- berni, B.C.: The conibination of tax equalization and fixed assess- ments puts Port Alberni in a position where the homeowner will have to make up the tax that is levied by the government but not: collectable from MacMillan and Bloedel if the fixed assess- ment stays in force. Council here doesn’t want pub- licity on the issue “while negoti- ations are in progress on the mat- ter.” (Last week the company offer- ed to give the city $70,000 to $75,- 000 next year to help out in school costs, following lengthy negotiations in which the city claimed it would lose out on school taxes under the new as- sessment Equalization Act). On behalf of the Labor-Pro- gressive party I appeared before council recently and submitted a letter stating our position. of the letter follows: It is with cunsiderable inter- est, both as*taxpayers and as citi- zens of B.C. that we have fol- lowed recent developments in respect to the Bloedel fixed tax- ation issue. Some of you will remember | perhaps, that the LPP has raised opposition to this special taxa- tion privilege on previous occa- sions. We are aware of some of the legal aspects involved (such as violation of contract). How- ever, since the -holdings in res- pect.of which the City of Port Alberni entered into an agree- ment were holdings of Bloedel and not ‘MacMillan, we feel it cannot be considered just to hold the city to this agreement. The agreement was entered in- to for the’ purpose of further de- veloping the woodworking indus- try, which at that time was of a competitive nature here in the Alberni Valley. The amalgama- tion of MacMillan and Bloedel __has® eliminated the competitive aspect, and has in fact created - a powerful monopoly. ioe fact must be recognized thatthe larger the company, the more money is available for ex- pansion of processing plants. The larger the plants, the greater the wealth extracted and the faster the. depletion of the sources of materials. It is not too imaginative to visualize a sequence - perhaps. of rapid expansion and rapid wealth extraction, and then later a ghost. town. The question of this contract, when developed to its ultimate conclusion reaches a point of * ridiculousness. For exampje, if MacMillan and Bloedel can amalgamate, and the contract must remain inviolate, then the contract would have to be honored even if MacMillan PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 15, 1955 — PAGE - and Bloedel, Text ° Prepared by a Vancouver group it Was one of hundreds BC. Forest Pro- ducts, Weyerhauser and any — other companies decided amalgamate -into a vast, powel ful monopoly. The expansion possibilities of such a company would be enormous.° Surely it cannot be argued that the City of Port Alberni | entered into such an agreement. — In view of the tax equalization — bill that the legislature has brought down, it is imperative — that fixed taxation privileges be withdrawn by the government. Let there be equalization in tne true sense. Therefore we submit for your consideration the followin; plan. of action:‘ that our council ¢ upon the Union of B.C. Munici- palities to initiate a province wide campaign for the abrog@ tion of the fixed taxation privil eges in question. (oane The following steps to be taken: that all civic bodies asked to consider the institutio® — of a protest by civic delegations — to their respective MLAs; the — results of such delegations to D€ published in the respective locali- ties. i It is of course, necessary 10 — impress other municipalities of the critical need and urgency for their assistance in dealing this matter. However, any unioD — or organization as such, ought not, and likely will’ not be lax in the - performing of a duty when the need is made clear. Your consideration of these — suggestions will be appreciated. Churchill on USSR ARTHUR STRATTON, Vatee ver, B.C.: Because the- enemies’ of peace, in refusing to negoti- ate with the Soviet Union on basis of proffered solutions 0? various world problems, use 4 an excuse the argument, “Rus ‘sia cannot be trusted,” ’it mi, be timely to recall Sir wing : Churchill’s opinion as to thet — trustworthiness. He gave this opinion’ while introducing the-* Crimea Declaration in the Brit House of Communs in 1945: , ‘The impression I tprought back from the Crimea and all MY other contacts is that Manel Stalin and .the Soviet leadets wish to live in honorable frien ship and equality with the Wes ern Democracies. I feel also that their word is their bond. I kn of no government which stands to its obligations even to its Bee despite more solidly than thé Russian Soviet government. — “The truth of this has een provd over these six years, 20” the least in relation to Germany, Sombre indeed would be ae fortunes of mankind if et awful schism arose between Western Democracies and Soviet Union.”