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British Columbia :

By HAL GRIFFIN

ITH the entry of British Columbia into Confederation,
W the old alliances that had been formed in the struggle
for responsible government were resolved into new patterns.

So long as the governing colonial clique, wielding its
autocratic powers to serve its own narrow ends, could
thwart the demands of the majority of the elected members
of the legislature, the pro-Confederation section of the new,
small capitalist class had a common aim with the miners
and settlers.

Chafing under the restrictions of colonial government
and the limitations of a debt-ridden colonial economy, this
section of the capitalist class saw its future in joining with
the older and now rapidly expanding Canadian capitalist
class in exploiting the natural riches of the colony. In its
demand for responsible government, it had the decisive
support of the working people of the province, the Cariboo
miners and the settlers, the coal miners and lumber workers,
who saw Confederation as a means of removing the undemo-
cratic colonial regime which reduced popular representation
to a mockery and burdened them with taxation. The Con-
federation League, formed in May, 1868, was the organisa-
tional expression of this alliance.

Once British Columbia became the. sixth province of
Canada and responsible government was attained, the alli-
ance dissolved rapidly. Even before Confederation, the dif-
ference between John Robson, who was content to accept
responsible government simultaneously with union, and Amor
De Cosmos, who wanted responsible government before
Confederation, had been seized upon by Governor Anthony
Musgrave. After Confederation, this division became an

open split, with former leaders of the Confederation League
ranged against each other.

Hoping to exploit the differences between Robson and
De Cosmos, the man who now became lieutenant-governor,
Joseph Trutch, an opponent of responsible government and
@ leading figure in the old colonial clique, called upon J. F,
McCreight to form the first government. Through Mc-
Creight, a lawyer who thad been a vice-president of the
Confederation League but who had taken no gredt part in
its activities, Trutch thought he could exercise a controlling
influence in government, Like Musgrave before him, he
miscalculated. The old alliance was breaking up, but it
could still be rallied to defeat any return to autocratic tule,

In his Victoria Daily Standard of November 21, 1871,
when McCreight was forming his government, De Cosmos
appealed to “the Liberal party of British Columbia” to sup-
port him against McCreight.

“. ,. It is the duty of the Liberal members to rally.
round their old leaders—the men who have year after year
fought their battles and have in no instance deserted the
popular cause,” he wrote. “To take any other course is to
convict themselves of treason to manhood, treason to the.
Liberal party, that year by year for 14 years have urged
responsible government, union of: the provinces, and Con-
federation with the Dominion. It is no treason, no public
wrong to ignore the nominees of Governor Trutch.?*

“This has been variously interpreted by historians either to
dismiss it as a figment of De Cosmos’ imagination, since
there was no Liberal party as such in B.C. at the time, or
to claim De Cosmos as “the father of the Liberal party in
B.C.” It is clear from the historical context that De Cosmos,
using the word liberal in a democratic sense, was appealing
to the various forces that had constituted the movement
for responsible government.

the people’s story |

8 - RISE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Sk

yline of Granville—old Vancouver—in 1884

McCreight’s government survived one uneasy year. Then
the two Opposing groups of the old Confederation League
came together for the last time. On a want of confidence
motion by T. B. Humphries, the government was defeated.
DeCosmos became premier, with George A. Walkem as his
attorney-general and Robert Beaven, who had been secre-
tary of the Confederation Leag
of lands and works, And le
were Robson and Humphri
Confederation League.

ue, as his chief commissioner
ading the opposition against him
es, his erstwhile colleagues of the

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For little more than a decade, from 1872 to 1883, while
the struggle to compel the federal government to honor the
terms of Confederation by building a transcontinental railway
remained the dominant political issue, this group continued
in office, headed successively by De Cosmos, Walkem and
Beaven. De Cosmos left it in 1874 when abolition of dual
representation required him to resign as senior member of
the legislature for Victoria and consequently as premier in
order to retain the Victoria federal seat he won in 1872.
But his influence remained strong, from the floor of the
House of Commons and through the columns of the Victoria

Daily Standard, of which his brother, Charles Smith, became
publisher,

For one two-year period, 1876 to 1878, the opposition
held office in a government headed by A. C, Elliott. But
Humphries resigned in the first few months to join forces
with Walkem and Beaven in Opposing it and in 1878 Walkem
regained the premiership, including Humphries in his gov-
ernment as. provincial secretary. The railway issue was at
its height, feeling against the federal government of Prime
Minister Alexander Mackenzie was strong and the old popu-
lar sentiment could be rallied again behind the secession

resolution adopted by the legislature by a vote of 14 to 9
on August 30, 1878,

Moved as an address to the gueen, the resolution con-

cluded: “That British Columbia shall hereafter have the:

right to exclusively ‘collect’-and retain her Customs and
Excise duties and to withdraw from the Union; and shall
also in any event be entitled to be compensated by the
Dominion for losses sustained by reason of past delays and

May 16, 1958 —

‘they will renounce ¢

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comes firs

PUBLIC opinion will ne
cept failure of a oe
conference, Dr. Albert — ie
weitzer said in the last of”
broadcast appeais from Ri
on “Peace or atomic Wats” A
The 83-year-old philosop!" ae
and missionary-surgeon ™
four. main points: :
@® Agreement mus
reached by the three Sue
powers to ban nucleat othe!
pons, before agreeing 0 =”
forms of disarmament. ;
@ Such an agreement whe
help the solution of othet Fa
tical problems, sueh-as thet
unification of Germany: — 7
@ The U:S., as a milit@
power, must leave ee
© There must be an

: 1 pe?
the “paralysing mistrust

> e er ations:
tween the great n owels

The three nuclear Poe
and they alone, must be,
in awareness of their nee {0
sibility to their. peoples 5. not
all mankind, whether ?% ct
he
ing and use of nucleat
pons.

He described as
tive’? and “false We
conception that agreeme ons
banning nuclear w Cet
should be contingent on 98 on”
ment on disarmament 1?
eral. 7

“Tt presumes that there 2 w
be an agreement accepit” ibis
both the East and West © tia”
issue. But previ
tions have shown that t
not to be expected: the
stuck right at the sr Py
cause East and West w® yo!
able to reach agreemen pic?
on the conditions unde? "al?
such discussions shou
place .- os

“The two vital issues 7) go@
sential to the very one ob
of mankind — cessatl” eal
tests and disposal of 94 ad¢
weapons — cannot be 5 po
dependent on the heave? pol
forming the impossibl® uid
tical miracle that alone gare’
ensure that none of the | ve
nuclear powers woul yet?
some objections to a ©° ent.
agreement on disarma™ atin?

“The fact is that the og
and the use of nuclear W® ps0
carry in themselves the inf
lute reasons for the? 0
yenounced. Prior agreem® pnd!
any other conditions ©
be considered.

“The three nuclear
owe it to themselves 2” ogt
mankind to reach aére? ais
on these absolute essen itt
without first dealin’
prior conditions. , de

“The negotiations ab¥” ool
armament are therefore ret”
the forerunner of such oh
ment, but the outcome °

eq noble”
us the

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAG