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INDONESIANS HIT U.S. MEDDLING. Photo shows
thousands of Djakarta citizens demonstrating on
Dec. 24 near the U.S. Embassy against stationing
of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Indian Ocean. The

ation.

U.S. move is aimed at posing a military threat to

warning from the State Department to Indonesia
for opposing the British-sponsored Mayalsia

ool

A storm of protest is brew-
ing among Vancouver home-
owners. over city council
assessment policy which dis-
criminates against residential
areas in favor of downtown
business properties.

Ratepayers are incensed by
cuts in downtown business
properties, ranging up to 20
per cent, while residential
land assessments are being
sharply increased — partic-
ularly smaller andolder home
sites,

Pressed by charges from
ratepayer groups of discrim-
ination, Assessment Commis-
sioner W. H. Snowden admit-
ted that the city assessments
were deliberately following
this pattern. This year will
be the first time that assess-
ment of properties on Gran-

RATEPAYERS COUNCIL
TO FIGHT TAX BOOST

ville between Georgia and
Dunsmuir will be dropped. |

This year the NPA -real
estate-dominated Non-Parti-
san city council is pursuing
a policy of taking taxes off
downtown properties and mak-
ing up for it by a stiffer
assessment on homes in resi-
dential areas.

Reacting immediately tothe
new tax threat, the Central
Council of Ratepayers through
its president, Harry Rankin,
said that ratepayer organiza-
tions will launch a drive to
bring as many appeals as pos-
sible before the court of re-
vision opening Jan. 21, a

Rankin said that he intends
to argue the case in person
before the assessment court.”
Deadline for appeals against
assessments is Jan, 17.

CRIMINAL NEGLECT OF PORT HIT

Urge expanded harbor facilities
to meet new world trade needs

Canada’s recent grain and flour
sales to the socialist world have
pointed up what the Communist
Party and Pacific Tribune have
been saying fer years — that Van-
couver‘s port facilities are piti-
fully inadequate for 20th century
commerce,

Even federal Trade Minister
Mitchell Sharp, in Vancouver to
review the entire question of the
port, has been forced to concede
as much. The same cannot be
said for the Vancouver Province
and Vancouver Sun.

An article by Norman Hacking
in the Province of Friday, Janu-
ary 3, stated that a number of
ships in the harbor were laying
idle ‘because of a shortage of
longshoremen,’’

And the Sun, not to be out-
done by such treatment of
‘news’, ran front page head-
lines the same day which scream-

‘ed: ‘*Lack of Dockers Idles 15

Ships’? and ‘‘Harbor Needs 500
More Men.”’

But a call placed by the PT
to longshoremen’s union officials
revealed the following situation:

There is no shortage of.work-
ers. In fact, Local 501 of the
ILWU has despatched more men
out of its office in the past three

weeks than ever before. In addi-
tion, the union has instituted a
crash program aimed at training
an extra 50 winch drivers as
quickly as possible.

According to its contract, the
number of gangs on the water-
front at any one time is to be
limited to 60. However, the union
has dropped this point and auth-
orized an unlimited number of
gangs,

But the problem goes much
deeper than this. Once the gangs
are authorized and despatched out
of the union hall, they are as-
signed to work on specific vessels
by an Allocation Committee. The

union _ has — no representation
on this committee and hence no

control over where the men are
sent, In the union’s opinion, allo-
cation of gangs leaves muchto be
desired,

Also, the union said the Ship-
ping Federation should have
warned it months ago that a har-

bor boom was expected. ‘*They |

know when the ships are arriv-
ing. Yet it seems to be the most
closely guarded secret in the
world,’’ stated a spokesman,
Sharp indicated in press state-
ments he believes present wheat
sales are not of a temporary

Below is the major portion of a
statement issued by the Long-
shoremen’s & Warehousemen’s
Union on crowded conditions in
Vancouver’s harbor:

The ILWU has always been
in favor of increased trade
with all countries, and, along
with this, increased facilities
to handle any increases in
volume. of cargo investment.

Vancouver: harbor is a result
of a complete lack of plan-
ning and coordination between
the various bodies concerned
—the federal government, the
National Harbors Board, the
Shipping owners, and agents,
who had the knowledge of this
increase in shipping, and
Should have made a concerted
effort to ensure there was an

men available to handle this
extreme situation.

Over the past week, there

have finally been meétings

The present situation in the ~

adequate number of qualified-

called between the parties
concerned, We consider avery
important aspect of thesedis-
cussions was left out when
the opportunity for this union
to express its views and be
helpful in working out solu-
tions to this very serious
problem was ignored.

The union has no way of
obtaining information as to
ship or cargo movements, and
was not consulted until this
situation was uponus. We have
in the past, in the port of
Vancouver, serviced the needs
of the industry efficiently, and
will continue to do so.

The efficient manner of the
operation in the port is being
hampered by all the publicity
in the press and on the radio.
This publicity is bringing a
deluge of men into the despatch
hall looking for work, and is
seriously impeding the des-
patch of registered men to
jobs.

Cs GUEST 7 SIG RIS id

nature and port facilities would
have to be expanded to meet
rapidly rising needs, (Some re-
cent reports have stated Vancou-
ver’s 1963 tonnage totalled more
than that of Seattle, Portland and
San Francisco combined),

' The jam-up in the, harbor
prompted some observers to
wonder what will happen when,
as conditions of peaceful coex-
istence ripen and expand, we
begin selling our lumber, fish,
tractors, trucks, etc. to the soc-
ialist and neutralist sectors.

City Secretary of the Com-
munist Party, William Stewart,
who campaigned onthe port ques-
tion during lastSeptember’s pro-
vincial election, issued the
following statement on the situ-
ation:

“<The people of Vancouver and
all B.C. are heartened by the
bustling activity in our port, but
at the same time we are ex-
tremely critical of both govern-
ment and business concerns over
the inadequate docking, wharfage
and grain handling facilities in
Vancouver harbor. ‘

*‘Byveryone welcomes the
statement of Trade Minister
Sharp, calling for immediate and
substantial expansion ofthe grain
handling facilities in the port,
but his attempt to place the blame
on private concerns for failure
to build these facilities ignores
the plain fact that wheat is basic
to the economy of Canada and it
is.the responsibility of the gov-
ernment to see to it that ade-

quate facilities are constructed -

to accommodate it.

**Private business in turn at-
tempts to place the blame on the
unions for failure to have suf-
ficient crews available.

**What is taking place here on
the part of both government and
business is a scurrilous attempt
to hide their criminal negligence
of the harbor and blame labor,
which has warned them for many
years of the state of the port.

‘What is required, rather than
such dishonest manoeuvering, is
full cooperation between govern-
ment, management and labor to
modernize and expand the facili-
ties of our harbor to accommo-
date big increases in exports
which can accrue from longterm
trade agreements with the social-
ist and under-developed count-
ries,”’

Cont'd. from pg. 1

The letter reminded Davis that,
as recently as February 28, 1963,
he himself had described the Col-
umbia treaty as ‘a sellout ofour
Canadian resources .. . (which)
politically, would make it diffi-
cult for Canada to recapture
these flows for its own use.’’

The letter then quoted recent
issues of the Financial Post,
which raised the following points:

**The proposed Columbia River
Treaty would in effect, junk the
Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909
which has long protected
Canadian interests. .

*‘The Columbia legal prece-
dents could compel us to go hat
in hand to the U.S. for permis-
sion to make the most of our
own water resources.”’ :

The FP then posed the following
questions, to which the letter
demanded answers from Davis:

‘Has Canada managed through
the protocol (now being negotia-
ted) to overcome the deficiencies
in the treaty by which this coun-
try gave up too much control over
the operation of the Columbia?

**Will the treaty allow diver-
sion for irrigation and for the
power recovery needed to make
such projects economic?”

Sitting at the head table at Mon-
day’s luncheon and beaming their
approval of Davis’ remarks were:
Dr. Gordon Shrum, head of B.C,

Block Columbia be

Hydro and Premier Benneit’s’

watchdog, and the U.S, Consul
General in Vancouver,

Many prominent people were
seen leaving the B of T lunch-
eon with their noses buried
in the letter, one of whom was
provincial Liberal leader Ray
Perrault. This reporter saw only
two letters discarded, and both of
these were promptly picked up by

accle

‘ si

frayal

Vicky in the New Statesman, Lonaon
“Anyway, we've asserted our
rights...”

others leaving the session.

J. F, Muir, Head of the Dept,
of Civil Engineering at UBC, read
right through the entire letter,
then went back and asked for a
handful,

One of the young men from the
Columbia Committee, in handing
the letter to Davis himself, told
the MP; ‘‘I guess this is the Lib-
eral’s idea of ‘trade’. We give
them our water and they give us
their war-heads?’’

The rising tide of opposition
to the minority Liberal govern-
ment’s resources policy was sup-
plemented when press _ reports
from Victoria indicated that John
Diefenbaker hinted his Tories
will ‘‘make things tough” when the
proposed treaty gets to the Ex-
ternal Affairs Committee,

Asked whether his party would
support the treaty as amended,
Diefenbaker stated: 5

‘*That will depend on the cir-
cumstances when the matter is
brought before the House. . ”

He declared the Tories are
opposed to the sale of down-
stream benefits, a point which is
reported to have been worked
into the new protocol.

WOODLANDS SCHOOL. The desperate inadequacy of B.C. Social Services
was highlighted in the past week by a demand from UBC School of
Social Work, Prof. W. G. Dixon, for a public inquiry following disclosure
of a scathing letter sent to Premier Bennett by Prince George social
worker Mrs. Bridget Moran. The retiring head of Woodlands School for
mentally retarded children, Dr. L. A. Kerwood, also charged government
apathy and said 860 children were on the waiting list. Some months ago
the PT carried a special article exposing these conditions.

January 10, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3