| | Remember [URTEEN years ago this week, on August 6, 1945, the first “omic bomb was dropped on the teming Japanese city of Hiroshima bya U.S. Air Force bomber. The launching of this first horror Weapon upon mankind was ordered y US. ex-president Harry S. Truman, ; Ie Was a brutal and wanton act of ‘Wilized” savagery totally un- Meessary since the Japanese war Mchine was already crumbling ‘ote the massed weight of the lied offensives. Estimates of the number of men, men and children who died in at one searing blast have varied, ut it was not -less than 80,000. .Usands of others were fatally ee And the frightful toll eae claiming its victims & those who survived the blast eg sumed to radiation and Ing even into the womb to Cave: 4 &its monstrous mark upon the "cents, a peey the peoples of . the Mise in anger against those tm template the loosing of this i " upon them to preserve their W " Power, profit and privilege. Toshima will forever stand as ef, ner of the barbarity of an *gedly Whi : a@ great new discovery was « ched upon the world, not as a uN pehty force for human wellbeing. thie the ultimate threat of des- fo, to all who refused to con- fo Yankee dictates. pehat Itg . “enlightened” era, in first atom bomb used on hoded has long since been out- hung Hydrogen bombs with a deliver times the destructive force, toy.“ by guided missiles, are i Ao » ‘the hands of the same U.S. Macs and the resurgent {a Pacific Tribune Phone MUtual 5-5288 Editor _ TOM McEWEN "ging Editor — HAL GRIFFIN Subscription Rates: One Year: $4.00 Six months: $2.25 “4 Published weekly at om 6 — 426 Main Street Vancouver 4, B.C. 0 ungatdian and Commonwealth he te (except Australia): $4.00 tng ah Australia, United States ! other. countries: $5.00 one year. her. Hiroshima! fascists they have taken as their allies in Europe. * At this moment there are approxi- mately 14,000 U.S. troops invading the territory of Lebanon, armed with atomic weapons, awaiting orders from Washington to spread death and destruction in the Arab world to block the desires of the Arab peoples for independence and self-government; to hold fast to “Western” possession of the oil resources of the Middle East. At the same time, in unison with U.S. aggression in Lebanon, British armed forces, for a like purpose, are concentrated upon the territory of Jordan. The mushroom cloud that rained death and destruction upon Hiro- shima and Nagasaki is gathering over the Middle East. It could en- gulf the world. Remember Hiroshima . . . and act now to stay the bloody hands of the U.S. atomic warmakers. Ji} | ti 1 Clean up the beaches party in July and well before the daily press took up the cry, the Pacific Tribune again raised the issue of the filthy state of Wancou- ver beaches, menacing the health of thousands of citizens. This problem has not arisen over- night. As far back as 1949 the pol- lution of beachwaters by city sewage was a pressing issue. Back in 1953 the taxpayers paid a tidy sum for what is known as the Rawn Report on metropolitan sewage disposal. Out of this report came a Pollution Control Board and the recommen- dation for construction of a modern sewage disposal plant on Jona Island at Richmond. Since then successive Coalition and provincial governments and Socred and various Vancouver city councils have passed the buck back and forth, with nothing done either to satisfy Richmond’s objections to the proposed site or to find a suit- able alternative, while a_ rapidly growing metropolitan population accentuates the problem. Health authorities are all agreed that the danger of an epidemic arising from pollution is now very great. But the opinion seems to be that nothing will be done until dis- ease traceable to beachwaters actually breaks out. Truly a thoroughly bankrupt and cynical policy on civic health. State the danger and frighten half of the people away from beaches, mean- time allowing the other half to swim in filth-laden waters until disaster strikes and polluted waters take their toll of victims. Then “some- thing” may be done. Pressure must be brought to bear both on the provincial government and Vancouver city council to end the procrastination and buck-pass- ing on sewage disposal. Labor and material resources are readily ayail- able to begin construction now of an up-to-date sewage disposal plant. The alternative is to close the beaches, depriving thousands of a great natural recreation ground, or allow them to remain a threat to health and an indictment of present civic administration. Tom McEwen HEN Canadian communists, CCFers, trade unionists or other progressives visit the Soviet Union or other countries of the socialist world, their observations and experiences are often re- garded back home as just so much ‘communist propaganda.” In the cold war jargon of the day they have been “brain- washed,” “led-around-by-the- nose,’ taken on a propaganda tour” and so on. If they speak in praise of Soviet or other socialist achievements our “free press” plays it down, but if they have some criticisms of socialist life, that gets the headlines. According to the “brass check” press, there just-shouldn’t be anything good in the socialist world When however, a delegation of Canadian businessmen — big in- dustrialists, financial tycoons, spokesmen for big monopoly capital—visited the Soviet Union this summer and reported back -on their observations and find- ings, the result was nothing short of miraculous. Hard-headed mén_ these _ big business tycoons; they couldn’t be “led around” or “brain-washed.” So what they had to say about Soviet life and conditions in general is precisely what Cana- dian communists’and other pro- gressive working men and women have been saying for years: the Soviet people live well, aré highly educated and very well satisfied with their socialist way of life. % be xt The August 16 edition of Maclean’s Magazine in an article entitled “An unsual view of Russia,” features the views of some of these Canadian business- men on their Russian visit. A president of a big Toronto en- gineering works is quoted as say- ing apropos his tour, “It was frustrating, fascinating, and frightening.” Doubtless “frustrating,” since no signs could be seen anywhere of the USSR “collapsing,” or even moving towards “Western stan- dards of political democracy.” No Diefenbakers, no Pearsons, no Bennetts, and no monopolists around with their millions to elect Tory, Liberal or Socred govern- ments to legalize exploitation and the sacred cow of “private property.” “Fascinating,” because of the pace of Soviet development, “drawing ahead of the West” in all fields of industry, science, education and general wellbeing. “Frightening,” not because of Soviet superiority with intercon- tinental ballistic missiles and the like, but because of Soviet “scien- tific superiority in peaceful enterprises — a superiority that appeared to be within Russian capabilities.” Probably from the Russian Standpoint of “security” the Canadian businessmen didn’t see everything in the Soviet Union, but as P. G. Garratt, Managing director of the de Havilland Air- craft put it, “they showed us more than we would have shown them.” R. J. Adams, president of American Land and Investment Corporation of Vancouver, is dis- turbed because of Russian brains “The Russians are providing themselves with the biggest reservoir of brains the world has ever known. It scared me when I saw what they are doing.” Better reach for the “tranquilizers” Mr. Adams—socialism and “brains” are synonomous. Maclean’s did a fine job of fea- turing the visit but made an un- happy choice in title. The only “unusual. new” feature in the presentation of opinion is the fact that what has been said many times before and for many years past, is now being said by a group of leading Canadian businessmen —whose views are not so readily (or easily) swept under the cold war carpet, as in the case of other visitors to. the USSR. August 8, 1958 — PACIFIC YRIBUNE—PAGE 5 |