LABOR HITS POLICE SHAKE-UP PACIFIC Vol. 6. No. 4 Vancouver, British Columbia Friday, January 24, 1947 Five Cents odEBo “aara Mayor G. G. McGeer’s projected shake-up of Vancouver police force hit the snag of public opposi- sition this week as the city council demanded that the mayor explain his action and leaders of organ- ized labor voiced the suspicion that he was playing politics at the expense of the police force and the welfare of citizens. Revelation that Lieut. Col. C. H. Hill, former RCMP. assistant commissioner appointed to fill the vacancy on Vancouver Police Commission created by the forced resignation of Magistrate Mackenzie Matheson, was the officer in charge of RCMP during the ‘Bloody Sunday’ eviction of unemployed from Vancouver post office on June 19, 1938, was re- garded as a direct affront to citizens, 30,000 of whom turned out to protest the RCMP’s brutal attack at the time. (Continued on page 8) See POLICE SHAKEUP Victoria parley calls on council to establish city-owned bus system VICTORIA, B.C. — The Greater Victoria Transportation Conference, called by Victoria Labor Council (CCL) to consider the city’s transit needs, on Sunday rejected anti-public ownership pleas made by Mayor Alex. George and Alderman J. W. Diggon, to give its unanimous approval to a policy resolution demanding that: e@ Victoria City Council terminate al] negotiations with the BCER, e Council draw up a plan for a municipal bus system in consultation with public bodies, and that this plan be incorporated into a bylaw and submitted to ratepayers for approval in a plebiscite. (Continued on page &) See VICTORIA TRANSIT City group housing authority Proposal that Vancouver City Counci seeks he seek a Byrnes left secret memo for Marshall charter amendment from the provincial legislature at the coming session permitting the city to set up a local housing authority along the lines of those es- tablished in cities throughout the United States’ is made by Vancouver Housing Association in its call to supporting organizations to send delegates to its annual meeting this caming Week. James F. Byrnes Memo left a memo on in- ternational affairs for his suc- cessor as U.S. Secretary of State, General George C. Marshall (above). by ISRAEL EPSTEIN NEW YORK—(ALN)—The United States has never had so many generals in top diplomatic jobs. Neither has U.S. foreign policy, which is supposed to be concerned with working for peace, ever been so fully coordinated with the strategic plans of the War and Navy departments, whose job is to prepare for war. When General George C. Marshall succeeded James F. Byrnes as Secretary of State, Byrnes left Marshall a memo on unfinished international business and how he thought it should be con- cluded. What was strange, and without precedent in the U.S., was that this diplomatic memo was cleared with the joint (army and navy) chiefs of staff. Washington correspondents say only two copies exist—one in the State Department strong box and one in the safe of the joint chiefs. ....The coordination. was further revealed .by..reports from Europe exposing the real motive behind diplomatic protests to Yugoslav Marshal Tito for forcing down a U.S. plane which appeared over his territory without proper notice. Similar protests were made locally to the Soviets for insisting so rigidly that American planes stick to marked routes over the areas they occupy. The reports reveal that the U.S. and British air forces have just completed the hitherto secret Operation Casey Jones—the air mapping of a large part of Europe. Though the project covered land under their charge, none of the other Allies were asked to participate or give advice. Nor was their permission asked when their sectors were mapped. (Continued on page 8)—See MEMO Warning that present priv- ate building is far from ade- quate to solve Vancouver’s critical housing shortage and does not touch the problem Unions prepare mass labor lobby of providing homes for low come groups, the Housing Association suggests that the city: > ® Immediately enter into a con- tract with Wartime Housing, “the only agency at present in existence ready to build houses at moderate rentals,” to start construction of 1,000 more houses this spring. ® Prepare plans for a_ specific low-rental housing project and approach Ottawa for (1) an amendment to the National Housing Act -to permit local public housing authorities to qualify for loans to build low- rental housing on conditions Similar to those granted limited dividend corporations, and (2) 2 subsidy to local housing au- thorities to bring rents within the means of low-income} groups, _ ‘Thousands of Vancouver fam- es live today in conditions Which are a menace to health 8nd social stability,” the Housing Association states. “The present AOusing crisis is not simply the Outcome of war conditions. Even before the war there was an acute Shortage of adequate low-rental : housing and until positive action ' 'S taken this condition will grow H omeless veterans Steadily worse.” Annual meeting of the Associ- ation will be held Thursday, Jan- Uary 30, 8 p.m., in the Medical- only a few of the Dental Auditorium. own since their return thousands of ex-GI’ Scores of police were rushed to a Los Angeles park when these homeless veterans and their wives settled down there for the night in a demonstration to draw public attention ; s who have been unable to get homes of their from overseas because of the still critical housing shortage. VICTORIA, B.C.—A num- ber of the most pressing problems facing the people of British Columbia will be placed on Premier Hart’s doorstep when the provincial legislature opens here next month. Calls to all unions comprising the B.C. Federation of Labor (CCL) and the provincial organ- ization of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada to prepare for a mass labor lobby are now being sent oxt from the two trade union centers. Labor’s demands, presented to the provincial cabinet last week, include drastic revision of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbi- tration Act until a National La- bor Code is enacted, the 40-hour work week, and a minimum wage of 75 cents an hour for all work- ers in the province. Delegations from community and labor groups are expected to press the government to imple- ment its election promise to take over all hydro-electric power and transit operations. Veterans’ groups are also likely to be active in canvassing MLAs to win support for their demands. As an indication of the import- ance individual unions are at- taching to the labor lobby, the district executive board of the International Woodworkers of America (CIO) has called on all locals of the union to elect their political action officers within the next week. to their plight. They are