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DR. NORMAN BETHUNE
Canada’s first ‘Ambassador’

By TOM McEWEN

The question of Canada’s
cent Ambassador to the
settled S Republic of China was
a a long time ago, away
work Mm the year 1936. In his
ah devotion and final sacri-
Decple their cause, the Chinese
a have engraved Canada’s
ae Mm their deep reverence
@ _, Ve of this great Canadian
a Bethune, MD.,
munist arian — and Com
fe a ‘free world’ news media
piety S a typically garbelled
Matte: on this as on other
‘sured of vital interest, rest
(intents all such distortions
F ance) tonal or through ignor-
. will not mar the Bethune
Stellation in China.
Ching eran Bethune went to
I veople a time when the Chinese
ae their heroic People’s
if 1on Army were fighting
®-and-death struggle on
eae ons: against the
aeresei. of imperialist
Mies 10n and the mercenary
Went tp Of Chiang Kia-shek. He
‘heal 5 Care for the wounded, to
bderea € sick and comfort the
ive ed; to help stem the
blood which inevitably
Mation on the. birth of a new
t eS . New social order.
vi In the year of final
‘ abe 1949, Mao-Tze-tung was
tives of oa to the representa-
a great 1S 600-million people at
Sioa Uonetess, “China Has
Nation was. it meant a vast
A ty ae aS no longer on its knees
New &2 imperialism; that a
Den) had dawned for China.
in [aed Bethune pioneered
front i istoric birth — in the
its ee its battlefields, in
the skille hospitals’’, giving of
t0 heal S of his brain and hands
Wound the sorely stricken and
his we faithful to the last to
dj oh port ates Oath” — then
ca Septic poisoning — be-
ate Canada from whence
Sale 9 Come ‘prohibited’ the
urgently-needed medical

SUDplieg to «
Chinn to “Communist

v

P :
i Official Canada of course,
the ex &$ much more profit in
Supplieg tt of arms and war
Volts to Chiang’s counter-
Usay  Cnary legions (via the
Like an in medical supplies.
lore We Pharisee of biblical
on Iclal Canada ‘‘passed by
“Goog ther side”, while the
left: to amaritan’’ Bethune was
ia Imperiale With the victims of
Sayan SM he had tried to
A

0
ova Millions of People’s
Nor loday, the name of
inefa 1 Bethune has become an
and an € legend, an inspiration
Memonjac ample. . The first
Mere yp! Hospital built to

Vere hi
his Work 4 Beemory and continue

ee Sensi province, was

so hated by the Japanese that
their bombers returned day after
day to pulverise it into dust, and

_thus erase his name and memory

from China. But it couldn’t be
done, so again today the vast
Norman Bethune Memorial
Hospital, close to Peking, cover-

ing an area larger than Stanley _

NORMAN BETHUNE

Park, and much more beautiful,
is a shrine as well as a hospital,
where the image of Canada is
just as deeply engraved as that
of its immortalized Son — and
because of him.

In the cemetary area of that
great Hospital grounds, many
hundreds of Chinese patriots and
liberation fighters have their
last resting place, as do many
hundreds of Chinese soldiers who
paid the supreme sacrifice in
driving the U.S. aggressors and
their puppet mercenarles out of
Korea. And in the center of this
sacred burial ground in the good
Earth of the China he had come
to aid, lie the ashes of Dr.
Norman Bethune — “who came
to us from Canada’.

Thus, in the new and most
welcome relationship that Is
now opening up between
People’s China and Canada, by
some strange alchemy of fate,
the brief but revered sojourn of
Dr. Norman Bethune does and
will smooth the way for all
future Canadian ambassadors,
plenipotentiaries, VIP’s,
Establishment personages and
plain common citizens — all who
go in friendship and goodwill;
who measure up to the “image
of the Canada his labors, devo-
tion and sacrifice has created.

A CBC ‘panel’ discussion
several years ago, when the
fame of Dr. Bethune began to
spread beyond the borders of
China, featured a number of
Canadians of assorted political
vintage, Liberal, Tory and NDP,
who were alleged to have
“known’’ Dr. Bethune, and who
were obviously delighted to bask

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in the limelight of that
“acquaintance!

Some few were undoubtedly
genuine in that claim, but the
majority of those so featured
would have crossed the street to
avoid meeting the Doctor, had
they seen him coming, since for
them ‘“‘Communism”’ was some-
thing to be religiously avoided,
even when adopted as a political
philosophy by a famed surgeon?

Moreover the CBC made sure
there were no Communists on
this “respectable” panel, des-
pite the fact that the bulk of its
script materials had been soli-
cited from Communist Party
sources? The whole was a sorry
caricature of the “image” Dr.
Bethune’s work in China had
bestowed upon Canada.

I should like to add a personal
note to emphasize the depth of
this feeling, of this exceptional
high regard for Canada across
the length and breadth of
People’s China.

In the great steel center of
Anshan in North China I had a
very unique experience. Singled
out by a delegation of five or six
Chinese workers, their
spokesman, then Chairman of
the Anshan Steel Plant Party
Committee, very gravely made
me a proposition — one which I
have always regarded as a very
great honor. In brief, it was that
he become my adopted son, since
Dr. Bethune and my daughter
Jean, who was a trained nurse
along with Dr. Bethune ‘“‘had
saved his life on the battle-.
field,’ and he felt he “owed’’ me
— or perhaps Canada ‘some
thing”’. ee

I did not feel ashamed when
my eyes blinded with tears as I
embraced my “‘adopted”’ son. In
the Steel Plant assembly hall
that evening we held a little
“ceremony’’, at which the late
Comrades Leslie Morris and
A.A. MacLeod participated, and
then through interpreters our
little delegation sat enthralled,
as veteran after veteran
recounted their grim battles
against a cruel and brutal
enemy, intermingled with many
reminiscences of a heroic

See BETHUNE P. 8

Cuba Day
celebrated

More than one hundred
persons attended a garden party
on the anniversary of Cuba’s
national holiday, July 26, at the
home of Dr. and Mrs. Lindsay in
Burnaby. Proceeds from the
affair will go to the Abel Santa-
maria Blind School in Havana.

While the guests visited under
the trees in the shady garden, a
Cuban dinner was served which
included barbecued pork, black
beans and other foods native to
that country. The pleasant event
was sponsored by the Canadian-
Cuban Friendship Committee.

A telegram was sent to the
Institute of Friendship in Cuba.
It said ‘‘In the name of over 100
friends and supporters of Cuba
gathered in Vancouver to
celebrate July 26, we send you
warmest greetings. on the
occasion of the 18th anniversary
of the heroic attack on Moncada
barracks. We wish you every
success in your valiant and
untiring efforts to construct a
better society for all your

people.”

Qeet FORUM

Only a stop-gap

L.A., Vancouver, writes: A
measure of the determination of
the government not to take a
step in the direction of
socialism, even if it would
temporarily help the wage
worker and even capitalism
itself is evidenced in the new
budget.

This evidence is the fact that
they have not attempted to tax
away from the wealthy man that
part of his income which he will
not need — money he will be
holding out from constructive,
job-making, - expansion-type
investment.

Norway and Sweden have
adopted somewhat the
procedure, and it has made the
lot of the exploited wage-worker
more secure in that the money
taken from the man who has no
need for it can be used to pay for
the benefit of poorer people.

This is no solution, only a sto
-It is no solution in that the
control of the worker’s life still
lies in the hands of the wealthy
owners. And again it does not
offer the security, satisfaction,
or enthusiasm that ownership
of productive means, and so
control of their own life forces,
gives to the worker.

All governments must know of
the tactics used by countries
such as Norway and Sweden. Yet
we still hear the moth-eaten
story that ‘‘if the wealthy are
allowed to keep much more than
they need, then will be bound to
build something, create expan-
sion, and so make jobs’’.

This is not so. When expansion
is risky, the investor buys out the
little fellow as a ‘‘safe’’ invest-
ment.. There was a time when

almost all retailing such as
groceries, clothes, etc. were not
worth the big investor’s trouble.
Today the big investor can fran-
chise others to do it big, and

cheaper, and make you into a ~

wage-slave whilst he takes most
of the profit.

Boost Circulation;

Bob Towle, Burnaby, writes:
Dear friends, readers, sub-
scribers — I and many others
have a.year round volunteer job
working on the maintenance and
circulation of the best and only
weekly labor paper in B.C., the
Pacific Tribune. But our work
would not mean much if it was
not for you and hundreds of other
subscribers to our paper. I
would like to point out to you that
the only way this paper is kept
going is through the sub-
scription costs and financial
donations that come in mostly in
the spring of the year — March,
April, May and June.

The cost of producing the
paper is about five times greater
than it was 10 year’s ago. Just
take a look at the postal costs
alone and it has gone up again at
the first of this month. This
situation proves the need of a
labor paper more than ever
because all other costs in a rela-
tive sense have gone up too.

Everything but your wages or.

income has gone up so in effect,
your wages. are actually
reduced.

So I say again, this paper is
needed and needed badly to fight
and expose these conditions. It is
a paper that exposes poverty in
all its forms. If you continue to
read it the time will soon come
that you won’t want to be without
it. It’s the only weapon we have.

Russ-Canada friendship
goes back four centuries

The swell of song from massed
choirs comprising some 200
persons’ highlighted _ the
centennial celebrations spon-
sored by the Association of Cana-
dians of Russian Descent on
Sunday.

Held in the Queen Elizabeth
theatre, the affair was attended
by more than 2,000 people from
the coast and interior of the
province. Chairman of the
sponsoring committee was
John J. Veregin of the Union of
Orthodox Doukhobors, Grand
Forks.

Alderman Harry Rankin gave
the welcoming address on
behalf of the city. Author and

poet Hal Griffin paid tribute in
his address to the contribution
of Canadians of Russian descent
to the building of Canada.

Secretary of the Soviet
Embassy in Ottawa, Illen N.
Petrovsky and first-secretary
Vladimir Kaluzhny were special
guests.

The federation of Russian-
Canadian, the Vancouver
Doukhobor, and the United
Doukhobor Centennial choirs
from the Kootenay-Boundary
area represented B.C., with the
Federation of Russian-Cana-
dian choirs from Toronto as

See RUSS, pg. 8

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1971—PAGE 7