Mi ble aires Pint fie il, a tt Ey Nt tte MY Har VOL. 14 No. 3 eae tiie VEPe Sen British oR REES peers 1, 1955 PRICE TEN CENTS Burns the patriot by David McDowall page 9 Atomic war is suicide by Archibald Robertson page 4 Chinese take Yikiangshan Seaborne forces of the Chinese People’s Army were reported this Week to. have stormed and occupied Yikiangshan Island. The four- mile square island is one of a number off the coast of China which have been heavily fortified by Chiang Kai-shek’s U.S.-protected rump regime on Formosa and used to harass Chinese coastwise shipping. Other Chiang bases are on the Tachen Islands and Quemoy (above), which were also reported to be under air and sea bombardment by Chinese People’s forces this week. TT THE ROAD’ Premier W. A. C. Bennett predicted in his New Year’s message that 1955 will be British Columbia's “‘greatest year’’ and one of ‘‘increased employment-and prosperity.” Trade and Industry Minister Ralph Chetwynd echoed the premier, opining that “the outlook for 1955 appears to be very bright, with good prospects for practically all branches of construction.” The question is — a boom for whom? Certainly the immediate future looks bright for wealthy coupon- clippers who have big invest- ments in U.S. concerns which are plundering British Columbia’s na- tural resources at the invitation of the “give-away government” in Victoria. Unless labor calls a halt to such piracy, these investors could go to sleep for a year and wake up to find themselves rich- er by millions of dollars. But there is no boom in sight for British Columbia’s 60,000 un- employed, included among whom are many construction workers — one in every three carpenters -is jobless. And there’s no boom in sight for Canada’s half-million jobless (official figures, which always lag behind reality, admit more than 365,000 registered unemployed). Canada, 1955, may be a rich man’s paradise, but it’s becoming a poor man’s hell. “Thousands of Canadian work- ers and their families are denied access to the help they desperate- ly need because federal and proy- incial governments are unwilling to make a move towards a con- ference on unemployment,” wrote R. E. G. Davis, executive director of the Canadian Welfare Council, in the Toronto Daily Star of Jan- uary 17. Capitalist politicians and cap- italist newspapers offer the job- less a “solution” to their prob- lems. Their advice: “Hit the road!” Federal Trade Minister C. D. Howe was. the first to voice this thought, which brings back mem- ories of the R. B. Bennett era, Continued on back page See JOBLESS McEwen to speak on Soviet visit “Socialism' at Work” is the title of a public address by Tom McEwen, Pacific Tribune editor, at Pender Auditorium this Sun- day at 8 p.m. McEwen __ returned recently from a three-month visit to. the Soviet Union, during which he had to undergo an emergency operation and obtained an unex- pected experience of how socialist hospitals are run. Sunday evening’s meeting will be chaired by Harvey Murphy, Mine-Mill regional director.