Review * EDITORIAL PAGE + TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager. Published weekly by the Tribune Publishing Company Ltd. at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288 Canada and British Commonwealih countries (except Australia), 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia, U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50. Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. : Comment Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa eived a nice letter last week from -a PT reader gently re- ing me for my September 30. mments on the monetary “gifts” ide by timber bosses H. R. Mac- Millan and Leon Koerner. a letter says in -part: “I agree 4 oleheartedly with your sentiments Ut feel you forget, as we are so apt ae cur justified bitterness, that we uld be thankful for the money ned to the people. As long as have to live under this unfair stem, we hope new tycoons will do th ‘to 1.° Same and bring some benefits 0 Us all. iD ae ‘I said previously one should 3 €ver look a gift horse in the mouth,” ins ‘lam all for these tycoons com- 6k forward and handing over sub- ,2otial chunks of the wealth they from ‘the people in the first ‘an However I think my critic lik agree with me that such is not ley to happen. What HRM and D N Koerner handed back to the j,eble is peanuts compared to what _ *Y took from the same source. ¥ oe bresent there is a one-man com- ing uduiring into the forest licens- the business, but it begins to look as « 48h the Bennett government may sv away” the entire forest re- es of this province before the ~ “"Ussion concludes its inquiry! of oe recent years the gifts of tens tim Ousands of acres of B.C.’s finest ’ ber lands to the MacMillan inter- : by Liberal-Tory and Socred gov- «tents alike, make HRM’s return ce look like a poor token, even Space science money. And if we had at oe for some figures on ship deals, eral, uld be shown that when the fed- our eovernment decided to scuttle ade time merchant marine, HRM base, Sood deals in ships at bargain- “saeaee prices; deals in which that ; Sy ropist” paid less than one Losi ie of what these same ships had War he nation’s taxpayers during the » »®ars. In other words, HRM “sav- More than the equivalent of his Tchaseq, gp ence my point was not the lack _ “Ppreciation for such “gifts” but ae Y a comparison of what such Ww Bes take from the people—with Phil they “return” — with a lot of Se ronic fanfare! -e¢ Leon Koerner “gift” is some- : nek se again. When Hitler’s Wehr- it legions invaded Czechoslovakia mye the help of Britain’s Tory Ma ni wastoting Chamberlain and his ‘type ch Pact — they found three main om, of Czechs: those heroic men and Resiggn (and children) of the Gzech Count ance, who remained in | their he Ty to fight Hitlerism and save °nor of their nation; those who toh Hitler’s fifth column Quislings the we betray their own people to ; 8Z1 hangmen; and those who hur- ang Y Sathered their fortunes together hour €d their country in its greatest lang, 22d “philanthropists” in the ‘fat ee they found refuge and Bitts indeed appreciative of such Canadi but I would prefer to see the Yationn? people putting greater lim- = d to grab, so that there would a hosts to be “thankful” for the €y return. In this I think my Will also agree! be lity Titic: tBEmillion “sift”? on each ship so _0f need — to become industrial” Wares O ‘ Permits n what these tycoons are Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. =< Let.the people decide ~— ue LE thousand signatures in favor of Sunday sports (gath- ered in two days) is itself a pretty fair barometer of public opinion on the issue. ‘And, as the chairman of the Sunday Sports Committee stated, if more is needed to win the right of a city-wide plebiscite on the issue, a hundred thousand sig- natures can be secured with equal speed. Highly contemptuous of — the people’s needs and interests on most issues, the Non-Partisan gang ‘at City Hall only concede when . they think it serves their own ‘par’ tisan interests, or resort to politi cal trickery to sidetrack an issue. The 1951 civic election plebis- cite on~the long standing issue of moderate Sunday sports (which public opinion compelled the Non- Partisan regime ‘to inaugurate - then) was lost by a narrow mar- gin, and then only by the use of a confusing ballot. No one in this enlightened age is naive enough to think that the opposition to Sunday sports by this Non-Partisan cabal at City Hall is ~ based on moral or religious grounds. Their anti-democratic opposition to allowing the people to decide by a simple and straightforward ‘‘Yes’’ or “No’’ ballot is proof of that. This year, generally labelled an “off” year because there is, no mayoralty contest, the Non-Parti- san gang want a small turnout at the polls. This is their best bet for “‘hanging on’ in view of the collosal. mess of maladministration ‘which marks their trail of past years. One has only to look at the sorry mess they have made in police administration; at their subservi- ence to every B.C. Electric raid upon the people’s resources; at their extortionist policies and meth: ‘ods of tax gouging; at any piece of Non-Partisan political skulldug- gery, to realize why at this time they want to head off any issue, such as a plebiscite on Sunday sports, which would bring the elec- _ torate to the polls! This paper supports the demand for a plebiscite on the issue of Sun- day sports. Whatever the outcome, we stand with the sentiment of the Very. Rev. Dean Burke, quoted in the Vancouver Sun: “I have disassociated myself from. any ef- fort to stop a plebiscite. I am against commercialized Sunday sport, and will definitely work to defeat it.. But no pressure group has any right to keep the people from voting.” This paper supports the idea of moderate Sunday sports, and will work for it—and against the Non- Partisan pressure groups which would strangle democracy for their own ends. ee Two parleys N October 28-29-30 the B.C.- ~ Yukon Labor-Progressive party will hold its 11th annual convention. Delegates from every corner of the province and from every important industry will gather in Vancouver to map the road ahead for the LPP in bringing its program and the struggle for Canadian independence and lasting peace to ever-widening circles of the people—for the at- ‘tainment of a People’s Parliament. Guest speakers at the convention will include Tim Buck, national leader of the LPP, and ‘the provin- from Alberta and- cial leaders Manitoba. One of the key high- lights will be the “Spirit of Gen- eva” and its significance in the poli- tical affairs of Canada. - Simultaneously with this conven- ‘tion, the provincial CCF will be holding its annual-Island confer- ence, together with an affair to honor Angus MacInnis, MP, and his 25 years in the House of Com- mons... M. J. Coldwell is slated as guest speaker. ‘ The Island CCF conference is scheduled to discuss “The Principles of the CCF and How We Can Put ~ Them Across to Those Who Should Be Supporting the Movement.” AD she (or he) only known it, Matilda, the King penguin at Stan- ley Park zoo whose chick died within the eggebecause it could not crack the hard shell, was merely following what seems to have become the Vancouver tradition. : In the nearly 20 years its suc- cessive councils and boards have been maintained at taxpayers’ expense, the . Non-Partisan Association has laid more political eggs and produced more stillborn chicks than any other civic government in the country. This is its’ one dubious claim to distinction? At this moment, the council and the parks board are sitting on two eggs, neither of which they produced. And if either of the embryos within is hatched successfully it will be only by citizens cracking the hard shell of Non-Partisan indifference. The coun- cil, in true penguin fashion, is quite willing to allow others to do its work for it so long as they don’t aspire to its own little territory ay the city hall. * % A year ago, with great ceremony, the St. Roch was turned over to Van- couver to be preserved as a national monument. Today, the ship in which Canadians have made history navi- gating the Northwest Passage and establishing our northern territorial claims against U.S. encroachments, lies rotting at Gore Avenue wharf. Fortunately, not all citizens have the same indifferent pride in their city that characterizes Non-Partisan members of the council and parks boards. A number of interested citizens got . together the other day and launched what is to be known as the St. Roch Preservation Society. Their dream is to build a Hall of Remembrance dedicated to those who have added to our knowledge of our northern regions. “The St. Roch will be placed in a central hall and there will be dis- plays of Eskimo arts and crafts, his- torical relics and other exhibits in smaller halls. The society’s plan, for which it estimates it will have to raise $400,- 000 to $500,000, is to build the Hall of Remembrance on a strip of re- claimed land at Kitsilano Point in time for the B.C. centennial celebra-. _tions in 1958. It’s a fine idea. But the important question is why it had to be initiated from outside after civic bodies had done nothing for a year. In Marpole, similarly, local organi- zations are undertaking what should be a civic project. There the plan is to acquire. and preserve what is actually only a small part of the world-famous Fraser Midden. An organization to be called the Great Fraser Midden Foundation has been formed with the idea of rebuild-_ ’ ing the log housé whose foundations were excavated by a UBC field team -this summer and using it to display artifacts taken from the midden. Much of the midden has been built over in the decades since it was first discovered and its archeological treasures are scattered over many countries. What is more logical than having some of them on display at the Site ? Again, it’s a fine idea. And again the question arises why the council | itself did not take the initiative. If the council’s sense of. cultural values equalled its sense of property values, Vancouver would be a greater city. : ’ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 21, 1955 — PAGE 5