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Review

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* EDITORIAL PAGE

No conditions are-necessary for ban on H-tests

qe FACT that the United States

od Britain have offered to join

the Soviet Union in a one-year

a ®n nuclear tests is itself a great
"mph for world opinion.

Ie 8a triumph for the peace-

te People of every country and

Rie € organized world peace
‘ment through which the
res demands have found ex-
“lon, the World Council .of
face, which has campaigned with-

ou .
it cease for the banning of nuclear

es aS
ra ts and the prohibition of nuclear

“pons,

Sa triumph for the Soviet
) 1on, which by its unequivocal

i

abe currently sweeping this
Provoke It is being deliberately
Concert. ey the employers acting in
inatio through their various. com-
ns,

ey; mecttern of their operations is
ftige 7 i every dispute. It is to re-
Unter teasonable demands or
and th With unacceptable proposals
Yoke declare a lockout or pro-
the Strike. Then, as instanced by
Bodie. the Heavy Contractors
Re a and the B.C. Shipping
tate ee It is to refuse \to nego-
Merven to clamor for government
Duy : fon, But where, as in the
toes oe strike, the government
I not P in and its recommendation
Sanne acceptable to the bosses, the
the Employers who prate about
faig need for labor to show good

lack ¢ monstrate their own utter
Of it,

Contin Same employers who have
Sf wa ously increased prices ahead
Profits to maintain their spiral of
the publi” Pose as champions of
“Use ic against inflation. The real
thewhe, inflation must be sought
huge *te, in cold war policies and
atms ‘budgets. And the real

tap
Set : 3 :
of the bosses is not inflation

Pacific Tribune

Phone MUtual 5-5288
:. itor — TOM McEWEN
Sing Editor — HAL GRIFFIN

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i

stand for banning nuclear weapons
and finally by its unilateral decision
to halt tests, has provided the
example and rallied world opinion
in its irresistible demand.

In the four years since the ex-
plosion of its first H-bomb at
Bikini released the first massive
lethal radiation into the atmosphere,
the U.S. has been compelled to
abandon one propaganda position
after another as untenable.

The claim long maintained by the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
that the rise in radioactivity was not
dangerous to humanity has since
been exj\osed for what it is — the

Bosses’ conspiracy

ONE PACT stands out of the labor

but the workers’ living standards,
which can only be maintained
against the pressures of inflation by
the wage increases the bosses deny.

No greater proof is needed that
the bosses, far from protecting the
public interest are engaged in a
conspiracy against it.

false and infinitely reckless propa-
ganda of captive scientists seeking
to justify a government policy based
on the concept of nuclear war. Now
the chief exponent of that propa-
ganda, Lewis E. Strauss, chairman
of the U.S. Atomic Energy Com-
mission, has been compelled ‘to re-
sign, his arguments utterly demol-
ished by scientists throughout the
world.

It was the strength of world
opinion, the protest of millions of
men and women focussed through
great international peace congresses,
that gave scientists in the Western
countries the courage to speak out
against the folly of their govern-
ments’ policies. As scientists they
gave shape and substance to the
danger and their warnings, backed
by the demands of millions, could
not be ignored.

*

The Anglo-American proposal is
still only a conditional offer, timed
to go into effect on October 31 in
order to give Britain the opportunity
the carry through its ‘present series
of tests. Nonetheless, it represents a

beginning, the first step toward
what can become ‘an eventual ban
on the use and manufacture of
nuclear weapons. Put into effect, it
will ensure that the danger already
loosed upon the world to threaten
future generations will no longer
grow with every new explosion.

Neither the U.S. nor Britain had
any need to place conditions upon
their offer. The Soviet Union has
already announced that it will con-
duct no further tests, inviting other
countries to make similar declara-
tions. It remains only for the U.S.
and Britain to follow the Soviet
example and to persuade France to
abandon its contemplated tests, and
the ban will be in effect. The way
then is open for international agree-
ment to devise ways and means of
effecting a permanent ban.

The demand of all those who
stand for peace, in this as in every
other country, is that there shall be
no more tests. That demand must
be directed to those governments
which still defy or evade -world
opinion by refusing to state forth-
rightly their abandonment of future
tests.

ANCOUVER without beaches
V:; like a gaudy frame from
which some vandal has torn an
exquisite painting, leaving noth-
ing except the skeleton of what
was once a thing of beauty for
sewer politicians to snarl over.

Some things in our vaunted
way of life stink worse than
sewage. The filth now polluting
Vancouver beaches in ever in-
creasing volume is comparative-
ly clean when placed alongside
the politics responsible for its
being there.

The old-line politicians spent
some of the taxpayers’ money on
a survey — “three eminent en-
gineers including two world
authorities in addition to a
leading bacteriologist and promi-
nent oceanographer” . . (so the
advertisement said). And what
did this panel of sewer experts
come up with? Not a modern
sewage disposal plant, but an
oversize septic tank located at
Iona Island, with ‘a nice open
channel sewer running through
Richmond’s back yard.

True, it was going to be a

big tank, nine million dollars
worth of it, but still a septic
tank spewing its bilge into an
open channel] to the sea and de-
pendent on tides and currents.

No wonder Richmond citizens
got a bit alarmed at such a
proposition. Had the commission
recommended a complete dis-
posal ,plant, collecting sewage
and turning it out as organic
fertilizer, oils and pure water,
neither the citizens of Richmond
nor any other municipality
would have complained about
the location. It could even be
located at the west end of Kit-
silano Beach without harm or of-
fense to anyone.

Of course such a plant would
have cost about $50 million —
about the price of a super- bomb-
er or a submarine and surely no
less important to public welfare.
It ‘should be worth that much
to the tourist trade.

Some of these “expert world
authorities” whose opinions our
city fathers are now publicizing
in high - priced advertisements
couldn’t have gone very far on
their “world travels.” It ig
known that there are cities in
the U.S., Britain and especially
the Soviet Union, where modern
sewage disposal plants are in
operation, deriving (in the capi-
talist sense) a good profit, and
(in the socialist sense) a great
benefit from their by-products.

But in Vancouver City Hall
and in Victoria,- the septic tank

mentality prevails among Lib-
eral, Conservative and Socred
politicians, with endless chatter
about cost, mill rates and so on.
In so many words, citizens are
told that the»beaches are pol-
luted, but that nothing will be
done to safeguard public health
until an epidemic breaks out. So,
swim at your “own risk.”
tt 5 Os xt

One can approach this sewage
problem from many anglges.

Those mainly concerned with
tourist dollars are loud in their
clamor for “something” to be
done, but for them the citizens’
needs are secondary to the ef-
fect upon the tourist trade.

Then there are the “Chick
Sale” politicians who grew up in
the double - decker era with a
frayed Eaton catalogue as a
guide’ to progress. They can’t see
why people object to open
sewers and filth-polluted waters,
when they have spent a lifetime
in them and feel quite at home.
They will readily vote a few
billions for ‘defense,’ but not a
dime for health

The really appalling thing is
the lack of vision displayed by
those who berate their predes-
sors for lack of foresight but
are themselves unprepared to
plan for the future.

Vancouver requires an up-to-
date sewage disposal plant, not
an over-size septic tank. The
cost may be high — but it will
be higher if sueh isn’t built:

August 29, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5