j ll C 1 uC: ali, Hi Bswumnlll 1 || | a | at RHETT Ua > I Ay = LES th WNIB\2 } é.stitha, “Sai ead, Gjotasaa a a ane Daas seessant rnsveslovniee Hsarenaiesee farmers navigate a road flooded by the rampaging Qu’Appelle - River in storm-stricken Saskatchewan. Sask. disaster linked to tests OTTAWA A probe of the possible connection between U.S. atomic explosions: and the unprecedented Saskatchwan spring storm that cost farmers millions and inundated tens of thousands of acres of farmland, was demanded in the House of Commons on May 5. The same day in Regina, Nelson Clarke, Saskatchewan LPP leader, demanded the pro- vince be declared a “national disaster” area and that immedi- ate federal - provincial relief measures be taken. The disaster which struck on May 3, was classed among the freak storms, tornadoes, floods and droughts of the past three years across the globe, by G. H. Castleden (CCF- Yorkton) who declared that thermonuclear ex- plosions were raising “doubts and fears in the minds of the people everywhere.” He urged that until such a probe was carried through all “large-scale atomic tests be dis- continued” and that “H-bomb tests be stopped.” : Deseribing the storm as the worst on record, Castleden said reports of “a cloud of dust four miles thick blowing into the province of Saskatchewan and meeting there a snow and rain- storm from the north with the result that the worst flood con- ditions in the history of that province were produced .. . it actually rained mud there for Vancouver 4, B.C. Please enter TRIBUNE. Name Address over half an hour.” A torrential downpour follow- ed which put thousands of acres under water. Losses in millions were suffered in damage to roads — many of which were washed, out — bridges, commun- ications, power lines, buildings, other property and _ livestock. Fortunately, no lives have been reported lost. Cost of immediate damage and estimated crop losses was expected to equal the effects of Hurricane Hazel in Ontario last * fall. ; Continued Clip ond Mail Tribune Publishing Company Limited, Suite 6 - 426 Main-Street, BCE Utilities Commission chairman Perey George that the city “was in charge of its own destiny.” B.C. Electric received two other setbacks recently, when Sumas and Surrey municipali- ties went on record in favor of public distribution of natural gas as opposed to BCE control. my subscription to the PACIFIC Friendship Society. 5-poin A five-point merger agreement uniting Canada’s two leading union congresses will go before the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada convention on May 30 2 This will make the TLC the first convention on the North American Of tinent to debate amalgamation of AFL‘TLC and CIO-CCL unions into one federatio? to be known as the Canadian Labor Congress. The Canadian Congress of Labor OM Windsor. vention opens October 10 in Toronto. A united convention fis expected in 1956. In the U.S., separate conven- tions will be held December 1-2 with a joint meeting of the AFL and CIO planned for December 5.in New York, where a consti; tution already publicized will be put before delegates represent- ing 15 million members. The joint unity committee in Canada, instead of presenting a constitution will submit an “amalgamation agreement” to the separate conventions. It in- cludes: @ A _ 15-point, ‘‘statement of principles’ to serve as the basis for the writing of a constitution after the TLC and CCL parleys; @ Proposals for general struc- ture, government, officers of the new Congress; @ Financial arrangements; @ Continuance and extension of the. no-raiding pact; @ Procedure for the merger. The new CLC, it is proposed will be governed by conventions held every two years, and in be- tween, by an executive council of 16, including president, exec- utive vice-president, secretary- treasurer and 13 vice-presidents. In off years between conven- tions, a “general board” will meet with the council, composed of about 130 officers of national, international and provincial or- ganizations. While there are some behind- the-scenes moves, it is now reas- onably certain that ‘TLC Presi- dent Claude Jodoin will head the CLC, with CCL President Donald MacDonald as executive vice-president and Gordon Cush- ing of the TLC, secretary-treas- urer. : When the U.S. Joint Unity Committee met in Washington May 2 to approve the constitu- tion, it agreed! on a preamble which departed ffom the famous old American Federation of Labor introduction. The old AFL preamble declar- ed: “A struggle is going on in all the nations of the civilized world between the oppressors and the oppressed of all coun- tries, «a struggle between the capitalist and the laborer, which grows in intensity from year to NOATS “A ce The new preamble strikes out recognition of the existence of a dlass struggle in capitalist society. “At the collective bar- gaining table, in the community in the exercise of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship we shall responsibly serve the in- Friendship Society fo sponsor concert A Spring Festival Concert will be held in Pender Auditorium, 839 West Pender, this Sunday, May 15, 8 p.m. Performers will be drawn from various community art groups in the city. The concert is being ‘sponsor- ed by the Canadian - Soviet - mainland or island inhabitants, or to the fishing indu be pursued further at a confer- kini test had on the Jaros -ence of foreign ministers. -fishing industry,” one a i ‘ told the Paci Tri Although President Eisenhow- tpeau ee Gol eo? proposes t merger OTTAWA terests of all the American peo- ple.” Unions that have been expell- ed or barred entry to the AFL or CIO are denied entry into~ the new as yet unnamed USS. federation. This appears aimed at block- ing merger negotiations already in process between progressive- fed unions and CIO or AFL affil- jations, or the return of the International Longshoremen’s Association into the AFL through a merger with the In- ternational Brotherhood of Team- sters. It could even be used to keep out the United Mine Work- ers’ Union of John L. Lewis. The U.S. draft constitution de- clares it “recognizes the equal status of craft and industrial Sculptor dead Canada’s most famous seul tor, Walter S. Allward (above is dead in Toronto at the ey 80. He designed the ¥! unions.” But it offer “a*closed- Ridge Memorial to the canatie, door policy to unions controll- dead of the First World ed or directed by Communists and the memorials to willl lef Lyon Mackenzie and Alexand Graham Bell. Threat seen to fishing industry, Despite U.S. denials that it will pose any dangef or other totalitarians. It pro- motes democratic unionism.” ” : jon on consumers of fish,’ the underwater atomic exP: oF planned by the U.S. off the Pacific coast of North Am has aroused considerable alarm here. ne The atomic test. was a2" 4. ed this week by the YU’. necessary to secure’ infor essential to submarine Wine The announcement said tha et explosion would be staged the eral hundred” miles out be Pacific. : it Anticipating the alar™ est would cause, the announce™ 9. contained assurances ¢ i tensive marine studies ha® © sor -made in the area seleci®™ oy. the test “which led to tHE of clusion that the area is food fish.’* : els These assurances now ie have failed to convinc®. inal men here. They point OU . on the danger of radiation ? ing does not arise only foo! direct contamination ? fish. Contamination of thé ais! Continued BIG FOUR of inspection, the Soviet pro- posal is for an international control agency under the United Nations which would have posts at “big ports, railway junctions, motor roads and airdromes.” This would prove effective be- cause “the concentration of big contingents of ground armed forces, navy and air forces and their transfer can. be effected only through such points.” Position taken by the United States, Britain and France is an Ae hich ~ fish es i : which no -assurant (lit? that the heads of state — Bul- given, can transmit the ganin, Faure, Hden and Hisen- tion. oe pe hower — should meet informal- Fishermen here cite sth ly for three or four days and agree on a rough agenda and general principles. which would entists, who are calli : halt to all such tests. Br studies of Japanese Or a ’ e “We know the effect i est week. “Why, even’ here, p un? are refusing to buy canne 1 a& “It doesn’t matter W no surances the U.S. givers ¥ will believe them. At 1 , least, the test -will affe¢ of fish.’”* Belt er stated in Washington that he had withdrawn ‘his earlier ob- jections to a top-level meeting, John Foster Dulles indicated that the United States wil still pursue its cold war policy when he told a meeting of NATO council in Paris that the US. intends to raise’ “the subject of slave states” at the pagley. It is expected that st tests will be made to ee mak? government demandins e S, gov representations to the © ernment to ‘halt the test. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 13, 1955 — PA a