DOUGLAS’ PLEA IN PARLIAMENT:

‘Stop Vietnam bombings,

bay
OY JUNE 4, 1965
—~ 26, NO. 22

10¢

[ee

Pearson must act to save
peace says United Church

___ The United Church in B.C. has called on Prime Min-
'stet Pearson to lead the way in a new effort to bring about
9 settlement in Vietnam.

The action came at the closing session of the B.C. Con-
erence of the United Church in Vancouver Monday. Dele-
8tes adopted a resolution urging Pearson to press for re-
Convening of the Geneva conference to negotiate a peace-
Ul settlement.

: A strong resolution urging that the U.S. government
'Mmediately withdraw its forces from Vietnam and the
©minican Republic was referred to a committee.

The conference took a stand against settlement of

oo problems by military action of any nation contrary
°

L = the United Nations charter.

oe

EST PEACE MARCH IN WEST. Photo shows some of
® €stimated 500,000 people who took part in a 26-mile
Srathon to Athens for Peace march last Sunday. It was

BIGg
th

withdraw U.S. troops’

New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas was loudly applauded
from the public galleries in Parliament last week when he concluded his
speech in a day-long debate on foreign policy in which he called on Canada
to press for an immediate halt to U.S. bombings against North Vietnam and
for an international conference to work out a peaceful solution. The NDP
leader accused the government of “supine subservience”’ to U.S. foreign

policy.

Answering Extrernal Affairs
Minister Paul Martin’s attempt
to justify the government’s sup-
port of U.S, policy in Vietnam
on the pretext of “Communist
aggression,” Douglas said that
any attempt to make the war
in Vietnam a “holy crusade a-
gainst communism is to swallow
propaganda wholesale” and to
ignore the facts,

He charged that the U.S, is
involved in Vietnam not so much
out of a fear of Communist
aggression as from fear that the
people might get an independent
government capable of managing
their own affairs,

Douglas charged that the U.S,
had broken the Geneva agreement
on Vietnam when it refused in
1956 to have elections, Instead,
he said, the U.S. set up the
“dictatorial and repressive*®
Diem regime to preserve its
economic and political interests
in the area, The U.S, intervened
militarily, he said, because the
Diem puppet government lacked
the support of the people.

External Affairs Minister Paul

Half a million in Athens peace marathon

the biggest peace march ever held in any western country.

NDP LEADER T. C. DOUGLAS, who
lashed the Liberal government's ‘‘sup-
ine subservience” to the U.S. in a
major foreign policy speech in Ot-
tawa.

Martin opened the debate and
defended U.S. policies in South
East Asia, Later, when Tory
leader Diefenbaker spoke it was
clear that both old-line parties
supported the U.S, position, and
have actually adopted a bi-
partisan foreign policy.

People from all walks of life, including Greek MPs took

part in the procession.

Martin defended Canada’s po-
sition on the basis of the report
of the Canadian member of the
International Control Com-
mission whose minority report
was repudiated by the majority
members of the commission,

He repeated the falsehoods
contained in the minority report
which were based on figures pro-
vided by the South Vietnamese
puppet government and never in-
vestigated independently by the
Canadian representative, On the
basis of these falsehoods, Martin
claimed the North Vietnam was
guilty of support to the guerrillas
on a “grand scale” witharms and
men,

Refuting Martin’s claim, Doug-
las said military assistance from
the north was relatively small
and accused the government of
“studiously avoiding’’ pointing out
that a 1962 International Control
Commission report said that the
U.S, committed more violations
of the 1954 truce agreement than
North Vietnam,

Douglas also refuted Martin’s
argument that other countries
would come under Chinese attack
if the guerrillas succeed in South
Vietnam, He pointed out that the
U.S, had completely by-passed
the United Nations by failing to
take the Vietnam issue to that
body.

Martin’s attemptin Parliament
to justify Canadian support of the
U.S. policy on the grounds of
“Communist aggression” was
also effectively answered last
week by a former Canadian mem-
ber of the International Control
Commission in Vietnam,

Squadron Leader Hugh Camp-
bell told a Vancouver Sun inter-
viewer in last Saturday’s edition
that the so-called Vietcong is
made up of many groups including
“Catholics, Protestants, Bud-
dhists and in fact, the general
countryside at large,”

In an interview highly critical
of Canada’s role in Vietnam,
Campbell said, “the Vietnamese
are one people and demand self-
determination,” The Americans
are going to be “driven out of
Vietnam eventually,” he said be-
cause the “South Vietnamese
people are against the Americans
now. The Americans have lost
any hope of friendship they may
have had down there,”

The NDP leader urged that
Canada call for an immediate
halt to U.S, bombings against
the North, unconditional peace

See DOUGLAS, pg. 2