F . _fepoated all the old arguim'

US. must end
bombing '—Thant

As the preliminary talks be-
gin in Paris between the govern-
ments of the United States and
of North Vietnam, the demands
of the people of the world grow
that they must lead to genuine
peace negotiations.

The North Vietnamese repre-
sentatives have made it clear
that the bombing and all other
acts of war must be stopped
before peace talks can begin.

Concern has been expressed
that the U.S. representative will
follow through on his pre-talk
demand of not only the ending
of what they describe as North
Vietnamese “infiltration” but
what he claims to be North
Vietnamese troops in South Viet-
nam to be “regrouped” as the
reciproca! step for ending the
bombing.

In complete agreement with
the North Vietnam position is
United Nations Secretary-Gener-
al U Thant, who in Edmonton
said he believed that once agree-
ment was reached on an uncon-
ditional halt to bombing and
“other acts of war against the
Democratic Republic of Viet-
nam” all other matters could be
brought up by either side. Thant
then added:

“T believe that the Paris talks
should start an _ irreversible
trend towards the normalization
of the situation in Vietnam. No
pretext should be offered and no
excuse accepted by either side
to halt the movement toward
gradual normalization. .

“It may be inevitable that the
talks should be protracted and
that meanwhile both sides should
seek to improve their military
situation so as to be able to
negotiate from a position of
strength.”

He said: “Continuation of the
bombing has only hardened the
determination of the North to
prosecute the war, and not to
negotiate under duress. I also
regard such bombing as of ques-
tionable morality and doubtful
legality.”

After the first day’s statement
of Averell Harriman, the chief
U.S. delegate, Nguyen Thanh Le,
spokesman for the North Viet-
mnamese said he saw “no new

elements ih, fig speech. ey '

He tried to embellish the phan-
tom administration of South
Vietnam, saying that it had been
elected by a majority: But every-
one knows that Saigon is a
creature of the United States
and that its leaders, Thieu and
Ky, are traitors who sold out
their country”

In South Vietnam the offen-
sive started last week by the
forces of the National Liberation
Front continued. The NLF rep-
resentative in Cambodia has
described the current offensive
as Causing a revolutionary situ-
ation in the capital.

He told a press conference
that the offensive had caught
their enemies by surprise and
the revolutionary war was now
well established in the towns of
South Vietnam.

In other developments around
the war in Vietnam, an open
letter was issued last week from
the World Federation of Trade
Unions to workers in the United
States calling for unity to end
the Vietnam war.

In part this letter said:

“No war has ever been so
strongly and unanimously con-
demned by the workers and
people of the world. Trade union
organizations of all leanings and
affiliations from various coun-
tries are calling for an end to
this war of aggression. Many
governments friendly to the
United States have shown their
disapproval of President John-
son’s war policy, and demand
that a peaceful solution to the
Vietnamese problem should be
sought.

“This war of aggression has
already cost the American people
tens of thousands of dead. and
wounded. American citizens pay
taxes to the tune of $30 billion
& year to cover the expenses of
this unjust war. ‘The Great So-
ciety’ and the ‘War on Poverty’
promised by President Johnson
and the funds for these projects
have gone down the bottomless
drain of the Vietnam war Sinks

“Millions of Americans from
all , walks .of life, have, already
Voiced their indignation against
this ‘barbarous war and the mass

LBJ’s SONG

Here’s the way LBJ sings it,
says Elaine Laron:
This land is your land,
This land is land is my land,
From the Mekong Delta
To the coast of Thailand.
From Korean waters
To Cambodia's borders,
This land belongs to you and

me.

National Guardian

murder of the Vietnamese people
in demonstrations and petitions
to the United States government
demanding an end to the blood-
shed. We greet these actions as
the expression of the truly de-
mocratic feelings of the Ameri-
can people.

“A growing number of work-
ers and trade unionists are
taking part in these actions. At
the Labor Leadership Assembly
for Peace, which was held in
Chicago, and in other similar
demonstrations, many trade uni-
on leaders came out in favor of
a peaceful solution to the Viet-
nam problem and against a war
policy which would only help to
worsen the bloodshed and the
deterioration of economic and
social conditions for the Ameri-
can people.

“The American trade union
movement, with its rich and
militant history of struggles that
have won considerable gains,
can become a powerful force in
exercising a major influence to
put an end to the North Ameri-
cans’ war of aggression in Viet-
nam.

“We are sure that the workers
and trade unionists of the United
States, faithful to their glorious
democratic and militant tradi-
tions,” will intensify still more
their action to demand from their
government strict respect for
the Geneva Agreements, the end
of the bombing and other acts
of war against’ the DRV, the
departure of American’ troops
and war material out of South
Vietnam and respect for the Vi-
etnamese people’s right to freely
decide their own destiny.

“Workers and trade unionists
of the United States,

“In the name of justice and
humanity, let us unite our ef-
forts for an’ end*to the war'of

aggression in Vietnam and for 4
peace in the world.” hag

Every so often an accumu-
lation of short pithy notes,
newspaper clippings and other
literary bric-a-brac, from
readers, pile up on my desk.
Many of these are actually
literary gems which should
be passed on to readers ra-
ther than criminally disposed
of via the waste basket. So
here’s a potpourri mixed to
suit a wide variety of tastes.

Down in Memphis, Tenne-
see, where an assassin’s bul-
let cut short the life of one

. Of the world’s greatest sons,

Dr. Martin Luther King, the
Memphis Humane _ Society
was in deep conclave last
week. According to an Asso-
ciated Press (AP) dispatch,
the society was busying it-
self “. . . protesting the use
of mules in the wagon train
portion of the Poor People’s
Campaign march on Washing-
ton. Oh dear, those poor
mules. '

Reminds me of the early
days in cosmic pioneering
when the-.Soviets were orbit-
ing two little dogs, Belka and
Strelka around in space as
trail blazers for man’s ulti-
mate flight to the stars. How
the sob sisters of our hack
press poured out their croco-
dile tears for “those poor lit-
tle dogs” mingled with a well-
feigned anger about “those
horrible heartless Russians.”

Over in good old London
Town last week an enterpris-
ing sky pilot set aside “a day
of prayer for Bankers” and
invited the elite of London’s
money changers to attend his
church services to seek God’s
help in solving the “gold
crisis.” Quoth the preacher,
“it would be a good thing if
the minds of those concerned
in financial affairs were di-
rected at this towards the Al-
mighty.” Obviously the bank-
ers thought otherwise since
only two of London’s top usu-
rers showed up for “prayers.”
No doubt with their minds
upon the “Almighty” dollar.

In Mao Tse-tung’s China,
politeness in personal or poli-
tical debate is a virtue. Par
example: in lambasting a po-
litical opponent it is not con-
sidered polite to refer to him
(or her) by name, but always
as “. . . the top party person
taking the capitalist road.”

Were this polite custom -to
be adopted in our “Free
West” and repeated a few
score of times in a speech or
written thesis, two possible
ailments could result — laryn-
gitis or writer’s cramp, or
both. In which case “the top
party person taking the capi-
talist road” would get a brea-
ther until the next round and
our politeness remain intact.

But even politeness can be
carried to excess. Just ima-
gine having to refer to Prime

Minister W.A.C. Bennett of
B.C. as “the top Socred party
person selling out British
Columbia to U.S. monopoly
for a fast buck” a few score
of times during an election
spiel, and expecting an audi-
ance to survive the ordeal
without protest? With all
due respect to the Chinese
yen for “politeness,” I prefer
the more direct approach —
and so do a few million
others.

Perhaps the following gem
should be entitled “How not
to get religion.” It is culled
from “The Bond,” an anti-war
GI’s paper published in New
York. At Fort Dix, a GI tells
“The Bond” his own story:

“After I had been in the

‘Army several months I felt I

had to take some step to at
least let them know I was
against the war. So, even
though I am not very reli-
gious, I went to the chaplain
and told him. ~

“He said my highest duty
wasn’t to God, but to my
country.

“He said: If I had been liv-
ing in Nazi Germany and I
had been ordered to gas the
Jews, I would have gassed
the Jews. He also said that
putting draft card burners in
jail was too good for them;
that they should be shot.

“That’s when I really decid-

ed to get in touch with an |

anti-war group.”

And a clipping from a pub-
lication bearing the title
“Spears Chiropractic News”
with a few good homespun
reminders, highly beneficial to
weak: spines or other gutless
ailments and especially at this
time to right-wing social de-.
mocrats in NDP and trade
union circles in B.C.

“We will have, and now
have, people telling us what
Wwe may eat and what we may
drink, especially what we
may not drink, and we will
have the Billy Bryans and
Billy Sundays sending us to
jail to save us from going to
Hell.

“Let me say this; that if the
people are willing to obey any
law so long as it is on the
books, it will stay on the
books for ever. No law has
ever been taken off the books
so long as the great mass of
the people obeyed it.” And
the writer makes it clear that
to tolerate an unjust law on
the statute books, (even if
inoperative) is to “obey” it.

B.C.’s Bill 33 with its com-
pulsory arbitration ball-and-
chain for labor is precisely
one of those laws, which, to
leave it on the statute books
is to “obey” it; and if so
“obeyed,” any NDP promise
to “repeal it when elected” is

OS (pri a a

————

as empty as a 5-cent ae