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Dessecrearaennsttll

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1954

LPP urges

protests
to MLAs

Bitter denunciation of the Pub-
lic Utilities Commission for rub-
ber stamping the two and a half
cent fare increase asked by the
B.C. Electric was accompanied by

a demand from the Labor-Pro- °

giessive party for immediate
cabinet action to rescind the or-
der and fire the three-man com-
mission.

LPP provincial leader Nigel
Morgan in a telegram to Premier
Bennett stated:

“On behalf of the Labor-Pro-
gressive party and thousands
more British Columbians disgust-
ed with outrageous decision of
PUC I urge immediate cabinet
action to rescind new fare boost.
Public confidence in present com-
mission is gone. I urge replace-
ment of members.” :

Releasing the telegram to the
press, Morgan said, “The B.C.
Electric must not be allowed to
get away with this latest steal.
The present PUC, darling of the

NIGEL MORGAN
He wired Premier Bennett
private power monopoly, has got

to be removed.

“Citizens should register a
sharp protest by phone, telegram
and letter. People’s organizations
and community groups should
send delegations to their MLAs
and municipal councils.”

“The stranglehold of the B.C.
Electric can be broken,” he said.
“Public ownership of the hydro
and associated transport systems
can and will be recovered by. a
people’s government.”

.

Continued from page I

INCREASE

awaiting the report of Charles
Brackenridge, city representative
at the public hearings.

Large delegations will appear
at the meeting of council’s Utili-
ties Committee this coming Mon-
day to argue the case for city
action. \

‘Meanwhile, Premier Bennett
has refused to make an appoint-
ment to see Mrs. Jones. He said
that he was too busy with the

appeal and asked that the request ~

Se put in writing. :

“He appears to be afraid to
meet me,” declared Mrs. Jones.
“He evidently hasn’t learned the
lesson from the defeat of the
Coalition that was served by the
same biased Public Utilities Com-
' mission.”

Mrs. Jones appealed to indiv-
iduals and organizations to wire
Premier Bennett asking him to
cancel the transit increases and to
_fire the PUC. be

“This time public anger is at
\ hite heat and it is now possible
to reverse the PUC decision,”
she said.

. Mrs. Jones charged that there
appeared to be collusion between
the Public Utilities Commission
snd the company which had the
new fares rates on the streets in
the Buzzer Saturday morning
even though the PUC claimed as
‘ate as three o'clock Friday that
‘it had not made its decision.

~~ Both major labor bodies in the
Mancouver area are asking that
“the fare boost be reversed by the
provincial government. :

Vancouver Labor Council sec-
retary Vie Forster called the put-
ting of the increases into effect
over Laber Day “unethical.”

Vancouver Trades and Labor
Council also voted to oppose the
fare hikes and to campatgn
actively against them. oe

North Vancouver City Council
has taken the lead in suggesting
that all the municipalities in the
Greater Vancouver area make a

joint appeal to the cabinet against.

the PUC decision.

Amongst other groups protest:
ing to Victoria was the executive
board of Vancouver Civic Em-
ployees Union Outside Workers,
The city workers sent a letter to
Premier Bennett over the’ signa-
ture of secretary Jack Phillips,

The letter accused PUC chair-

man Percy George of “open bias
in favor of the company” and

“asked for the dismissal of the

commission and reversing of the
PUC decision.

INJE\a

Union leader blasts Howe policy

U.S. big interests control
3,000 Canadian firms

PETERBOROUGH

More than 3,000 Canadian corporations are controlled by big U.S. interests,
Grover Hathaway, international secretary-treasurer of the United Packing Hous?
Workers, told a meeting of the union’s council here.

_ Hathaway charged that Canada has been led ‘‘almost into economic colonial
ism’’ by the flow of U.S. dollars into the country. He said that the same ‘‘reactionaty

interests—tools of the few and
not of the many” control both
US. and Canadian governments.

“Who is pulling the strings?”
asked Hathaway. His answer was
“the big oil companies” who have
an “inside traék with the national
labor relations boards, the Eisen-

“hower administration, and Can-

adas: Gs D. Howes: :
Hathaway hit several times at
Howe’s role as¥a broker in selling
Canada’s industries to U.S. in-
vestors. He said Howe had told

YV.S. News and World Report

magazine that Canadian wages
are from a fifth to a quarter low-
er than U.S. wages. ie

“Mm this particular cause,” said
Hathaway, “Howe seems to have
been telling the truth, and we
can only speculate why.”

He suggested that Howe was
calling U.S. investors’ attention
to the juicy profits they could
make in Canada by taking ad-
vantage of the lower wages.

The government of Canada is
“unwilling to face the facts of
unemployment,” he said. Howe
was painting a rosy picture of
the situation, he said, when he
estimated Canada’s unemploy-
ment as 200,000 -for U.S. News
and World Report.

Hathaway referred to Canada’s
unemployment figures as under-
stating the case, as “written for,
propaganda purposes and for con-
sumption below the border.” ”

‘of the Canadian forces

B.C. veterans protest .
freeing Kurt Meyer —

Last January Hon. Brooke Clax- ;

~A Nazi murderer of Canadian

prisoners of war walked out of a .

German prison this week a free
man after having served less than
i0 years for his war crimes.

In Vancouver, Colonel John
Wise of the B.C. Veterans’ As-
sociation spoke for other veterans
who
fought Hitlerism when he called
the release of former S.S. Major-
General Kurt Meyer “a betrayal

of the principles.of justice which
protect Canadians.”

Meyer, who commanded an S.S.
division during the battle of Nor-
mandy, was convicted of respon-
sibility in the shooting of 18
Canadian prisoners and was
sentenced to death.

His sentence was commuted to
life imprisonment by General
Chris Vokes, later Chief of Staff
of the Canadian Army. He was
brought to Canada to serve his

term but was returned to the

British zone of Germany in 1953.

Buck calls on St. Laurent to exercise reserved right

Complete Seaway link, says LPP 4

- TORONTO

Demand of the Labor-Progres-
sive party that the government
ismmediately “exercise the right”
to complete the International sec-
tion of the St. Lawrence Seaway
to keep it under Canadian sover-
eignty has again been put before
Prime Minister St. Laurent.

Tim Buck, LPP national leader,
wrote St. Laurent on August 30
requesting an interview with him
or some other member of the
cabinet. The letter followed the
presentation on August 20 of a
brief to J. S. Cross, St. Laurent’s
secretary, by an LPP deputation
to Ottawa.

The prime minister replied
September 3 acknowledging the
letter but stating “it is not pos-
sible to arrange an appointment
such as you suggested.”

Buck in his letter summed up
the whole case for the comple-
tion of the all-Canadian Seaway
link, as follows: 5

In our view the question of an

all-Canadian St. Lawrence Sea-

way is essentially a matter of
national policy. Is Canada to
have a Seaway under her sover-
eign control or is navigation of
Canada’s great inland waterway
system to be under the control
of a foreign power, the United
States, because the federal gov-
ernment refuses to build just one
more lock” ;
Clearly, here is involved a mat-

ter of the highest importance for .

the future of Canada. If the
most important navigable river
in Canada, upon which Canadian,
taxpayers have expended so much
money in order to improve it as
an artery of trade, is now to be
transformed into a deep-sea
waterway, surely it is sensible and
ir accord with our sovereign
rights that, failing agreement up-

TIM BUCK
He asked for an interview

on genuine joint Canadian-U.S.
control, there should be one
wholly and completely under Can-
adian control. (

In 1952, and since, the govern-
ment and parliament have an-
nounced a policy of constructing
an all-Canadian deep sea water-
way, which policy is clearly in
accord with the national interests
and feelings of Canadians. But,
the government’s action lies

‘clearly in the opposite direction.

The passage of the Wiley-Don-
dero Act in the U.S. Congress, in-
stead of stimulating the comple-
tion of an all-Canadian Seaway,
has resulted in the August 17 ex-
change of notes with the US.
government in which the USS.
right to conStruct the key link
at International Rapids is recog-

the post-war vears.

nized, while our right to do the
Same on the Canadian side is
merely. “reserved.”

True, the decision to build the
shorter canal at Iroquois was a
Partial victory for the idea of an
all-Canadian Seaway. But this is
virtually cancelled by the surren-

der of Canada’s real interests at.

International Rapids — surrender
In practice under cover of the
retention of the right in theory.

The Labor-Progressive party
has a long and honorable record
in its public campaigns for an
all-Canadian Seaway. Without
exaggeration it can be said that
we ploneered for this idea in
The Labor-

Togressive party alone of the
Canadian political parties, includ-
ed the advocacy of an all-Cana-
dian Seaway in its federal elec-
tion platform and in its over-all
Program of Canadian develop-
ment.
. We have never rejected the
*dea of genuine cooperation be-
tween equals in the joint control
and use of the Seaway by Can-
ada and the USA; in fact, we feel
that the completed 27-foot St.
Lawrence Seaway should be open,
to the vessels of all countries,
and that it could contribute great-
ly to the expansion of world
trade and so benefit Canada.

The LPP advocates that Que-
bee should become a “free port”
for the trans-shipment of goods
free from customary’ restrictions.

It is time that our ountry pos- |

sessed a free port.

But the Canadian-USA exchange
of notes of August 17 did not

advance cooperation between
equals. It was a surrender of
Canada‘s interests before the

wiley-Dondero Act of the U.S.
Congress, inasmuch as it capitu-

ton, then defense minister, 2
nounced that Meyer’s sentence
was being reduced to 14 yeaey
fle: then became eligible ff
parole after time off for “good
bohavior.” i

Jurist warns against =
dangers of U.S. policy —

HALIFAX
"U.S. military strategy is brine:
ing about integration and domly
ation of Canadian resources 9)
this movement toward U.S. policy
may ultimately prove heron
Canada’s strength and comb’
unless “we will it otherwise
2 Canadianism resolved a
termined as to the nature, I
pose and direction of our nation
destiny,” Mr. Justice Keiller Mav
Kay told a meeting at St. Frat
cis Xavier University at Antago™
ish last week.

-

lated to the terms of the act,
which are unilateral in that theY
define U.S. policy and ionert
Canadian national interests '
the Seaway. a

Your government has reser ;
the right to build the Internatio™
al Rapids section of the Seaway
the key link in the waterway
chain of locks, canals, rivers a
lakes. We must exercise » in
right, at once, or it will rem
a fiction. haa

With a view to presenting t®
case to the government verba a;
and in order to argue our ae
tion, I respectfully request. nnn
you set an early date for an }
terview either with yourse?
a designated member of the ©4
net.

bir

LOUIS ST. LAURENT
He said it was not possible

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 10, 1954 — PAGE ag