Lay of the laud

By JOHN WEIR

A CANADIAN scientist is reported to have discovered a way to
make plates, bowls, cups and saucers of a material that will dis-
solve into air after being used. He must have got the idea from
watching what happened to election promises of the old-line
politicians after the election.

As a matter of fact, he could have got it from the way food has
been disappearing from the table as prices continue to rise.

* * *

JOE PLUGG looked rather worried the other morning, so we ask-
ed our good neighbor what was eating him. It was the election, he
told us.

“You see, last night I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time, imagin-
ing what it would be like to have the same government if the Liber-
als were returned to power. Even with Benson put out to pasture,
the outlook is pretty grim, I thought, with Pierre again as prime
minister, and Turner and Company flanking him—Canada deserves
better than that. Finally I fell into a fitful sleep with the thought
in mind that there should be an alternative.

“Then I had a nighmare. It seemed as though it was November
already and I was watching an alternative cabinet meeting. At the
head of the table, encased in solid ice, sat Prime Minister Stanfield.
Beside him, fuming and sputtering, with a Union Jack in one hand
and a portrait of King George III in the other was Diefenbaker,
Minister of Modernization it seems. On the other side grinned
Speaker of the House Hellyer with an “Aribba Canada!” button in
his lapel. Hanging from a chandelier by his tail and shouting “Kill
the Reds!” was External Affairs Minister Lubor J. Zink. Below him
sat Minister of Enlightenment Caouette. (‘What’s this? A Right
wing coalition government or had Caouette joined the Tories?’ I
remember thinking.) In a corner with their arms entwined around
each other were ‘the hanging: judge’ Minister of Justice Wagner
and ... I looked closer and it was indeed so! .. . Kupiak as Lord
High Executioner.

“I woke up in a sweat and haven’t regained my calm yet,” Joe
wiped the sweat off his brow. “What an alternative!”

* 1 *

INTRIGUED by the dream we asked Joe whether he had time to
notice who held the Labor Department portfolio, who took care of
evicting the farmers off the land and so on. He wasn’t sure, but
thought that either John Young was Minister of Labor, or maybe
Mackasey retained the post, and the same with Otto Lang...

“But they’re Liberals;” I suggested. :

“Just like Wagner and Hellyer?” Joe asked me and I said no more.

. * *

JOE WALLACE was in a whimsical mood the other day, so he
sent these slightly barbed comments on current affairs. First, he
modernized the old jingle:

Rich man, poor man,
Beggar man, thief:
All unemployed

And all on relief.

Then he had something to say on the “bugging” of Democratic
Party headquarters in the U.S.—Nixon at the Water-Gate Hotel
break-in, he called it:

Sluggers slug,
Muggers ‘mug,

Buggers bug.
That’s more truth than poetry, Joe.
* * *

THE STORY goes that the personnel manager of a big furniture
factory had died. An elaborate funeral was in progress and the min-
ister had talked at great length about what a fine family man he
had been, how sober, how dedicated to his work, what a community
worker he had been, how kind to those employees who were be-
neath his gentle guidance, etc.

Finally his widow could stand it no longer. She called to her
eight-year-old and said: “Johnny, you just edge up there quietly
and see who’s in that coffin!”

s * *

BERT KENNY found the following comment on the Nixon elec-
tion in the book The Passing of the Idle Rich, by Townsend Martin,
published in—1911!

“It matters not one iota what political party is in power or what
president holds the reigns of office. We are not politicians or pub-
lic thinkers; we are the rich; we own America; we got it, God knows
how, but we intend to keep it if we can by throwing all the tre-
mendous weight of our support, our influence, our money, our
political connections, our purchased senators, our hungry congress-
men, our public-speaking demagogues into the scale against any
legislature, any political platform, any presidential campaign that
threatens the integrity of our estate.”

SENIOR CITIZENS
THE SOUTH WIND WHISPERS, AS HEADY AS WINE.
THE DRUNKEN CLOTHES ARE DANCING ON THE LINE.
| A DRUNKEN SPARROW STAGGERS DOWN THE PATH
WITH NO ATTENTION TO THE BLUE-JAY’S WRATH.
THE QUARRELING SQUIRRELS SCOLD THE DROWSING

- WHO QUITE IGNORE THEIR SQUABBLES AND THEIR
_ SPATS.
WE SENIOR CITIZENS REAP LIFE’S REWARD
SITTING AND SEEING IN OUR OWN BACK YARD.

—FRED BLAIR

“PACIFIC TRIBUNE=FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1972 PAGER! > (07 83
YI 3Y95 $3 tedteisi
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ovsd ew’
Sidgsisbiarics

Vietnam builds, resists

By NORMAN BORODIN

MOSCOW (APN) — On Sept.
2 the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam celebrated its 27th
birthday. Again this celebration
has taken place to the accom-
paniment of cannon thunder and
bomb explosions and the sight
and sounds of American war-
planes being shot down out of
the sky of Vietnam by DRV
anti-aircraft sharpshooters.

The storm of war is still rag-
ing over Vietnam. Since April
of this year USAF planes and
warships of the U.S. Seventh
Fleet have been daily subject-
ing DRV territory to barbarous
bombing and shelling. Bombing
raids are made on densely popu-
lated areas: thousands of civil-
ians are being murdered in cold
blood; schools, hospitals, church-
es, industrial enterprises, irriga-
tion installations, dams, dikes
and sluices are being destroyed.

Nevertheless the Vietnamése
people are waging a courageous
and successful struggle for the
freedom and independence of
their long-suffering homeland,
relying upon the assistance and
support of the Soviet Union,
other fraternal socialist coun-
tries and of peace-loving forces
all over the world. The people
of Vietnam are dealing the in-
vaders heavy blows with ever
growing intensity.

Work For Future

The Pentagon is vainly trying
to “bomb Vietnam back to the
Stone Age.” The Vietnamese
Working People’s Party and the
DRV government are planning
for the future and devoting much
attention to the education of the

BOOK REVIEW

aided by mighty

Thousands of meetings are held
across the USSR in solidarity with
the struggle of the Vietnamese
people. Here a sign reading
“We are with you, Vietnamese
brothers!” is displayed at a meet-
ing in Moscow.

rising generation, which has not
known a single day of peace.

According to Nguen Van
Huyen, minister of education of
the 'DRV, in the 1972-1973 aca-
demic year more than four-and-
a-half million children will at-
tend school in the DRV, 10,000
students have been enrolled in
local higher educational estab-
lishments and another 10,000
Vietnamese students are study-
ing in the Soviet Union, which
has been rendering large-scale
assistance to the DRV in train-
ing specialists.

A month of Soviet-Vietnam-
ese Friendship and Solidarity

Great power appetite

TERRITORIAL CLAIMS OF
MAO TSE-TUNG by A. Kru-
chinin, V. Olgin. 111 pages.
Progress Books. Price 25¢.

This work deals ‘with Maoist
claims to lands (chiefly Soviet)
beyond China’s borders and with
the relevent foreign policy con-
ducted by the nationalist leader-
ship in Peking.

The more or less clearly
stated basis for these claims,
i.e., military occupation, how-
ever transitory, is discussed and
criticized from a Marxist-Lenin-
ist point of view. To this end
the history of the Chinese state
and of China’s borders is sketch-
ed out. It is emphasized that the
Maoist border policy, which is
such a threat to peace, has its
basis in the Sino-centric illu-
sions and great-power chauvin-
ism, and not in any legitimate
interests of the Chinese people.

Whether by published maps,
formal and informal declaration,
Peking claims territories in
Southeast Asia, India, the Mon-
golian People’s Republic, Korea
and the Soviet Union. The larg-
est area in question is the Soviet
region from Lake Baikal east-
wards to Kamchatka and Vladi-
vostik. The basis for these
claims is military occupation at
any time in the past. The closest
parallel is Mussolini’s assertion
that sections of North Africa
were rightfully Italian territory
since they were once occupied
by the ancient Roman army. The
absurdity of Peking’s position is
heightened by the fact these
W973 to duo ;

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areas were occupied at times
when China was ruled by fore-
igners — by the Mongolians
(Genghis Khan) and later by the
Manchus. On the basis of this
type of reasoning the area for
Lake Baikal eastwards and
China itself should belong to
Mongolia and not the other way
around.

The Marxist-Leninist teach-
ing, as opposed to the national-
ist, is that a nation can justly
claim territory where it 1) was
formed historically; 2) lives pre-
sently; and 3) has created mate-
rial and cultural values. From
this point of view China has no
rights whatever to territories
she is claiming, including the
area east of Baikal, to which we
will limit this review since it is
the most significant in terms of
international tension.

A centralized Chinese state
was formed approximately 200
B.C. Since that time, with the
exception of the Mongolian and
Manchu periods, China’s borders
have been more or less stable
and coincident with the present
border. The northern border
was marked by the Great Wall
and later by the Ivovi Palisade,
both of which are hundreds of
miles south of the Amur River
— the present border.

_ Beginning with the 1630's
Russian settlers began to arrive
in the Amur and Maritime
areas. At the time this region
was occupied by approximately
40,000 aborigines — _ Gilyak,
Natki etc. But no Chinese.

_In_ 1680 some Amur territory

C839 SOTONW--

5 |
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3
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‘Soviet

friends |

with the Struggle of the Viel
namese People Against U.S. Ag
gression was recently held @
the Soviet Union. Mass meet”
ings of solidarity took place all }
over the vast territory of th
Union — in factories
plants, collective farms, school
and institutes, on ships etc. Th
workers of many plants al
factories were these days cal ?
rying out with special enthus 7}
iasm industrial orders for ff
ternal Vietnam, which added t
the general stream of aid to th
people of that country.
All-Round Assistance
The mighty expression ?
solidarity with Vietnam 4
with the patriotic forces %
Laos and Cambodia vividly 9@”
monstrated the loyalty of Sovié
people and _ the Communis
Party to the Leninist principle
of proletarian internationalis™
Heroic Vietnam, successfull”
fighting in the battlefield, nas
also undertaken political 40°”
diplomatic moves for a fair 5”
tlement of the Vietnam ploy”
lem. The constructive proposé!
advanced by the government
the DRV and the Provision®
Revolutionary Government
the Republic of South Vietnal
provide a realistic basis for
peaceful settlement in Vietnam
As “Pravda” wrote a few day
ago, “The U.S. military’s adv
turist policy of escalating 4
aggression, and the hopes plac
by them in Vietnamization *
bomb strikes are groundless b
the bankruptcy of the impé i
ist expansionist plans is iné
able.” Re

was seized by the non-Chin’

mained. This territory W?
mally recovered without ©
to military force by Russ
1856 with the treaty of Ali,
Mao claims this treaty t® a
unequal one even though ~~

Manchu emperor did not.

Mao and the nationalist ‘he
ments in the government h
People’s Republic of Chin@ ward
long had this attitude to
the Soviet-Chinese bordet gat
the early 1960s they the
planned actions to .
borders. The words ny
should be emphasized on
one think that the inci@el aly”
the Amur border are ind
spontaneous misundersta” gai
In 1962 border violations pers
to occur in large me aval”
Chinese military patrols "gc
ed in border violations W? otc.
companied by camerame™
etc. at

ti e
‘Soviet attempt to eB att
the border problem 4° fest
with a Chinese demane | ae |
a “territorial problem
cognized, meaning
Soviet Union is
Chinese land. nd bi
_ The border incidents intal
continued tension We
by the Maoists should riper
for what they on inet
rovocations whic G rity
péace and the solidat
of the anti-imperialist >" w.¥

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