__ By NIGEL MORGAN bea L ULI LOLI MMMM Mean tt The US. ULLLOLOL MLE Ce tT MT MT Ee Qn May 1 construction is sched- ~ uled to start on an oil pipe- line diversion from Sumas, B.C., to Laurel, Wash. This diversion will carry across thé international undary ‘a probable two-thirds of the “black gold” coming to _ BC. from the Alberta tar sands and incidentally the jobs that otherwise might be created for Some 1,500 Canadian oil workers. Under the caption, “Jobs for Thousands,” the Vancouver Sun _ On December 29, 1951, predicted: “A huge refinery-building pro- gram, tanker construction and a Spurt in ocean freight movement will follow completion of the oil Pipeline. . . . The activity will Provide jobs for thousands, will. Sive B.C. a tremendous economic boost and will mean ‘that this centre will become one of the Petroleum export and produc- tion centres on the Pacific Coast.” The prospects were unlimited ——0On paper.: Since then, how- €ver, something has happened. British Columbia has been sold short to the Yankee oil trusts! A year ago the Labor-Progres- Sive party sounded a warning of What was developing and pro- tested strongly against U.S. de- Signs for a pipeline diversion. Public attention was drawn to a letter published in Hansard (March 13), in which Attorney ' General Robert Bonner was quot- ed as having written a Mr. . Bridges of the Bechtel Corpora- tion (contractors for the pipe- _ line) as follows: ‘Dear Mr. Bridges: Your let- ter of January 14 is hereby: acknowledged. Following ceipt of your letter, we have _ studied the matter of the ap- Plication which your company ‘Proposes to make in connection with your branch line extension from the vicinity of Sumas to the international boundary. Un- der the circumstances we feel that the province need not be Tepresented at the hearing.” : Unfortunately, the protests Were not. strong enough to com- Pel either the provincial or fed- | eral government to change its ‘ } _ Course and put the interests of Canada first. The Yankee oil trust’s scheme went unopposed and in due course the Board of Transport Commissioners grant- - €d permission for Trans Moun- _ tain Oil Pipe Lines Corporation (subsidiary of Bechtel Corpoation) to take “one or, more” lines to ~ the U.S. from’ Canada. On May 1 construction will _ Start’ on the 20-inch diversion _. Which will branch southward from ee the. 24inch Edmonton-Burnaby Pipeline at Sumas near Chilli- _ Wack, From there it will go to Laurel Junction to supply the new $35 million refinery of Gen- eral Petroleum (also an affiliate of Trans Mountain). _This plant, which is located at a erndale, Washington — only a S Short distance across the boun- SILT LIAL re- ° ‘rels of crude daily. The Ferndale refinery costs the Canadian people a $2 million payroll and 500 jobs. dary — will process 35,000 bar- ; With that 35,000 barrels (sold ‘at- a’ small portion of its manufactured worth) will be lost some 500 jobs Around HE teahouse is the Hong Kong | ee op a The Paris sidewalk cafe. They open at 6 in the morning and close at -mid- night. aa) t During these hours, Chinese gentlemen drop in to drink tea, write letters, do business, read the papers and check the action. The teahouses are old and rick- ety and established like a London club. Chinese gentlemen keep the same table. Year to year, gener- ation to generation. ‘Mention an early morning stock. . d you get the © market break and .y ‘ _ bought $27,725,000 worth of tung answer: ‘| didn’t hear about it. I haven’t been to the teahouse yet ah e ek Hong Kong is the Far East..The teahouses keep a close watch on (Ades os aS ea : It is taken for granted in the teahouses that all Asia is going Communist. Or will be allied with Communist countries. They ‘said when the embargo is lifted (not. “if? but “when”), it will not affect trade very much. | 1 ¢ : ‘ UAT RUIR LE and a $2 million annual payroll. But that isn’t all.” Two addi- tional plants are being planned for Washington state, and one of them is to be almost as big as (EERE ie i ‘the present Burnaby and Fern- dale production combined. In September, work will com- -Mence on an extension of the U.S. diversion to supply the new rains our oil LULU an tne a et et er et et Shell plant at Anacortes, Wash- ington. This tidewater refinery, locat- ed on the Pacific a few miles west of Mount Vernon and seventy miles south of Vancouver, will be the. biggest extracting and \ refining unit in the Pacific North- west. Costing $75 million, it will have a capacity of 75,000 barrels j a day and provide employment for nearly 1,000 oil workers. “, -Thus the Ferndale and Ana- cortes refineries, drawing their crude supply from the B.C.- | Alberta oil line will handle more — than 100,000 of the 150,000 bar- rels the main line is eapable of delivering. British Columbia is not only exporting the larger part of its vital crude oil. supply, it is jet- tisoning prospects for a big petro- chemical industry which would develop side by side with a major oil industry. ‘ 4 Petroleum feedstocks and hydro-carbon gases provide the basis for development of a syn- thetie rubber development and in turn, the rubber plant could supply the styrene and ethylene needed for establishment of a plastics and ‘chemicals industry. Chemicals, with a myriad end- products, make possible wide in- terlocking diversifications. é But the basic raw material for such a development is oil and this, like our hydro and iron ore re- sources, is being grabbed up by the big U.S. trusts. The vital in- terests of B.C. industry and Can- adian workers are being sold short. A new policy to protect the : Canadian people againgt en- croachments of the Yankee trusts is Canada’s greatest need today— - a policy of developing Canadian industry and manufacturing more of our raw materials at home. The Bennett government must be compelled to take the lead. Much could be done by Victoria to pro- tect the interests of British Col- umbia and in the doing to help shape a new national Policy for _ . Canada — a policy which Puts Canada First! Hongkong’s tea shops “They are buying 72 percent from the Soviet bloc anyway,” said a Chinese businessman. “What they want in Western materials they buy from the Swiss ‘or the French or Belgians.” “With what?” I said. “With U.S. dollars,” he said. “Or British pounds?” I said. “Dollars,” said the business- man. He showed me a ¢lipping from a Hong Kong newspaper. It said British export: and import trade with Red China in 1952 was $19,000,000. — : 4 é In the same year, America oil, bristles and feathers. .— “T am sure that America must know that dollars are a very strategic export,” he said. “You »ean exchange them for Swiss medicines or Czech guns.” e : oss The Hong Kong and Tokyo and Manila newspapers report: The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan asks the United States to re-examine its policy about na- tions trading witth Red China. ‘us as the mother country. “As you withdraw your. occu- pation money, Japan must trade with Red China,” said the busi- nessman, _ . “Hong Kong is the distributing point for 30 percent of all foreign trade with China. “India must trade with China. “When you put up your tariffs on the Philippines, Manila will trade with China. © A lg “America, too. Today Amer- ica exports guns. Tomorrow, they will export surplus butter.” Over in Manila, the Filipinos say that the islands will remain the last outpost of the Western, ‘democracies. ° : Americans are a little surpris- ed to find the Philippines regard It is an emotional tie. Something like the feeling of Australians for England. But ‘since we are preparing to put up a tariff wall on Philippine exports, their trade may be forc- _ ed to China, too. : A correspondent told me the © other day: : “You know/ the only popular | stories we print are the | Chose Freedom or I Escaped From the ‘Reds, or that sort of thing. A lot of people chose the other side.” — ’ He said there has been some re-. action all over Asia on the Korean | war. Something that solidified - the “Asia for the Asians” feeling that is so strong. _ “Even Nationalist Chinese,” he - ~ said. “They say ‘Yes, that Korean thing is too bad.’ But also they are just a little proud. That a bunch of quilted-coat Chinese , soldiers beat the whole UN with all their know-how and atom bombs and thermo-boots and five- star generals.” @ This article, reprinted from the conservative San Fran- cisco Chronicle, gives a reveal- ing insight into the thinking of business circles in He kong, Manila and Tokyo, and _ their growing demand for trade with People’s China. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 12, 1954 — PAGE 9 '