BY JOHN STEWART

Legend of Peace River embodies

aspirations of Alberta's people

ies years ago north-western
: Alberta was the scene of bitter
wars. In the north were the Beav-
ers, after whom was named a great
river flowing from Lake Athabas-
ka; to the south the Crees; to the
east the Montagnais.
~ One “day~ the people of these
* warring tribes. bearing the heavy
“purden of continuous cold or hot
war, determined to end the con-
“flict. So the leaders opened nego-
tiations and neutral ground. ;
At the point where the Beaver
and Smoky rivers join, the leaders
of the three tribes met and con-
cluded a solemn pact of peace, ex-
changing their calumets and vow-
ing to end their wars. ,
- On October 138, 1792, the ex-
plorer Alexander Mackenzie, in
search of the Northwest Passage
to the riches of Asia, arrived at
the same point on his way from:

Fort Chipewyn on Lake Athabas- .

ka. Legend has it that he renamed
the Beaver and called it Peace
River—which is now the name of
the river, the town now opposite
the historic point, and the whole
district that extends into British’.
Columbia as far as Dawson Creel
and the Alaska Highway. .

Today in the council chambers
of Peace River, the story is for-
gotten. They did not know when
I called there to ask. :

But worse: the history is being
betrayed.

The oil and natural gas fever -

has hit the Peace River district as
it has hit all Alberta. .And oil in;
the hands of the stars and stripes.
imperialism means not peace but
a sword.

As you come down the long
winding road and the twilight sun

BY ARTHUR CLEGG

splits the stormy sky to spotlight
the dazzling autumn color of the
it is the oil and military centre,
Peace valley, you pass the anten-
nae of a U.S.-manned radar sta-
tion and stop before a radio sta-
tion that bears this inscription:

“CIW-26. California Standard Co.

Peace River Transmitter.”

Here, where the first Canadians
pledged to live in peace; here
where intrepid settlers in search of
peace and abundance hewed rich
farmlands from the hard wilder-
ness; here where some of the
world’s best wheat is grown. .. .
Here today the riches are plun-
dered and the tradition is sullied
by the jackboot of Wall Street
worn by the men of Socony Vacu-
um, California Standard, Imperial
(Standard) Oil and a name that
seems to epitomize the “integra-
tion” of Canadian and U.S. capi-
tal — Amerada.

Nor is it the only place. . . . Be-
tween Calgary and Edmonton not

far from the rich oilfields of Le-~

due, are the Peace Hills and the
town that means the place of
peace — Westaskiwin, where once
a peace pact was signed between
the Crees and the Blackfeet. |
From Peace River in the north
to Suffield in the southeast, Al-
berta is a U.S. war base, provid-
ing the oil, strategic metals, vast
airfields and areas of experiment
in gern war....
e ‘ ;
Go northwest from (Medicine Hat
for 30 miles on the road to Cal-
gary. You will come to a little,
almost abandoned village which,
unlike other Alberta centres, has
no name on the roadside at the
approach. . . . Pass by a grim-

Now the Americans are

3 ie U.S. government has decided
that control of Singapore is
essential for its plans of world
It is not the Ameri¢ans’ reluc-
tance to join in the war in Malaya
which lies behind ‘the United
States’ contemptuous exclusion of;
_ Britain from the Pacifid Pact. :
It is the U.S. desire to use the,
Malayan war to compel Britain
to hand over Singapore on Ameri-
can, terms.

Bit by bit the U-S. is achieving’
its aim. ‘Thus, a short time ago,
the first American admiral for
‘Singapore was appointed.

Both the Malayan war and the
‘war in Korea have been proved
to be the best weapon the U-S.
has for expanding its control in
. Asia and the Pacific. re

There is nothing modest about.
_ the appointment of Rear-Admiral

Paul L. Mather to Singapore by
the U.S. government.

He is to be head of the Ameri-
can Defense Materials Procure-
‘ment Agency’s Region 6 head-
quarters.

As such he will have supervision
of the economies of the following
countries:

Afghanistan, Pakistan, India,
Malaya, Siam, Burma, Indonesia,
Ceylon, the Philippines, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand.

_ Singapore is his base. Semi-
colonial Asia and the Pacific his
victim.

His task will be to supervise all
American purchases of critical and
strategical materials (as deter-
mined by the U.S.). :

He will use American war pur-
chasing policy to coerce recalci-
trant governments to enter more

wholeheartedly into U.S. war
plans such as the Pacific Pact.

If it were not for the determin-
ation of General Templer and the
British government to keep the
Malayan war going and to refuse
a reasonable and just settlement
with the Malayan people and their
Liberation Army, Admiral Mather
would not be in Singapore.

But since the appointment of
General Temple, the whole aim
of the British government has been
to get American “aid” to finance

~ the war.

The price of even the present
limited American “aid” is Ad-~
miral Mather. oa

If the British government con-
tinues the war in Malaya much
longer, the price will be a per-
manent American battle fleet.

e . : CAE
Admiral Mather. will not feel
lonely in Singapore. There is not
only the American military liaison
team of a couple of colonels and

others (who arrived last fyear) —

with whom he can plot future
moves over gin in the evening but

a local manager of the National

City Bank of New York.

—From le Regarde, Parig

looking solid brick building with
the inscription over the door:
“Canada Defense Research Board
1950,” and. the general store and
you know you are in Suffield.

On the outskirts is another ro&d
leading off into what appears to
be a tremendous ranch. A couple
of miles along this road you will
come upon a gleaming white mod-
ern town plump in the heart of
nowhere,, with paved, untreed
streets. Perhaps 200 houses where
live the people whose trade is the
manufacture of the instruments
of death designed under the direc-
tion of Dr. O. M. Solandt. ...

Not far is ani airport and more
quite innocent-looking buildings.

I‘had anticipated seeing high
barbed-wire fences and big “Keep
Out” signs everywhere. But there
is neither sign mor fence. (Ironic-
ally, some ancient metal signs
probably left over by some ranch-
er or farmer may be.seen along
the road. They warn: “No shoot-
ing. No trespassing.”’) :

Suffield is in one of four dis-
tricts on the map of Alberta
marked “Special Area.”

e

But Edmonton is the heart of
the Yankee occupation of western
Canada. . . . This beautiful city
along both high banks of the
North Saskatchewan River is to-
day a far cry from that day not
so many years ago when the only
roads out led to the insane asylum
of! the jail.- 3°.

Today Jasper :Avenue at night
with its fantastically-shaped neon
signs has an atmosphere of Times
Square. . . . Just as it was a gold
tush centre back in ’62, so today:

with Leduc 20 miles to the south,

taking over

There is the manager of the
American-owned tin mines which
dominate the richest tin-mining

‘valley in Malaya, and there are

the managers of the American-
owned iron mines engaged in ex-
port to Japan.

To execute their orders are a

wealthy group of pro-Chiang Kai-
shek merchants who .in recent
years have shifted their capital to
dominant financial interest in
Malayan rubber,

At American orders these mer-
chants have recently made through,
Chiang Kai-shek, their obeisances
to the Japanese government.

‘Dhe result is that this year Ja-
pan has sold more textiles in
Singapore and Malaya than all
the rest of the world put together.

One of the most revolting as-
pects of British politics in recent

years has been the ‘way in which

British politicians, including the

right-wing -Labor leaders, have
offered themselves repeatedly as
middlemen to. facilitate American
domination in Asia.

@ : :
Illustrative of U.S. determina-
tion to-take control directly for

itself is the so-called Pacific Pact.
‘Despite the pathetic pleas of the

British government for member-

_ ship, Britain has been refused ad-
i a+

mission. :

The U.S. pattern of' future pro-
fits from the [Pacific and from
Asia is: America first; Japan a
poor second; Britain a very poor
third; and the Asian people no-
where.

The U.S. plan for political and
military power is America first,
the rest nowhere.

This is’ Tim, Buck boulevard, main street in the mining tow? —
of Blairmore in the shadow of Crow’s Nest Mountain.

Here back |

in the twenties the LPP national leader led the struggle to organize
the coal miners. Today the miners are working only half a week
because markets for Alberta coal are shrinking. :

Redwater 30 miles to the north, ©

and U.S. pirbase in the suburbs,
_and a great airfield in the heart
of the city. A few miles below
Leduc is also the famed Red Deer
farming country that boasts it has
never known a crop failure... .
Truly “a rich and plentiful coun-
try” this, as August Shay who
founded the first community here
— Fort Augustus back in 1795 —
foresaw.

That airport right in the centre
of Edmonton is something to see.
. . . Planes thunder in over the
rooftops of ‘houses, schools and
hospitals whose only protection. is
the eerie network of red. lights
that stick up like a fiery forest
from the corners of the houses and

buildings. ...
True, the people have been loud
in their protest. ... Not so long

ago the LPP led a popular cam-
paign to have it removed and even
Mayor Hawrelak spoke out-against
it. But. while I was there, the
press carried a headline which
said: “Edmonton to receive $25,-
000 annual subsidy.” The mayor
thad signed a new agreement with
Ottawa for maintenance of the
lethal airport that receives mys-~
terious U.S. planes carrying car-
goes the nature of which their
pilots refuse to divulge to port

\

in. Singapore

The U.S. military alliances with
Japan, Australia and New Zea-
land, which bring all those coun-
tries under American control, have
all been concluded under cover
of the wars in Korea and Malaya
and of “fighting Communism.”

But each gf them struck more
at Britain than Communism. And
as the American failure in Korea
becomes more and more evident
so do the American attempts to
recoup themselves elsewhere at
Britain’s expense.

On July 19, 1950, only three.

weeks after the outbreak of the

Worker wrote:

“The financiers of Wall Street
remaining »

calculate. that the
power of the British Empire
rests upon two foundations —
upon its control of rubber and
tin, and upon its control of
‘Middle Eastern oil.
. “Now these gentlemen
after ‘world domination. They
have a plan for Middle Eastern

oil and Malayan tin, just as they |

intend to make them their own.”

Subsequent events have con-
firmed that analysis.
Mather, on his way to Singapore,
is only a consequence of the folly
of the Malayan war and of Brit-
ish participation
Korea.

When American financiers and
politicians talk of world domina-
tion they mean world domination.

‘Nhey do not mean providing
velvet cushions for the City of
London.

They mean that Singapore as
well as Korea and Japan should
be under American control.

‘dence. ...

will be changed.

are

“across the border into B.C. + *_

aie ‘Into the “American City” of Daw

in the war in.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 7, 1952 — PAGE

authorities. . . . Last March @
U.S. plane crashed in the street
75 feet from a row of houses. - ++
The Chamber of Commerce called
the citizens’ protest a “wave of
emotionalism.”

Edmonton is 160,000 people,
high taxes, short on schools and @
promise of higher taxes. . . . Out-
side the limits, huge U.S. factories»
freed of the city tax rate, are be-_
ing built... . . . Such as the tre“
mendous 420-acre Canadian Chem
ical project, owned by Dupont- .
Columbia Celanese and being built
by U.S. contractors with Ameri~

can foremen and straw bosses. - : *
The refineries are also outside the _

city limit while the city goes broke
It’s everywhere in Alberta, this”
stars and stripes imperialism which —
has superceded Hudson’s Bayi
Company as ruler. And the brag-_
garts from below the 49th parallel
make no bones about their nee
of this province’s 255,000 square
miles. ‘ az
At Banff scarcely a month a8?

' Governor Allan Shivers of Tex

came up to tell a U.S. conserva”
tion commission that proven 0°
reserves in his country would rum!
out in 12% years. U.S. Secretary
of the Interior Oscar Chapma?
“emphasized the need of utilizing
this Canadian wealth for the Yaa
kee war machine. .. . : :

And profits. . . . The 3,157 Al
berta wells brought in $411,281
daily during June of this year fF
their Yankee owners . . . They pt”
duced 5,270,542 barrels of o%)

- only a fifth of which was refined

in this province. . .. fan ke:
Lest there be any misapprehe?™
sion: Albertans don’t take kindly
to the occupation of their prov”
ince. ... They detest the arroga?
Yanks and ere long that detest@
tion will find expression in a unit”
ed movement to regain the prov”
ince’s independence. A leading
role in that struggle is being pl@¥-
ed by the LPP which plans to put
as many as 16 candidates in the
field in the next federal election t?
carry on the fight for indepe?”

(Nor will that mountain near
Banff so indecently displayed 3” —

* government folders bear the name
Korean war, the London Daily . fae

of Eisenhower for long. . -

Alberta with its wonderfully
colorful history, its tradition ©
struggle, its tremendous potentias
would take a book—needs a book

We leave across the Peace River
road, past Lesser Slave Lake
was formed, local legend says;
the tears of the Indian slaves (4?
their homes today are along thy
flooding banks) past the many
mink farms and fishing cov
through the Peace River valley

and -the highland prairies, ang

son Creek. . . . built by the “
army in 1942, Mile 0 on the 1,528-
mile long Alaska Highway mai?
tained by the Canadian gov
ment for U.S. military use. 5
travel folder concludes: Meee
tenance of the Alaska Highw@Y
carried on by the Northwest H
way System (Canadian Army iy
... To the. cabin across the W%
as you read this in an auto ont
A U.S. army jeep bearing Alas*’.
license plates rolls up for @ stoP
on its journey south.... |

&