EXPAND NORTH PACIFIC TREATY

Co-existence not cold war
needed in Pacific fisheries

By MAURICE RUSH

Recent events off the B.C. coast emphasize anew the need for the Canadian
government to move with all haste to press for redrafting of the North Pacific

Fisheries Treaty to cover all countries fishin

Soviet Union.

Since the Treaty was first
signed after World War 2 it has
included only the U.S.A., Japan,
and Canada. Under the original
draft it was. aimed to serve the
cold war aims of the U.S., and
deliberately sought to exclude
the Soviet Union.

The United Fishermen &
Allied Workers Union and others
in the province have for years
pressed for the inclusion of the
Soviet Union — which is a major
fishing nation — into a redrafted
North Pacific Fisheries Treaty.
The time for such action is
obviously overdue, especially
since talks on the Treaty are due
to open again next fall.

Anyone even remotely
acquainted with the complicated
and difficult problems relating
to fisheries knows that co-opera-
tion and agreement between all.
parties concerned is the only
way for all nations to benefit
from the fisheries. It is an area
which requires co-existence for
the safety and mutual good of
all, not cold war tactics.

Just-how difficult the problems
are of who can fish where, when
and how is illustrated by the fact
that Canada has problems not
only in relation to other

countries but domestic problems.

as well. This was illustrated this
week when shots were fired in
the St. Lawrence by villagers of
a Quebec community on
trawlers, one of them from B.C.,
who were fishing off shore.

The need to strengthen the
North Pacific Treaty and make
it all-inclusive doesn’t arise only
from the incidents which have
occurred off B.C.’s 12-mile limit.

It also arises from the need to -

protect the fisheries for all
countries.

Only last week Roderick Haig-
Brown, noted author-conserva-
tionist, speaking at a conference
in Victoria, called for widening
of the North Pacific Treaty to

YOUTH

Cont'd from pg. 2

of decent citizens suffering
under Trudeau’s austerity with
its deliberately-induced
unemployment — people without
any chance of jobs, and many
young people particularly
without’places to sleep at night,
or food to eat. All-night cafes and
city streets are full of them. Go
out on the highways and there
are thousands beating their way
from smoke stack to smoke
stack in the desperate search
for work and sustenance.”
‘““Mayor Campbell is provoking
senseless confrontation and
rebellion with his irresponsible
statements,’ Morgan charged.
“Instead of wasting taxpayers
money on billy clubs and fascist
police state methods, he should
be seeking senior government
aid to provide useful em-
ployment, educational and
recreational facilities for those
who can’t be put to work immed-
iately, and beds and meals for
those in need,”’ he concluded.

halt the incursion of South
Korean fleets into North Pacific
fishing areas. They have been
encroaching on the Pacific
salmon fisheries. The Japanese
have warned that if South Korea
is allowed to fish salmon in those
areas, it will reconsider its
attitude of refraining, and may
follow suit.

Haig-Brown warned that ‘‘we
are in danger of losing the
Pacific salmon and steelhead’’
and called on Washington to
stop the South Koreans from
fishing for salmon on the high
seas off Alaska.

The threat to survival of the
Pacific salmon is, of course, a
major concern to B.C. fisher-
men and to Canada. Yet fisheries
minister Jack Davis, the federal
government and the media have
shown much less concern about

the growing threat to salmon fish-

eries from the U.S.-puppet
regime in South Korea than they
have about recent incidents off
the B.C. coast involving Soviet
vessels, which do not take
salmon. :

The reason, of course, is that
Washington sponsors South
Korea, and since it serves the
purposes of the cold war to
inflame every incident involv-
the Soviet Union, and to play
down threats arising from so-
called ‘‘friendly’’ countries, the
attitude by cold war warriors is
different.

That is not to say that Cana-
dians are not increasingly
concerned over the incidents
occurring in international
waters off the B.C. coast. The
sooner agreements can be
arrived at between Canada and
the Soviet Union which would
avoid any recurrence of such
incidents, and avoid damage or
harm to property and human
lives, the better it will be for all.

Rather than threats and
rushing of war ships into the
area, and adopting regulations
to bar Soviet fishing vessels
from being able to get fresh
water or buy oil and supplies in
Vancouver, as Ottawa has done,
a better solution lies in the direc-
tion of diplomacy.

The first step here requires
that Canada end its policy of
knuckling down to U.S. wishes on
the North Pacific Treaty, and
insist on the reopening of the
Treaty to cover all fishing
nations including the Soviet
Union. At the same time they
must seek an agreement
between the two countries to
avoid incidents which in some
cases, after a big hullabaloo
about the ‘‘Soviet threat,’’ were
found not to be the fault of the
Soviet fishboats.

Unfortunately there are some
cold-war warriors here and in
the U.S. who are always eager to
raise the anti-Soviet banner. A
case in point is the vigilante
group on the U.S. West Coast
who have offered a ‘‘reward”’ to
anyone who will capture a Soviet
fishboat.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 31—Page 8

g in the North Pacific, including the

The group is headed by a
grocer by the name of Jack
Azvedo, whose views are given
page one prominence in the Van-
couver Province. He said,
among other things: ‘‘If we’re
sending our best men to fight and
die in Vietnam, why do we have
to allow Communist fishing
vessels to rape the fishing off the
coast?”’

His answer, which came from
a U.S. Coast Guard official, Lt.
Gil Shaw, should be noted by
Jack Davis and Ottawa: ‘‘They
(the Soviet fishboats) are as
anxious to stay out of trouble as
we are to have them stay out of
trouble.’ :

The Soviet embassy: in Ottawa
has expressed concern about the
situation and have asked for a
meeting with Canadian offi-
cials later this week. This is a
good opportunity to start a
review of the fisheries problems
of the two countries looking
toward solutions which would
make co-existence possible for
the benefit of all.

HIROSHIMA
DAY VIGIL

The public is invited to take
part in a Silent Vigil at the
Courthouse Square on
Georgia St., Friday, Aug. 7
from 4 to 10 p.m. to mark the
25th anniversary of the
‘dropping of the first A-bomb
by the U.S.

President Nixon
OUTNOW,
Washington, D.C.

“I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IE THEY WERE PRINTED
BY NON-UNION LABOUR ON PAPER PRODUCED [NM
THE US:AL”

—Reprinted from The Leaflet, organ of the Pulp and Paper Workers of
Canada.

1,000 sign OUTNOW |
peace petition in NW

Within a few days, New West-

minster peace workers collected -
over 1,000 signatures on the

OUTNOW petition which is a
world-wide campaign to bring an
end to the war in Indochina. In
Vancouver, one nian collected
nearly 100 names within a-few
hours.

Hundreds of people in
Vancouver and across B.C. will
be busy within the next few
weeks approaching people on the
street and in their homes to add
names in their thousands to the
petition which is to be sent to
President Nixon.

In the United States, petitions

in the same vein are being

Telecommunications

STOP

circulated while in Seattle the
Committee for the Amendment ~
to End the War are carrying on 4
strong campaign through
petitions, radio and T.V. which 1s
gaining wide-spread support.

‘Last week the Manitoba Peace
Council wrote Premier E
Schreyer expressing concern at
the silence of Manitoba NDP
spokesmen on the crucial issue:
of the war in Indochina. The
council called on Premier
Schreyer ‘‘to join with thousands
of other Canadians of all
political beliefs and faiths 1n
calling for an end to the bloody
war in Southeast Asia by the
immediate withdrawal of all
U.S. armed forces.”

Canadians concerned to see an end to the war in
Indochina, and an end to Canada’s complicity in that war,
join the world-wide OUTNOW campaign by calling on

President Nixon to:

STOP MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST THE
PEOPLE OF INDOCHINA. WITHDRAW ALL
U.S. ARMED FORCES AND WEAPONS

IMMEDIATELY.

NAME

ADDRESS

* Project OUTNOW is a world-wide campaign to get messages from the people of the world to
President Nixon — saying one world only: STOP. Sponsored by: Vancouver Peace Action
League, c/o Mrs. S.M. Young, 1768 West 11th Ave. Vancouver 9, B.C. Phone: 733-9018