a

REPORT FROM THE DEW a

‘Prof

EDMONTON

t gouge’ of NOR

BY JAMES MacPHERSON

ly

Politicians glibly describe NORAD as a defense measure of democracy

in North America againct possible aggression over the Arctic. Popular magazines enlarge upon
the great advance in the science of electronics represented in the Early Warning Systems of
the North (though so swift is the advance they are admitted to be out of date almost on com-

nletion ).

Actually NORAD represents the greatest profit g

scandals of the Alaska Highway far behind.

a push

living standards, it is. to be

found the construction of

NOR AD as in most other de-

fense pl And n af e1
cons of this ast. SYS-

tem:of defense at the cost of

plans are being
w huge appro-

untold r

initiated

priations for the modernizing
of the system with missile in
terception devices.

Most of the time has _ been

guing as

awa al
to push the

>

the line?

discussion is
using to ‘any-

partic ular ly 1
one who has seen the Dew
Line under construction. The
legal manouevrings = am
biguous statemer f Defense
Minister eee Benuke anc
Prime Mi John Diefen-

baker clearly indicate the ex

istence of. secret agreer

between Ottawa and Washing-

ton ich Washington give
the

I almost the en-
tire of the Northern
DEW i
of its only
wannigans in - the
snow and ice the fu-
ture rad station sites. I am

not interested in divulging to
he sites along the vast
system, but I think
haracter of
its construction policy and the

defense

something of the c

nfluence of big business-mili-
tary cliques is. of public con-
cern in estimating the whole
policy of this project.

When the DEW Line and its
supplementary aerial defense
being planned,
secret sessions were held in
Washington by General O. P.
Weyland, chief of the U.S.
Tactical Air Command, with
U.S. industrial leaders. At one
conference held there were
600 industrialists present,

branches were

gathered like vultures around
a carcass.

The prime contractor, West-
ern Electric, in close alliance
the military, was virtual
DEW. When leav-
st-
representatives

with

boss of

ing the secret conference, We
ern Electric
were reported to “be very
happy” at the prospects for
the DEW Line construction.
Bell Telephone no doubt felt
quite as pleased with its
taking over of the Mid-Canada
Line which gives every indi-

cation of being just as lucra-
tive as the DEW Line.
Newspapermen were sup-
posedly excluded from these
conferences. While worker
were employed under a hush-
hush system of security, and
weren’t allowed to “know the
geographical location of the

i)

sites they were working on
but only the number of the
site in a “green, blue or orange”
region, the industrialists and
their friends knew the entire
scope and every site on the
system.

Workers were searched to
make sure they did not carry
cameras. But all along .the
DEW Line, civilians and U.S.
soldiers and airmen carried
cameras of all kinds including
movie cameras.

I wandered into one of the
makeshift radio huts in the
early days of the DEW Line
and there en the wall was a
large six-foot list of every
site, its number and the geo-
graphical location for all to
see.

Later, with the loose circus
arrangements in the North,
everybody knew. .everything
there was to know. All because
nobody took the thing seri-
ously; it was a joke to the
majority,

4

3ut it was a tragic joke and
a very expensive one for the
people who have to pay for
these projects.

Western Electric did very
well in a big way supplying
the electronic equipment and
supervising the engineering of
the sites on “equal terms” with
Ottawa. It did particularly
well in finding jobs for the
ons and nephews of company
vice-presidents in engineering
supervision.

Nepotism ran wild up there.

The sons and nephews of
Western Electric friends were
given highly-paid jobs with
duties in some instances, con-
sisting principally of travel-
ling by plane between Edmon-
ton, Fort Churchill and Cam-
bridge Bay, and attending
eocktail parties in Edmonton
and Winnipeg on their weekly
stopovers.

At one base site where I
was transferring from one
plane to another, I had been
instructed to get in touch with
the base supervisor for in-
structions as to transportation.
I found no less than nine sup-

gouge in recent history, leaving the

(supervising about
four dozen men). It took quite
a bit of unravelling to find
the correct supervisor who
could give me the necessary
instructions.

ervisors

The workers got a_ great
kick out of the nine super-
visors with their brief casés
rushing to and fro from wan-
nigan to wannigan and to the
iglco ‘outhouses. I think they
spent most of. their time in the
camp dining room drinking
coffee.

Once while waiting for our
supply plane on a large air-
strip on the ice of -a large
river, three. huge C-124 cargo
planes.came in one by one.

As: they landed on the icy
airstrip, I noticed a group of
engineers .located at strategic
points on the expanse of -ice
with. instruments . measuring
the pressure and elevation on
the ice-floor as each huge
plane -janded and took off.
They were: supervised by a
special’ engineering represen-
tative-of the U.S. government.

He was -the. notorious Dr.
Stern who, just a few years
before, had been Hitler’s ice
expert. directing the move-
ment ef heavy Nazi tanks and
equipment: across. the — ice-
locked . rivers... of the Eastern
Front against the Soviet Un-
ion, our wartime ally.

What» he was. getting as a
monthly salary and luxury ex-
pense account. was -anybody’s
guess. He was travelling in
royal style on_a special plane
and was known as the Director
of Project. Ice Cube. He was
fully conversant with | the
DEW Line system,.while Cana-
dian citizens were. searched. to
make sure they didn’t take
pictures of one solitary site
on the system.

Canadian contractors for non-
electronic equipment were to
get equal consideration with
U.S. contractors and Canadian
labor was to be given prefer-
ence for all non-specialized
work. U.S. and Canadian
commercial air line carriers
were to be given fullest and
equal opportunities but sel-
ected and ruled on by U.S.
authorities.

It is the strangest experience
of a lifetime to work on a
project in one’s own country
bossed by the oficials and
businessmen of a foreign
power. Of course, one has much

U.S, naval vessels: unloading supplies at a DEW Line * bg

the Canadian Arctic.

the same experience in the
Alberta oil fields.

The supply policy for the
DEW Line reminded me of the
big business rackets on. the
construction of the Alaska
Highway during the Second
World War. Truck drivers and
cat-skinners still tell of how
tons of tins of jam and other
foods, typewriters, and ofice
equipment» were crushed and
destroyed when construction
work was finished rather than
return them to the market or
give them to the needy. Prices
had to be kept up, and mean-
time Canadians were being
rationed for sugar, meat and
jam, and paying through their
taxes for the wastage and des-
truction of food.

On the DEW Line each
separate camp and operating
crew, whether under the
Red, Green or Yellow, were
supplied with anything up to
six or eight times their re-
quirements in tools and equip-
ment. Mechanics’ tools, pres-
sure cookers, pots and pans
and cutlery and supplies in
general were continually being
dumped on the ice to lighten
plane loads when moving from
site to site. Big business was
very free with the people’s
money.

Yet in the first and second
year of DEW Line construc-
tion cooks were working for
between $250 and $300 a
month. I found mechanics
servicing planes of some of

July 18, 1958 —

ite? |

the contractors at abou ig 4
same rate of pay. The? aie %
worked out at less tha? vast i
lar an hour, Wages Wet ash |
later on, as ‘difficulty vin vy a
curred finding men  *— ti
the project.

st toh

cor

Men engaged in the © ;
tion, particularly en not, ty
labor, were induced ¢ to 2° ph Xs
for around $1.40 an ho ee 1
promised lots of overt afl ty
time and half, Whe? * we ‘ol hy
there’ they found “si iy
notices signed © bY th
visors” . stating 7° with?
would work overtime iss thi
the supervisor’s perm gt G,
Only in extreme i ou (
did they get any ove?
rest of the time they are dh
their bunks in the ble@
camps.

As I recall the wasté i :
vast project I am yerni?
what Sam Anak ie 4
our Eskimo dog te3 id
izers, told me. Sai a oft
at Aklavik and Tuk-u at tt
costs 25 cents a pow? * pit 4
$1 for three loave>, a a
over $2 a pound, ap “ail |
45 cents a small can. F
were $2 a pound, % er N
a dozen, and cheaP J ja py
$2 a tin. (

h

These are things wor ;
calling when Ottawa phy)
ing about who is goinS js
the button on NOR E
Ottawa. hasn’t know? utto” Fr:
been pushing the
too long already.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE