Review ©

° EDITORIAL PAGE yee

iis Riel

HIS Friday, November 16 is
the 71st anniversary of the |
ecution of Louis Riel, lead-
of the Metis in the North-
€St. He died a martyr be-
"use he fought for his people.

The province of Manitoba |
Was founded largely as a re- |
Ut of the struggle for re-
Wonsible government led by }

pe culminating in the Red |
ver Rebellion of 1869. k

Riel was elected to parlia- {
Ment in 1874 but was forced

J. ©¢ the country because a }
be had been placed on his
fad, dead or alive.

In 1885, he came to the aid
t the Metis in Saskatchewan
i Participated in the rebel-
in 1 of 1885, for which he was
Mchted. He died as he lived,

~ i. @hadian patriot.

LOUIS RIEL

| The
MME \ONISTER St. Law
“Nts announcement of a
— Million “‘aid-to-culture’”’
ua keeping with the Mas
Mmission Report (1951)
“long-awaited and welcome

‘ \ News.
» Ue of the stipulations relat-
».. its disbursement raise a
“Ot question: will this fi-
; i appropriation for cultur-
ancement be kept largely
her the exclusive circles of
4h, “arning, or will it reach
i. mong the plain people
» _. oS an aid to the promo-
a genuine national cul-

Th, . 2Mnouncement gives no
h, Mdication that this will be

i here are hundreds of cultur-
i Sports’ organizations,
a aid writers’ groups
>In. the course of their var-
] ities, could add greatly
1, Cultural prestige of Can-

a

“d KA unfortunasely find their

\

cific Tribune

1 bao lished weekly at

: — 426 Main Street
P 4ncouver 4, B.C.
| Raigeone? MArine 5288
Aig t — TOM McEWEN
eg

If ae

Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
‘Manager — RITA WHYTE
Ubscription Rates:
he Year: $4.00
Managye® Months: $2.25
Nine Ut And Commonwealth
Year (except Australia): $4.00
aM oe Australia, United States
€r countries: ($5.00 one
year,

grant for culture

efforts are hampered by lack of

funds and facilities.

To what extent this $100-
million grant will remedy this

problem is not yet evident, but

the fact that such a grant is like-
ly to be placed under the sole

administration of Canadian uni
versities is not very promising as
an ‘‘aid’’ to the promotion of
popular culture.

Ending the

O long as British and French

invasion forces remain in
Egypt so long-will there be the
threat of war engulfing the
Middie East — and as this is
written that threat is very close.

British and French troops are
still in the Suez.Canal zone. The
firss contingent of the United
Nations police force are still en
route to Egypt. Egypt reported-
ly has askéd the Soviet Union
to allow those Soviet citizens
who have volunteered for ser-
vice under its flag to leave for
Egypt.

The United States, through
President Eisenhower, has inti-
mated that it will take a grave
view of the dispatch of any new
forces to Egypt other than those
authorised by the UN.

Ail of this serves both to
sharpen and obscure the central
issue, that the threat to world
peace was created by the British-
French-Israeli invasion and that
withdrawal of their troops is es-

< Comment

war threat

sential to removing the threat.
The Soviet stand sharpens the

1
4

issue by making it clear to the
world that Egypt does not stand
alone in opposing aggression. Al
ready is has spurred the UN to

police contingents
on their way despite the new
pre-exts for delay raised by
Britain and France.

The stand taken by Britain
and France has been te obscure.
the issue — and their own guilt
— by seizing on the Soviet
moves as justification for their
policy. They were not trying
to seize the Suez Canal by force,
to hear their leaders now; they
were only forestalling a ‘‘Soviet
plot.” But their record in
Cyprus, Kenya, Malaya, brands
them for what they are.

The issue remains what it has
British
and French forces must be com-

been from the outset.

pletely withdrawn and Egypt's
sovereignty and territorial rights
guaranteed.

OLON LOW, Social Credit na-
tional leader, concedes that

he may not be a literary critic.
But, he asserts, “I know the Com-

munist party line when I hear
Ieee

I doubt that. To Solon Low, as
to U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy,
the Communist line is anything
that savors of progress. Like Mc-
Carthy, Low is adept in using the
reckless smear, the irresponsible
charge, as he did at UBC last
week in accusing the CBC of pro-
moting the Communist line by
its production of Joe Hill, a radio
play centred around the life of
the martyred U.S. labor leader.

The more..interesting question
would be: Does Solon Low recog-
nize the line he himself is assid-
uously promoting? It’s a line
that has nothing in common with
the “small man” for whom he
claims Social Credit speaks but
everything in common with the
“Jarge man” whose support So-

cial Credit wants.

In his speech to a Socred din-
ner meeting at the Hotel Vancou-
ver on November 9, Low claimed
that Britain and France only in-
vaded Egypt in order to foil a
“Soviet plot” to seize control of
the Middle East.“ . . . The Com-
munists wanted+to use Egyppt
as a pawn,” he asserted, and from
this false assertion drew the con-
clusion that Britain invaded
Egypt “from the highest of mo-
tives, I am satisfied of that.”

It was inevitable that the Bri-
tish and French governments
confronted with the condemna-
tion of a world whose uneasy
peace they have jeopardized,
would cast around for some pre-
text to justify their action. And
what other pretext could they
find except the bankrupt plea of
anti-Communism which in our
time has become the justifica-
tion for every crime against the
people?

x x ces

It is interesting in itself to see
where Low got his line.

He was anticipated by Tom
Goode, Liberal MP for Burhaby-
Richmond. -On November 7,
speaking to Cascade Liberal As-
sociation in Burnaby, Goode des-
cribed the Anglo-French invas-
ion of Egypt as “a police action,”
commenting, “I -wonder if those
who have attacked that action
have considered that the ‘two
countries may have anticipated

a Communist move into the Suez
area?”

Around the same time, at Can-
terbury, England, John Baker
White, a British Conservative
MP, was disclosing what he claim- -
ed were the details of a Soviet
“master plan” for military inter-
vention in Egypt. Baker could
only claim unnamed “unofficial
sources” for his chargés, but that
was sufficient for the press.

It_was sufficient for the Bri-
tish government, too. Two cabi-
net ministers, Colonial Secretary
Alan Lennox-Boyd and Trans-
port Minister Harold Watkinson,
have since elaborated Baker’s
charges.

Anti-Communism, which pro-
vided. the U.S. with the pretext
for engineering the overthrow of
the elected popular government
of Guatemala, has now become
the shoddy justification for the
invasion of Egypt. And one of
its aims, by the British govern-
ments own admission, is the
overthrow .of President Nasser
so that. a government “more
amenable” to British suggestion,
can be installed.

And this is the action to which
Solon Low, the Social Crediter,
and Tom Goode, the Liberal,
want this country to give its
“moral support.”

Whatever his shortcomings as
a literary critic, Low is appar-
enntiy well versed in the inter-
national line of big business.

”

NOVEMBER 16, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 7