ee

“Mately 3,000

ality ;

. the

Ship union wins
Wage increase

Following lengthy negotia-
tions between operators of
wooden and steel shipyards in
Vancouver and the Marine

Workers and Boilermakers’ In-
dustriay Union, Local 1; approxi-
shipyard workers
have received a 12% cent per
hour Wage increase.

Union president William L.
White announced that while the
Union has ratified the new agree-
Ment covering the 12% cent wage
boost, the union policy commit-
tee has been instructed to con-
tinue negotiations with the wood-
€n shipyard operators on the
men’s demands for a union shop.

Earlier in the negotiations
When it looked as if the stalling
of the shipyard operators might
lock a. Satisfactory settlement on

© wage issue, a strike vote
Conducteg by “the union showed a

Percent majority in favor of
Withdrawing their labor power

Should the necessity arise.
reap

CIO steel director Millard sees
Czechoslovakia through’red mist’

By MEL COLBY

Although Red Army Troops have been absent from Czechoslovakia for more than
a year now, a lurid tale of their activity in that country was brought back to Canada
this week by C. H. Millard, national director of the CIO steelworkers. His “observations
were completely at variance with those made by George Burt, Canadian director of the

UAW-CIO, who was interviewed
on his return a few weeks ago.
Mr. Burt accompanied Mr. Mil-
lard to Prague.

Mr. Millard, who went to Czech-
oslovakia more than a month ago
as a delegate from the Canadian
Congress of Labor to the World
Federation of Trade Unions, ap-
peared to have made his obser-
vations with a red mist before
his eyes.

He described Red Army troops
as “arrogant” and sazd that “loot-
ing” and “raping” on their part
kad disillusioned the Czech peo-
ple regarding the Communists.
They had come into the country
as “conquerors not _ liberators,”
Mr. Millard claimed.

Reminded that the last general
elections in Czechoslovakia had
resulted in’ 40 percent of the vote
going to the Communist Party,
and that that party was the larg-
est group in the coalition govern-
ment, the steel chief brushed this
aside.

Mayor’s death creates

hew problems

ald ratton McGeer, mayor

Ci]
Wait
election “te
. MeGeer
Setting things
ee city council
3 €r his direc-
18 n for the past
4 Months had
ne nothing to
bi Kle the city’s
h 8 problems of
using, civic
ewan
ties Port utili-
“ak aia tax re-

Without his
Solorfal ‘person-
which
Shrewaly r
; Ae
et into eeal
7 through
Shakeups and calculated
at the big money inter-
any’ ae, & powerful factor in
Non-p €ction campaign, the Civic
it gj artisan Association will find
Cult to defend its record.

Bo: friend of labor, which had
Ment 2 to remember his treat-
firgt Of the unemployed and the
World war veterans during
thirties, McGeer harbored

&mb
iste HORS to succeed Prime Min-

the December civic

choose his sucessor.
had a reputation for
done,’

although

es Gerry McGeer
Police
hrusts
ts

°F the aonsade King as leader

@deral Liberal Party.

for CNPA —

The sudden death on Monday this week of Senator Ger-

of Vancouver, has presented

his Civic Non-Partisan colleagues on Vancouver City Coun-
With a far more serious problem than citizens who must

generally supported his campaigns,
reported this week:

‘Tt is known positively among
his intimates that he aspired to
the prime ministership of Canada,
feeling he possessed the drive,
knowledge, and the crusadership
for the task. .

“He had slackened off in his
senatorial duties but only to de-
vote more attention to his may-
oral duties and to concentrate on
plans for the prime ministership.

Controller is

asked by CSU

J. M. Smith, business agent
here for the Canadian _Seamen’s
Union this week Was instructed
by the union’s Vancouver local
to send a wire to Prime M nister
Mackenzie King urging the gov-
ernment to act immediately
against those Great Lakes ship
owners responsible for the pres-
ent disruptive situation on lake
shipping.

The wire urged the government
to appoint @ controller to “take
shipping companies which

the Vancouver Sun, which Te eemaeinet to deal with the CSU.
a

— Good advice from Tobin
— & recent interview Presi-

Daniel J
T - Tobin of the
samsters’ Union told a mag-
Press Writer that “tremendous
Meianing from rank and file
Unig; hohe Could: bring about a
enous), 2bor movement, strong
Bh to lick “those _ politic- .
ug» Who have tried to destroy
Was ft? Teamsters’ president
ley Laren to the Taft-Hart-
bor Bill, a statutory ball-
Biy 89. Similar te our own ~
ar oiyice is timely to some
limi eaders in B.C. With a
Bin gq ,FE-CIO-CCL _ unity
Numbe has already received a
With 4; °F, Severe body blows.
en the kind of labor unity
k Visiag,

ed by Tobin, Bill 39
&n, ’
Oia CMA-inspired stooges
can a Anscomb-Hart Coalition
Bheay, VePt into the political

ay, AUGUST 15, 1947

‘OBSERVER’

Mr. Millard compared the Red
Army liberators to the Nazi army
of occupation. The Germans, he
said) had been “docile” during
those last months “and had act-
ed differently than the Russians.”
He hinted they had endeared
themselves to the Czechs.

As a result of his ‘observations,’
said Mr. Millard, he felt certain
that the 1948 general elections in
Czechoslovakia would see a big
decline in the Communist vote in
favor of the Social Democrats and
the National Socialists. Mr. Miul-
lard described the latter as a
mixture of Liberal-Conservative
groupings. In an oblique way he
predicted their coalition after the
1948 elections in opposition to the
Communists.

All this would happen, the CIO

chief said, if the etections were
“honestly conducted.” He gloom-
ily admitted he did not see much
possibility of this because mem-
bers of the Communist Party held
key positions in the Czech cabin-
et and “whether they will allow
a free election remains to be
seen.”

Regarding the Two Year Plan:
“On the surface it appears to
have the support of the people.”

Mr. Millard’s red mist was still
before his eyes when he hit Eng-
land. He paid tribute to the peo-
Fle of that ‘country for their
spirit in the face of adversity,
agreed that coal production had
been “overfulfilled in many colli-
eries,” and that the miners had
accomplished a gigantic job of
production—BUT: “Arthur Horner
(the miners’ leader) was a man
whose loyalties were divided be-

tween the government, the coal
miners and the Communist
Party.” (Henry Luce said the

same thing in Time tast week.)

This is Mr. Millard’s second
European tour since February,
1944. At that time he attended
the first conference of the World
Federation of Trade Unions held
in London.

This, too, was viewed through
a red mist and he returned to
Canada to tell the story of the
Soviet delegates being transpert-
ed to and from the meeting
place in closed vans while umder
daily guard.

In Czechoslovakia the closed
vans were missing. Everybody
tceok a streetcar.

Rumors rife in Ottawa

on cabinet

reshuffle

By MARK FRANK

OTTAWA—Is a shuffle in the Canadian cabinet on the
books? This is the No. 1 question in Ottawa circles tantaliz-
ing news-hungry reporters wandering through long, empty

parliamentary corridors.

Most extreme view going the
rounds is that Mackenzie King,
the prime minister, himself, will
step down. Nature, abhoring a
vacuum, asks the vital question:
Who will take Mr. King’s place?

Since the answer is not readily
forthcoming, none of the political
quiz-kids are taking a change in
PM’s too seriously.

The notable absence of Mr. King

‘from the house; his illness during

the session; the fuss about his
20 years government leadership;
the hanging of his portrait along
with politicos of. days gone by on
Parliament Hill—all of these com-
bine to give the picture of an im-
pending ceremony giving Mr. King
a decent political burial as befits a
right honorable gentleman. _
Most reliable opinion has an-

other view with greater merit in

it. It is that Louis St. Laurent,
present minister for external af-
fairs, is definitely on the way out.
One informant. here says “he
can make more money as a cor-
poration lawyer than as a cabinet
minister.” Hence his desire to
wind up his parliamentary career.
Absence of Mr. St. Laurent from
external affairs would make it
even more necessary for Mr. King
to stay on the job. The subject
is a pet item. with the PM and
one in which he has demonstrated
his skill. The “spy scare” episode;
Kine’s atom bomb dinlomacy; the
leadership of the world’s so-called
“middle-powers”—all have provid-
ed grist for the mill of big-time
U.S. imverialism in the councils
of the international. relations.
Mr. King is a handy man to
have around, even if he does want
to retire and write his memoirs.
Evidence that St. Laurent is on
the wav out is said to be reflect-

ed in the fact that Minister for

National Defence Claxton is now
doing a big external affairs job at
the Canberra conference on Japan.

Claxton is mentigned as _ the
most likely successor for the ex-
ternal affairs job should St. Lau-
rent leave.

Next in line of importance is
C. D. Howe, minister for recon-
struction and supply, said to be
jumping out of parliament for a
soft desk job with Trans-Canada
Airlines come September.

Possible moving of Veterans
Minister Ian Mackenzie and Re-
sources Minister Glen up into the
red-plush Senate chambers is also
being mentioned. Loss of Mack-
enzie to the cabinet would mean
a Weakening of house leadership
according to some.

A definite trend indicated by
many observers here is the devel-
opment of a ‘younger get-tough
set’ in the cabinet. They include
people like Claxton, Gibson and
Abbott. This triumvirate repre-
sent a let’s-get-down-to-business
grouping, who do not care much
for the finer subtleties in carrying
out a reactionary policy.

Abbott, the finance -minister is
a prime example of the group, who
want a stream-lined “American”
type of cabinet which will do the
job for big-business a little more
efficiently.

Further down the line is Health
and Welfare Minister Paul Martin,
rumored to be hankering after
the PM’s job in the far-away
future. One piece of information
has it that Col. David Croll is
thought of for a cabinet position.
Croll was a member of the Hep-
burn cabinet in the province of
Ontario, filling the public welfare
health and labor post.

“money. -

News of

the nation

* % -*

A good idea!

MONTREAL — The boys
deal in ‘weights,’ indices’ so
‘curves’ today found out what
—. oe have been shout-
ng from © rooftops for a 1
time now. sa see

Statistcians, meetings in the
sixth international ~conference
here, are studying a resolution
which thinks it would be a good
idea if the cost of living indices
used by governments actually had
some relationship to the cost of
living of the average worker.

The International Labor Office,
which sponsored the meeting,
says that “an important point of
criticism of official cost of liv-
ing indices has been this failure
to take into account the actual
conditions of the everyday mar-
ket.”

Labor leaders have maintained
that the figures used by the Do-
minion government to estimate
the rise im the cost of living
have been inadequate and do not
give a true picture of what hap-
pens when their wives go shop
ping.

Ankara on the air

OTTAWA — Correspondents here —
learned last week through the
medium of Ankara radio, that
Canada and Turkey had decided
to raise their legations im each
other’s capitals to the status of
embassies. ©

le

Wholesale prices up

OTTAWA — Wholesale prices
jumped 2.5 points for the month
of June according to a Domin-
ion Bureau Statistics report last
week.

General index rose to 127.8 from
125.8 for May, making a total
of 18.5 points since June of last
year, said the report.

At the time the index stood at
109.3. In January of 1947 the im
dex was 114.2, the half-year ad-
vance being 13.6 points.

Most marked increases were
Shown in June over May for
textile products rising 7.2 points;
non-ferrous metals going up 118
Points and chemical products
showing a 7 point rise.

—_—_

Legalized assault

WINDSOR, Ont.—Magistrate J.
Arthur Hanrahan today warned
Windsor police against “unauthor-
ized show of authority” through
the indiscriminate use of night
sticks, The magistrate said there
is a limit to “legalized assault
and battery.”

Said the magistrate: “I feel im-
pelled to sound this note of warn-
ing because during the past month
I have seer more blood-bespatter-
ed accused in the prisoner’s box
than I ever recollect previously.”

His warning Came during the
hearing of two brothers charged
with assaulting a police con-
stable... - ; mtg

———

low premium on life

TORONTO — The head life-
guard at Cherry Beach in Tor-
onto, said yesferday that City
Lifeguards are ready to go on
strike unless they get more

The Chief Guard at Sunnyside,
W. F. Neale, said that sirice 1941
the Lifeguards have only had one
increase, and that amounted to
$1 a week. First year lifeguards
work 56 hours a week and make
$23.40.

OTTAWA—The Department of
Trade and Commerce announced
last Tuesday that export permits
are no longer needed for the
shipment of tea out of Canada.
Main argument of importers in
the recent boost in tea prices
was ‘scarcity’ and narrow ‘marg-
inal profits’. Now we are going
into the export business. The
$64 question of the week .

where’s the tea coming from?
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3