Al
Parkin

pps editorial writer on the
Vancouver Daily Province is
having the devil’s own time these
days keeping up with the Soviet
Uuion’s position in foreign af-
fairs. You could almost sym-
pathize with his tortuous mental
gyrations except that, in his
search for a “solution” to this or
that particular instance of Soviet
political or military strategy, you
somehow feel that he’s not look
ing for truth, that he prefers to
believe to worst at all times. And
he seems to have a list of stock
“answers” filed away in his desk,
plucking them out one by one to
suit the occasion.

The pattern goes something like
this. :

On Monday, let us say, the
Soviet government announces its
position on the Polish border
question—or it may be about Hit -
ler’s latest peace feeler.

Tuesday the Province editorial

writer reaches for a typewriter
and dashes off an item which as-
sumes that whatever has hap-
pened “it’s all a lie — it just
couldn’t be.”

On Thursday the news stories
on the question are still coming
through, accompanied now by
comments from somewhat more
reliable sources. So this time he
edges a little closer.

-“Perhaps,”’ he says, “there’s
something in this that doesn’t
meet the eye.”

The trouble is, he’s not very
sure. So after discussing the
question in a marginal way for a
full editorial column, he throws
out one of his stock conclusions
on all matters relating to the So-
Cialist state. :

“After all,” he says triumph-
antly, “Stalin is a realist. And |
whatever he does, you can he
Sure it’s to the advantage of the
Soviet state.”

C)

But even this profound conclu-
Sion is not always sufficient.
Perhaps a week later, after al-
most everyone else has arrived
at a correct estimation of the
USSR’s position, that editorial
writer still feels he has left some-
thing unsaid. So he reaches into
his file and hauls out his favorite
theme, “The Soviet Enigma,” or
“The Riddle of the Kremlin.”

Here he really spreads himself.
Perhaps, he says, the new Soviet
policy means this On the
other hand, it might mean that
z Or again, it could be ex-
plained this way ...

Finally, after digging himself
in so deep that even a “divining
rod” couldn’t locate him, he
solves the problem by blaming
everything on Stalin’s “Asiatic
_mind.” This; he apparently feels,
is an unanswerable argument, so
he sighs with relief and turns
thankfully to the job of covering
up the latest stupidity of some
Vancouver City Council member,
which is more in his line.

And then, by heaven, the
smooth functioning of the editor-
ial sanctuary is disrupted by de-
velopment of a new Soviet policy,
which gives all of the 16 feder-
ated republics of the USSR auton-
omy in foreign affairs. So the
poor guy has to start all over
again. =

Centinued

Bloc

and sympathy of a strong sec-
tion of Anglo-Ganadians in his
province. He affirmed that the
prevailing opinion among these
sroups Was one of restricting
Canada’s war effort.

The delegates accepted a reso-
lution demanding that the fed-
eral government show a greater
interest in “the culture and tra-
ditions of those New Canadians
who abjure Anglo-Saxonism and
have no wish to become assimi-
lated~’

Chairman of the committee on
minorities was Paul Masse, de-
feated candidate in the August
9 byelection in Montreal-Cartier,
who had received the unqualified
support of Watson Kirkeonnell’s
proteges, the reactionary  sup-
porters of the Polish Committee
and other Hitler agents operat-
ing in similar organizations, in
his campaign.

Andre Laurendeau, in the main
address, stated that he believed
Germans and Poles would profit
by the Bloc program of “restrict.
ing the war effort’? and that
“French-Ganadians were practic-
ally evicted from high state ser-
vices by the tyrannical Soviet
Operating at Ottawa.”
—Observers believe that Lauren-
deau’s reference to the Ottawa
administration in these terms
Was a direct appeal to the anti-
Soviet hatred existing among
reactionary groups outside Que-
bee and especially among those
clustered around Professor Wat-
son Kirkconnell,

Le Bloc, the new weekly of the
organization, completely white-
Washes the Rochette  anti-labor

-laws introduced in the- Quebec

jegislature last week, and accuses
the government of merely copy-
ing the Bloc program without
giving the Bloe credit.

The Block is also determined
to sabotage any national social
reforms and recently made its
position clear. Speaking on the
air on January 30, lLaurendeau
threatened his auditors that “na-

tional health insurance is the
greatest single menace facing
Guebec!”

Continued

_aborites

the British Communist party to
engage in joint talks. On Decem-
ber 8, Harry Pollitt, British Com-
munist leader, addressed the fol-
lowing letter to J. S. Middleton,
secretary of the Labor Party:

“In view of the need for max-
imum unity of the labor move-
ment in preparing for any future
general election, IT-am asked to
suggest that your executive con-
sider the appointment of repre-
sentatives of the Communist
Party, for an informal exchange
of opinion on the following ques-
tions: :

“1) A eampaign by all working-
class organizations to secure a
mass enrollment of trade union-
ists for payment of the political
levy to the Labor Party.

“2) What preparations can be
made by all working-class organ-
izations to rally the entire labor
and progressive forces through-
out the country to secure the re-
turn of a Labor majority.”

In his letter rejecting the pro-
posal, Middleton -said: “In the
opinion of the Labor Party exec-
utive, there is no evidence in the
general policy, attitude and work
of the Communist Party to indi-
cate that a meeting of the char-
acter suggested can serve any
useful purpose.”

Of the 8,500,000 trade unionists
in Britain, only 2,250,000 “con-
tract-in” to pay the one-penny-a-
week levy to the Labor Party.
Individual membership in the
Communist Party has grown from
12,000 to 100,000 in the same
period.

Continued from Page I

King Insists On
Applying Order

face to face with the undeniable
fact that the majority of the
people, including members of all
political parties; are vigorously
opposed to its provisions.

It was this fact that prompted
the Prime Minister to speak to
the House this week on the ques-
tion and promise that “it is the
intention of the government to
make certain amendments.”
(Such a move was indicated by
The People last week.)

King said the government
would soon be meeting repre-
sentatives of the major labor
organizations, and their views
would be taken into considera-
tion before a decision on final
changes in the order.

He refused, however, to agree
fo a postponement of application
of the order on February 14, de-
claring that “some labor organ-

LINTON ETT

Protest Meeting

A mass meeting to protest the
federal government’s Wartime
Wage Control Order has- been
called for Vancouver on Sunday,
February 13 at 8 p.m. in the big
Vogue Theater. Under the aus-
pices of the Vancouver Tabor
Courreil, ©CL, the special com-
mittee in charge expects a mass
turnout. “

Speakers will include repre-
sentatives of the labor council
and various political parties, in-
cluding the CCF, LPP) Liberal
and Progressive-Conservative
parties, and the City Council.
William Stewart and MDawrence
Anderson will speak for the
trade unions, and Al Parkin for
the LPP. Other speakers had not
been named at time of going to
press. ;

SOOT AT

izations” would welcome its com-
ing into effect. He refused to
State what organizations would
approve. -

Meanwhile from all over the
country, trade union conferences,
public mass meetings, and even
municipal council meetings con-
tinted to flood Ottawa with wires
and resolutions of protest. More
Liberal, Progressive-Conserya-
tive and CCF members of parlia-
ment have joined forces on the
floor of the House of Commons
to make their-opposition known.

The people are making Clear
their overwhelming conviction
that the wage order is completely
out of line with the reform
measures outlined in the Speech
from the Throne and would put
a powder keg under national
unity if enforced in its present
form. aa :

That the government is not too
sure of its ground was seen this
week in it shalf-hearted defense of
the new order published in an
official 20-page “Explanation.”
The booklet, in examining the
arguments directed against P.C.-
9384, finds little to defend and
ends up by partly conceding the
justness of the criticisms.

As ithe nationwide protest con-
tinued, Percy Bengough, presi-
dent of the Trades and Labor
Congress, voiced labor’s deter-
Mination to win government
policies that will strengthen the
partnership of all sections of the
people in the prosecution of the
war.

In a speech at Hamilton, Ben-
gough, after declaring that the
order would hinder the war ef-
fort, warned however that any
suggestions for a national “work
holiday” as a protest measure

would hit the interests of the
workers, and emphasized «that the
Trades Congress would stick to
its no-strike, win-the-war line.
“It is the workers who have
the most to lose,” he said. “To
strike would be to strike against

ourselves.”
C) © e

In British Columbia the pro-
test campaign continued to reach
new heights. A giant protest mass
meeting was scheduled for Sun-
day, February 13, in Vancouver's
Vogue Theater.

Two big mass metings last Sun-
day—in_ New _Westminster _and
Victoria—left no doubt of the
position of the labor movements
in both cities toward the goy-
ernment order. The New West-
minster meeting demanded the
immediate resignation of Hum-
phrey Mitchell. Similar meetings
are now scheduled at a number
of Vancouver Island points, in-
cluding Duncan on Sunday, Feb-
ruary 20 at 8 p.m.

In addition, almost every trade
union local in the province, from
the powerful industrial unions in
shipbuilding, lumbering, coal and
hardrock mining and fishing,
down to the smallest craft union,
have forwarded wires and resolu-
tions of protest.

e@ @ Se

One of the outstanding features
of the nationwide campaign, in
the opinion of many labor men,
is the degree of unity being
achieved between the CG and
AFL unions on the issue. In most
eases the conferences and mass
meetings held or being held are
under their joint auspices. In a
number of cities, trade unionists
are learning—perhaps for the
first time—that joint protests on
the wage order will not only

prove the most effective in this.

particular instance, but can be
extended to other labor problems.
Certainly the opposition to the
Wage control order was cement-
ing the greatest measure of CCL-
AFL unity seen since the be-
ginning of the war. And it held
the greatest promise of an ex-
tension of that unity into the
problems of postwar Canada.

<

&

A. H. Evan
< e o be
Condition
Unchange
Despite the best surgic
and hospital care availab
Arthur “Slim” Evans s{
hovers between life aj
death in Vancouver Gene

Hospital, three weeks aft

he was struck down and ¢
tically injured by an automob
close to his home.

Hospital officials describe ]
condition as “generally unchar
ed”, adding that his failure ~
regain consciousness except f
brief intervals weakens h
chance of survival. 2

Meanwhile subscriptions to f

benefit fund, . initiated by TI
People to pay for doctor ar
hospital expenses, this wet

reached a total of $316.94, wi
donations coming in from ;
over the province. 3

The following is a further i

"of subscribers to the fund. (

typographical error in last week
report gave the total at that tin
as $143.60. It should have rez
$138.60.) sae ‘

Previously acknowledged $13)
60; Members of Georgia Ha
Branch LPP $23.32; M. Connel
$2.00, Ole Martin $1.00: Counei
lor Harry Ball $5, Mrs. Katell $
i. P. Schoeppe $2.50, A. C. Cami
bell $2, A. Wnesrich $1, J. Bart
$1, R. Adams $2. C. Tomlinson §
C. Wenstrom $1, W. Beattie $
Alex Macdonald $1, Sid Beat
$1, D. Ramson $1, J. Remer §
J. MeNeill $2, M. A. Cahore
50c, Ted Jacobson $1, Geo. Caz
eron $1, J. A. St. Cyr $2, Hay
Kroeger $1, E. C. Lowery ar
family $8, Hastings East Branc
LPP $21.67, S. Gregus $2, To
Jones $i, J. Sommerville $1,
Cordoni $1.50, Mrs. Padgham an
friends $2, J. Stelp $3, Lil ar
Bill Purvis $5, Mrs. E. Stirlir
$2. George Edgar $3, J. W. Litt
$5, F. H. Smith $1, E.-Roberts $
R. Copeland $1, Perey Budd $
John McPeake $6, George Gr
zov $2.10, John J. Morris $5, To
and Ellen Greenwell $5, Mz
Lealess $2, Mt. Pleasant Br. LE
$2.25, M. McGregor $1, Mrs. i
Adams $2, Mrs. C. Fraser §
Group of Russian Workers $13.5
Workers at Honeymoon Ba
Cowichan Lake $17; Total $316:¢

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