a a labor theatrical ip can successfully pro- == 2 musical revue, as well a serious drama, ‘was feonstrated this week by or Theater’s maiden ef the three-act revue fine title is taken from the act, written by Cpl. Fred iot, in-the form of a dra- = sketch urging the building fational unity, and warning ge dangers of apathy, pre- me and fear. i> first act, staged in a ship- ' consists almost entirely of >, Songs and dancing, and frees two songs by Cynthia ir, Sailor’s Boogie, and > the Men behind the Men ® Man the Ships. Some of Bbest musical arrangements Fe show are presented here Pie credit of Kitty Bladen, ;al director. 5 fe of the most popular num- ‘in Act Two is the Swing s number, also. written by shia Garter and featuring n Moat, a talented amateur a singing style which im- Fately caught the fancy of audience. a satire on “the kind of Pr your wife thinks you #° was also well received. iss Dorothy Somerset, of is extension department, ‘valuable advice during the few rehearsals. Unfortun- §. direction of the show is Sa little weak, due to Miss sets inability to spend time on the undertaking. f2 only other weakness in sroduction lies in the danc- Ewhich occasionally is poorly @imated with the music. But lm amateur effort the pro- ®on is Surprisingly fine, and “atulations from enthusiastic ‘neces whieh greeted each mmance were well deserved. song high points in the show “5, the dancing of Guy Faint ‘his partner, the charm of Helen Moat. SYMPOSIUM ‘REHABILITATION of EX-SERVICEMEN and WOMEN’ ; ‘OILERMAKERS’ HALL 339 West Pender jUNDAY, JUNE 11th \ 8 P.M. : Sponsored: By Bis Women’s Counci PP om C } > ie -Anderson’s It Is and It ‘the’ singing of the Erikson ~ ANIC Editor Urges | Unions To Take Political Action KIMBERLEY, B.C.—“‘To carry forward into the postwar period the economig and. social ad- vances won by a united people in wartime organized labor must take direct political action tn the next federal election in order to “unite all progressive people for . the election of tried and trusted -labor and farmer representa- tives,’ A. G. Gampbell, associate editor of The People, told a pub- lic meeting) here sponsored by Kimberley LPP branch. Urging labor to support those candidates whose program af- forded the broadest means of uniting all progressives around the realizable needs of the post- war period, Campbell said: “labor has a vital part to play. Provided its own forces are unit- ed, labor’s influence in uniting all progressives can be decisive in electing men and women whose influence on our national policies can ensure the imple- mentation of the Teheran agree- menk.” TMUUIIUUUNTUUUUAUTAC TTT Federation Negotiates Negotiations to bring agree- ments of chartered locals of the Shipyard General Workers’ Fed- eration in Prince Rupert into line with those in Vancouver shipyards will commence soon, Lawrence Anderson, business agent of the Shipwrights, told The People this week on his re- turn from the northern port. The Boilermakers will be ap- plying to the provincial depart- ment of labor for nullification of an agreement signed for the welders in West Coast Ship- builders by the company and the United Weldors, an “independ- ent” union. The Welders gained a major- ity of seven votes over the Boilermakers Union in a ballot to determine the bargaining agency, but never obtained a majority of all workers as re- quired by the act. ez: | HAst. 0340 766 E. Hastings Hastings Steam Baths Vancouver, B.C. Always Open. Expert Masseurs in Attendance 8 a.m. to iI p-m.—40c and 50c Ks WAND STUDIO “Anything With a Camera” 8. E. Hastings St. PAcific 7644 VANCOUVER, B.C. He Aircraft Proposal Rejected Urged by Aeronautical Lodge 756 here to convene a conference of labor, manage- ment and sovernment to dis- euss the Canadian aircraft industry and its future, Mu- nitions and Supply Minister G. D. Howe has rejected the union’s suggestion on the ground that kis department is responsible only for procuring war supplies and has no authority to deal with postwar industrial develop- ment. z Officers of the aireraft union here this week described Howe’s reply as negative, commenting that it failed to offer any answer te the question of future em- ployment for aircraft ‘workers. “The threat of Jlayoffs still exists,” Tom Parkin, reeording secretary, told The People. “Howe obviously is sufficiently interested to write us a two-page letter and if his department cannot do anything, there must be some department that can. ‘While we realize that his de- partment is mainly concerned with war production, we feel there should be a postwar plan- ning department with power and initiative to call such a confer- ence as we proposed and help labor plan for peacetime pro- duction.” Lodges of the Aeronautical _ Mechanics’ union in Vancouver and New Westminster are now waiting to hear from Aeronauti- cal Lodge 712, Montreal, in order that a joint decision can be made as to what action will be taken. Although he stated that his department lacked authority to deal with questions of postwar development, Howe revealed in his letter that “the Aircraft Pro- duction Division of the Depart- ment of Munitions and Supply is represented on a committee whieh is studying the postwar position of aircraft industries.” Meanwhile, Lodge 756 which is how conducting a drive to estab- lish the 44-hour week in all air- craft plants in B.C., is meeting the Boeing management to ask that the shorter week, already in effect in the shipyards where it is a factor in overcoming the problem of Jlayoffs in slack periods, be made effective with- out delay. : An earlier proposal that time- and-one-half be paid for the last four hours of the 48-hour week Was rejected by the National War Labor Board. In presenting their argument for the five-and-a-half day week, the unions pointed out that they have consistently worked with management in an attempt to institute a jointly planned pro- duction program but have never received the proper degree of cooperation in return. | Public Nominating Convention _ Oddfellows Hall, Fernie, B.C. SUNDAY, JUNE Iilth, 2 P.M. to select a Labor-Progressive Party candidate for ~ EAST KOOTENAY FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY Tom Uphill Labor MLA for Fernie GUEST SPEAKERS: Alfred C. Campbell Associate Editor of The People Books and People by Kay Gregory UBLICATION of anew book by Donald Grant Creighton, Dominion of the North, brings to mind his earlier work The Commercial Empire of the St. lawrence, which contains excellent background material on the earliest history of Canada, on the effect of the Precambrian Shield on the country’s economic development and on early settlement up to 1837. But it was in his interpretation of the Rebellion of 1837 that Creighton made his big mistake. In a series of lectures on Canadian history several years ago, Stanley Ryerson, author of 1837—The Birth of Canadian Democracy, and French Canada, showed where Creighton had erred in his analysis of these historical events. “First of all,” Ryerson said, “Creighton identifies the commercial center in London and the mercantile interest in Britain with the cause of progressive development and maintains if they had been able to keep their influence and extend it, and had not had to fight against a revolt in the colony, then the commercial empire which Creighton idealises to a considerable extent would have been able to continue to develop without any hindrance. The fact that this would have meant a continued colonial subjection of Canada and prevention of the development of independent capitalism in Canada, he completely leaves out of account... . : “His second mistake is that he places the reform movement as an agrarian movement only, considers that this is reactionary as compared with the commercial interest, and identifies the agrarian movement with feudalism. He says that the French habitants were fighting, to defend feudalism against capitalism, whereas exactly opposite was the case since the Patriots wrote into their program abolition of feudal tenure, and he omits the fact that development of settlement and agriculture was itself necessary for the develop- ment of independent capitalist industry in Canada itself.” Creighton’s new book, commissioned by Houghton-Mifflin, to acquaint American readers with their northern neighbor and her early history, goes further than his earlier work. In this he ap- Parently analyses Canada’s present world status on the basis of her early settlement problems and presents some new theories. He does insist that Canada is a free and independent nation— not a colony nor a satellite of a distant power—but his earlier lean= ings, evident in the Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence, are still apparent. @ Of reviewer in the New York Times, commenting on the new book, got the bright idea that Canada should be the center of the British Commonwealth of Nations, because, according to Creigh- ton, the conception of a British Commonwealth of Nations was originally a Canadian one. Thus, the reviewer felt, “is not Ottawa as near the center of the aggregate of nations comprehended in the commonwealth idea as any other capital which flies the British flag? Would not loyalty to that conception, radiating eternally out from that center, be more likely to provoke its counterpart in distant places than if officially advocated from London”? : Canada and her sister dominions are sovereign states within the British Commonwealth, as the recent conference of Dominion premiers in London showed, and any attempt to combine them in a bloe fundamentally aligned against the United States and the Soviet Union will meet the very real objection of their peoples. Prime Minister Mackenzie King gave the Keynote of this feeling when he said that “we must join not only with Commonwealth countries but with all like-minded states if our purposes and ideals are to prevail. Our commitments on these great issues must be part of a general scheme.” 5 @ MWiAk* QUAYLE INNIS, whose Economic History of Canada is a standard reference work—and a very good one—has now gone into an entirely new field and written a novel, Stand on a Rainbow, which is a simple story of family life for the period of one year. One cannot imagine two books so completely different coming from the same author, yet the excellent documentation of the Economic History augers well for a sound basis in the new novel. Mary Innis—H. A. Innis, her husband, also wrote a valuable Specialized work, The Fur. Trade in Canada, now unfortunately out of print—was a graduate of the University of Chicago, and in those days was also a lyric poet of some talent. ie ee wide publicity given to Vicki Baum’s new novel, Hotel Berlin ’43, aroused some outspoken comments from one reviewer in the Chicago Sun with which I heartily agree. “I would like,” he said, “to record my emphatic dissent from the highly favorable estimate of a new novel, Vicki Baum’s Hotel Berlin °*43. It has, to be sure, a certain surface facility and even -brillianee in its presentation of an artificially selected group of war- time Germans, but of the significant values of real fiction it has scarcely a trace. Indeed, as a novel it seems to me worse than worthless: its portrayal of a popular Nazi actress and protegee of- Hitler who is converted overnight into a loyal worker for freedom is too serious in its implications to. be regarded as mere ‘silly romance. The presentation of a Berlin on the point of collapse in 1943 is dangerous wishful thinking.” ? ; There have been far too many of these shallow books. written in a facile style, cashing in on the demand for news and informa- tion about the possibility of an early German collapse. But as yet ’ nothing has been written, outside of Anna Seghers’ Seventh Cross, which could be considered as a truie picture of that country under the stress of continuous defeat on the Russian front and incessant Allied bombing. When it is written, the story of underground work in Germany will be an epic. ~~ j | ! i + eI