_ Canada's trade crisis

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REPORT released by the
Canadian Institute of Pub-
lic Opinion and published under
the title “Every Part of Canada
Has Its Own Variety,” shows
~ that in every province, to a greater
_ or lesser extent, the people face
the problems of unemployment
and high living costs, of a con-
Unuing housing crisis and lack of
Social security. But there are
ven graver problems confronting
equally the people of every pro-
vince from Newfoundland to
British Columbia on which the
stitute says nothing. The larger
Problems are those of foreign
trade, and the national destiny of
Canada as a state in the face of
_ “St constantly growing economic
and political dependence upon_the
nited States.
; i Tt is a fact that Canadian rul-
"RS circles and their controlled
Press are doing everything with-
in their power to conceal from
the people the real urgency of
the problems now confronting
Canada. Let us take, for example,
® Piloblem of foreign trade}
Upon Which Canada’s national
Conomy depends.

Canada derives one-third of her
Rational income from foreign
trade, In 1948, her exports were
higher than before the war. The
‘ Tesults of her foreign trade in
: oe have furnished grounds for
the hight optimistic conclusions
Wn generally by the Canadian

oe about the condition of the
“Rational economy.

?

oA careful analysis of the ques-
tion, however, will show that the
noise raised around the “unprece-
dented prosperity” of Canadian
economy has been raised by the
monopoly press in an effort to
conceal the artificial character
of the present “boom.” and to ob-
secure the blind alley into which
Canada has been led by her rul-
ing circles.
e

The overwhelming majority of
the Canadian population is not
informed about the means which
caused Canada’s exports to leap
upwards, nor about the reasons
which led to Canada's loss of her
principle markets in Europe and
made her foreign trade depen-
dent upon U.S. appropriations.

It is known that Canada was
compelled to advance more than
$2,000 million in credits to Brit-
ain and other West European
countries in order to retain them
as buyers. Furthermore, 40 per-
cent of Canada’s export was fi-
nanced from U.S, resources.

Barron’s, organ of New York

financial circles, admitted frankly °

that by financing purchases in
Canada under the Marshall plan,
the U.S. pursued a threefold pur-
pose: to prop up the payment
eapacity of the Canadian buyers
of American commodities, enable
Canada to pay dividends and in-
terest to American financiers
who invested $5,000 million
Canada’s economy, and to pre-
vent Canada from feeling too

in

keenly the loss of the European
markets from which she was
forced out by the U.S.

It is precisely this fact — the
fact that Canada has lost her
European markets as a result
of the Marshall plan — that is
being glossed over by the Cana-
dian reactionaries. They are con-
cealing this fact from the people
primarily because their own pol-
icy of subordinating the, national
interests of the country to the
will of Wall Street has led Can-
ada into this impasse.

Obedient to Washington’s
promptings, the ruling circles of
Canada have curtailed their trade
with the Soviet Union, Poland,
and others of the New. Democ-
racies, in the hope that they
would succeed in the shope of

finding greater markets in West- .

ern Europe

But the U.S. monopolies were
already operating in the Marshall-
ized countries, with the result
that far from acquiring new mar-
kets Canada has lost her old
markets in Western Europe.

The danger of crises prompted
the leaders of the Liberal party
to announce elections a year
ahead of time. Liberal leaders
had every reason to fear that
another year would scatter the
illusion they have been cultivat-
ing among the people that the
Canadian economic “prosperity”
in 1948 was a result of their wise
policy.

e
Canada’s ruling circles are also

The Marshall plan-in reverse

iw

OF CAPITALISM

FOR THE CONTAINMENT —

y Ot Gs
ey

—Reprinted by courtesy of The National Guardian.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 10, 19489 — PAGE 5

withholding from the people the
truth about another important
question affecting Canada’s na-
tional destiny. Naturally, leaders
of all Canadian political parties
that support the Marshall plan
and the North Atlantic pact can-
not completely ignore the fact
that Canada is becoming increas-
ingly dependent upon the U.S.,
economically and politically, but
they are directing the discussion
of this question along the wrong
track. :

The whole so-called danger to
Canada from the U.S., according’
to one paper. lies in that Canada
may become one or several states
of the U.S. But this, states the
paper, will occur, if it occurs at
all, not sooner than 50 to 100
years; moreover, the most. un-
pleasant feature about it will be
that the Canadians will have to
overcome their repugnance to-
wards the U.S. Congress.

; This statement is ‘typical of
the attitude of such Canadian
political leaders and their sup-
porting press towards this ques-
tion,

The Canadian agents of Ameri-
can capital fear to tell the truth
to their people, and the truth
is that Canada’s loss of economic

and political independence pro-
ceeds not along the line of her

gradual transformation into a’

49th state (which in itself would
be coupled with the loss of Can-
ada’s sovereignty and national
independence), but along the line
of Canada’s transformation into
a semi-colonial country, into an

A Soviet view
by I. Zhuravley

agrarian appendage of the U.S.—
@ source of cheap raw materials
and a market for U.S. commodi-_
, ties.
td

Analyzing relations between
the U.S. and Canada, United
States News and World Report,
organ of Washington big-business
circles, openly expresses dissatis-
faction at the fact that Canada
is building “duplicate enterprises”
(read: competing enterprises),
and warns Canadian industrial-_
ists that a clash between Cana-
dian and American industrialists
with fatal results for Canada is
inevitable. ;

The magazine urges Canada to
refrain from expanding her man-
ufacturing industries and to con-
fine her exports to the US. to
Taw materials — bauxites, pulp,
iron, non-ferrous metals — warn-
ing threateningly that American
companies which own enterprises
in the U.S. and Canada can help
in reducing Canadian competition
to a minimum.

In other words, Canada must be
content with playing the role of
a raw material appendage of the
U.S. And far from bringing this
danger to the attention of the
people, Canadian ruling circleg
are helping to strengthen the
economic and political depend-
ence of Canada on the U.S.

Evidence to this effect is fur-
nished by the agreement between
the two countries on “coopera-
tion” in utilizing their resources

(Canada to supply raw materials
and to receive finished products
made of thg same raw materials),
agreement on standardization of
armaments, by the new influx
of American capital to Canada
and the increasing stream of Ca-
nadian dollars to the U.S. in in-
terest on loans and dividends.

According to a report publish-
ed in the Montreal Daily Star on
March 25, more than $300 million
ywas invested in Canada from the
U.S. in 1948 alone. In the same
year 225 million Canadian dollars
streamed into the U.S. banks in
the form of dividends, and more
than $240 million in interest
(compared with $180 million and
$190 million, respectively, in 1947).
e

The North Atlantic treaty now
being foisted upon the Canadian
people by reactionaries, indicates
that the ruling circles are least
of all interested in defending the
sovereign rights and national in-
dependence of their country.

According to the idea of its
Canadian-American inspirers, the
Atlantic pact is designated to
accelerate the transformation of
Canada into an agrarian append-
age of the U.S. and to convert
Canada into a base for American
atom-bombers, and the Cana-
dian epople into cannon fodder
for the U.S. army.

A London Daily Worker car-
toonist has depicted Canada as
a woman, her eyes tied, being
pushed into a precipice by a
hand stretched from New York
Skyscrapers. But growing pro-
gressive sections of the Canadian
people see the truth, and they
are fighting for peace and inter-
national cooperation against the
betrayal of their country’s na-
tional interests under cover of
hypocritical talk about the ne_
cessity for “mutual defence” and
economic “cooperation” with
the U.S.

.