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Vol. 7. No. 8 Vancouver, B.C., Friday, February 20, 1948 cE 28 Five Cents

Thousands sign petition

UN force required in Palestine

@ Back in Toronto this week

after a three-month tour of
Europe, two weeks of which
were spent in Palestine, J. B.
Salsberg, LPP member of the
Ontario legislature, reported
that there was “a dangerous
trend towards a total war situ-
ation” in the Holy Land, al-
though hostilities had not yet
ttared into full-scale -wartare.
The danger could best be avert-
ed by the UN sending ir a
force composed of troops rep-
resenting its leading nations,
he held. All sections of the
Jewish community were of the
opinion that present hostilities,
promoted through support of
Arab feudal reactionaries, could
be traced directly to the policies
of British Foreign Minister
Ernest Bevin. Behind the hos-
tilities was Bevin’s hope that
“open warfare will break out
and make it possible to compel
cancellation of the projected
Jewish and Arab independent
states.”

@ Here, American seamen who
have run the blockade into
Palestine picket the British
Information Bureau in New
York, They are also de-
manding that the Truman
administration lift the arms
embargo on shipments to
Jews now fighting Arab op-
Position to the UN partition
plan,

cS

LIVING COSTS RISE
WHILE GOV'T PROBES

While the parliamentary investigation into
profiteering and price-fixing got under way this
week amid charges and denials and conflicting
statements, consumers in this province, at least,
could derive little satisfaction from it.

Nowhere was there any sign that the investigation was
having the “salutary effect” in checking further price in-
creases which government spokesmen used as an argument
for setting up the parliamentary committee. Nowhere was
there an indication of a downward trend in prices to halt
the drain on purchasing power. Instead, in two important
items, milk and gasoline, further increase were reported to
be pending.

Milk producers were pressing their application at Vic-
toria this week for another two-cent boost in milk prices.
If granted, the application will increase the price of standard
milk from 15 to 17 cents and of special milk 17 to 19 cents
a quart, sharply increasing the million quarts a month drop
in milk consumption in the province during the past year.
In addition, retailers were asking the government to increase
the one-cent maximum margin they are now allowed on a
quart of milk. (See story on page 7.)

New gas increase looms

_ At Saanich this week, Premier Byron Johnson indicated
that his government was preparing to bow to the dictates of
the big oil monopolies and add another one or two cents to

the three cents a gallon increase in the price of gasoline
recently allowed.

Ignoring the demand that the Coalition government in-
voke its special powers to compel the oil companies to de-
liver gasoline, Johnson stated bluntly that if motorists ex-
pected to have gasoline to run their cars “they will have to

pay prices comparable to those obtaining in Seattle and
Portland,”

To a public which still has been given no opportunity
to. study the figures on which the companies based their ap-
plication, Johnson stated: “The puBlic cannot expect oil
companies to~bring in gasoline and sell it at a loss.”

(Continued on page 8)
See PRICES

oalition fears Saanich defeat

VICTORIA, B.C.— One
of the most bitter cam-
paigns in the political his-
tory of the province 1S
reaching a new peak of in-
tensity this week as Saan-
ich voters prepare to make
their choice in the byelec-
tion next Monday.

The issue is between
Colin Cameron, CCF can-

i by the BC
pena a reas and
several AFL .and CCL
unions in the shiek ai
i as the
oe Paes the Labor-
Progressive Party, and Ar-
thur Ash, Coalition-Liberal
candidate for whom eight
cabinet ministers are
stumping the constituency

in a desperate effort to
stave off a threatening de-
feat.

Writhing under the fac-
tual indictments of the op-
position forces, government
spokesmen are winding up
their end of the election
with an intensified red-bait-
ing campaign that rivals
anything produced by Pre-

mier Drew of Ontario or
his Quebec counterpart,
Maurice Duplessis.
Coalition red-baiting and
the government’s record of
betrayal were hit this week
by CCF and LPP hecklers

ister Herbert Anscomb.
The meeting ended ab-
ruptly by Coalition chair-
man Walter Jeune calling
for “God Save the King” in
order to prevent LPP
spokesman Bruce Mickle-

at a rough-and-tumble burgh reading a written
meeting at Lake Hill ad- challenge. The challenge
dressed by Premier “Boss” (Continued on page 8)
Johnson. and Finance Min- See SAANICH

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