A EE TNE EE ETS Martin flies a ‘kite’ N school days the time-honoured game of flying kites was an innocent pastime, providing Junior with lots of thrills in his first elementary contact with the science of aerodynamics. In government (or the underworld) kite-flying takes on a vastly different aim, one generally having to do with slipping something over on the people or peddling counter- feit. Last week in Parliament External Affairs Minister Paul Martin “flew a kite” with his announcement that the government is “considering observer status in the Organiza- tion of American States” (OAS). i= Most Canadians are able to “observe” the working of this U.S. ‘Colonial Office’ in Latin America from where they stand and have no desire to see Canada embroiled in its imperialist machinations, either as an “observer” or asa full-blown member, to serve as a stooge for pulling Wash- ington’s hot chestnuts out of the “alliance for progress” mess of its own making. ; The Martin “observer” kite should serve as a warning against Canada becoming a peddler of Washington’s counterfeit “democracy” in Latin America. End the ‘dirty war’ HE Honolulu conference of top U.S. military and dip- lomatic brass, called early this week by President Johnson to devise ways and means of “saving face” in South Vietnam and the mounting crisis of U.S. policies in South- east Asia, contains many dangers for world peace, and for Canada. Facing new and decisive defeats with every new stooge government it has set up in South Vietnam, and in viola- tion of Geneva agreements on the “neutrality” of South Vietnam and Laos, Washington has been desperately cast- ing around to involve other NATO and CEATO powers in its “anti-Communist” war upon the South Vietnamese people. While the world is as yet unaware of the full implica- tions of the Honolulu conference, or any changes in U.S. “strategy” to head-off certain and inevitable defeat in South Vietnam, U.S. pressures on Canada to get in on this “dirty war” are mounting. Prime Minister Pearson’s hurried trip to Washington to “confer” with President Johnson on the Southeast Asia crisis boiling up in Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam, bodes no good for Canada. Regardless of any and all back-room Johnson-Pearson “deals” the watchward for Canada must be: a champion of peace in Southeast Asia—not a U.S. pawn for war. Tom UNAUTHORISED PERSONS. INO cincinas| rit —ECCLES in the British Daily Worker “What do you think the answer to our demand for a wage increase will be?” ' é 9 as 9 From ‘no’ to ‘yes T HERE’S nothing especially “new” about the ingrained i habit of the organized bosses to shout “No” to every demand of their employees for a long over-due wage hike. In fact they’ve been shouting “no” for a long time, often trying to make it sound more convincing with a raft of phoney statistics on production norms, markets, profits, etc. Now, however, while they still shout ““no’’ as in the recent strike struggles of the marine workers, civic em- ployees, and as they are now doing in IWA negotiations, with Mine-Mill in Cominco, and in the MacMillan-Bloedel office employees strike at Alberni, they are finding it much more difficult to make the old statistic gag about the “in- dustry being unable to afford” wage increases, etc. stick. With corporate profits at an all-time high the old “no”’ argument has become threadbare. Labor unity and solidar- ity on the wage front is now teaching the bosses how to say “‘yes”—and the process will continue. money so recklessly squandered, So what better than several mil- lion inches of printed balder- " dash? The Pearson government, as with the Diefenbaker government *fenemy’’ dropped a 25-megaton blockbuster during a holiday weekend, ~ McEWEN uring the past couple of weeks British Columbians have received through the mails the latest ‘‘Civil Defense Sur- vival Instructions’*, This gross waste of paper and taxpayers’ money contains a large map en- titled, ‘‘dispersal routes for the Vancouver zone,’ plus some 24 items of ‘‘CD”’ gibberish on how the citizen ‘‘may’* survive a nuclear attack, Ironically enough, this ‘*CD”’ collection of ‘‘survival’’ hokum tells us what the ‘‘aims’’ of “cp” are; ‘*1-To save lives’’, A noble cause, if one disregards the insane urge ofthe atomaniacs to destroy lives, ‘‘2-To prevent chaos so governments can func- tion, Also a worthwhile aim, if one ignores the chaos-producing activities of past and present monopoly - dominated govern- ments, And ‘3-To care for the homeless and injured, restore property and rehabilitate where damage has occurred’, Truly a fine sentiment, but as yet no- thing more, In the ‘‘introduction’® to this latest ‘‘CD'’ schizophremia, we are told that it ‘‘sets out in broad outline the plans for evac- uation of Greater Vancouver in the event of; — (a), anaturaldis- aster, such as earthquake or fire; and (b), war.’’ Speaking of ‘‘disaster’’, when that onrushing tidal wave from the Alaska earthquake hit the Al- bernis, the people of that stricken area ruefully recall that ‘*CD’’ was. nowhere in sight, that its ‘Searly warning’ siren didn’t even blow, and had their ‘‘sur- vival’? depended upon ‘*CD"’ in- stead of their own calm andhero- ic efforts to save life, they’d have been in a sorry plight in- deed, 2 Vancouverites may also recall the night when ‘‘Hurricane Fri- eda” struck this fair city, that **CD’? was nowhere in evidence, One cynical humorist cracked that ‘*CD’’ was at home, labor- ously working over a new‘‘plan”’ for ‘‘evacuating’’ Vancouver in the event that some mythical before it, which authorizes this recurrent ‘‘CD’’ nonsense, (and dangerous nonsense at that), - would have been serving Canada much better, had it added the money squandered on this non- sense’ to its ch eese-paring **erant’’ to the Alberni tidal wave victims, We thought, perhaps a bit too naively, that this ‘*CD” *fevacu- tion’’ hogwash had been laughed out of existense months ago, But on this it seems, we were wrong, All the claptrap about ‘*base- ‘ment shelters,’ ‘‘ fallout,’ *sur- vival,’ etc., are monotonously repeated. Even the escape or *dispersal’’ routes soneatly laid out by the ‘*CD’* Blimps become something of a cruel joke when considered against the back- ground of normal traffic condi- tions during normal ‘‘rush’’ hours or holidays weekends, But since ‘‘the government be- lieves that if Canada were at- tacked, Vancouver could be one of the more likely target areas,” *