FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1969

CALLS SCARE ELECTION

VOL. 30, NO. 30

es

10¢

BENNETT MUST GO!

Thousands lose vote
in summer election

‘‘Premier Bennett’s call for a Provincial election on
August 27th, right in the heat of summer when large
number of B.C. voters will be away from their homes on

“That's on

Will be us

—U.S. Daily World

© ste small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’”’ With those words Neil Armstrong, the first man
P on the moon, expressed the wish of mankind — that the great scientific advances in space exploration
ed to advance the cause of humanity. (See editorial on page 2.)

vacation, is

thousands of our citizens,’

a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise
* Nigel Morgan, Provincial

leader of the Communist Party charged this week.

‘He is calling a snap, summer
election, and allowing the bare
minimum of notice permitted by
law, in order to restrict debate of
his unpopular school, hospital,
labor, taxation and resources
policies,’ Morgan told a
gathering at the Party’s Annual
Okanagan Regional Picnic at
Sunnybrae Beach Sunday
afternoon.

“It shows Premier Bennett
and his cabinet are running
scared. After all, they have lost
five consecutive byelections in
the last twelve months. On top of
this, there has been a marked
fall-off in their up-country, rural
vote where this, as well as
previous governments, have
traditionally gained power.”

“The Socreds know that time
is running out for them. And they
have resorted to the worst kind
of political gerrymandering in an
attempt to avoid the wrath of
public opinion. They are

Pentagon wants bomber

r By MAURICE RUSH
a Pentagon has asked
for a to provide bases
Strat Ombers of the U.S.
a €gic Air Command on
ecuan soil. Defence
eee Leo Cadieux has
di Cated that the Cana-
sho S0vernment will
rtly make an announce-
€nt approving the plan.
Offieiaruncement by Pentagon
invo} Said the US. request
ved only refuelling tankers

for
contg bombers. But there is a

ction between the
the 4g0n announcement and
defen atement by Canada’s

: Ce minister who said the
SAC pens “dispersal bases”’ for
in Speers in Canada so that
Would nt of an emergency they
Beas disperse to Canadian
» and operate from them.
expla, Teason for the different
Nations has not been made
tence Officials in Ottawa.
What is clear is that a deal is

in the making under which
Canada will provide facilities for
U.S. SAC bombers to operate as
part of the Pentagon’s military
disposition of its striking nuclear
air force.

Such an agreement would
extend the Pentagon’s military
establishment to Canada and
turn Canada into an immediate
target for nuclear attack in the
event of war since it will contain
bases from which U.S. bombers
will be expected to take off on
bombing and other military
objectives.

Such an agreement would
make a farce of any independent
policy claim by the Canadian
government, and open Canada
to the threat of nuclear destruc
tion.

In an attempt to make the
Pentagon’s ’ demand more
acceptable to Canadians,
defence minister Cadieux said
there would be no storing of
atomic weapons at these bases.
It’s a known fact that SAC
maintains bombers armed with

nuclear warheads in the air on a
24 hour alert basis on the
periphery of the Soviet Union.
Are Canadians to believe that
these - bombers which —
according to the Pentagon will
land for refueling at Canadian
bases— are not to be armed with
nuclear warheads?

Once the Pentagon is given
bases for SAC bombers in
Canada the public will have little
say in what goes on at these
bases. This fact was revealed
last week when the Pentagon
admitted that it has large
quantities of bombs containing
the latest poison gases, including
VX nerve gases, in bases around
the world ready for instant use.

This latest disclosure was
forced from the Pentagon
following a ‘‘mishap’’ in
Okinawa in which a container of
nerve gas broke open seriously
injuring 24 persons. The
Pentagon refused to admit
previously that it had stored
poison gases in countries around

_thé world. The Okinawa incident

bases

has aroused a storm of protest
among the Japanese people who
were unaware until this latest
incident that their territory was
being used for storing of these
horror weapons.

If the Pentagon can secretly
store poison gases at its bases
around the world, what is to stop
them from using bases in Canada
— by secret agreement with a
compliant government in
Ottawa — to store nuclear and
other weapons for use by the
Strategic Air Command?

Even if the Pentagon’s
argument is to be accepted that
they only intend to refuel their
bombers in Canada — will these
bombers not be armed with
nuclear warheads in their flights
across Canada? Or does the
Pentagon expect us to believe
they intend to refuel unarmed
bombers in Canada and then fly
them back to the U.S. to be
armed with nuclear warheads?

The announcement by the

See PENTAGON, pg. 8

deliberately contriving to catch
the people unaware and get the
election over with in order to
have another five clear years to

_ carry forward a whole series of

hew and even bigger giveaways
to big foreign and domestic
monopolies,”’ he declared.

“They want another five safe
years to tighten the squeeze on
our schools and hospitals, to
strait-jacket labor, and tax the
poor to make ‘the rich richer.
And the labor and progressive
forces in British Columbia
should above all else make sure
they don’t get away with such
outright political trickery.”’

“In spite of widespread
dissatisfaction with Socred
education, labor, resources and
fiscal policies, and in spite of
resentment over the successive
Sommers, Gaglardi and
Commonwealth Trust scandals,
it would be a serious mistake to
count the Bennett administration
down for the count,’’ Morgan
warned the Salmon Arm picnic
crowd.

“Outcome of the coming
election is going to depend very
largely on how the battle against
the Socreds Bill 33; Sales Tax:
resource giveaways; schools;
hospitals and housing squeeze,
and for real alternative policies
are developed,”’ Morgan said.

“The Liberals, no more than
the Socreds, provide any answer
to thse problems. Neither do the
right-wing spokesmen of the
NDP like their Provincial
President, John Laxton, who
recently told Premier Bennett
he should ‘prove his belief in free
enterprise by reversing some of
the socialistic steps he has taken
. . . he should denationalize B.C.
Hydro and cancel medicare.
After he gets through with those,
he can continue to rid society of
all the other socialistic curses,
including unemployment
insurance, pensions, free
education, social welfare,
workmen’s compensation and
minimum wage laws’.

“Such utter rot simply plays
into the hands of the Bennett

See ELECTION, pg. 8