LETTERS
DIGEST

Doukhobors’ plea

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY AND |
BROTHERHOOD OF REFORMED

- POUKHOBORS, Grand_ Forks,
B.C.: Mothers of Canada and the
public in general! You who cher-
ish, love and prize your children
above all possessions in life. We
appeal to you to unite and raise
your voices with ours against the
most barbaric and inhuman meth-
ods employed by the law of this
country to compel us to accept
the government schools, which .
we reject on religious grounds.

On March 11, 1953, four fully
armed RCMP officers, and two
members from the Social Wel-
fare raided two of our homes
near Grand Forks, B.C., and car-—
ried away two small children.
The case of Mrs. W. Podovilnik-
off staggers human imagination.
That morning, while her husband
was away from home and she
was busy nursing her small boy
to recovery from an appendix.
operation which he had under-
gone ten days earlier, her home
was raided. :
Despite her heart-rending cries

and protestations she was brutal-
ly beaten by an RCMP officer.
Then her children, including her
sick boy, were caried away, al-
most unclad. This raid was un-.
expected by the parents. Their
sentences were not read out to
them by the magistrate after the
trial. They were found guilty
of wilfully causing their children
not to attend school.

By now both the Canadian gov-

ernment and the public should be ~

well informed as to the reasons
why we reject government
schools. This could be. summéd
up in one sentence: Present edu-
cation, science and civilization
has brought the human race to—
the threshold of self-annihilation.
We are sure no consciencious,
broad'minded human being will
deny this tragic fact.

Inspired by the Canada First movement of his day, Bengough drew :
“Tha Political Giantkiller; or ‘Canada SS
1873. Cartoon from Punch in Canada of the eighteen-forties depicts = “SS
“Little Ben Holmes Pawning the Flag” (bottom left). ;

First’ (top left) for Grip in — N

CARTOONIST WON NATIONAL ACCLAIM

John. Wilson Bengough in-
tradition of Canada First

Cee political cartoon-
ists for more than a century
past have take up the battle for
Canadian nationhood and inde
pendence. Chief among them was
John Wilson Bengough who pub-
lished a humor-weekly magazine
in the seventies which contained
many brilliant cartoons that won
him both national and interna-
tional acclaim.

In 1886, in his preface to a
book of Canadian cartoons, Pro-
fessor G. M. Grant of Queen’s
College, Kingston, wrote: “Grip
is . . . always patriotic . . . Grip’s

-humor is his own. It has a flavor

of the soil. It is neither English
nor American. It is Canadian.’’

Bengough himself, writing in

- 1879 a “Sketch of Canadian Poli-

tical History,’’ said “‘the history
of Canada is a story of unrest
and agitation.”

When the bronze tablet honor-
ing Bengough was unveiled in
William Lyon Mackenzie House
in Toronto. last November, Pro-
fessor Fred Landon, chairman of

- the Historic Sites and Monuments

Board of Canada; said the car-

=

[

\y

t >

toonist’s influence had been great
during his lifetime. es
He had been a city alderman,

a reporter for the old Toronto
Globe, a poet, and a publisher of
political brochures. He was de —
scribed’ as an advocate of single
tax, women’s suffrage, prohibition —
and free trade.

@ ¢

In addition to the well-know2
Grip, there were other Canadian
political-cartoon publications that
preceded it—Punch in Canada
Diogenes and Grinchuckle.

- Another .cartoon by Bengough
in Grip of November 30, 1878:
is of interest today. It is labelled
“National Policy’ which is i
scribed on the side of a very stub’
born elephant. A poster reads:
“Notice: Parliament will meet
introduce the National Policy
sometime in the Future.’” Sir John
A. Macdonald is shown beside the
elephant, with his associates, Pre
paring rings for the animal’s feet.
captioned’ ‘Manufacturers Assoc!
ation Rings.’’ Macdonald is s@Y’
ing: ‘He won’t move an in¢
until the rings are all fixed.”

S

Benjamin
Holmes, a member of parliament for Montreal, was an advocate of A

annexation tc the U.S. in 1849. “Uncle Sam Kicked Out” was the title
of the cartoon (bottom right) which appeared in Grinchuckle in 1869.

ete ;

ae

HERE must be “eoritinuity”
of tradition between the

‘German soldiers of the Second
World War and the German

soldier of the future. 4

The duties the future Ger-
man soldier would face would
be the same as those faced by
ithe old. |

Nazis want to rectify ‘forgery of history’

Who was it praised the “tra-
ditions” of the men who mas-
sacred civilians at Czech Lidice
and French Oradour, the men
who made a shambles out of
Poland, the Soviet Union and
every other country they in-
vaded? - :

None other than a minister

\

in Dr. Adenauer’s West Ger-
man government, Franz Josef
Strauss, a member of Dr. Aden-
aver’s own Christian Democrat
Party.

Strauss made his remarks at

Bonn to a rally of West Ger-

man ex-servicemen, who cheer- |

ed him to the echo.

He called for incorporation
of German ex-servicemen’s Oe
ganizations in the World Ex
Servicemen’s Association, and
declared that only this would
finally rectify what “the ford” —
ery of history” had done to the

German Army! ole

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 2, 1954 — PAGE 4