hy, Hi!
hi, I ey

PEE rh

va ie No. 22

AEA es MDE flurries edhe WILE AE

Mahooiver British Columbia, June 1, 1951

AAD
fps Inert [2

PRICE PI PTCENTS

ots die in slum fire

MUTILUC RST MT TP TCT Ur Te EO TO CO On

Exiled Iranian
leader predicts
people’ s victory

j BY JOSEPH STAROBIN

PARIS

It was in a fashionable district of Paris, not far from

the race tracks and..General Eisenhower's new headquarters,

that I finally met up with an old friend, an Iranian progres-

sive leader. Three years ago, well after the defeat of the

north Iranian democratic revolution, I had met him in
Europe.

Now that the headlines had placed his country once again

Vancouver's slums are potential death traps. The
fire which snuffed out the lives of Frank and Linda
McKerry at 1646 West Second last Saturday could
easily have wiped out several blocks of ramshackle
wooden dwellings in the surrounding area. A stiff
-breeze would have turned the blaze into a raging,

uncontrollable inferno and endangered the lives of scores of
other children in the area.

Attempts to place responsibility for the flash fire upon
a faulty oil burner and a teen-age baby sitter cannot hide
the fact that lack of a housing program which forces hund-
reds of desperate families to live in tinder-box slum dwell-
ings threatens more and greater fire tragedies in the future.

Final responsibility for the fatal firé on West Second,
and for similar potential tragedies, rests upon the shoulders
of a federal government which spends billions for war and
scuttles peace projects such as housing programs in the

false name of “defense” —

in the center of the interna-
tional crisis, I searched him
out: a handsome man in his
middle years, conversant in
four languages, a son of a
distinguished Persian family
who had years ago made
common cause with the liber-
ation of his people from feud-
alism and imperialism,

Peace petition
canvass geared

but certainly not defense of
living or housing standards.
(See editorial on page 8.)

On May 22, just four days
before the McKerry children
died in their flaming slum
shack, an exploding oil stove
at 428 East 29th started a
blaze m the kitchen of Mrs.

“How do you size it up?”
I asked.

“It is the beginning of the
end,” he replied, with great
conviction and confidence.
From now on, it will tbe
quickly. :

In his opinion, and evid-
ently this is shared. by the
Tudeh, or ( “The Masses”
party — which has made a
tremendous comeback during
the five years since 1946 —
the imperialist powers have
simply lost control of the
of the situation. ;

He cited the frenzy ot
Stuart Alsop’s articles in the
New York Herald-Tribune.

Continued on back page
See IMPERIALISM ,

A th PT et

Largest street canvass of Van-
couver’s campaign in support of
the World Peace Pact petition
has been called for this Saturday,
June 2, British Columbia Peace
Council announces.

Street canvassing will be car-
ried on throughout the suburbs
and downtown area, in New West-
minster, Burnaby and North Van-
couver.

The council is again engaged
in a competition with Toronto
Peace Council to see which city,
Vancouver or Toronto, can collect
the most signatures in a single
day. In a previous competition,
on May 12, Vancouver triumphed
by gathering 11,500 signatures
against 3,500 for Toronto.

“We hope to collect’even more
signatures this Saturday,” said a
B.C. Peace Council statement.

to set new record

“But, no matter how many we
collect we hope Toronto collects‘
more. Every signature is a vote
for peace.”

Meanwhile, the Council an-
nounced that B.C. is leading all
Canada in gathering signatures,
with well over 30,000 signatures
already collected. An objective
of at least 76,000 signatures has
been set for July 1, at which
time the national campaign is to
be reviewed.

First mass house-to-house can-
vass of the Vancouver campaign
is to be held this coming Wednes-
day, June 6 A large area of the
Fraser district has been chosen
for the canvass.

Petitioners are asked by the
council to report to 49th and
Continued on page 6
Seé CANVASS

Joe Francis’ home. Because
the fire was quickly extin-
guished the story rated only
four paragraphs on page 15
of the Vancouver Sun. But
when a similar accident led
to tragedy on Saturday, all
three daily papers splashed
pictures and headlines acrass
their front pages.

The real front page story
is the need to abolish Van-

couver’s disgraceful slums
and build decent low-rental
homes. Instead, housing

authorities predict fewer new
houses in the future and high
livng costs ensure that fewer
families will be able to af-
ford them.

Continued on back page
See HOUSING

Pe PT Te UU UN Ut TE DIL Lidell a edad hel ahi okie ee ao TE ee
{

Will De. Gaulle attempt
to seize power in France?

STORY ON PAGE 9

EW TRAGEDIES SEEN
AS HOUSING CUT