Duplessis’
police raid
peace council

MONTREAL

Angered by the knowledge
that Quebec is sending about 300
determined delegates to the Cana-
dian Peace Congress, half of them
French-Canadians, and incensed by
the rapid growth of the peace
forces in French Canada, the Dup-
lessis government has launched a
whole series of police attacks
against the peace forces here, in-
cluding.:

@ The illegal raid on the offices
of the Montreal Peace Council, the
seizure by police of close to 12,000
signatures to the Ban the Bomb pe-
tition, the confiscation of thousands
of calls to the Canadian Peace Con-
gress.

e: Arrest in Verdun of a woman
for “disturbing the peace” by ask-
ing people to sign her petition for

@ Cancellation, through police in-
timidation, of halls for two meet-
ings and one dance sponsored by
the Montreal Peace Council. |

@ The arrest of ‘three young
people for “carrying” peace posters

and peace circulars in their car)

“without a permit.”

‘@ The seizure by police of hun-
dreds of posters advertising the
Peace Torch Relay. ‘

Local newspapers have cooperat-
ed with police in an unscrupulous
campaign that matches the worst
Yankee yellow journalism. Having
blacked-out all legitimate news of
the coming. peace congress, the
papers are now employing the lie
outright, even going to the extreme
of claiming the peace congress is
sponsored by the Labor-Progressive
party, giving as their “news source”
the Canadian Tribune.

The raid on the Montreal Peace
Council office came on Thursday
morning, April 27. ;

Police obtained’ a “search  war-
rant from Chief Recorder Paquette

under a section of the Criminal
Code generally reserved for stolen
goods. Half a dozen cops then des-
cended on the room and carted
away thousands of signed petitions
addressed to the federal govern-
ment asking for the outlawing of
atomic weapons, which they de-
seribed as “subversive literature.”

Legal counsel for the Montreal
Peace Council claim the search war-
rant was illegal and intend to start
a fight in the courts to have it
quashed. 3

While the raid was still in pro-
gress, David Rigby, secretary of
the council, wired the Senate Com-
mittee on Human Rights which
was sitting in Ottawa protesting
“this high-hagded action which
smacks of police state methods.”
He urged that the senate commit-
tee “subpoena Premier Duplessis
for questioning. on this abrogation
of fundamental civil rights contain-
ed in the Declaration of Human
Rights of the UN of*which Canada
is a signatory.”

Canadian Peace Congress wired
the Senate Committee on Civil
Rights urging it to act against
the raid amd stating that the
World Peace Committee had been
informed “ of this insult to those
who would prevent war today and
only yesterday died for peace.”

New vata sought
for NFLY chorus

National Federation of Labor
Youth chorus, now under the
leadership of John Goss, is pre-
paring a program for the great
_ peace demonstration of Canadian
and United States youth at Peace
Arch in Jume, and desires to ex-
pand its membership and activi-
ties. ‘

Young people who can sing or
play an instrument are urged to
come to 1862 Williams Street on
Tuesday evening, May 9, at 8 p.m,
and join the choir. Further in-
formation can be obtained by
phoning Bobbie Bird at HA. 0086.

*

Police mike

a)

3

EN

MIKE

at strike meeting

last week. ;

Members of the Trenton tetxile union (UTW-AFL) discovered
this mic:ophone at a union strike meeting. Wires led to police
headquarters. The League for Democratic Rights raised the ques-
tion in a brief presented to the Senate Human Rights Committee .

DAUGHTER OF TOM McEWEN

people who knew her, beth in B.C.

In Toronto, where she and her
husband had made their home for
many years, her early death—she
was only 35 years of age—is
mourned by hundreds of comrades
and friends who shared with her

a lifetime devoted to the labor
movement.
‘To Tom McEwen, his fellow-

members of the national commit-
tee. ef the Labor-Progressive party
sent. the following telegram:

“We share your sorrow at the
tragic passing of Isobel and
warmly press: your hand with

miss her aS a fine, devoted Com.
munist.” — ;

Stewart Smith, chairman of the

Tcronto and Yorks LPP commit-
tee, on behalf of the membership
stated: “When on Tuesday, May 2,
we learned of
death through the night, we were
stunned, because only at the May
Day rally on Saturday she was
busy as usual helping to make
the meeting a success. We extend
our comradely sympathy to her
father, Tom, her husband Nick,
her brothers Jim and Bruce, and
her sister Jean. We shall all miss
Isobel’s cheerful face and _ her
shining Communist example as a
fighter for socialism.”

Her co-workers in the Fur and
Leather Workers’ Union said: “We,
the members and officers of the
International Fur and Leather
Workers .Union (CIO). deeply
mourn the sudden and unexpected
passing of Sister Isobe] (Ewen)
Argyros. We pledge to carry on
to their final achievement the high
principles for which she so ably
fought.” : \

‘Leslie Morris, editor of the Can-
adian Tribune, spoke for the staff
and readers of the paper: “Right

bel has left the ranks of the
fighters for a better life. She will
not see the day of socialism, but
the young people who knew her
will, and that is what she would
have asked more than anything
else in the. world. We send our
deepest sympathy to our fellow
working-class journalist, Tom, her
father, to Nick her husband, and
to her family, who will mourn her
loss so much.”

Isobel (Ewen) Argyros was born
in Western Canada and raised in
Saskatoon and Winnipeg in a fine
communist famffy which included
her two brothers, Jim and Bruce,

|
deepest sympathy. We all shall J
|

Isobel’s sudden |,

in the very prime of her life, Iso- |

Many mourn death .
of Isobel Argyros

‘Word of the sudden death in Toronto on May 2 of Isobel (Ewen)
Argyros, youngest daughter of Tom McEwen, editor of the Pacific
Tribune, and- wife of Nick Argyros, will come as a shock to the many

and in the Yukon Termitory where,

in 1945, she was her father’s right-hand worker in the campaign that
came close to electing him to the Yukon federal seat.

This: picture of Isobel Argyros
was taken af Whitehorse, Y'.T.,
during the 1945 federal election

campaign.

veterans of the Spanish struggle
and of World War II, and her
sister Jean, who worked in China
with Dr. Norman Bethune as a
nurse.

/All the children followed the

magnificent example of their fath-
er, Tom, who in Saskatoon, Win-
nipeg, Toronto and Vancouver led
great workers’ struggles, for which
he was imprisoned in 1931 with
Tim Buck under Section 98, and
again during the war when he
fought the appeasers of: fascism.

Iscbel was active in the Com-
munist movement from an early
age, first in the Youngs Commun-
ist League and then in the Labor-
Progressive party, of which she
was a.foundation member.

‘As a restaurant worker she help-
ed to build the union of which

her husband, Nick, was an or-

ganizer, and in recent years she
had taken a particular interest
in supporting work for the Cana-
dian Tribune.

Of the family left to mourn her
passing, the funeral in Toronto
on Thursday this week was at-
tended hy her father and her
brother, Bruce, who flew from
Vancouver, and her brother, Jim,
in Toronto,: Her sister, Jean, re-
sides in Penticton, B.C., and two
half-brothers,. Norman and Ron-
ald, live with their parents in
Vancouver.

control a

Contrast between the federal

Morgan addressed a meeting with

Queensborough.

“Apparently millions of dollars
are available for constructing bases
to ‘protect’ the Canadian people
against the non-existent threat
from a country which has repeated-
ly stated and shown its desire for
peaceful and friendly relations with
Canada,” he declared. “But when
it is a matter of building dykes—or
schools or,hospitals—no money is
available, as in this instance where
thousands of residents of Queens-
borough and Lulu Island and along
the river in south Burnaby lack
protection against the very real
threat, on the provincial govern~
ment’s own admission, of a new
flood.” «

Morgan pointed to the fact that
government water control statistics
show a more dangerous situation
than existed at the same time in
1948, and that Mayor Sangster ot
New Westminster had called for
a meeting of the army, navy, and
Red Criss and representatives | of
other municipalities affected. He
demanded that the government
take immediate action to protect
the life, property and welfare of
thousands of Valley residents _liv-
ing in the threatened area.

“Absolutely nothing has been
done since the disastrous. flood in
1948 to protect the thousands of
residents of Lulu Island — and
Queensborough,” he stated. “It is
a matter of days now before the
threatened flood waters will begin
to run, but it is not too late if the
government can be, prodded into ac-
tion.

“Tf in view of the government's
own estimates of the flood danger,
| federal, provincial and municipal
authorities fail to pool their re-
sources and take the necessary
steps to prevent disaster, it will

_be nothing short of criminal neg-

_‘ligence.”

The meeting adopted a resolution
calling on the government to take
immediate emergency flood control.
action. ‘

At this week’s meeting of Burn-
aby municipal council, municipal
engineer Sidney M, Porter warn-
ed that north Fraser River dykes
in Burnaby were in poor condition
and offered little protection if
there should be a flood. this year.
He stated that flood gates needed
repairs costing some thousands of
dollars and@ that there were no
pumping facilities as feat a,
give protection to residents in the
areas likély to be affected.

Respect picket line,
win UIC benefits

Sign painters and sheet metal
workers who have refused to cross
Electrical Workers’ picket lines at
Neon Products, where a strike has
been in progress for eight wecks,
this week won their fight to draw
unemployment insurance benefits.

Previous refusal to make pay-
ments was considered a deliberate
government attempt at  strike-
breaking by ‘Vancouver labor.
Strong protests were made to UIC
officials, and when Vancouver and
District Trades and Labor Council
stepped in, a court of referees de-
cided in favor of the union men.

Local office of the UIC then ask-
ed Ottawa if the referees’ favorable
Cecision should be appealed to the
Umpire, the final appeal. But Ot-
tawa apparently felt it was handl-
ing a “hot potato” and decided not

to appeal.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 5, 1950—PAGE 6.

Royal City meet
calls for flood

ction |

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C.

government’s squandering of mil-

lions of dollars a day on war preparations and its failure to spend the
money necessary to give residents of Queensborough and South Bumaby
adequate protection against a possible new flood was sharply drawn
by Nigel Morgan, LPP provincial leader, in a May Day speech here.

John Dubno, provincial secretary

of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians at Tatra. Hall,

Cyril Morgan
dies at home
of son, Nigel

Cyril Morgan, father of Nige}
Morgan, provincial leader of the
Labor-Progressive party, passed
away at the home of his son in

Vancouver on April 28. He was 68&
years of age.

One of the pioneer residents of
Galiano Island, Cyril Morgan was
well known among the Islanders,
where for a number of years he
was provincial assessor. Before
taking up farming in the Gulf Is-
lands 40 years ago, he was a mar-
ine engineer, and a member of
the British Amalgamated Society
of Engineers.

During the First World War he
worked in Vancouver shipyards
and was active in the Internation-
al Association of Machinists and
the One Big Union.

Allehis life a strong union man
and supporter of progressive
causes, he leaves to mourn his
passing his wife, Kathleen; two
sons Richard and Nigel of Van-
couver; and a daughter, Edwina,
of Vashon, Washington. — }

A private funeral was held here

On Saturday last week, followed.

by cremation.

The Labor-Progressive party €x-
tended its deepest sympathy to
the family in their bereavement.

City MLA’s get.
worst of union
shop argument —

Two Vancouver MLA’s got a
rough “going over” from angry del-
egates at this week’s meeting of
Trades and Labor Council (AFL-
TCL) when they attempted to jus-
tify their opposition to union shop
security for civic workers.

Don Brown (Burrard) and R. A.
MacDougall (Point Grey) argued
that the union shop would lead to
“a transgression and interference
with civi) liberties.”

Delegates found it hard to swal-

low that line of thought. Jack
Phillips (Civic Workers) jumped

to his feet and challenged .Mac-
Dougall to a public debate on the
union shop issue, “loser to pay the
hall costs, and proceeds from the
debate to go to the arthritis fund.”

“I haven’t the slightest intention.

of accepting your challenge,” said
MacDougall huffily. “My dignity
is above it.”

John Lockwood, International

Association of Machinists, asked
MacDougall, a lawyer: “Seeing the
MLA is in favor of a closed shop
for lawyers, why isn’t he a big
enough democrat to give it to the
working man?”

Delegates laughed as MacDoug-
all looked embarassed. ,

Don Brown told delegates that

“eight or ten organizations lobbied

against the union shop amendment.

at Victoria” and said that he stood

firmly against the union shop, him-

self.

GE EN Le Sag Se ORME | OR EAR en ae