Cri ~ ps sells out British people ity! Wit by Ms, : : as Ped ua i ids We! opie { iad i| Vp! eres | 5 Mi Pris i Pa Ol. U felhorsy Wall Street at $1.23 a pound rity rth MP ta 1 fat rAd eae ial! 4: Price Five Cents When members ada Steamship Lines of the Canadian Seamen’s Union were forced to take strike action against Can- on the Great Lakes (picture shows one crew taking a strike vote) they did not realize that the profit-hungiry CSL would flout all federal labor laws, turn guns and live steam against pickets in a desperate effort to smash the union. Had the company spent on fire precau- tions one-tenth the money used to break the CSU, 132 passengers might not have burned to death aboard the CSL ship Noronic. Noronic owned by Canada Steamship which spent thousands fighting CSU Canada Steamship Lines’ 36-year-old excursion —TORONTO efforts to rescue trapped passengers. “Murderers!” was the cry. ship Noronic this week was the scene of Canada’s Murder is an ugly word. It is a crime that most horrible marine disaster in recent years, when fire gutted the vessel in Toronto harbor, and burned to a crisk 132 of calls for punishment. Government officials hastily assured the public next day that the Noronic has passed the annual inspection called for by law, last spring. , In Ottawa, Transport Minister Lionel as it lay moored to a dock the 699 passengers aboard. Chevrier, whose‘ department administers the Canada As frantic firemen poured streams of water onto Shipping Act, told a shocked parliament that a public commission inquiry would be held ‘“‘as soon as is the blazing coffin-ship, an angry moan swept along humanly possible.” the waterfront, where shivering survivors mingled* ~° (Comtinued on back page) with thousands of local citizens to watch the vain See NORONIC ARKETS, JOBS SACRIFICED IN $ DEAL Cost of living in British Columbia will soar even higher in the weeks ahead—and the jobs people in this province depend upon are likely to be slashed. In common with all Canadians, B.C. residents will now pay 10 percent more for goods imported from the United States, with the gloomy prospect that because of declining British markets basic lumber and fishing industries will no longer provide the same payrolls to enable them to buy cheaper British goods. These are the belt-tightening realities facing British Columbians as a result of the British-Canadian sellout at Washington announced last weekend_in..devaluation of the pound to $2.80. and the Canadian dollar to 90 cents. Here are some of the bleak prospects facing the people. Citrus fruit, juices, vegetables and coffee will rise in price almost immediately. Beef prices will climb again because U.S. buyers will be able to pay more for Canadian cattle. Gas and oil will cost more. Steel products, such as refrigerators, stoves and other articles will go up. Autos made in Canada with parts imported from the U.S. will advance in price. Egg prices will likely increase. [Lumber produced in B.C. to a large extent will be shut out of the British market in 1950, with resulting unemployment. The fishing industry will be hard hit as the British market for canned salmon will shrink next year. Whistling in the dark, government officials speak hopefully about a flow of goods from Britain at lower prices. British cars have already dropped in price. British textiles are coming down. But such reductions (which in no case will reflect the amount by which the pound was cheapened) will soon~hit hard at Canadian industries, result in mass unemployment in Canada’s textile and automobile indus- tries, and inevitably produce a strong demand by Canadian indus- trialists for a high tariff wall against British goods. This demand, if acceded to, will negate the whole purpose of the devaluation scheme. Whether Britain will be in any position even to “‘increase her flow of goods” is highly questionable. Angry British workingmen, already turning out 150 percent more than in pre-war years, are now asked to take a drastic wage cut and produce 25 percent more export goods (at Canadian rates—30 percent at American rates) in order that the British government may receive the same supply of dollars. Reports from Britain show that workers will not accept this new burden. The fight-back campaign has started. British firemen marched through Lonodon streets last week to protest government rejection of their claim for equal pay with policement.. The three- million strong Confederation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Unions is preparing for joint action in support of wage claims of engineers. . Civil servants are protesting ‘‘wage-freeze”’ restrictions. Britain’s 500,000 railwaymen. are starting a ‘‘go-slow” movement. British Columbia’s gold mining industry, which hoped to benefit from the rise in gold prices, heard some bitter news from Ottawa this week. In 1950 the government will reduce its subsidy to gold mines by $3.50 an ounce, the amount of the increase in price caused by devaluation. The economic picture is grim. It will become grimmer. The refusal to open the door to trade with the USSR, Chinese People’s Republic and the People’s Democracies of Eastern Europe and the callous disregard for the people which marks the dealings of the capi- talists of Britain, the U.S. and Canada in the “dollar crisis,’ demands that an aroused labor movement in Canada embark on a vigorous fight-back program and refuse to permit Canadian capitalists to sell out this country to U.S. imperialism. (See pages 6 and 12 for further stories)