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By ERNIE KNOTT
ANCOUVER Island is a vast
region rich in natural re-
Sources — timber, minerals, coal,
fish, hydro power and a highly
Productive labor force.

One would think that a people
Possessing such rich resources’
Would have no tax problems, that
Surely taxes and royalties from
these resources - would lighten
land, property and school taxes;
that the development of these re-
sources would help establish mod-

_ €rmn, adequate cheap rail, road

and water transport; that on the
basis of these natural riches we
Would have built a highly mod-
€rn, efficient manufacturing in-
dustry, But all this is not so.

Why? :

It is not so because our econ-
Omy has grown too slowly and is
Not using the full potential of our
Natural resources. Their develop-
Ment is geared toward the pro-
duction of raw and semi-process-
€d materials and as a con-'
Sequence we do not have the
Manufacturing and finishing in-
dustry which would give us jobs
and assure a bright future for
our youth.
__We need plastics and synthetic
fibre plants based on wood. We
Need a steel mill based on our
Tich coal, iron ore and limestone
deposits. We need a copper smel-
ter to process our ore ‘instead of
Shipping it along with iron to be
Processed in Japan. Vancouver
Island’s independent loggers and
Sawmills need timber and are
Closing down. Why are we faced
With all these problems in such a
Tch land?
THE E. & N. GRAB

All these problems exist be-
Cause we people of Vancouver
Island do not control the develop-
Ment of our rich resources and
land. A great portion of them
Were literally stolen from us by
the Dunsmuir coal mining family

8nd the CPR who bought out

their E. & N. land grant.

The E. & N. land belt was first
turned over in 1883 along with a
Subsidy of $75,000 to Dunsmuir,

E.N
“Tr Noe SS

Kitimat POWE

Rich in natural resources,
Vancouver Island needs
new processing industries ,
which are being blocked |

by CPR ownership of the ™

E&N lands.

who undertook to build a single
track railway from Esquimalt to
Nanaimo with an option to extend

it to Port Alberni and Courtenay

at a cost of 3 million dollars.

On receiving the grant, the coal
baron Dunsmuir got “‘all timber,
coal, coal-oil, ores, stones, clay,
marble, slate, mines, mineral and
substances whatever, therein,
thereon, and thereunder.’”’ (The
only exception being gold, silver.
Indian and Naval Reserves).

Nor was this all Dunsmuir got.
The company was to be tax free
the first ten years and thereafter
pay 1% cents per acre per year
land tax. In addition it was
exempted from paying any royal-
ties for use of the land and the
timber on the grant. As a result
the company is now paying the
ridiculous sum of about $7,000 per
year land tax!

This huge area of 3,000 square
miles — approximately 2,100,000
acres contained valuable timber
stands estimated at 75-100 billion
board feet.

WHAT DUNSMUIR AND THE

ont

CPR HAVE TAKEN OUT

Out of the deal Dunsmuir ac-
cumulated $30 million and with
this money and influence became
Premier and later Lieutenant
Governor of B.C. In 1905 he sold
out to the CPR for $11 million.

The CPR has since taken fabu-
lous profits out. of the E. & N.
grant. Since the first sale in 1905
of 50,000 acres of timber to Fraser
Mills, the CPR has received
about $65 million for timber and
land. At the Sloan Forest Enquiry
in 1944 they admitted making
$6.6 million dollars on rail oper-
ations up until 1931. No records of
ferry revenue are available on
the Nanaimo and Victoria runs
but they certainly exceed those
of rail operations. :

In addition, the CPR has made,
millions out of mineral sales, of
iron and copper ores, and coal.
Nor is this all. Having made these
vast profits on an original invest-
ment of $11 million, the company
still holds, according to the Sloan
Report of 1956, about 400,000 acres
containing timber worth $109

Or PTB gazine Section
CPR CONTROL STUNTS ISLAND GROWTH | 7

million and still holds all the
mineral rights on the original
acreage, except those retained by
Canadian Colleries (Dunsmuir).
It is this policy of rapacious
plunder, first by Dunsmuir and
now by the CPR, of “‘cut out and
get out,” of keeping our economy
at the level of raw material sup-
pliers which has stunted and
warped the growth of the eco-
nomy of Vancouver Island. .
Holding such rights and privi-
leges in our raw materials sec-
tor, it is the CPR which is in a
position to decide whether a steel
mill will be built, or whether the
raw ore will be shipped to Japan.

They, and not we people of Van-’

couver Island, decide what direc-
tion our resources development
will take. This: situation must be
and can be corrected.

WHAT DID PEOPLE GET

IN RETURN?

In return for this great con-

cession from the people of B.C.,

the company agreed to provide
adequate rail and ship service
on, and to Vancouver Island, on

a par with the rest of the CPR
services across Canada.

The CPR has not lived up to
that agreement. They have dis-
continued passenger train service

and have cut boat service from

Nanaimo to Vancouver to one
‘boat, and eliminated the Victoria

run entirely.

Therefore, because they have'

not lived up to the terms of the
agreement, they have forfeited all
rights to continue to hold and ex-
ploit the E. & N. Jand grant.
The history of the lower half
of Vancouver Island over the
years is full of stories of our
people’s various struggles and de-
mands for improved rail and ship
service; for the CPR to pay it’s
share of school, hospital and land
taxes; for the right to clear, and
unencumbered land titles for
coal and mineral rights.
DEMAND EXPROPRIATION
George Bonner of the Vancou-
ver Island Ratepayer’s Assn., on
behalf of citizens within the belt,
has raised the justifiable demand

ands to BC

that the government should ex-
propriate and take over all assets
and earnings of the E. & N. ex-
cept those applied to the opera-
tion of the railway.

Small logging and mill opera-

tors within the grant, previously
buying timber from the CPR and’

men like Elders and Manzer of,
Sooke, and other in the Cowichan
area and up Island are demand-
ing that timber from the belt be
made available to them at reason-
able stumpage rates, because the
CPR has now turned its remain-
ing holdings into a tree farm and
is asking prohibitive stumpage
rates of $20.00 per M.B.E. for fir
timber.

The CPR has already taken
over one sawmill in the Sooke
area and there is a possibility that
a take-over bid will be made for
others, or at least a merger, es-
pecially ‘in plywood.

Clearly, the problems raised by
the practices of this monopoly
giant require solution in the in-
terests of our people.

The Vancouver Island Region
of the Communist Party is of
the opinion the working people
and small businessmen of Van-
couver Island, and the rest of
B.C., have a vital interest to
unite and through their organiza-
tions should demand:

1. Expropriation by the B.C.
government of the E. & N. land
belt because the company has not
lived up to the terms of the agree-
ment under which the grant was
made, and because it has already
taken out more than enough pro-
fit from the deal.

2. The remaining timber in the
belt to be placed on a sustained
yield basis and made available
to independent Canadian opera-
tors, large and small, at reason-
able stumpage rates.

3. Timber revenue from the
grant gained by the government
to be applied to the cost of build-
ing hospitals, roads, schools and
other essential services on Van-
couver Island instead of being

__plowed into general revenue.

Bonn wants

By SAM RUSSELL
(Summary of an article from the
Br. Daily Worker)

HERE are sinister signs that
the West German govern-
Reet is moving to a new stage
nits campaign to get its finger

_ the nuclear trigger.

The Moves have followed very
Wickly on the signature by Gen-
‘tal de Gaulle and the West
German Chancellor, Dr. Aden-
Auer, of the Franco-German
&8reement which provides for co-
°Peration above all in the mili-
ary field.

A dangerous game is being
Played in which while de Gaulle
aes Adenauer by promising him

Possibility of getting his finger
®n the nuclear trigger if he goes
Along with France, the U.S. and
ne governments promise a
Imilar result if Adenauer sup-
Ports the plan for the so-called
‘huitilateral NATO nuclear force.

-The Soviet Union has already
SoUnded the alarm about the dan-
Sers of the Franco-German agree-

ment. It has declared that ‘“‘no

matter how, directly or indirectly,
nuclear weapons. became avail-
able to the Bundeswehr, the
Soviet Union would regard this as
a direct threat to its vital na-
tional interests and would be
compelled immediately to take
the necessary measures which
would be prompted by such a

situation.”
e

The other day during the de-
fence debate in the (British)
House of Commons, Mr. Harold
Wilson, to his credit, made the
most categorical statement of the
Labor Party on this question to
date, when he warned that “‘to
endow Germany with nuclear
status would mean the end of
our hopes of easing East-West
tension.” 2
And he continued: ‘‘We are com-
utterly and unequivocal-

pletely, 2s
ly opposed, now and in all cir
cumstances, to any suggestion
Germany — West Germany or

East Germany — directly or in-_

inger on H-trigger

directly, should have a finger on.
the nuclear trigger or any respon-
sibility, direct or indirect, for
deciding that nuclear weapons
are to be used.”

Mr. Macmillan’s reply showed
that he has already made up his
mind that nuclear weapons have
to be given to Hitler’s former
generals. For after pointing out

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that the West German govern-
ment in 1954 renounced the right
to manufacture nuclear weapons,
Mr. Macmillan continued: ‘But
the life of nations goes on...
and who knows whether we shall
be able to maintain these treaty
obligations indefinitely?”

Speaking to the West German
parliament in Bonn recently, the
West German Chancellor, Dr.
Adenauer, staked his claim for a
full share in the control of any
NATO nuclear force and its
atomic weapons.

Not so long ago, he was hard
at it assuring the world of his
peaceful intentions. In December
1946, Dr. Adenauer declared:

“We agree that we be fully

disarmed, that our war industry

be destroyed . . . I trust that the
majority of the German people
will agree that we, just like
Switzerland, should become neu-
tral by force of international
law.” 3

In December 1949 he declared:
See BONN, pg. 10

Feb. 15, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 53 y