WORKER PROTESTS CITY’S DODGE

Victoria city council attempting
to trick civic employees

VICTORIA CIVIC WORKER,
Victoria, B.C.: Congratulations for
your blunt editorial in support of
‘Vancouver civic workers: The
civic workers of this province are
beginning to appreciate the fact
that your paper really speaks out
for them.

Here, in Victoria, we have a re-
actionary mayor and city council
who are giving the civic employ-
ees a raw deal.

An arbitration board, acting
under the ICA Act, recently grant-
ed the 250 outside workers of this
city an across the board increase
of 7% cents an hour. Now, the
city council has ordered its solici-
tor, A. J. Patton, to take legal

steps to have this award set aside,
one way or another.

Patton says he is not sure how
he is going to go about this busi-
ness, or what court he wil] take
it to. Naturally! The ICA Act
explicitly lays down, in section
25, that the employer must abide
by the findings of an arbitration
board.

All labor in the province has
condemned the ICA Act, and call-
éd: for a new Act, because it is’
an employers’ labor code. But
the reactionary city councils of
B.C. have gone one step farther.
They want to remove anything
from the Act that is at all favor-
able to their employees, and leave

IMPORTANT STEP

Comments on symposium
of Canadian music

JOHNNY CAN UCK, Vancouver, B.C.: The four-day concert-
symposium of Canadian music held in Vancouver last week marks an
important step in the development of the instrumental music of our

country. ‘

Progressives should make them+
selves aware of this major event
in our culture. I would like to
comment on the most important
part of it, the orchestral concert
on March 14.

The general reaction of the
usual middle-class audience took
two forms: (1) Uncritical accep-
tance of the whole program be-
cause it was Canadian, and (2)
division of various works into “I
didn’t like this” or “I didn’t like
that”—an emotional and not very,
aware judgment.

The two basic, antagonistic
trends in modern bourgeois music
were very well revealed by the
works performed. Formalistic
music, the discordant destruction
of meager themes, the neglect of
folk music, dominated the first
half of the program. Worst ex-
ample was Alexander Brott’s
From Sea to Sea — also the best
known as might be expected.

Most of the works coming after
the intermission offered and hesi-

them the penalties, restrictions
and legal pitfalls. To accomplish
this, they have reference to all
sorts of shyster, legal tricks.

What Victoria is banking on is
the fact that this municipality
comes under the Municipal Act of
the province. Under this Act, de-
spite the protests of Civic Work-
ers from all over B.C. (in 1949)
no award brought down after
April 15 can be effective in the
same budget year. If Victoria
city council can tie up this 7%
cents in litigation, till next sum-
mer or fall, then it will spend all
its budget without making any
allowance for this increase. This
is the dodge. i

Victoria city council is also
placing the police and firemen of
this province in a funny position,
a dangerous position.

Last year, on the request of the
police and firemen, the Municipal
Act was amended to provide that
all conciliation proceedings by
police and firemen would be arbi- |
tration proceedings, under the ICA’
Act. oe

Now, Victoria city council is
stating that while the ICA Act
refers to reference to arbitration,

_ the Municipal Act refers to arbi-

tantly developed good themes, in-
cluding folk themes: Bashan’s
Seaport Town Overture (Vancou-
ver), Eiger’s Fantasy on French
Canadian Folk Themes, etc. An
exception was Weinzweig’s Red
Ear of Corn,” a loudly heralded
and quite empty ballet work,
which did, however, teach us how
to misuse rhythm,

Only one work triumphantly
broke through the trappings of
formalism and raised the banner
of people’s symphonic music. This
was the Piano Concerto of Paul
de Marky. The.composer, who
was also soloist, is Hungarian-
born and Bartok-influenced; in
the two movements performed he
revealed a grand conception of
theme and harmonic development
and an uncanny union of piano
and orchestra, on a partnership
basis, without the usual technical
fireworks for the solo that consti-
tute modern concertos.

The deMarky work shows that
good Canadian music is being
made. More of it must be deman-
ded, and formalism must be con-
stantly exposed.

tration. It may be difficult for
the average reader to not the fine
shade of difference. But it is very
simple.

Under reference to arbitration,
nothing is binding unless both
parties agree in advance. Which
means that the arbitration clause
inserted in the Municipal Act by
the efforts of the police and fire-
men, is worth nothing, if Patton
is proven right. This is what the
police and firemen get for promis-
ing never to strike, under any
circumstances!

Although Vancouver does not
come under the Municipal Act, the
fight of Vancouver. civic workers
to get the union shop shows the
Same process, a process of tying
civic workers hand and foot, and
whittling away at their democratic
rights, :

What is the answer? The same
rights for public employees as all
other workers have, and equally
inmportant, a democratic labor
code for all workers in the prov-

- ince.

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WHAT'S DOING

; WHAT'S DOING?

HOME BAKE SALE, Saturday,
March 25, 2-4 p.m., at 204 Holden
Building. Sponsored by Local
21, W.LU.C. Auxiliary.

_ REPEAT PERFORMANCE by po-
pular request, The Burrard Sec-
tion is staging another PT party,
this time at 4274 Sophia St., on
Saturday, April 8. KEEP this
date OPEN!

Dance, Clinton —
2605 East Pender. Dance every
Saturday night. Modern and old-
time. Vikings Orchestra. Hall
is available for rent. HAstings
3277.

:

Russian People’s Home—
Available for meetings, weddings
and banquets at reasonable rates.
600 Campbell Ave., HA. 6900.

Notice—We would like to have
volunteers to help us during the
Press Drive. If you can assist
us, please call MArine 5288.

PT Dixieland Trio—Available for
dances and socials. - “Assure a
successful evening.” Quality tops,
rates reasonable. Call MA, 5288
for booking.

MEETINGS

Swedish-Finnish ‘Workers’ Club
meets last Friday every month
at 7.30 p.m. in Clinton. Hall.

‘AUDITIONS

For PT Band — Audition for PT
Band, ull instruments needed, vio-
lin and piano accordion excep-
ted. Apply MArine 5288.

BUSINESS PERSONALS

HALLS FOR RENT

‘Te Alf Carlson’s Orchestra
Every Wednesday and Saturday

ane Hastings Auditorium é

Phone HAstings 1248

Moderate Rental Rates
For socials, weddings, meetings

SIMONSON’S WATCH Repair —
We repair Ronson’s Jewellery,
all types of watches and clocks.
711 East Hastings, Vancouver.

CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS —
Open every day. New Modern
Beauty Salon—i763 E. Hastings
HAstings 0094.

SALLY BOWES —
INCOME TAX PROBLEMS, Rm.
20, 9 East Hastings. MA. 9965,

Organizing P.T. Baseball Team.
‘Person wanted with interest in
youth work and experience in
hardball as coach of team. Reply
immediately. Phone MArine 5288,

“On the night the Nationalist government left Chunking, from _
three to four hundred political prisoners (some of them wives and
children) held on charges of being Communists, were brutally
machine-gunned and burned at this center, their bodies thrown
into ditches or left to rot in the open.” ,

CHUNGKING’S LAST DAYS

U.S. missionary writes
of Kuomintang terror

‘REV. F. OLIN STOCKWELL, secretary of’ the Methodilll
Mission in Szechwan, China, in a letter circulated through the Canadian
Far Eastern Newsletter: ““The liberation of Chungking highlighted the

complete collapse of National government morals and moral integrity

in.a more striking way than any-
thing that has happened to date.
The actions of the leaders as well
as the soldiers of the Chiang Kai-
shek regime compounded fear and
brutality in a tragic climax.

“The last days of November
brought the news of the rapid ad-
vance of the Communist troops,
with the assurance that the Na-
tionalists were fighting stubborn-
ly and retreating slowly. On Nov-
ember 26 Senator Knowland of
California spoke in Chunking as-
suring the leaders that the war
was not lost if they but took
courage and fought to the last.
Three days later the last of the
troops had abandoned the city,
and on the evening of November
30, the firing of fire-crackers an-
nounced the entrance of the Red
Star troops. Peace had come at
last. PEE

“The troops which came in re-
ported that they had had no op-
position. A few hundred troops
had taken the city, without firing
a shot. Some reported that in the
eight hundred miles from Chang-
sha to Chungking the Nationalist
troops had fled before them so
rapidly that they had not even a
chance to use.their ammunition.
The rumor that the enemy was ap-
proaching had sent them scurry-
ing like frightened rabbits, throw-
ing away their equipment and de-
serting into civilian clothes by the
Scores. The war had become a
victory parade. —

“Not only were men and lJeaders
alike fear-crazed, but they exhib-
ited a brutality that is almost un-
believable. On the night of Nov-
ember 29 the death-like quiet of

the city was punctuated with the

blowing up of ammunition dumps

and arsenals. Not until later did
we learn that the blast that had
shaken houses in Chungking and
broken windows had wiped out
from three to five thousand people
—— coolies and workmen at the
arsenal, who were given no warn-
ing of the plans and who were

blown to pieces by those for whom
they had spent their lives,

“In addition to this act was the —
machine-gunning of between three
and four hundred political pris-
oners at the concentration camps
on the outskirts of Chungking.
These camps were organized 3S
training centers during the war,
and American personnel assisted
Chinese personnel in developing
spy work against the Japanese

Since the war the secret agents
of the Nationalist Government. —
have carried on at the same ce
ter, directing their activities
against the Communists. Stories
of brutality, of secret arrests and
executions have been whispered
about from time to time. 2

“On the night the Nationalist
government left Chunking, from —
three to four hundred political”
prisoners, held on charges of be
ing Communists, were brutally
machine-gunned and burned at
this center, their bodies throw?
into ditches or left to rot in th
open. Several escaped to tell thé
story. A YMCA foreign secretary
visited the center two days laté!
and saw with his own eyes th'
ghastly scene, and took pictures
of it. 4

“The order for this crime camé—
straight from, the top, signed bY
the Generalissimo himself. It i8
a@ complete copy, on a smaller —
scale, of Nazi actions in Germany:
Unfortunately, because of Ameri
ca’s former relation to this ce”
ter the crime is accredited t®
America as well as to the dying
Nationalist government, :

“In Methodist circles in Ameri
ca, Chiang Kai-shek is remembe!”
ed as he who gave property
endowment for an orphanage
Chungking, where today there até
two hundred smiling children.
Chungking circles he will long b@
remembered as a cruel and des
potic ruler who ordered  th®
slaughter of more than three hu®-
dred political prisoners, some °

“them wives and children, as #
last-minute gesture of helpless d&
fiance.” a

STANTON

Barristers, Solicitors, Notaties 2
SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E, HASTINGS ST.
(Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746

& MUNRO

PAOIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 24, 1950 — PAGE

4