EDITORIAL PAGE

H
Pe Sexi Credit sweep in last
ai eS provincial election has
5 3 a a process begun in the
tion €ction — the virtual elimin-
: of the Conservative and Lib-
they from the legislature
hy ” Sane for half a century.
Diliticg the first time since party
; Were introduced in 1903,
al Be watives have no seat at
V. Iberals have only two, and
Va ie - Bennett, the only Conser-
0 Survive the debacle of
Oalition, heads a Social
atisen, Sovernment which _ has
ahes.” Phoenix-like, from their
Ove
aim oe past four years Bennett’s
Ne sole een to make Social Credit
4 Party of “free enterprise”
of p bar vince, By his giveaways
d his al resources he has endear-
The Do ernment to big business,
RR apd of big business, first
leMano acMillan and then Frank
Cig, . have endorsed his  poli-
| has fare as the vote shows, he
Otseryatin thousands of former
his side. Wve and Liberal voters to

@
Vote nett m

fg § ay expect to lose the
the 0

ee Sees has won from
fNnso}i4. it’s on his ability to
Liberate the Conservative and
that hig pote. ALOund Social Credit
Cre g Oast of “40 years of Social
Venty af crnment” is founded. The
el cast ‘a next few years may
Meres 1. ubt on his boasting, but
tim, "° doubt about his political

By

Shutt;

bit 3 So une the Conservatives out
Iberal Sislature and reducing the

Aleg © a minor :

| gy lon ninor role — in the

“Ttoting the waign he called it re-
Shes two-party system — he

Fthe 60
ete Yo ve the greater part of
“lite Biv: for Social Credit in
ry ee and set the stage
be "| Phila of Social Credit
Tenia} With the CCF as the
°PPosition,
| OW i * *
reat “portant this is to Social
“Seng by the voting
How et Vative Olnt Grey, a former
ba With it Stronghold, and- Vic-
: three. S long Liberal tradition,
at s Point peer constituencies.
Vera] rind there is a spread
Crea nd > eeaota between the
tiyclters Li ©m votes of Social
as alik, spores and Conserva-
Vot ley that thousands
pre + ee party lines in
| "binatign ballots for various
i * In Victoria, Socred
Strength is nearly

top

M Oth :
all shift, nstituencies a relatively

nttcome « Votes could change
© long as the Liberals,
N as vigorous con-
Bue tbe Liberals and
| 0 n J€duced to minor
i vert ae IS confident he can
“ints Shee h Seats, where the CCF

{ » re
| Coy Mai

| Se t ut
Nlag wVatiy
Rasy Ben @s

as
‘ Socreg a never been strong,
: Tongholds.

The question posed by the elec-
tion is less what Social Credit will
do than what the CCF will do.

Will the CCF cling to the axiom
that sooner or later the opposition
becomes the government, as it did
in 1941 when the. Coalition was
formed, and resign itself to indefin-
ite opposition?

Undoubtedly there are some in the
CCF who have already reconciled
themselves to that position. Some,
in fact, welcome Bennett’s attempt
to draw sharp. lines. But the fal-
lacy of that thinking .was shown
by the 1952 election.

By every right of opposition the
CCF, and not Social Credit, should
have become the government when
the Coalition dissolved into Liberal
and Conservative parties again and
both were repudiated at the polls.

Yet a minority” party suddenly
blossomed out into a movement
with much of the fervor of the
CCF’s early beginnings to snatch
the reigns of government. It could
happen again.

The CCF has two other possible
courses before it. One, promoted
by such Liberals in the trade union
movement as ‘R. K. Gervin and
Stewart Alsbury, is for the CCF to
enter into an electoral alliance with
the Liberals.

The suggestion has been rejected
both by the CCF and the Liberals
but the sentiment for it remains
among the circles that proposed it.
In effect, any move in this direc-
tion would require the CCF to re-
pudiate what remains of its social-
ist program and become a Liberal-
Labor party further dividing rather
than unifying the labor movement.

The other course is for the CCF
to look left for its electoral alliance
and, centering its fire upon Social
Credit’s giveaway policies, bring
into united action all those already
opposed to the betrayal of. their
heritage.

The Labor-Progressive party's
withdrawal from all constituencies
where a divided progressive vote
would endanger existing or possible
CCF seats was decisive in holding
New Westminster, Alberni and
Grand Forks-Greenwood and win-
ning the second seat in Burnaby
for the CCF. Conversely, the anti-
unity statement made by Harold
Thayer, CCF provincial secretary
contributed to his defeat in Van-
couver East.

Among LPP supporters, as among
CCF adherents, there are those who
find it hard to vote for candidates
of the other party, and the bitter
feelings engendered by years of
division are not erased by ill-con-
sidered attacks. :

But one-sided unity cannot bring
forth the kind of movement that, in
CCF leader Robert Strachan’s own
words, will “set the heather afire”
and smoke out the Socred govern-
ment. :

It will require something more
to regain, from Social Credit the
thousands of workers’ votes it has
won in Vancouver East and Bur-
rard, in Prince Rupert, Rossland-
Trail and Nanaimo. It will require
a positive program and united ac-
tion to seize the labor movement
with a sense of its own power and
purpose and rally it around its own
real demands — as distinct from
Socred bribes from a “prosperity
treasury filled out of the people's

own pockets.

Stupidity -- or worse

THE news that the great

Ulanova and her compan-
ions of the Bolshoi ballet
company feel unable to make
their visit to Britain because
of the affair of Nina Pono-
mareva, Russian discus
thrower. charged last month
with stealing five cheap hats
from a London store, is dis-
turbing indeed.

Millions of British peo-
ple, many with little or no
interest in ballet, looked for-
ward to this visit—and equally
to the return visit of Sadler's
Wells ballet to Moscow — as
an important aid to British-
Soviet friendship, the real key
to peace.

Cancellation of the Bolshoi
tour could only please those
who desire to worsen British-
Soviet relations.

When the original incident
of Nina and the hats caused
the visiting Soviet athletic
team to withdraw from an in-
ternational track meet, many
people felt that the Russians
had acted hastily and un-
wisely.

Major responsibility for the
course of events since then,
however, must be placed
squarely and fairly where it
belongs — on the British Tory
government and its foreign
office.

Instead of dropping the

SEPTEMBER 28, 1956 —

paltry charge against Nina,
British officials have tried to
build it into a great inter-
national affair, one which
cannot but do great harm to
world relations and to the
cause of peace.

Admiral Sir George Chet-
wode described the British
official attitude in a letter to
the Daily Express as ‘‘this
priceless. example of bun-
headed, chucklenutted, prig-
gish_ stupidity.” Just the
words we couldn’t quite think
of ourselves.

The whole unfortunate af-
fair could be settled quite sim-
ply, if the British director of
public prosecutions should be
told to drop the charge against
Nina at once. This is the least
that can be done to make good
some of the damage already
caused by the cold-war die
hards in Whitehall.

Pacific Tribune

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Editor — TOM McEWEN

Associate Editer — HAL GRIFFIN
Business Manager — RITA WHYTE

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 7