THE NATION

Ottawa helps to scuttle Britain

By TIM BUCK

for crumbs from Yankee table

1 HE capitalist newspaper and radio monopoly has
been put to work by its owners to build up what

they will then pretend is “public opinion’’ in support of
the: aims into which Wall St. and Washington plan to
ft the forthcoming British-U.S.-Canadian conference on
‘Bnitain’s financial crisis. The aim of the propaganda
campaign being developed all over Canada is, definitely
and brazenly, to delude Canadians into thinking that
the proposals being put forward in the U.S. and sup-

Ported by monopoly-capitalist interests in Canada are
Correct. The newspaper and radio propaganda is larded

with kind words about ‘‘Britain”’ as a sort of abstraction

but its point is always to the effect that the reason for

the present crisis is to be found in such factors as laziness,
tefusal of British workers to accept modern methods of
Production, extravagant social services, the power of
the trade unions, etc.

It is doubtful if ever a more disgusting example
of misrepresentation, double-talk and outright falsehood
as been provided by the capitalist press of one member
Country of the British Commonwealth against another.
t is the more disgusting because it is part of the sys-
tematic campaign by which the monopoly-capitalist in-

i terests, which have no national loyalties, are planning
_ to tum Canadian popular opinion away from and against

the cultural and democratic tradition upon which Can-

_ adian bourgeois democracy was patterned until recently

and which Canadians were hitherto taught to admire.

\

; \
The aim in which the Canadian monopolists and the
St. Laurent government is cooperating with’ Wall St.

__ and Washington against Britain’s people is described a

— “devaluation of the. pound.”

The hired propagandists
Tepresents this for all the world as though it were simply
@ proposal that the British should agree to trade their

_ Pounds for fewer U.S. dollars than at present. e
truth is very much different. What Wall St. and Wash-

:

¥

~ August

_Ington are after was expressed by the financial editor of
the Toronto Globe and Mail in his column on Saturday,

Passage into and out of other currencies.” He added
the following explanatory sentences which leave no doubt
8S to what he considers to be the purpose of devaluation
of the pound.

“Freedom to trade is more important than the actual

Tate ( of exchange—T.B.) which, after \a_ preliminary

_ Period of testing, can safely be left to the market and

the producers and traders; in other words to the elements
Which handled the matter well up to the time of the
8reat wars and between them.” -

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

4 US. plot to rebuild W ehrmach

1, as the rate of exchange which “‘permits easy —

There is the real purpose of the U.S. imperialists,

the sinister purpose that the Canadian monopolists and

the St. Laurent government is helping Washington to

achieve. To force the pound sterling to exchange freely \
with the U.S. dollar and to be convertible at the rate

established by the market would (perhaps I should write

will), bring disaster to Britain. First of all it will de-

stroy the sterling bloc and, thereby, one of the most

vital of all the remaining props under British export

industries. Wiping out the advantages now maintained

mainly through Britain’s financial domination of the

sterling area will undermine Britain’s ability to export,

will enable U.S. exports to face British-exports with all

the advantages on the side of the U.S. exports in mar-

kets where the advantages are now on the side of Britain.
That isn’t all. If the United Kingdom should be com-

pelled to allow the pound sterling to exchange freely for

dollars at the rate established by the market then “‘de-

valuation’’ would be but the prelude to inflation which

would set in quickly and_ irresistibly with catastrophic

results for Britain and her people. ‘

of

The power-mad advocates of “devaluation” are’
careful to insist that they don’t want anything like that to
happen but, unless they are utterly ignorant of what they
are doing, they lie. A rate of exchange established by
the market—which “permits easy passage into and out
of other currencies’—could produce no other result :for
the people of the British Isles.

That is. the prospect conjured up by Mr. Douglas.
Abbott’s cynical reference to the British crisis as Britain’s
own affair. That is the conception indicated by the ©
Financial Post when it heads an item “Bankrupt Britain.”

That is the prospect aimed at by the monopolists, their

newspaper and radio propagandists and members of the
government who calculate that, if the U.S. succeeds in
demolishing the sterling bloc, Canadian finance-capital
may get a few crumbs in the redistribution of imperialist
advantages that will ensue. Furthermore, they calculate
that if through such a process Britain is driven down the
road of inflation, Canadian monopolists may be able to
get in at the feast of vultures when Britain’s industries
follow others across the auctioneer’s block into the pos-—
session of American finance-capital. Last week the

London Sunday Pictorial declared in a full-page head-

le that Britons are “Tired of Yankee Insults.” Un-
less public pressure compels the St. Laurent government

to change its policy that will become the British attitude
towards Canada also. wk

By T. C. SIMS

echo of Churchill’s 1918 plan

‘ : ‘ {
pave LAWRENCE, editor of U.S. News and World

Report; often lets the Wall Street cat out of the bag.

: Just read the following from his magazine of August 5: .

fy) U.S. planning for the next war:
“China is crossed off. Japan, other Pacific Islands
are Pacific outposts, Caney
“Britain is regarded as a big air base, a jumping-
place. i ‘ ;
_.. “France is to provide the army on the continent.
French army didn’t do so well against the Germans,
but wig, expects to help rebuild it, with lend-lease.
, “Actually, if the truth be known, U.S. military view
is that Germany can offer the one really effective land
i-my in Western Europe. Germany, if lined up with
the West, could have the most.to fight for, the least
dissension. That's the military opinion; which remains
® bit skeptical of France. ‘ PES
_ “Gend-lease, in reality, is designed more as a morale

builder than as a builder of armies that could stand

_ “ffectively against the Russians.”

*

From the above you can get a clearer idea why that
ancient warmonger Churchill spoke at Strasbourg in
sed of Germany being invited to join the Council of
‘urope, If you'll read Churchill’s Aftermath, you see
how in 1918-1919, he tried to organize the Kaiser’s Ger-
man Army to invade Soviet Russia, :
i °

._ Now, President Truman iteturns to _ Churchill’s
1918-1919 vomit.

_ The U.S. warmongers’ dream: We'll get the Germans
to build up an army to effectively handle the Russians.
We'll use England and Japan as bases for our B36
atombomb planes! . :

It seems as though they have come to realize that
Pollitt, Thorez and Togliatti knew what were ~
talking about when they said that Wall Street could
not rely upon getting cannon-fodder in Britain, France
and Italy. Now the Yanks figure that the Germans
may do the trick. ‘

Vain hope, stupid dream,

LABOR FOCUS By J. B. SALSBERG

Believe it or not

Mosher said it all

HIS column could also be called, “From the Life

and Times of Aaron Mosher.” .For that matter
any other title would do, so long as it would indicate the
fantastic character of the things that man says.

Mosher is no ordinary “labor man.” He is one of
the most substantial among them. - He is also a “‘social-
ist.” He is the “labor” rear of the CCF front. What
he says usually hits the papers, but not because the
millionaire press prints “‘everything that’s. fit to print.”
Mosher can be sure of space in the press because what
he says usually fits ito the pattern of big business
propaganda.

“Tt is noteworthy that the industrial picture in Canada
at the present time is almost free from labor disputes.
In my opinion, this indicates that both labor and man-
agement are learning to live and work together for the
common good.’ ‘This is from Aaron Mosher’s 1949
“Labor Day Message’’ to the nation.

The asbestos miners have just ended one of the
longest and most sanguine battles in recent labor history.
The Canadian seamen are in the midst of an industrial

. struggle which stirs the labor movement of the world.

Typographical workers and lithographers march on the
picket line in many cities. Automobile workers take
strike votes. The lumber barons demand wage cuts.
Auto, rubber; electric, packing, metal mine and all the
railroad unions are in the midst of deadlocked
negotiations, but Mr. Mosher yawns and says “the ~
industrial picture in Canada .. . is almost free from

labor disputes.’” What stimulating leadership!

: Are you,worried .about the developing crisis which
even the big business press and Bay Street economists
“acknowledge? Nonsense. Move over and take a nap.
Mosher says in an‘ editorial in the August, 1949, issue

‘of The Canadian Unionist: ““Admittedly, the situation

is not as healthy as it might be, but there is no ground
for alarm in Canada . .. and an attitude of confidence —
is the best antidote for depression, economic or other-
wise.” What profound “‘socialist’’ thoughts! :

But while Mosher was thus mumbling in his snooze
someone sneaked into the back pages of the same ‘issue
of the Unionist and said on page 183: “*. . . these. trade
opportunities which Canada has missed because of the —
American dollar shortage will hasten depression here
and will increase its intensity.” What, no “‘attitude of
confidence?”’ Wake up, Mosher, those, are almost
“commoonist” words in your own journal. Off with
somebody’s head, Mosher, or your slumber will be dis-
turbed..

Now this fuss about wage demands. It’s all wrong.
It’s just a communist manoeuver to start the world revolu-
tion. Because as far back as Christmas time—December
10 to be exact—the daily press joyfully displayed a
Canadian Press despatch from Stratford: “The union
official (Mosher) said he saw no likelihood of a fourth
rit of wage increase demands in Canada in the near
ulure, _ ‘ 4

“ Prices’ (he said) ‘are fairly well established even
though they are at an unusually high level. There seems
to be a general balance between prices and wages at the
moment, except in a few localities, so a general demand
for wage increases does not seem to be in prospect.”

 )

Of course Mosher had reason to believe that price
controls were going to be re-imposed. Because last
November 30 he told the Royal Commission on Prices
that “‘We are not now at war in the ordinary sense...
We are in a cold war, a state of continuous emergency. —
. . . Unless we devote ourselves single-heartedly to the
winning of this war, we may not survive; and one of the
main battlefronts is the fight against inflation. If the
cost of living continues to rise, . . .we shall simply be
putting a weapon in the hands of our enemies.” But
the chiefs who conduct the cold war are evidently not
afraid that they will not “survive” so long as they have
Mosher in his lofty position, and so they did raise prices
and did make an. extra dollar. ;
And finally are you afraid of another war? Tut,
tut... ;

In his last New Year message Mosher said: “Jn
any event, the widespread recognition of the threat to
world peace arising out of the inability of the great
nations to compose their differences, is a helpful factor, —
since the realization of the dangers involved has aroused
public sentiment, and if war should occur, we shall all
be better prepared for it than we were in 1939.” -

Well, believe it or not, but Mosher said it all. We
can give you more of the same kind but enough is
enough. Try reading this aloud at yoyr next union
meeting or at the coming CCL convention.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 2, 1949 — PAGE 9