il 'y A ‘il ach Netto | _ @ ss Z [D> : AL tise ] CL, D> 7 ‘ hh bes baer ES leon Vol. 6 No. 15 Vancouver, B.C., April 11, 1947 SS Five Cents TRUMAN POLICY HIT British labor urges repudiation LONDON. — Rebuffing their executive’s recommendation, delegates to the Cooperative Party’s annual convention this week gave a big majority to a resolution condemning. American foreign policy as ‘‘a menace to world peace Gnd a negation of democratic principles for the preservation of which the great Sacrifices of the last war were made.”’ Attitude of the Cooperative Party, which is an integral part of the Parlia- Mentary Labor Party with many members in the House of Commons, indicates the Popular reaction in this country to President Truman’‘s recent speeches pledging Merican aid to the anti-democratic Greek and Turkish regimes, (Continued on page 8—See COOPERATIVE PARTY) Wage demands to follow price boosts Extension of the King government’s decontrol policy to include the long predicted crease in rents this week cut deeper into the shrinking incomes of workers and farm- ‘TS, pensioners and others on fixed incomes,irawing applause only from the big business Mterests who see in it a further acceptance of the demands they have been pressing °n the government for months. From trade union leaders, SPokesmen for the CCF and P, officials of housewives’, Consumers’ and pensioners’ Stoups, it brought a storm of Protest, 5 It is estimated that the 10 to 0 per cent boost in rents alone Will take $5,000,000 from the poc- €ts of people who can least af- ford it, With the need for popular or- 8anization to combat price in- Teases impressed on every wage farner by the government’s pol- °Y, a national organization of Usewives and consumers. is be- 4g organized. Formation of the ganization is a direct outcome {eee of the visit of a delegation of housewives to Ottawa last week. Despite: assurances from Fi- nance Minister Douglas Abbott that talk of further price in- creases was ‘so much newspaper speculation,’ Abbot announced the lifting of additional controls the day following his reception of the delegation. Mrs. Margaret Chunn of Win- nipeg, spokesman for the delega- tion, which had the endorsation and support of some 100 organ- izations in the West, told the press: ‘The government has flouted the will of the Canadian peo- ple. What clearly emerges from the treatment accorded’ the housewives’ delegation is the need for a return to Ottawa in a bigger way, with representative housewives and citizens from all the provinces converging on Ot- tawa in a mass delegation. Then perhaps, we shall be able to get the government to give some at- tention to the people’s needs.’ Percy Bengough, president of the Trades and Labor Congress, and Pat Conroy, secretary of the Canadian Congress of Labor, both stated this week that their af- filiates will be compelled to seek wage increases in coming months as a direct result of the govern- ment’s policy. VICTORIA, B.C.—As Brit- ish Columbia ‘prepares for what it hopes will be the biggest tourist ‘season in years the government is be- ing flooded with protests against the dangerous Con dition h Ways. The Island Highway, Cariboo Highway and other Main roads are rutted and full of potholés. Nor are Victoria and Vancouver city Streets much better. Some Of the damage was caused by: severe frosts. Most of it is due to long government Kreglect. Of the millions of dollars taken annually from motorists’ pockets, only 2 fraction has gone back on the roads. Now the public is demanding that the gov- ernment pave the roads with More than election promises. ® Horses haul a -stranded car through an impass- able muddy stretch on the Cariboo Highway. of provincial high- . Gov't neglect of roads arouses public Asks mine closure @ John L. Lewis (right), president of the United Mine workers of America, this week called on U.S. In- terior Secretary Julius aA. Krug to keep all but two of 2,018 bituminous coal mines in the United States closed until “re-inspection has been made by a federal mine in- spector together with certifi- cation by him that they are in conformity with the fed- eral mine safety code.” Krug rejected Lewis’ demand, al- though 518 ‘hazardous’ mines have been ordered closed until they can be pronounc- ed safe. Lewis’ demand fol- lowed the Easter period of mourning . called by the UMWA for the 111 victims of the recent Centralia di- saster. Alaskan big business attacks trade unions Large-scale American military preparations in Alaska— part of a network stretching across the Canadian Arctic and anchored in- Alaska and Greenland—have inevitably brought a sharp clash between those striving to turn Alaska into a war base against the Soviet Union and those who realize the territory’s future depends on peaceful trade de- velopment and settlement. While the Chamber of Commerce at Anchorage is seek- ing to restore and enlarge its pre-war trade with the Soviet Union, estimated at a mere $10,000 a year, a delegation of Alaskan businiess men is in Washington pressing for policies that would hamper trade relations. The policy urged on the Senate Labor Committee by the delegation was a thinly veiled attempt to divide Alaskan (Continued on page 8—See -ALASKA) Douglas opposes Lacroix Bill REGINA—Opposition to the Bill calling for suppression of the Labor-Progressive Party and other organizations introduced in the House of Commons by Wilfreq Lacroix, MP, was ex- pressed here this week by Premier T. C. Douglas, who stated: “I have not seen the Lacroix Bill. I am opposed to any legislation outlawing a political party. I am opposed to the policies and program of the LPP and I am opposed to com- munism as a political doctrine, but I believe that these can best be combatted by offering a constructive alternative which, in my opinion, is a program of democratic socialism as con- tained ir: the program and policies of the CCF. I don’t want to discuss the Lacroix Bill because I haven’t seen it, but if it is similar to Section 98 of the Criminal Code, as passed by the Bennett government, it would take precedence over provincial legislation such as the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights. Again, 1 am speaking without having examineg or studied the Lacroix Bill at all.”