10 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER = Tee 4 SP a ke ee eet | IN ALASKA, SIBERIA AND THE YUKON JAPANESE SHOW WAY Japanese big business knows no frontiers. Without the slightest inhibition, Tokyo promoters and _ financiers _ have just begun a bold $500 million thrust into the “Froz- en North.” They are pouring capital and technology into Alaska and Canada’s Yukon, placing enormous orders for minerals, timber and fish. The Japan- ese government even has a blueprint ready for the ex- ploitation of eastern Siberia. In Alaska, Japanese giants like Sumitomo, Miasui and Mitsubishi are already pros- pecting for oil, building vast timber mills and fish canner- ies, developing new plants and factories and setting up whole strings of trading of- fices. Ignoring all competition, Tokyo firms are regularly outbidding their American rivals and now buy 80 per cent of Alaska’s total exports. In Canada they are doing the same. The Mitsui Mining Co. has recently signed a huge eight - year contract worth $250 million for zinc ore, and will buy up the en- tire output from a mine in remote White Horse. This will involve building a 110-mile railway line. Both in Alaska and the Yukon, Japa- nese capital has already help- ed spark memories of the Klondike rush. In the drowsy Alaskan sea- port of Ketchikan, in south- ern Alaska, Japan’s Kawasaki Kisen will build a sprawling new harbor for highseas fish- ing fleets while, at Kodiak, on one of the Aleutian islands, Japanese companies will con- struct an enormous cannery for Alaskan king crab and salmon, as well as a fishery research center. Other major projects in- clude a $50 million pulp mill at Sitka, southern Alaska, and office buildings and sawmills For industrial Japan, how- ever, the prospects of a major oil strike are the most ex- citing. The newly formed Al- asko, jointly owned by Mitsu- bishi, Sumitomo and two other companies, has already put aside $41 million for pre- liminary development and ex- ploration. On the Pacifie’s other coast, meanwhile, the Japanese gov- ernment has already begun negotiations with Russia to open up Siberia. On his re- cent visit M.K. Baybakov, chairman of Russia’s all- powerful State Planning Committee, openly invited the help of Japanese big business in building an oil pipeline be- tween Tyumen and the port of Nakhodka. He also asked for aid in developing copper mines at Udokan and Norilsk. But why Japan’s sudden interest in remote Arctic re- gions? As tensions increase in the Far East, Japan has learned that her supply lines must be kept safely open — and the Arctic is closest. AN’ WHEN DID YA FIRST NOTICE THE’ PAIN? 1-417 ANNUAL MEETING The Annual Meeting of Local 1-417 IWA Salmon Arm will be held in the Stockmen’s Motor Hotel, Kamloops, April 27. Approximately seventy-five delegates will attend to deal with the business of the Local Union. ONTARIO'S ATTEMPT TO EXTRADITE BANKS COSTLY | The Federal Government has protested against U-S. State Secretary Dean Rusk’s refusal to allow extradition of Hal Banks, 59-year-old form- er president of the Seafarers’ International Union of Can- ada.- d External Affairs Minister Paul Martin told the Com- BRITAIN STEPS DOWN ON DRINKING DRIVERS If the world has been wait- ing for proof that stricter con- trol of drinking drivers will reduce highway accidents and deaths, then Britain has brought it to us. Why it should take proof is beyond knowing, but appar- ently that’s the way too many people want it. So all right — proof it is. On last October 9, breatha- lyzers were put into use in Britain under stiff new laws. One month later police were able to state with ac- curacy that the fatal and in- jury accident rate in Greater London fad dropped by 42 per cent from the same peri- od in 1966. ~ In addition, the number of people killed in the same pe- riod dropped by 34 per cent — from 82 to 54. Surveys conducted through- out Canada indicate that these same figures would ap- ply in this country if impaired drivers were cracked down on — and it is interesting to note that 34 per cent of total traffic fatalities in Canada in 1966 was 1,787 people. There’s many a town in our country which doesn’t have that many people living in it. Just what was done in Bri- tain? Here it is, in brief. The legislation which went into effect October 9 empow- ered’ a uniformed police of- ficer to take a breath test at the roadside if: —he had reasonable cause to suspect a driver of having alcohol in his body; or —he had reasonable cause to suspect a driver of having committed a moving traffic offence; or —the driver had been in- volved in an accident. What followed was simpte. The officer produced his port- able breathalyzer, a tube filled with chemically treated crys- tals; the driver took a deep breath and blew into the tube; if the crystals turned green, on to the station. At the station, a second breath test was offered. If it, too, indicated a high level of alcohol, blood or urine tests followed. If these indicated an alcohol blood level higher than .08, prosecution followed. The penalty on conviction: A fine of at least $280 and/or four months’ impris- onment and loss of the driv- er’s licence for a year. What made the law work, of course, was strict enforce- ment. Some police went so far as to station themselves out- side pubs to take tests of any- body who left the pub and entered a car with the appar- ‘ent intention of driving it. Pub owners went so far as to buy breathalyzers of their own and allow customers (for five shillings) to test them- selves before they left and make their own choice of whether or not to drive. mons he had asked Washing- ton to reconsider its decision or submit the issue to arbi- tration by an _ international tribunal. A U.S. court last Nov. 3 ordered Banks extradicted to face a perjury charge brought by the Ontario Attorney Gen- eral’s Department. The charge resulted from testi- mony Banks made before the Norris Royal Commission, denying involvement in the beating of a rival union lead- er. Banks fled to the U.S. in 1964 while on bail after being convicted of conspiring in the assault in 1957 on Capt. Frank Walsh at Owen Sound. Conspiracy is not an extra- ditable offence, but perjury is. Mr. Rusk, in a note to the Canadian ambassador in Washington on March 13, said: “The application for the extradition of Harold Cham- berlain Banks presents a uni- que problem. Extradition is sought on a charge of perjury arising from Mr. Banks’ pro- testation of his-innocence in response to a question as to his participation in a conspir- acy to commit assault. “The latter offence is not subject to extradition. Be- cause the charge of perjury in this case arises directly out of a denial of guilt of a non- extraditable offence, I have concluded that it would not be compatible with the over- all design and purpose of the extradition treaty, which is limited and not universal in its coverage of offences, to agree to extradition on the unique facts of this case. “TI regret, therefore, that I am unable to order the extra- dition of Harold Chamberlain Banks to Canada.” Banks, who had been held without bail since last sum- mer in the federal detention building in New York, was released two days after Mr. Rusk’s note was delivered. There was that much delay because of a mix-up in the mails that delayed notifica- tion of the authorities in New York. Banks’ downfall in 1963 and 1964 followed 14 years as the SIU’s chief in Canada. He came here in 1949 — at the invitation of government, labor and business leaders — to destroy and replace the Communist-dominated Cana- dian Seamen’s Union. His regime was marked by violence and raids on other unions and eventually led to the expulsion of the SIU from the Canadian Labor Con- gress. The CLC backed the formation of the rival Cana- dian Maritime Union at Up- per Lakes Shipping Ltd. This led in turn to more violence, a SIU-led blockade of CMU- manned ships from US. Great Lakes ports and the Norris inquiry into the indus- try. The federal Government set up the Board of Trustees HANEY BUSINESS GUIDE ESQUIRE MEN’S WEAR (Graham Mowatt) Complete Stock of Work and Dress Clothing “THE STORE WITH THE POPULAR BRANDS” HANEY BRITISH COLUMBIA to supervise the maritime unions. It operated until the end of 1967. Under this supervision, SIU International President Paul Hall allowed an end to the inter-union warfare in re- turn for elections that placed Banks’ former lieutenants legally in office. Leonard Mc- Laughlin took over Banks’ post. The CLC recently allowed the SIU to rejoin the con- gress. It was not known whether Banks would return to the work he had been doing in Brooklyn as an executive supervising buildings used for a maritime school run by several unions, including the SIU. His only comment learn- - ed by the press was that he was glad to be free. Attorney General Wishart told the Ontario Legislature it cost $21,908.85 to attempt the extradition. BROADWAY PRINTERS printers and lithographers Since 191] > 115 EAST 8th AVENUE VANCOUVER 10, B.C. Telephone 876-2101