Review ESPITE the millions of words D written and spoken on Colum- bia River hydro-power develop- ment, the general public are still in the dark on the basic facts of this gigantic sellout to U.S. inter- ests. This of course is standard prac- tise with monopoly-dominated gov- ernments where big giveaways of the peoples’ resources are involved. Some salient facts however are painfully clear. One is that Vic- toria and Ottawa (with some minor differences) are ready to hand over the bulk of Columbia River power potential to American in- terests. In the tentative “treaty” agreement, nearing finalization be- tween Victoria, Ottawa and Wash- ington, which neither the Canadian public nor parliaments have yet seen, the U.S. power-hungry mon- opolists are the prime beneficiaries. It is well known that. Premier Bennett. and his Socred govern- ment, already notorious for B:C. resources giveaways to monopoly, has-been a willing broker for U.S: hydro-electric power ,. interests right from the start. Had _ it- not. been for General A. G. MacNaugh-~ ton, Canada’s representative on the joint Canada - U.S. Commission; - Bennett - would have handed over the Columbia to U.S. interests quite some time ago. With the re- moval. of MacNaughton from: his post by the Diefenbaker govern- ment, this hurdle has been elimin-~* ated. ‘During the last federal election Dief ‘promised’ that his govern- ment would. “assist” B.C: in the’ Columbia development, providing development was “under public ownership.” Again more confusion; was this a ‘gift’ to B.C. or a loan? Bennett wanted to know which and ‘how much’?, and let it be known if it was the latter, B.C. could borrow the money itself independent. of Ottawa. Finance Minister Fleming. }. stipulated the amount in a letter. to Bennett; $172-million dollars, at. |. joan market. -]- - ‘the lowest possible rates. As if. all that horse-trading on Pacific Tribune Editor — TOM McEWEN Associate Ednor — MAURICE RUSH 7 Business Mgr. — OXANA BIGELOW . Published weekly at Room 6 — 426 Main Street Vancouver 4, B.C, Phone MUtual 5-5288 Subscription Rates: One Year: $4.00 Six Months: $2.25 Canadian and Commonwealth countries (except Australia): $4.00 one year. Australia, United States and all other countries: $5.00 one year, Authorized as second class mail Post Office Dept., Ottawa 14 «* £E ‘Get redling’ — for B.C. one of the most -vital resources afffectine the future economy of B.C. weren’t enough, we now find CCF provincial leader Robert Stra- chan publicly whooping it-up for the Bennett plan, and noisily clam- oring to “get on with the job and get things rolling.” _Reminds us of “socialist” Harold Winch some years ago in the B.C. Legislature, when in face of wide- spread public demand for “taking over” the B.C. Electric, Winch voted with the Coalition to give B.C.’s power and transit octopus another 20-year franchise at rook- ing the public. This Columbia “treaty”? which no one save the political brokers have seen, should be completely scrap- ped. and replaced by a plan for Columbia development on an East- West grid-system to serve present and. future needs of Canadians. This- is what the people of : B:C: are demanding, in the Kootenays and elsewhere, including H.-W. Herridge, CCF-MP. That is what CCF leader Stra- chan should be demanding, instead of whooping it up to get the Ben- nett sellout “rolling.” we DITORIAL PAGE Let's end stooge rule T the coming Commonwealth prime ministers conference in London there will be some knotty problems to get around. ; Peace or nuclear destruction; trade, the common market vs. mar- ket ‘blocs,’ the business of economic survival by taking in each other’s washing, ete. The ‘delicate’ one will be that of racist South Africa, recently be- come a ‘Republic’ by virtue of a White referendum, in which the _ vast majority of South African native people had neither voice nor vote. Shall South Africa with its shameful “apartheid” racist segre- gation policies and virtual slavery for its Negro and Colored peoples be readmitted as a member of our much - boasted “free” Common- wealth? The prime ministers from other African states now rated independ- ent will have no difficulty finding a fitting answer. Their skins are Black, and their ideals of human dignity above color. But the White frock-coated min- isters from other Commonwealth countries will not be so forthright, and the need of double-talk will be very much in demand. At the last conference of its kind Canada’s Diefenbaker played thé role of bed-chamber. valet; don't let us criticise South: Africa’s dis: graceful racism and segregation ‘Jaws’ in public. It just isn’t done gentlemen. Just think of the Cont monwealth needs. Let’s get int the back room and talk it over #! private. The massacre of Negré people is ‘regrettable,’ but the Com monwealth (read British imperial ism) needs “statesmen”’ like Prem ier Verwoerd. And our “free Western ally in Washington won! object since they too have thel Little Rock, and New Orleans ra’ ist segregation mobs. It. would: seem: that whether # is in-a-Commonwealth conferenc4 a NATO, NORAD, or United Na) tions confab, Canada manages play a consistent: stooge role fo coldwar imperialism, be it a Peal‘) son or Diefenbaker at the bat. | Already there are strong voice’) in Canada being raised to excludé South Africa from the Commot wealth as a racist leper colony: We'll soon. see how our Whit? “statesmen” measure up to thé job of preserving human dignity ~~ Tom ~ McEwen ; OME 180-years ago an English S philosopher, Thomas R. Mal- ~. thus (1766 - 1834) “theory” which, developed a among other world population is greater than - the increase of the means. of sub- sistence.” This doctrine -has he- come known as ‘‘Malthusianism;”’ “+ or excess. of world. population “ over food-producing capacity.’ Much has changed. in’ Merrie - England and elsewhere since Mal- thus burned the midnight oil at- tempting to “prove”’ that the starv- ing hordes of England and other lands were the result of ‘“over- population” rather than ‘the vic- tims of an unjust class division of the ‘‘means of subsistence,” viz, food, clothing and shelter. ~~: Readers may have noted during recent weeks that various ‘‘author- ities,” “experts,” ‘learned pro- fessors’” and what not, have been filling up a lot of space in the commercial press with their ‘“Mal- thusian” versions of present day world problems. F In these “learned’ professorial blurbs we hear qa great deal about “backward,” ‘“over-populated” and “hungry” nations, and what should * things, held that “the increase: in ~ be done about it: At rare times, with adequate coldwar strings on the wrappings, a cargo of low- grade wheat, powdered’ milk or stale eggs are. dispatched, (with much virtuous fanfare) to these “over-populated’ nations. Meantime our ~Malthusian literati. peddle , their : wares about the need of “education,” “birth control,” ‘‘wes- tern enlightment”’ and so on, but are extremely retiscent. on any changes in our social system which would.provide an equal division of an already over-abundant “means of subsistence.”’ Even: the sub-standard condition of nearly a million jobless work- ers in our own land, cannot be explained away by “over-popula- tion” while our granaries burst at the seams with: food: Then there ‘is a specie of Mal- thus. ‘“‘doctrinaire”’ among our so- called “statesmen” and military brass, who regard war’as an essen- tial “counter-balance’’. to .world over-population. Hitler, who has already become a piker compared to some of the Penatgon atomani- acs, sought to round out the Mal- thus ‘theory’ by the. extermina- tion of whole populations, to pro- vide “living space,” ‘“‘means of sub- sistence,” (and of course profits) for a super-duper “Herrenfolk.” Clearly the problem is not one of ‘‘over-population” versus food supply. Farmers in this and other countries produce more than they know what to do with. There are many instances:in past years when our primary producers have been subsidized by governments for the ' crops they didn’t grow, for the ‘life; enough. to meet all. the food - resurrecting the decayed corpse of beef they didn’t produce, for the i food they were paid to plow under. Even today our. primary pro-. |) ducers and industrial° workers are’ penalized in a score of ways by an overproduction of the ‘means’ of and other requirements of so-call- ed “over-populated backward’? na- tions, but prohibited from supply- ing these needs because of the in- sane policies of the modern atomic- minded~- Malthusians who seek to solve the problem of ‘‘over-popula- tion” (and profits) with H-Bombs' instead of food. ) Thus in the shadow of a moun- tain of food, the under-populated primary producer “and ~worker lacks the ‘méans’ of. subsistence”’ almost as much ‘as his “over-popu- |} lated” brother.’ They both -have ‘|| little or nothing; but only one {|} knows it. They are both the vic- — tims of a common enemy; which |) is now recruiting the aid of Mal- || thus to cover up its crimes against humanity. i Just as man in this atomic age reaches out for the stars, ‘so also will man in the years to come, discover vast new scientific tech- niques and resources for the “means of subsistence,” far sur- passing every population needs. Of course it won’t be done under a profit system, which cannot even now distribute the abundance it is capable of producing. Hence it — seeks to Cloak’ the hunger and — poverty it imposes on mankind by Malthusian dogmas. _. December 16, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page!)