Key issue if election called

Pearson urged to speak
out against Vietnam war

Prime Minister Lester Pearson had a sample of the strong public feeling in

SOtk pbuntversary Year

Yvon |
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thy:

PEARSON GOT THE MESSAGE. This huge
banner, 40 feet by 95 feet, was unfurled

Gcross Hastings Street last Saturday as Prime

U.S. bombing of Viet dams.

B.C. against the U.S. war in Vietnam and the failure of his government to speak
out forthrightly against U.S. policy when he visited the Pacific Coast this week.
He was left with no doubt that if he decided to call a federal election in the near
future the Vietnam war and his government's cowardly stand will be a central

issue in this province.

There is no doubt that the 40
young people who attempted to
meet the Prime Minister to pre-
sent him with a letter voicing
concern over the Vietnam war,
and who later staged a demon=
stration during the PNE parade
to protest his refusal to give
them a hearing, expressed the
widespread concern of people
from all walks of life in B.C,

They expressed the sentiments
of B.C,.’s powerful trade union

*
Bete:

Minister Pearson’s cor, heading the PNE par-
ade, approached. :

—Fisherman photo

threaten mass destruction

American bombers took another
td Step towards escalating the

ar in Vietnam last week when
hay eombed a dam in North Viet-
oe S vital Red River irrigation
ie This was the first U.S,
a5 On the North Vietnam flood

htrol and irrigation system,

ae few weeks ago the Pacific
os une reported that the U.S,
S considering bombing the Red
Ver dykes—an act which would
a equivalent to the Nazi de-
Tuction of the Dutch dykes which

wed widespread flood ing in
°rld War II,

The attack on Saturday, August
Am eight F-105 Thunderbirds
ne ne 21 tons of bombs on the
80 miles from Hanoi, The

4 oe Claimed that the attack dam-
Ear the dam wall, destroyed
Y locks and destroyed part

@ hydro-electric installation,

ene up the great dykes
Wipin flood the entire delta area,

€ Out the summer rice crop

wrowning anything from twc
€e million people in the
acisely Populated delta, The
Ser is particularly acutenow,

near the end of the monsoon
season, when waters are at their
highest level.

In Washington last week it was
made known that American pilots
have been ordered to destroy/all
surface-to-air anti-aircraft
missile sites in North Vietnam
found on their way to their tar-
gets, The New York Times re-
ported that there had already
been some unannounced attacks
on such missile bases.

North Vietnam last week lodged
a protest with the International
Control Commission over the
“setting up of a U.S, mobile re-

‘search institute for bacterio-

logical and chemical warfare in
South Vietnam,

The North Vietnamese news
agency quoted Western reports
as saying that the mobile re=-
search institute, belonging to the
U.S, 406th Bacteriological and
Chemical Warfare Task Force in
Japan, had beer moved to South
Vietnam, The U.S, Defence and
State Departments have refused
any comment on the report,

>

Photo shows some of the forty students who
staged a sit-down on Hastings Street in front
of the Prime Minister’s car after he refused

movement; ofthe scores of thous-
ands of NDP supporters; and of
the many professional people who
have voiced their demand public-
ly for an end tg the war. They
also gave voice to the sentiment
of a majority of the youth of the
province whose future is at stake
if the U.S, is allowed to escalate
its aggression into a full scale
thermonuclear war,

The Prime Minister refused
to accept a statement on the war
in Vietnam from a group of
youth headed by Miss Ann Jamie-
son, a senior student at UBC,
during the PNE parade. In pro-

test some 40 young people staged’

a sit-down on the road in front
of Pearson’s car.

Spokesman for the youth, Wayne
Cannon, a graduate geophysics
student at UBC, told a press
conference later that he doesn’t
understand why Pearson refused
to accept the statement because
the group had sent him a regis-
tered letter advising him oftheir
intention in advance,

One of the young people taking

part in the protest said: “The

issue of Vietnam is just too im-
portant to be brushed aside, All
we wanted to do was present
Mr. Pearson with our state-
ment, The whole thing would only
have taken a few minutes,”

Police moved in to break up
the sit-down and the youth were
carried to police .vans and later
released.

A huge banner 40 feet by 95
feet was unfurled across Haste
ings Street between Main and
Columbia just as the PNE pae
rade approached. The banner
read; “Mr. Pearson: Speak out
now against war in Vietnam,”

Two impressive floats also
urged the Prime Minister to act
for peace in Vietnam, One, spon-
sored by the B,C, Peace Council,
featured a large replica of the
petition currently being circu-
lated which is addressed to the
Prime Minister, The other, by
peace workers in Burnaby, fea-
tured a peace dove and a mes-
sage tothe Prime Minister urging
him to help end the Vietnam-war,

Obviously shaken by the peace
sentiment he found on the Pacific
Coast, Pearson told a meeting
Saturday night that he actually
supported the message the youth
were attempting to convey. He
said their huge banner across
the parade route was a plea for
him. to speak out for peace, “I
am always willing to speak out
for peace,” he said, ;

However, Canadians who recall
his statement in Parliament that
his government understands and
supports what the U,S, is trying
to do in Vietnam, will continue
to demand that the Prime Minis-
ter stop speaking out of both sides
of his mouth, They will continue
to demand that he take forthright
action to halt the U.S, aggression
and restore peace to South East
Asia,

te accept a statement from the group urging
him to speak out against the war in Viet-