FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1969

AUTOMATION ON WATERFRONT. Photo above shows the new Monc crane in operation on the Prince Rupert
waterfront. The crane can pick up 64 bales in one load with no men used in the hold for loading. It takes a
gang of eight men and operates on an electro magnet principle. The new crane replaces five 13-man gangs,
altogether about 70 men on an average ship. Photo shows the crane loading kraft pulp. This equipment
does away with many jobs on the waterfront and speeds the export of more jobs by stepping up the loading
of raw and semi-processed materials for processing abroad.

R, Doran photo

Labor calls for Bennett
resignation over C’wealth

The 70,000 member
Vancouver Labor Council
and the B.C. Communist
Party this week called for
the resignation of Premier
W.A.C. Bennett as finance
minister over his govern-
ments mishandling of the
Commonwealth affair.
The Communist Party has
called for action to protect
the life savings of small
depositors.

“Premier Bennett as Minister
of Finance. and any other cabinet
Member involved in any way in
the shockingly irresponsible and
Peprehensible dealings with
Commonwealth Trust and
' associated companies. should
» Yesign’. without. delay’. Nigel]

Morgan. Provincial leader of the
Communist Party told the
Party's Convention in the
Clinton Hall last weekend.

“Not only the government's
failure to protect the public
against one of the worst swindles
this province has yet
experienced, but still worse their
subterfuge and continuing
efforts to coverup for their
political friends has shaken
public confidence,” he declared.

“The Socred administration
has been caught with its hand in
the cookie-jar. First they hid
information from the public as
to the true state of affairs in the
Commonwealth group,’ Morgan
charged.

“The Bennett administration
has got to be made to accept its
responsibility, » »Publie , opinion

must be mobilized to compel
them to adopt measures to
protect the life savings of
thousands of depositors and
small investors.’

Tribune

VOL. 30, NO. 12 Cs

INING GIANTS RID
QUGHSHOD OVER B

Action on

10c

copper

smelter vital now

BY MAURICE RUSH
B.C.’s foreign owned mining monopolies showed this
week that they intend to ride roughshod over the welfare
of the people and the province in their scramble for super

profits.

e FIRST: The Mining Associa-
tion of B.C. presented a brief last
Wednesday to the legislature's
committee holding hearings in
Victoria on strip mining and
arrogantly served notice that it
considers any meaningful legis-
lation on this vital issue as
‘impossible

@e SECOND: Having already
extended surface mining
operations all over the province
including public parks. the
mining giants are now laying
claim to Native Indian lands for
their own purposes

This week the Bethlehem
Copper Corp.. controlled by the
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. of
Japan, took its dispute with the
Indians of Highland Valley (near
Spences Bridge) to the Supreme
Court seeking mineral rights on
the reserve lands of the Cook's
Ferry band. Other mining giants.
including Cominco, have also
sought control of the rich copper
and molybdenum deposits on the
Indian reserve lands.

e THIRD: The Lornex Mining
Corp.. controlled by Rio Algom
Mines, which is in turn controlled
by the international combine Rio
Tinto Zine Corp., announced
plans for a vast mining operation
in the fabulously rich Highland
Valley. This development will be
the largest single base-metal

mining operation in Canada. The

EXCLUSIVE

CHINA

TODAY

SPECIAL 12-PAGE FEATURE
INSIDE

entire production of 110 million
pounds of copper concentrates
and 2.5 million pounds of
molybdenum will go to Japan for
processing

Each of these three develop-
ments in the past week would in
itself have constituted an
important issue for the people of
B.C. But the three events taken
together show how arrogantly
the big mining giants are
challenging the public welfare
and moving ahead with their
plans to rob the people's heritage
and leave a devastated province
with hundreds of empty holes in
the ground

PLUNDER RESOURCES

The plunder of the province s
mineral resources and their
export aboard in raw form ts, of
course, the major issue tacing
Lornex operation is
considered a_ deathblow to
prospects of a large copper
smelter in the central interior of
B.C.. since the ore is earmarked
for export to Japan. In 21 vears
the mine will be exhausted at the
rate exploitation will take place
The Lornex operation will be an
open pit mine

us. The

Announcement of the Lornex
operation spurred demands this
week that the provincial
government form a Crown
corporation to build a copper
smelter in B.C, Both the
Communist Party and NDP have
called for such action without
delay. It is obviously economic
lunacy to keep digging up and
shipping out copper ore without
establishing a copper smelter
to ensure that B.C. derives full
benefit by processing here

Action to win a publicly owned
copper smelter now is vital to
halting the export of raw
materials and spearheading the
drive for secondary industries in
the province,

See MINING, back page.

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