y NATION

‘Halt spiralling prices’
say angry Toronto women

A consumer committee of
15 was elected to direct the

A fair-prices-campaign con-
ference held in Toronto, Jan.
25 agreed on a four-point pro-
gram:

© Abolition of the three
percent sales tax.

® Establishment by law of
a maximum allowable mark-
Up on food prices with an ap-
Pparatus to insure enforce-
ment

® Abolition of income tax
for family taxpayers earning
under $5,000 a year.

® Government encourage-
ment of assistance to produc-
er-consumer co-ops.

campaign.. The conference
was sponsored by the Fair
Prices Campaign Committee
and was attended by 37 dele-
gates from 12 organizations
and several observers.

Speaking to the conference
C. W. McInnis, president of
the Farmers Allied Meat En-
terprises said that “in the
meat packing industry in
Canada, out of an investment
of $31,200.00 net profits
amounting to $22,800,000
were made.”

West Ontario university
hears Communist speaker

Al. Bernhardt, chairman of the
London, Ontario branch of the
Communist Party, spoke at the

1 Just Got wWoRD
FROM THE R.C.t1.P.
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Lian

This cartoon appeared in the
Campus paper, Gazetie, on the
€ve of the meeting.

‘University of Western Ontario,
and caused quite a stir.

It all started with an announce-
ment in the campus paper The
Gazette, which said that two stu-
dents wanted to set up a Com-
munist club on the campus. The
anouncement was followed by a
witch-hunt which prompted the
Gazette to run an editorial de-
ploring the witch-hunt and declar-
ing that the paper would sponsor
a lecture by Bernhardt.

A poll conducted by The Gaz-
ette among students on what
they thought about a Communist
club being formed on the campus
brought forward the consensus:
“This is a democratic country,
and if there are students on this
campus who want to form a
Communist club, then they should
be allowed to do so.”’

On the evening of Jan. 16,
900 students turned out to hear
Bernhardt outline the Communist
position, gave him an attentive
hearing and asked many ques-

tions.

Gus Hall will appeal
rule barring his visit

Gus Hall, leading Communist
Spokesman in the United States,
Will appeal a Canadian immigra-
tion ruling that barred him from
entering Canada last month to
fulfil a speaking engagement at
McGill University in Montreal.

Hall, who had been granted
Permission to travel to Montreal
by the U.S. attorney general, said
the appeal will be made ‘‘not as
a personal matter, but because
the students have a stake in this.
This is depriving them of their
rights.”

In denying him admission to
Canada, the immigration authori-

ties told Hall he was ina cate-
gory of “ynacceptable persons.’’

Hall had been accompanied by
Arnold Johnston, who was also
denied admission to Canada. In
an article in the U.S. Worker,
Johnston quotes from Hall’s
statement to the students at the
Montroyal airport:

“This is the North American
thought-control curtain. It is the
McCarran Act being applied to
Canada.

“The Canadian authorities
should be more vigilant against
Wall Street’s grabbing Canada’s

wealth. That would be a service :

to the people.
“This business of refusing me

admission to speak to students is
the intellectual backwardness that
goes with the McCarran Ack

Hall had been given only a few
minutes to meet with the dele-
gation of 20 students, who began
talking with enthusiasm about
the two meetings and other
events planned. They were shock-
ed and dismayed to hear Hall
was “unacceptable.”

“Unbelievable,” was the reac-
tion of the students.

aCe ees Dattle growing over

Alberta tar sands

By ALBERTAN

CAIGARY — A struggle is
developing in Alberta over
the immensely rich oil sands
in the northern part of the
province (sometimes also
known as the tar sands). It is
estimated that these vast de-
posits contain more petroleum
than the total known reserves
in all the rest of the world.

The policy of the Manning
government on the tar sands
has two sides to it.

One is to restrict produc-
tion from them, in order to
protect the vast investments
and profits of the big oil com-
panies which are already op-
erating conventional wells in
all the big fields of the prov-
ince.

To prevent large _ scale
competition from the. oil
sands, the Social Credit gov-
ernment has announced a pol-
icy of limiting oil production
in the sands until Alberta’s
proven reserves of ordinary
oil drop below 12 or 13
years’ supply.

But at the same time, Man-
ning is already beginning the
process of sell-out of the oil
sands. He has granted a lease
to Great Canadian Oil Sands
Limited — an outfit dominat-
ed by a group of Boston bank-
ers working in partnership
with Maxwell Meighan (son
of the former Tory prime min-
ister).

VAST POTENTIAL

In relation to the vast po-
tential of the sands, this is
not a big lease, but it is es-

timated that it will be cap-
able of producing 244,500,000
barrels of oil. At present
prices, this would bring half
a billion dollars into the cof-
fers of Meighan and Com-
pany (before royalties). But
these promoters plan to spend
only a mere $25 million on
the project!

Manning’s restrictive pol-
icies are meeting mounting
criticism from several quar-
ters. :

C. V. Myers, publishers of
Oil-week magazine, has de-
nounced the provincial gov-
ernment’s decision as one
which is ‘tinted with Com-
munist thinking!’ In Myers’
book apparently, anyone who
gets in the way of profiteer-
ing by himself and his friends
is a Communist!

Such statements appear to
be only one indication of de-
sire of certain promoters to
get in on the oil sands and
make a fast buck.

Other big business inter-
ests, doubtless also concerned
about the possibilities of pro-
fits, are finding it necessary
to raise wider questions of
the national interest.

The Calgary Herald, for ex-
ample, points out that Can-
ada is still not supplying our
own domestic needs for oil.
We are consuming oil at the
rate of 903,000 barrels a day,
and we could be producing
over a million barrels a day.
Yet all we are producing is
710,000 barrels. ‘because of
oil being imported into the

Quebec and Maritime mar-
kets.”

The Herald suggests that
‘there are advantages in the
concept of a continental. oil
policy embracing both Can-
ada and the, United States. But
then it adds this significant
paragraph:

URGE CROWN CORP

“But - political considera-
tions with all their uncertain-
ties, seem to rule out such
concepts. Canada and the U.S.
are separate countries. Their
policies do not always dove-
tail. Unless there is a radical
change, Canada has to make
some new and more realistic
decision in the realm of its
oil policy.”

The decision the Herald
makes clear should be the
construction of another pipe-
line to Montreal ‘‘to restore
domestic control over a high-
ly important domestic indus-
try.”

The Communist Party in
Alberta, at its recent provin-
cial convention, called for
government action not to lim-
it oil sands production, but
to develop that production
under the control of and in
the interests of the people of
Alberta.

Calling for an end to the
sell-out of the sands, the Com-
munists proposed the estab-
lishment “of a crown corpor-
ation to ensure public own-
ership of the fabulous riches
of the deposits, and provide
cheaper petroleum products
to farmers and city dwellers.”

Fi hi a
By BERT WHYTE
PT Correspondent

PEKING — Guests eagerly
pick up their chopsticks when
the waitress brings in fried
bass in hot sauce, steamed
shad, prawns in soya sauce,
shrimp balls or any one of

a hundred seefood dishes for

which Chinese chefs are fa-

mous.
Fishing has been a major

hina major

industry in this country for
more than 1,500 years — the
records go back to 473 A.D.
Along the coast half a mil-
lion fishermen — most of
them using small jurnks and
old-fashioned methods—bring
in a catch of two million tons
annually. Just as important is
the inland fishing in China’s
lakes and rivers.

About 40 percent of the to-
tal catch cornes from set-net

industry

fishing. Trawlers, seiners and
gillnetters are active in the
Po H. Yellow, East and South
Seas.

Major marine products are
yellow croakers, hairtails,
flatfish, mackeral, sardines,
tuna, eels, oysters, shrimp,
clams, prawns, etc.

One day I visited the Min-
istry of Aquatic Products in
Peking and interviewed Lo
Yung, head of the Sea Fish-
ery Department. Utilizing
huge fishery maps hung on
the walls, he showed me the
main fishing areas and ex-
plained how scientific meth-
ods are being introduced in
order to increase the total
catch.

“Modern methods are still
largely underdeveloped,” said
Lo Yung. “During the war
against Japan we lost nearly
one-half of our junks. In 1949
the total sea catch was only
400,000 tons. By 1952 it top-
ped the million mark and in
recent years has averaged two
million tons.

“Before liberation feudal
and imperialist domination
hindered the growth of the
industry. These feudal des-
pots (“Lords of the Lakes and
Rivers’) had to be deposed.
We established mutual aid
teams and then co-operatives;
since 1958 the fishermen have
gradually been developing
communes. In many cases
fishing is mixed with farm-
ing, although there are some
concentrated fishing areas.

“In the old days fishermen

earners

STARVING CHINA? Recent observers report growing food

There are 60,000 public lib-
raries-in Czechoslovakia with
approximately 70 mil lion
books.

lived aboard their junks; to-
day families have (in the
main) ‘been moved ashore and

supplies in public stores. Photo above shows a stall at a
Bazaar in Peking. This is one corner of a huge market place
where a wide variety of fish, poultry, honeyed fruit pre-
serves and other foods are sold.

See FISHING, pg. 8
Feb. 8, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE-Page 7

GUS HALL