i Atis ; Way aT jy th iti! eee i - uy a 4 a Whig iannrs, ] Ny Wh, Yh j Wht Me ’ eek ie se pe ae ' Ra it ARRAS Fre Br thes RE OPPS A ee Price Five Cents Answer to fare hold-up CITY OWNERSHIP OF | BCELECTRIC DEMANDED While Chiang Kai-shek confer- ted at Baguio with Philippine P tesident Elipido Quirino on for- Mation of a Pacific. anti-Commun- st bloc, the Kuomintang armies of Which he has resumed command in absentia this week were being cut “p and destroyed by the Liberation almies as they pressed a new of- Ensive southward to Canton. As at Shanghai, which he ab- andoned for the relative safety of ®rmosa, Chiang made braggart Statements from the Philippines that Canton would be “‘defended to the death.” But these statements 3 : 5 ROW serve those circles in only ashington openly clamoring for S. intervention and have no ap- Peal for the War-weary people in the dwindling areas left to the Kuo- Mintang, ‘Eo th the new offensive and the fourth, at the far western end of the long font, poised at Sian for a thrust at Szechuan province. One of the Tee armies driving southward is ur Liberation armies. are on “eneral Lin Piao’s Fourth Field . ™y, which liberated) Hankow and Changsha, pushing into Hunan Province at the west-central end of ae ront several hundred miles wide. zo lao, hero of the Manchurian eration, launched his drive from ‘* recently captured city of “fang, smashing through the new Stense positions established by . Yomintang troops. The other two Liberation ar- < are General [Liu Po-cheng’s ey ond Field Army, which led the : Vance across the Yellow River Sees _ago. and General Chen es: Third Field Army, troops of ich occupied Shanghai and have ag penetrated far south along the ®ast into Fukien province. Continued on Back Page See—CHINA © march, three of-them engaged: Three Liberation armies converging on Canton SEA OF ® JAPAN = ba nA SINGTAO gS vettow KOREA SUCHOW - an @ ~ (Stee a es = S| EAST CHINA ae 2 CHINA SEA. a + Moxinawa Pacific Ocean (3 Importance of the Chinese Liberation’s occupation of the port and American naval base of Tsingtao is emphasized by the frantic pressure nowy being exerted at Washington for U.S. intervention in China. Marines were flown from Guam to Tsingtao, German naval base established in 1897, taken over by the Japanese and occupied by the Americans after V-J Day. Liberation armies, which have already taken three strategic cities, Peiping, Suchow and Shanghai, are now closing in on Canton. NON - PARTISAN RECORD Can you blame them? In Vancouver city council this week Ald. J. D. Cornett complained: “Some people kave the irresponsible attitude that aldermen are employees of the BCElectric, and take their orders from them.” Over the past three years, where BCElectric demands have conflicted with citizens’ interests,- Vancouver aldermen have: @ Refused to oppose the increase in transit fares from four for 25c to three for 25c, and! abolition of weekly passes, @ Proceeded with a city charter amendment to give the BCElectric a new 20-year franchise, despite tremendous public protest, and refused to submit the question to a plebiscite. < : @ Refused to oppose erectian of a high-tension power line along Boundary Road, ignoring recommendations of its town-planning commission and property owners’ protests alike. 7 “Vancouver citizens have been ‘taken for a ride’ by the BCElec- tric twice in two years. The straight dime fare is the final hold-up. Now its time for the city to step in and take over the BCER. This is the only logical answer to the company’s latest move.” Effie Jones, Civic Reform candidate for mayor in the last muni- cipal elections, will make this proposal at a public protest rally in Pender Auditorium this coming Sunday evening, July 23. “Even Harold Winch and his CCF followers in the legislature who voted in favor of the 20-year BCElectric franchise should now realize that the only solution of the high fare problem is for the city to take over ownership and operate the BCER,” declared Mrs. Jones. “My proposal can be carried out. A clause in the 20-year franchise permits the city to take over the BCER. at the end of five, 10 or 15 years, provided the city gives the company one year’s notice. This notice will have to be given on or before December 31, 1949, to become effective January 1, 1951: Therefore I am demanding that during the next civic elections the Vancouver public be given the opportunity to make this decision by plebiscite vote.” As an immediate step to “hit the BCER where it hurts most— in the cash register,” Mrs. Jones advocates a “shop in your own district” campaign on the part of Vancouver housewives. ‘Shop in own district’ “Thousands of housewives shop downtown to save a few cents by buying, at the big department stores,’’ she says. “With the interim fare increase taking effect Monday, this saving (often mythical) will be lost. Let-shoppers buy their groceries and other goods at neigh- borhood stores, and the greedy BCElectric will soon feel the weight of this financial protest against their utterly unjustified fare increase. “During the civic elections last year I warned the public that if a Non-Partisan mayor and council were re-elected, they would let the BCER get away with another boost in transit rates. I could now sit back and say; ‘I told you so.’ But this is no time to sit back; it is a time when Vancouver citizens must unite and fight back against the 10-cent fare.” Effie Jones has challenged BCElectric president Dal Grauer to appear at the Civic Reform rally Sunday night to defend his position. “Tf you can’t come yourself,” she wrote Grauer, “‘then send someone to represent your company.” Indicative of the growing resentment’ against the latest BCElectric “‘steal’’ is a resolution passed this week by the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Union, condemning the’granting of an interim increase and demanding the right to appear at a public hearing to oppose the company’s profit grab. é : ‘ The union also sent a protest to Premier Byron Johnson, demand- ing a government probe of the Public Utilities Commission for its speedy granting of an interim increase to the BCElectric without any public inquiry into the company’s profits. The union declared that it seems obvious PUC. officials have made up their minds in advance to grant a permanent increase. If this is not so, how would the pub- lic be reimbursed for additional fares during the interim period, should the increase be rejected after a hearing? Joining in the anti-increase campaign spearheaded by Effie Jones and Civic Reform Association, the CCF called a public protest meeting to take place Friday at Pender Auditorium. Grauer has been invited to appear. and present his case for the BCER. CCF speakers will be Ald. Laura Jamieson, Pen Baskin, Tom Alsbury and Arnold Webster. Continued on Back Page See—BCER