EDITOR [IAL PAGE The test ban talks

“The mixed crew

Scrap the lot

Defense Minister Paul Hellyer

announced last week the probabil-

ity of scrapping the Diefenbaker

_ government’s $375-million dollar

warship building program. That is

alltothe good. But Canadians

_ shouldn’t break into “hurrahs” too ‘soon.

With Washington calling the Pearson government’s shots, and particularly as these may relate to so called “defense’’, we may find Mr. Hellyer’s government bringing > in something equally useless, ob- - solete before it gets into the water or off the ground, and probably equal to or over Dief’s $375-million

_ worth of “frigate” sub-chasers?

. For TV viewers Mr. Hellyer- spoke like a man who knew what he was doing. So also did Mr.

Harkness. Both had one thing in common; the readiness to “live up

_ to commitments” —that is to pour

_ more millions down the nuclear

arms drain whenever the Pentagon says so. Like Britain’s “Skybolt- to-Polaris” Macmillan, they stand ready when Washington calls to fill Canada’s “defense vacuum” with billions of the people’s tax dollars.

The Diefenbaker governu...it wanted $375-million worth of “fri- gates” to chase Polaris subs with. We're not quite sure yet what Pearson and Hellyer want tc chase, but whatever it is Washing- ton will call the shot—and it won’t beless costly (to the taxpayers) ‘than the Harkness “frigate” fan- ©

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Nor will it provide any more “defense” in a nuclear war, since, as Mr. Harkness the Tory and Mr. Hellyer the iberal have both dem- onstrated what the harassed tax- payer already knows, there is none.

However, the fact that Mr. Hell- yer has been compelled to doa _ bit of “‘defense”’ scrapping is, as we said, all to the good. A growing public pressure to continue the process might force a return to san- ity and extricate Canada from the “heavy dues” and death penalties in Washington’s nuclear club?

T he three-power nuclear fost ban talks open in Moscow on July 15.

The people of the world, who fervently desire the banning of

tests, are anxiously watching the:

outcome of these talks.

A few days ago the secretary of the United Nations, U Thant, said in New York that, “in the con- text of present attitudes, I very much doubt that a test ban will be concluded this year.”

The UN secretary didn’t spell out what these attitudes were, but there might be some significance in the fact that he made this state- ment only hours after U.S. Presi- dent Kennedy’s “rousing” speeches in West Germany and West Berlin.

Newscasts from West Berlin report that Kennedy’s tour of West Berlin “was a triumphal progress; the like of which Berlin had not ‘seen since the days of Hitler.”

This pretty well sums up in a nutshell the reason for the frenzy which seized the President’s audi- ences in West Berlin, and the new dangershis speeches have helped unleash. .

About three weeks ago the Pre ident, speaking in the U.S., talked of the mutual interest of the So- iet Union and the U.S. in peace, cand of the need to take definite steps to prevent war.

But in West Berlin he poured out all over again the old danger- ous cold war battle cries. Instead of seeking to restrain the West German and West Berlin leaders, who are impatient to get nuclear

armsintheir hands,he promised them

complete backing for their aims.

Comment

He poured fuel on the already smouldering fire.

If, as he claimed in Washing- ton, he stood for peaceful co-exist- ence, in West Berlin he repudiated that position.

Is it any wonder, then, that people everywhere are deeply con- cerned lest the test ban talks fail?

’ There is more than the Presi- dent’s performance in West Berlin to cause anxiety. While making speeches about the need for stop- ping tests and putting the blame. on the Soviet Union for not having one, the U.S. is pushing through the most dangerous policy of spreading nuclear arms around the world.

Not only are they pressuring their NATO allies to give in to the demand for creation of aNATO mixed-manned nuclear force, which would put the German fin- ger on the nuclear trigger. They are also spreading nuclear arms to . the Mediterranean area, to NATO forces in Europe and elsewhere.

Last weekend at Comoxa large demonstration protested the build- ing of a nuclear storage dump in the heart of Vancouver Island. This, and other pressure on Can- ada to accept nuclear weapons, is part of the U.S. drive to eee A- arms.

How is it possible, in the light of this, to take seriously the Presi- ‘dent’s claim that the U.S. wants a ban on nuclear tests?

At this point it must be said the main hope for a test ban lies in an aroused world-wide public demand to compel the U.S. to ap- proach the need for a ban seriously.

his is something of a “guest. col- ; umn” from the South African weekly paper Spark (now banned) by its versatile columnist Howard Lawrence. From childhood up Mr. Lawrence knows what evil race segregation does to a family and

a nation. Here’s how Lawrence sees~ “apartheid” from the family fireside.

“When my mother met my father, she was White. But under the laws of Verwoerd’s apartheid (race segregation), the moment they were pronounced man and wife, my mother became an ‘Indian’. Then I was born and my father

I could not be classified as a Col- oured, which I would have been,

So I am classified as “other Col-

‘oured.” :

“If the laws of Verwoerd are strictly applied, then it means that my mother will not be allowed to visit her brother or other relatives who are still White in the eyes of the law, unless she gets a permit which allows a Non-White to be in ‘a White area. As an Indian she would have to get a permit to visit me also, because as an ‘other Col- oured’ I would have to live in an area set aside for other ‘other Col-

was an Indian and not an African,

if my father had been an African. |

oureds’ or, if there are not enough ‘other Coloureds’ to merit a sepa- rate area for them, I would have _ to live in a Coloured area which is an area set aside for the offspring of an African-White marriage. “Now my father is dead and I’m wondering what that makes my mother. Is she still an ‘Indian’ or does she now automatically become ‘White’? And if she marries ag White

man will they be prosecuted under

the ‘Immorality Act’? “And I have married a ‘Colored’ _ girl. We have a son. I do not know what he is, legally, because I have not yet come across an official clas- sification for the offspring of an ‘other Coloured’ and a ‘Coloured’.

“But after thinking about the ethnological composition of the people of South Africa, I wonder if my son isn’t perhaps composed of the ingredients that will one day make a truly multi-racial South African. What do you think?

“And while we’re on the subject

of. what people are made of, do you know that they have come across a new scientific curiosity in Amer- ica? It’s a G.I. with bones made of chewing gum and blood made of Coca-Cola. Instead of a brain he’s got a television aerial. He passed his army tests with flying colours and is considered excellent mater- ial for field service, provided he doesn’t stray too far off i TEN: channels. :

“Pity we're never likely to see him in this country.

Just before the Spark was offici- ally strangled in March of this year, -and the Voerster gag clamped tight-

raiding and wrecking the Spark

ly on its courageous staff, the Spark gave a breakdown of the latest fas- cist edict being clamped upon the South African people, the Publica- tions and Entertainments Bill which will make it possible for the government to—

@ prohibit the circulation of any South African newspaper which is not a member of the Newspaper Press Union (the big monopoly press).

@ prohibit the circulation of any book, either imported or prini- ed in South Africa.

@ to close Gown any stage or film show or art exhibition which it considers to be in any way undesirable.

@ to ban the work of any South © African artist, novelist, poet or sculptor.

@ to prohibit the importation of all paperback books costing less than 50-cents without a special permit.

@ to prohibit the importation of all publications published by a special publisher or which deal with a specified subject, © except by special permit.

As these Hitlerite edicts were be-

ing passed in the S.A. parliament, Verwoerd’s ‘special’ police were

offices in Cape Town and Johan- nesburg, while Spark's heroic staff were setting the front page head- line for their final edition;—

“We Say Goodbye —Bnt Wet Be Back”. The Lawrence ‘family album” confirms that promise. Africa will not be silenced, and multi-racial — democracy will take the place of

the ‘white’ bullwhip.

~ July 5, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4