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Victoria labor leader blasts Tory book _burning clique

“Hitlerite tactics’’ was the description given book-burning proposals put forward this week by a Victoria alderman.

VICTORIA, B.C. Elgin Neish, well-

known community figure and labor candidate for alderman in last December’s civic elections, applied this term to proposals by Ald. Brent Murdoch, newly- appointed member of the Victoria Public Library Board, that allegedly pro-Communist books ‘be removed from the shelves.

“‘T feel that Murdoch’s book-burning pro posal is going a step beyond McCarthyism,” Neish said. merce is going beyond its jurisdiction and interfering in the common rights of the citizens.’

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ventflirnssrerdbdocssseneresl FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1954

Continued from page I James A. Byrne (Lib., East Kootenay) as to what the government is doing about the grim jobless situation..

The same day, MPs of all political parties voted over- whelmingly in favor of increasing their own salaries and indemnities, plus those of Senators and cabinet” members,

to the tune of $1,500,000 a year. Liberals, Social Crediters and five CCF members voted approval of the government

resolution preliminary to intro- duction of two bills giving effect to the raises.

But while the St. Laurent gov- ernment was trying to minimize the crisis situation (“I feel that it would be a mistake to draw a gloomy picture for the economy as a whole,” said Gregg) the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada and the Canadian Con- gress of Labor, with a combined membership of 955,000, issued a joint statement declaring unem- ployment is “the most serious problem facing Canadians today.”

A TLC-CCL joint committee has been set up to bring “the maxéi- mum influence yn all tevels of

For every dozen men who got a few days work shovelling snow this week, one hundred were laid

off, as the heaviest snowstorms

the Lower Mainland and Vancou- ver Island had seen since the winter of 1950 shut down logging

camps, mills and construction.

jobs. Hardest hit by the heavy snow-

fall were 6,500 workers in Nanai-.

mo, Duncan, Courtenay, Campbell River and other Island centres, who were thrown qut of work un- expectedly due to weather condi- tions.

. At Duncan,: sue men are un-

Tim Buck, Labor - Progressive party national leader, will speak at a public meeting in Pender Auditorium here this Friday, January 29, at 8 p.m. “Beat the Threat of Depresssion” will be the theme of his address.

government in order that employ- ment will be stimulated wherever possible and with the minimum of delay.”

This committee has been est- ablished because “in some parts of the country, the unemployed total has reached approximately 15 percent of the labor force— well over the danger point.’

Although Labor Department figures for December 10 showed 338,000 persons looking for jobs through the department’s agency at that time, it is admitted that

the present figure is close to half —

a million—far above the previous postwar high of 434,000 in the spring of 1950.

Layoffs mount in B.C.

employed, when logging opera- tions due to reopen January 4 and January 11, following the Christmas holidays, remained closed because of heavy snow- falls. Sawmills at Youbou and Lake Cowichan are still operat- ing, however.

This week three big Nanaimo sawmills, Eureka, Mayo and Mac- Millan’and Bloedel closed down, adding 1,500 men to the ranks of the jobless. .

About 2,500 men are unemploy- ed at Courtenay, where all log- ging operations are at a stand- still.

Snowbound roads core Argo- naut Mining Company, nine miles from Campbell River, to suspend operations. The layoff affects 200 men. a

‘ Another 500 men joined job-

-Jess lines when Franklin River

and Sproat Lake logging opera- tions closed.

“BiG; labor leaders have scored the statement made by Labor Min- ister Milton F. Gregg which said the federal government is not planning expanded public works to stop the rising tide of unem- ployment.

“The government is hiding its head in the sand and not facing up to facts,” said R. K. Gervin, provincial secretary of the Trades and Labor Council of Canada.

“A recesssion has started and the government must not be al- lowed to sit back and do nothing,” said Dan Radford, regional di- rector of Canadian Congress of Labor. ®% y

oe ny

Mayor Claude Harrison, politi- cal opportunist who contested the 1953. provincial election as an “In- dependent’? candidate, plopped heavily into the book-burning con- troversy by declaring that “I would soon find any Communist literature and I would throw such books in my furnace.”

Muddleheaded Mrs. Lydia Ar- sens, Victoria Socred MLA who launched a confused, reactionary attack on school methods and textbooks last year, gave this dp- inion on book-burning and demo- cracy: “These books should be destroyed. If we remove all books about communists and by Communists we are not denying citizens any freedom.”

The threat of censorship was the latest in a series of attacks on civil liberties launched bya vigilante group centred in the Junior Chamber. of Commerce. Murdoch, a past-president of the Jaycees, has been a leading public spokesman for the red-baiting group.

Foiled in past attempts to dis- rupt meetings of peace groups and progressive organizations, the witch-hunters have turned in the past couple of weeks to persecut- ing individual citizens connected with the peace movement.

Murdoch initiated charges against Elgin Neish in Britannia Branch No. 7 of the Canadian Legion. Neish, a member of the Legion since his discharge from the navy, has stood on his rights

and demanded a trial committee.

Branch officials have referred the matter: to the Dominion com- mand.

Latest attempt to victimize citizens for their beliefs is the dismissal of John Marshall, one- time staff member of The West- erner and participant in peace activities in Winnipeg.

Marshall, who hold an honors degree in library ‘science from University of Toronto, was hired recently to inaugurate a bookmo-

bile service in outlying areas of

the city.

Victoria’s Library Board declin- ed to give reasons for his dismis- sal on the ground that he was still serving a probationary period. A calculated leak, however, by the usual “well-informed sources” red-smeared Marshall’s name.

In reply to charges against him.

Marshall said, “I.feel that groups or individuals which carry on secret investigations into a man’s beliefs and past associations, and

ELGIN NEISH "Hitlerite tactics”

put pressure on his employer without giving him the opportun- ity to defend himself, are under- mining our democratic freedoms.”

News reports in the capital made it plain that the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and Ald. Murdoch who takes office on Feb- ruary 1 as a member of the 1954 library board, were behind the action against Marshall.

The McCarthyite. activities of the Junior Chamber in Victoria commenced some time ago with a series of attempts to break up meetings sponsored by the peace movement and progressive org- anizations.

These stormtrooper tactics met with no success and their organ- izers were ridiculed in the press.

Closely associated with the group is Frank Partridge, cam- paign manager for Tory chieftain Herbert Anscomb at the time of his 1952 defeat. Ralph Pashley, radio commentator whose anti- labor broadcasts have brought protests from trade unions, is al- so reputed to be linked with the group.

Active with the Jaycees in their attempts at disruptions at public meetings was Peter George Hart- nell, a pre-war member of the Canadian Union of Fascists and self-confessed. admirer of Hitler Germany. During the Second World War he was imprisoned for his fascist activities. His appear- ance with the Jaycees’ “storm-

troopers” marks his first public

activity since that period.

“I also feel that the Chamber of Com-

At Berlin Conference:

Dulles wants

U.S. Secretary of State John

' Foster Dulles wants: : + Breakdown of the Confer-

ence,

+ Rebirth of German conscrip- tion as a basis for a powerful mechanised army.

+ Re-creation of the German Air Force and aircraft industry.

+ Development of a great Ger- man atomic industry.

+ Annexation by Germany of territory now held by Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and France.

Eden wants

+ As he left for Berlin British ish Foreign Secretary Eden told reporters that before any ques- tions of European security could be discussed the Soviet Union should agree to a “free plestion’: in Germany.

+ He declared that it was “not possible to expect early or spec- tacular results.” He told report- ers at London Airport: ’

+ “If as a result of the re- emergence of a united Germany the Soviets wish to discuss the problem of European security, we should be ready to join in such discussions.”

+ Eden’s standpoint of a deci- sion on elections departed from a decision on security approaches that of Dulles’.

Molotov wants

Soviet Foreign Minister V. M.

Molotov wants:

+ Step-by-step creation of a European security system to pre- serve peace and prevent revival of German militarism. -

+ A united democratic Ger- many whose armed forces would be limited by treaty.

+ United Germany to be neu- tral.

+ Genuine free elections to be organized by the Germans them- selves.

++ Germah election to be seen in relation to European security.

Hear J. S. WALLACE The Bard of Canada

~~ ORCHID HALL

2723 West Fourth Avenue

Friday, February 5 - 8.30 p.m.

Admission: $1.00 at door

FevoreP COpURE GEIS SEE SPs e re ERE GoM RO Cn OE eas RUR SITE ROO REO DP Ma eee 2 AE ae ete RT OEE ee eT oS PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 29, 1954 — PAGE 12