i

a Ty a a es Co un cl }

aid for s

CSU

‘about wrong conclusions to con- fuse the labor movement and cover up the government’s respon- Sibilities.”. McManus declared that RCMP, immigration and transport departments were squandering the taxpayers’ money on strike-break- ing activities.

“You know as well as I do,” McManus told Mitchell, “that the government of Canada is in this strike up to the neck, and it is known from one end of the coun- try to another that for the first time in the history of Canada, the Dominion government has become No. 1 strikebreaker.”

As the Canadian labor movement,

' solidly behind the striking seamen,

reached a fuller understanding of the issues involved and began or- ganizing for political action (in Halifax Prime Minister St. Lau. rent sneaked in qa back door of his hotel to avoid meeting a protest delegation) reports from around the world indicated growing global Support for the CSU.

@ Vancouver Trades and Labor Council set up a five-man commis- sion to work with the CSU and ap- proved a union request for finan- cial aid in appealing supreme court injunctions.

@ Paul Robeson, world-famous singer, cabled the CSU from Eng- land, urging all workers to sup- port “the courageous Canadian sea- men.”

@ British longshoremen and dock workers, who have prevented a single Canadian struck ship from loading or unloading, have support- ed the CSU picket lines so well that strikers are sending surplus money to the strike fund here.

@ The General Netherlands Sea- farers’ Union launched a campaign to help striking Canadian seamen in Belgium and Dutch ports. @-In South Africa, Capetown Trades and Labor Council set up a trade union aid committee to help CSU strikers.

@ Ceylonese seamen in Colombo pledged support to the CSU and a joint demonstration was held in Colombo, with CSU strikers lead- ing the parade.

Eisler kidnapped

In,British port

LONDO

Kidnapped from the Polish liner Batory by Scotland Yard men ac- companied by FBI agents, Ger- hard Bisler, prominent German Communist, is being held without bail until a hearing May 24 decides whether there is enough evidence to invoke the Angio-Ame erican Extradition’ treaty.

The Polish Embassy this week charged that the forcible remeval of Eisler from the Batory violated the Polish flag and international principles of law and order. A for- mal protest ‘has ben lodged with the British foreign office.

Bisler, a victim of the current hysterical witch-hunt in the Unit- ed States, jumped bail in New York to escape serving a year in jail on a “contempt of congress” charge.

The Polish statement declared that “Eisler did not commit any erime under British law and Brit- ish police had no right to interfere with him.” It charged that British and American authorities threat- ened the ship’s captain with re- prisals against the Polish line un- less Eisler was handed over, and blasted the British for permitting “the American representative to read a telegram containing a threat of seizure of the Batory by the U.S. if it should return to U.S. waters.”

BHisler himself ment which said: :

“T am being kidnapped by Bri- tish authorities, by force and vio- lence, acting as gendarmes for American reaction. ...

“British authorities, for the sake of the un - American activities committee, have brutally violated the old British tradition of asylum for political emigres.

“T shall continue my fight from British prison for my right to re- turn home to Germany.”

issued a_ state-

Women want no more war

An army officer (arrow) attempts to push his way through a group of British womer wearing placards reading: “No More War” and “Peace For Our Kids.”

The women, who were attempting to halt a marching column of soldiers in London, were dispersed by police.

demands. Expressions of dissatis- faction from union members indi- cate’ that it may be rejected.

The report is the outcome of a three-week hearing by the con- ciliation board of union and com- pany arguments. It recommends cutting of the present 46-hour week

to 40, but in slow stages. Two hours would be lopped off July 15 this year, another two January 15, 1949, and the final two July 15, 1950.

A minority report submitted by Colin Cameron, union nominee, calls for a slightly speeded-up schedule, with the 40-hour week becoming effective by January 1, 1950.

BCER officials claim that even the recommendations of the ma-. jority report will cost the company $1,000,000 annually in payroll in- creases, This appears to be pre- liminary propaganda beamed at in- fluencing public opinion to accept

without protest rumored fare in- ereases in the near future.

The Street Railwaymen’s Union advisory board declined to state whether it is recommending ac- ceptance or rejection of the ma- jority report.

Eftie Jones to speak

Effie Jones, Vancouver delegate to the Peace Congress held recent- ly in Toronto, will speak at a pub- lic tea at Lumbermen’s Arch, Stanley Park, Thursday, May 26, at 2 p.m. The tea is being sponsor- ed by the Women’s Committee for Peace Action here.

On Friday, May 27, at 2 pm. Mrs. Jones will report at a garden party at the home of Mrs. V. R. Cooke, 5907 Victoria Drive, under auspices of the Victoria Road community peace committee.

Mrs. Jones is now touring In- terior and Island points.

Expect union rejection of BCER conciliation report

Bnitish Columbia Electric Railway employees in Vancouver, New Westminster and Victoria were to vote Thursday this week on accept- ance or rejection of a conciliation board majority report.

The 27-page document recommends a gradual cut in working hours with no loss in take-home pay, but is a far cry from the union’s original

Tory cover-up man © —OTTAWA. Ronald Williams, Financial

Post “labor specialist,” has turn- ed up with a new job.

It was learned here that Wil- liams spent several days working as a public relations officer for Johns-Manville corporation dur-- ing the bitter struggle at Asbes- tos. Long-distance phone calls to the Asbestos office of. the com- pany elicited the information that Williams was “helping out” doing publicity for the company. :

According to Williams, in the Financial Post of May 14, he was simply going to Asbestos “to ex- amine the whole situation.” The

fact is as on previous occasions, at Paris, his job was to help the company present its brutal case to the public, proven by his de- nial that workers were beaten by provincial police in a church basement.

e

Vancouver Trades and Labor Council decided this week to throw its full weight behind the Cana- dian Seamen’s Union strike, and elected a five-man committee to ae ae the CSU and discuss —

at aid would roses prove most ef- F xen also okayed a CSU re- uest for financial hel legal costs in a a court anti-pi

Members to) mittee are Tom Parkin

and Jack Philli

to decide on

Legal advice council jin its efforts to scab delega Internationa

Dele - corded their disgust at having Wl sit with SIU representatives and — EUSEEsied that methods should be - sine to unseat them indivi- ~ The CSU was battling in the

courts against Supreme Caine ie

ti-picketing injunctions as _ the

Pacific Tribune went to press.

While obeying Mr. Justice Man-

son's order barring pickets around

the Seaboard Star, union members

were maintaining strong picket

lines around other East Coast ships

tied up in Vancouver

In ‘Supreme Court ‘this week Manson termed a letter of protest sent him by Vancouver Labor Council (CCL) as “in the nature of contempt of court.” 2

CSU leaders, while emphasizing that they were obeying the injunc- tion against picketing the Seaboard Star, made it clear they had no intention of allowing the battle lines of the strike struggle to shift from the waterfront to the: courts.

In Seattle on Wednesday, 4 two-man CSU picket line com- pletely tied up Todd Harbor Is- land shipyard as the Canadian

Ship Argojohn, manned by SIU

scabs, moved into the yard. Ap-

Proximately 600 boilermakers,

riggers, firemen, engineers, wel-

ders and machinists working at

Todds refused to cross or work

behind the CSU picket line.

William Gettings,; regional direc- tor of the CIO Longshoremen’s Union, said all CIO maritime un- lons were respecting the picket line.

On the Great Lakes another at- tempt to smash the CSU, which re- cently signed union contracts with ten Canadian firms, was made PY the SIU in American ports, whe? they announced their intention t® tie up 50 CSU-manned Canadia? — freighters on the ground that some CSU men “had Communist sy™- pathies.” j

T. G, McManus, secretary-trea- surer of the CSU, labelled the SIU action “interference with the com- merce of another nation.”

Six ships are tied up in Vancou- ver and two in Victoria at the pres- ent time. About 60 East Coast ships

are strikebound in a score of worl ports. j

British warships had no right on Yangtse

—PEIPING.

“British naval vessels, together with those of the Kuomintang, in- truded into the defense area of the Chinese People’s Liberation ar- my and opened fire on the People’s Liberation army, causing 252 cas- ualties among our loyal and brave fighters,” General Li Tao, spokes- man for the headquarters of the People’s Liberation army of China, declared following the incident of the British ‘warship, Amethyst. “As the British have entered Chi- nese territory and committed so great a crime, the Chinese People’s Liberation army is justified in de- manding that the British govern- ment admits its mistake, apologizes and pays indemnity.

“Prime Minister Attlee is claim- ing that Britain has the right to sail naval vessels into the Yangtze river. The Yangtze river is China’s

inland waterway. What right has Britain to sail naval vessels into

it? She has no right. The Chinese people must protect the territorial sovereignty of China and will def- initely not allow foreign govern- ments to infringe upon it.

“Attlee claimed that the People’s Liberation army was ready to let the British naval vessel Amethyst sail to Nanking on the one con- dition that it should assist the People’s Liberation army to cross the river..Mr. Attlee is telling lies, for the People’s Liberation army never gave permission for the Amethyst to sail to Nanking.

“The People’s army does not hope for assistance from the armed forces of any foreign country in crossing the river or doing anything else. On the con- trary the People’s Liberation. army sent a call to Britain, the

-U.S. and France to withdraw

their {armed forces and ships from the Yangtze river, the Whangpoo river and other places

_and territorial integrity. Foreign

in China, from the waters, seas, land and air of China, and not to aid the Chinese people’s enemy in waging civil war.

“Up till now the Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military “committee and the People’s government have not established diplomatic relations with any foreign government. The Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military committee and the Peo: ple’s government are willing to protect all foreign nationals ‘in China who engage in normal vo- cations. The Chinese People’s Rey- olutionary: Military committee and the People’s government are will- ing to consider the establishment of diplomatic relations with for- eign countries.

“These relations should be es- tablished on the basis of equality, mutual benefit to each and re- spect for China’s independence

countries must not give assis-

tance to the Kuomintang reac-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 20, 1949 — PAGE

New China asks indemnity, apology

tionaries. If foreign governments are willing. to consider the ©5- tablishment of diplomatic rel@- tions with us, they must seve™ — their relations with the remnants of the Kuomintang forces 22° withdraw ‘their armed force? from China, ! "

‘Mr. Attlee complained that cause the Communist party tic China did not establish diplom# relations with foreign countries ye the past, it is not willing to hav, relations with former diplom@' ts personnel of foreign governme? (consuls recognized by the mintang).- This complaint groundless. me

“During the past years the Bor ernments of the United Seri. Britain and Canada have te helping the Kuomintang. Has ae Attlee forgotten this? Which ©? try presented them with the agi ‘i eruiser ‘Chunking’ which wat ea cently sunk? Don’t you know *™ Mr. Attlee?” Aa? 12°