75 educators cable Prime Minister

‘Act now to save peace’ professors urge Pearson

As the Commonwealth Prime Minister's conference was shaken by dekate this week over what to do about the crisis in Vietnam Prime Minister Lester Pearson received an urgent cable in London from seventy-five Canadian uni- versity professors urging him to act for peace. The cable asked him to take the initiative to bring about negotiations with the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam and to declare a firm independent Canadian peace policy.

50k dunivewary Year

The plea from leading Can- adian educators originated at the Learned Societies Conferences at the University of B.C, which ended their sessions last week- end, Although there have been previous appeals from Canadian universities this was the first Canada-wide appeal from Uni- versity professors,

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FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1965 VOL. 26, NO. 25

The appeal to Pearson was initiated by nine UBC pro-

HO CHI MINH INTERVIEW

4-noint plan for peace In Vietnam

Tn an exclusive interview this Week President Ho Chi Minh of rth Vietnam declared that the Sition of the Vietnamese people ay government of the Demo- «, © Republic of Vietnam was 2 reasonable position and in

©onformity with the 1954 Geneva &Teements,”

tag Was giving an interview to © Soviet Communist Party cent Pravda, .He said that the tlement of the Vietnamese sit- ®n in accordance with the

| EXCLUSIVE

1954 Geneva Agreements are “in cordance with the interests of 2 American people and the

hor of the United States and “lso With the interests of the “alse of peace,”

Ho Chi Minh said the four points put forward by North €tnam as a basis for negotia- are in line with the terms the Geneva Agreement, The

four Points, he said, are:

tions

*Withdrawal of U.S, troops al South Vietnam and dis- antling of U.S, bases;

“Adherence to the Geneva &Teements;:

ins south Vietnam to settle its ternal problems without outside 2 €rvention, and;

re North and South Vietnam to “alize their peaceful unification SO Without outside intervention,

See INTERVIEW, pg. 3

nam today. Every day women and children are by foreign invaders. Last week the

fessors. They were W,E, Will- mott, anthropology — professor; Dr, Barnett Savery, head of the philosophy department; Michael Ames, anthropology, Margaret Prang and James Winter, history; Dr. Gideon Rosenbluth, econom- ics: Reg Robson, sociology and Walter Young and Jean Laponce, political science,

The cable to Prime Minister

Pearson was followed by a letter

Stop the killing and torture in Vietnam!

iet- i i i i est bombers: This mad- . i; icture tells the tragedy of Viet obliteration raids with their largést : fab Mahe ha Fundheds of Vietnamese men, ness must stop! You can add your protest by supporting being killed in their own country the Peace Congress petition campaign for peace in Viet- U.S. launched massive nam. (See story on page 12).

signed by the educators which said: “We are gravely con- cerned about the war in Viet- nam, Not only is it causing great hardship to the people of that sad country, but it poses an. ever growing threat to world peace,”

“In our opinion, the events of the past four months suggest that the present American policy of escalation is not bringing peace nearer in Vietnam, On the con- trary, there are ominous signs that this policy may be bringing the world toward the outbreak of a general nuclear war,

“More realistic efforts should be made to achieve an immediate cease-fire and negotiations be- tween the belligerent parties: the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) and the government in Saigon supported by the Amer- ican forces,

“We strongly support the) in- itiatives you have taken in this regard, and we urge you to re- double your efforts to bring about a peaceful ‘solution to the war by issuing a public statement of Canada’s independent policy and bringing to bear all the diplo- matic pressure you can on the two parties concerned.

“Our position on the Inter- national Control Commission for Indochina not only gives us the opportunity, but imposes upon us the duty to take such initiatives,” concludes the letter,

The spokesman for the group sponsoring the plea, UBC Pro- fessor. Willmott, said “a tre- mendous number of people believe the war is a complete farce, It never will be settled by military conquest. The only

-thing to do is sit down around a

conference table, I’m concerned

' that American policy is self

defeating and seriously endan- gering world peace,”

- Meanwhile, the debate is con- tinuing at the Commonwealth meeting in London on the value of a Commonwealth peace mis- sion, Undermined from the be- ginning by Prime Minister Wil- son’s open and complete support of U.S, policy -in Vietnam, the Prime Ministers are reported split on whether Wilson can play any positive role,

On Monday North Vietnam and China denounced Wilson’s Com- monwealth mission on Vietnam aS a maneuver to help the U,S,, with the British Prime Minister acting as President Johnson’s errand boy, The denunciations came in leading articles in the See COMMONWEALTH, pg. 3