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Douglas hits Columbia giveaway

RESOURCES SELLOUT

KEY ISSUE, SAYS NDP

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TRIBUNE

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‘¢ Hi Ht FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1963 VOL 24, NO. 39

VANCOUVER; B.C.

Pacific

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Mark your ballots for ...

WM. STEWART

MAURICE RUSH

RON FORKIN

ERNEST KNOTT

‘ ‘yere is really only one issue in this election. The Socreds have com- pletely :ailed to develop the resources of this province in the best interest of B.C.... Look at the way timber is given away, the Columbia is a com- plete sellout to the U.S. and the gas companies are making millions out of B.C. resources.’’ This was the statement made by NDP national leader T. C. Douglas in a speech at Kelowna this week.

The NDP national leader said that steps should be taken to “develop our own resources or before long we will have lost control so completely we will be prisoners in our owr house,”

Speaking the following night in Chase, Douglas said the ‘‘only way to stop the giveaway of the Columbia is to defeat Social = peditees

Speaking to 1,000 people in Vancouver’s Pender Auditorium last Sunday at one of the larg- est election rallies in the cur- rent campaign, Tim Buck, nation- al Communist Party chairman, charged that Bennett’s ‘‘two- river’? policy shows complete zontempt for the people.

Buck said under the Socred dylan the cheap power of the Solumbia would be given to the J.S. while the more expensive Peace Power would be developed Neher. Om

Referring to a statement by NDP national leader T.C, Doug- las that the NDP will challenge che federal government on nuc- lear arms, Buck said:

‘Do you want to dismantle -he base at Comox and send the weapons back to the U;S.221f so, the only way to do it is to defeat the Bennett government. If you vote to throw out the nu- clear base at Comox this could have a decisive affect on the vote in Parliament.’’ (See full report on Buck meeting on page 2).

Joining the fight against the sellout of the Columbia this week was one of Canada’s most high- ly respected engineers. Ina letter published in the Vancouver Sun Monday, September 23, L, Austin

Wright, D. Eng., who recently retired from his post after 25 years as secretary of the Eng- ineering Institute of Canada, said:

TOMMY DOUGLAS, national leader of the NOp, who this week charged that the Social Credit government is guilty of misusing B.C.’s vast natural resources. He stated that unless residents of t he province act quickly to recapture control of these resources, they are in grave danger of becoming prisoners in their own house.

“The terms of the proposed treaty are a disgrace to Canada’s political negotiations and an ex- pensive indignity to Canadians,

“T am confident that if the

Despite the fact that the draft Columbia treaty and its sellout plan is the major issue before the people, the Socred, Liberal

- and Tory candidates have tried

people were properly informed —

of the hoax that is being perpet- uated on them, they would raise a cry so great that some rem- edial action would have to be taken.

“Strip away the smelly red herring of downstream benefits and look at the engineering and economic tacts, The losses due to the inefficient plan that is now proposed make the down- stream benefits trivial by com- parison.’”’

to avoid dicussion of the treaty.

The Communist candidates in the provincial election have lift- ed discussion of the draft treaty to a central position and have forced debate on it which would otherwise not have taken place.

In a joint statement issued by the Communist candidates (see story below) a strong plea is — made to voters to strike a pow- erful blow against ratification of the fraft treaty by ousting the Socreds.

The statement of the Commun- ist candidates calls for the adopt- ing of a new economic policy for B.C., which would put the em- phasis on processing of raw mat- erials in B.C, instead of the ex- porting of them abroad.

As election day approached Socred leader W. A. C. Bennett was showing increasing fear over the election outcome. He has lost no opportunity to call on old- line party voters to back his party to block the election of the NDP.

Tim Buck showed the way ahead for B.C.’s people at the Pender meeting in the way of B.C.’s meeting last Sunday when he said: “The Bennett governmént is standing in the way of B.C’s development. The key job in this election is to rid B.C. of the Bennett government—and it can be done by electing an NDP government and Communist candidates where they are runn- ing.’”?

Communists urge new B.C. economic

‘Process — not export resources’

A call for new economic policy to turn British Columbia away from its present raw’ material €Conomy and towards creating New industries by protesting raw New industries by processing raw Materials in the province was Made in the closing week of the flection campaign by Communist “andidates inGreater Vancouver.

Ih a joint statement Vancouver

€ntre candidates William Stew- art and Ronald Forkin and North

8ncouver candidate Maurice

Ush charged that,‘‘successive

cial Credit, Liberal and Tory S0vernments have follaweda pol- ‘CY of turning over to U.S. mon- °Polies ¢ontrol of B.C.’s. re- sources, and of selling raw mat- Tlals to the U.S, in order to

‘Make instant big profits.

The statement said, “the old- line political parties cannot be relied upon to bring about the ec- onomic change B.C. needs be- cause they are too closely tied to and dominated by the financial interests who make large profits from. the betrayal of our natural resources to the U.S.”

The statement charged that the old line parties have brought B.C. to the position where the people are no longer masters in their own province. ‘*We have been reduced to hewers of wood, diggers of ore and storers of water. We want something better than that for ourselves and our children.”

“The time has come when the people of B.C. must assert their demand to be masters in their own province. The time has come when a start must be made to turn B.C.’s economy with its vast hydro, forest, mineral, natural gas and petroleum resources to- wards creating new processing

industries. If we continue as araw material province B.C. will be plagued in the future as it has been in the past with mass un-

employment and recurring econ- .

omic crises,’? said the joint

Tomorrow — Saturday, Sep- tember 28— will see another demonstration against nuclear arms for Canada in front of the Comox base. Expected to take part will be many hund- reas of people from the Lower

Mainland and Vancouver Is- land.

The protest comes only two days before the opening of the nation’s Parliament.

Last week, Tommy Douglas, national leader of the NDP, re-stated his party’s opposi- tion to the Comox and_ all other nuclear bases in Can-

Protest at Comox

statement.

Pointing to the grain deals concluded with China and the Soviet Union, the Communist can- didates said that this import- ant breakthrough in trade between

ada. Returning from Europe, Douglas said that his party will do all it can to block the: back . door Pearson-Kennedy A-arms agreement.

He said the NDP will insist the Pearson government sub- mit this pact to Parliament for ratification.

On Saturday, October 5, a lobby opposing nuclear arms will descend on Parliament and add to the mounting pres- sure for scrapping this — in- famous agreement.

The lobby is being organized by the Canadian Peace Con- gress.

policy

Canada and the huge socialist market should be expanded tein- clude many other products which can be produced in B. C, inabund- ance,

It added that Canada is on the ground floor with regard to this expanding market, and urgedthat we lose no time in developing those markets to the full. “If we seize this opportunity for trade B.C. can experience the greatest industrial boom in its history.”?

Turning to the need for a Canadian merchant marine the statement said that ‘‘to meet expanding trade withthe socialist countries and Canada’s need as one of the world’s biggest trad- ing nations, the Canadian mer- chant marine, which was scuttled by a Liberal government at the end of the war, should now be reborn.”’

It urged that a start be made

See: COMMUNISTS, rage 2