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Ei fr 203 <i we Vol. 7. No. 8 Vancouver, B.C., Friday, February 20, 1948 cE 28 Five Cents

Thousands sign petition

UN force required in Palestine

@ Back in Toronto this week

after a three-month tour of Europe, two weeks of which were spent in Palestine, J. B. Salsberg, LPP member of the Ontario legislature, reported that there was “a dangerous trend towards a total war situ- ation” in the Holy Land, al- though hostilities had not yet ttared into full-scale -wartare. The danger could best be avert- ed by the UN sending ir a force composed of troops rep- resenting its leading nations, he held. All sections of the Jewish community were of the opinion that present hostilities, promoted through support of Arab feudal reactionaries, could be traced directly to the policies of British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin. Behind the hos- tilities was Bevin’s hope that “open warfare will break out and make it possible to compel cancellation of the projected Jewish and Arab independent states.”

@ Here, American seamen who have run the blockade into Palestine picket the British Information Bureau in New York, They are also de- manding that the Truman administration lift the arms embargo on shipments to Jews now fighting Arab op- Position to the UN partition plan,

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LIVING COSTS RISE WHILE GOV'T PROBES

While the parliamentary investigation into profiteering and price-fixing got under way this week amid charges and denials and conflicting statements, consumers in this province, at least, could derive little satisfaction from it.

Nowhere was there any sign that the investigation was having the “salutary effect” in checking further price in- creases which government spokesmen used as an argument for setting up the parliamentary committee. Nowhere was there an indication of a downward trend in prices to halt the drain on purchasing power. Instead, in two important items, milk and gasoline, further increase were reported to be pending.

Milk producers were pressing their application at Vic- toria this week for another two-cent boost in milk prices. If granted, the application will increase the price of standard milk from 15 to 17 cents and of special milk 17 to 19 cents a quart, sharply increasing the million quarts a month drop in milk consumption in the province during the past year. In addition, retailers were asking the government to increase the one-cent maximum margin they are now allowed on a quart of milk. (See story on page 7.)

New gas increase looms

_ At Saanich this week, Premier Byron Johnson indicated that his government was preparing to bow to the dictates of the big oil monopolies and add another one or two cents to

the three cents a gallon increase in the price of gasoline recently allowed.

Ignoring the demand that the Coalition government in- voke its special powers to compel the oil companies to de- liver gasoline, Johnson stated bluntly that if motorists ex- pected to have gasoline to run their cars “they will have to

pay prices comparable to those obtaining in Seattle and Portland,”

To a public which still has been given no opportunity to. study the figures on which the companies based their ap- plication, Johnson stated: “The puBlic cannot expect oil companies to~bring in gasoline and sell it at a loss.”

(Continued on page 8) See PRICES

oalition fears Saanich defeat

VICTORIA, B.C.— One of the most bitter cam- paigns in the political his- tory of the province 1S reaching a new peak of in- tensity this week as Saan- ich voters prepare to make their choice in the byelec- tion next Monday.

The issue is between Colin Cameron, CCF can-

i by the BC pena a reas and several AFL .and CCL unions in the shiek ai i as the oe Paes the Labor- Progressive Party, and Ar- thur Ash, Coalition-Liberal candidate for whom eight cabinet ministers are stumping the constituency

in a desperate effort to stave off a threatening de- feat.

Writhing under the fac- tual indictments of the op- position forces, government spokesmen are winding up their end of the election with an intensified red-bait- ing campaign that rivals anything produced by Pre-

mier Drew of Ontario or his Quebec counterpart, Maurice Duplessis. Coalition red-baiting and the government’s record of betrayal were hit this week by CCF and LPP hecklers

ister Herbert Anscomb. The meeting ended ab- ruptly by Coalition chair- man Walter Jeune calling for “God Save the King” in order to prevent LPP spokesman Bruce Mickle-

at a rough-and-tumble burgh reading a written meeting at Lake Hill ad- challenge. The challenge dressed by Premier “Boss” (Continued on page 8) Johnson. and Finance Min- See SAANICH

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