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7" Review

TOM McEWEN, Published weekly by the Tribu Canada and British Commonwealih countries (exce

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| Tom McEwen

MOSCOW

WAS not long in Moscow before I took a whirl around the new Metro, an impressive addition, built since the

War, to the original subway. On this New circuit the trip took me roughly two hours.

There are 13 stations on this new line, but stations is hardly the word. Palaces Would be a more fitting description, for that is precisely what they are—under- Sround palaces, built for utility, for the Preservation of Soviet craftsmanship in artistic design, for a future which will 8ive unstintingly of its homage to 4 Slorious past.

Starting at the Mayakovsky station, One of the last completed on the. pre War subway, and named after ‘one of Russia’s greatest poets, Vladimir Maya- kovsky, the trip was like a journey through a subterranean fairyland. This Station, about twice the length of Van- Couver’s CPR station, is built of red- flecked: marble trimmed with nickel Plate on each massive arch. The carv- €d murals on each pillar depict the cul- ture and art of the Soviet theatre.

_,.A four-track giant escalator, a full block long, carries an endless stream of Passengers to and from the subway

ains, ; The Byelorussian Station is built with

Snow-white marble. These great cathed- Tal-shaped pillars form a roof arch, with

4 high cupola between each arch. In

ach cupola is a ten foot brightly color-

. &d mosaic depicting the cultural, indus-

trial and agricultural life of the Bye

lorussian Republic.

Jn the Taganskava station, a deathless historical theme, dedicated to the sol-

ier, sailor, airman and partisan defend- ers of the Soviet Union, is wroght in

Porcelain murals framed in blue and

White marble.. At one end of this great

Station is a huge porcelain mural of the

Peoples of the Soviet Union thanking

their beloved Stalin for victory, and on

€ach massive pillar a mural dedicated to the great heroes among the Soviet

People who died in defense of world emocracy.

The Red Presnya station is of deep Ted marble, softened by indirect light- ing. Here the history of the 1905 revo lution is depicted in mosaics. At its €xtreme end stands a massive sculpture Of Lenin and Stalin, architects of a new Society.

_ Two other stations that particularly

impressed me are the Botanical Gardens

Station and the Komsomolskaya. The st is a massive and colorful creation

Of deep red and pure white marble, with

Slazed' pottery murals, bordered in

bronze and copper. Each mural depicts

the floral and botanical profusion of

Soviet landscaped gardens and parks. The Komsomolskaya station is dedi-

cated to the Young Communists of the

Soviet lands. Great. white marble pil-

lars carry red mosaic murals bordered

in bronze, each shaped like a huge . Shield, depicting Russia’s centuries-long ~

Struggle for freedom and independence and strength, devotion and creativeness of youth as it forges a new world, aided by the history of past struggles.

Moscow’s Metro is not built upon @ “how-much-will-it-cost” basis, but upon the principle of bringing service, utility and culture to the millions who daily Tide its streamlined trains. _

Vancouver was christened w

here this drinking fountain now stands at Carrall and Water streets.

Rearmed Germany threatens peace

JF the policy agreed at the Nine- ’ Power Conference is imposed on Western Europe against, the wishes of a majority of all its peoples, Hit- ler’s generals will have a large mod- ern army and air force and the Ruhr millionaires will have a huge modern

arms industry.

How will this power be used? For.

ace? All history argues against it. fitler’s phrases on the lips of his

generals reveal their aggressive de-

een third world war what they failed to achieve in the second.

All this makes a mockery of Ex- ternal Affairs Minister Lester B. Pear- son’s statement, echoing John Foster

Dulles, ‘I think we have done a good ©

week's’ work for peace.”’ oe Yet it is only mine years since the Potsdam Conference decided to dis-

‘mantle the arms industry in Ger-

many, solemnly agreeing, “The

heir hopes of achieving in a

maintenance and production of all aircraft and all arms, ammunition and implements of war shall be prev- ented.”

Now, adopting the Hitler lie of “defense against Communist aggres- , sion,’ the St. Laurent government helps to tear up the Potsdam agree- ment.

Control of West German rearma- ment can be effective only where there is determination to enforce it. But the Eisenhower administration is determined only upon one point, to rearm West Germany.

Rearming West Germany does not solve Germany’s problem. It only aggravates it. It presents an obstacle to reunification of Germany on a democratic peaceful basis and creates new tensions, new dangers of war.

Canada’s signature to the London agreement does not advance peace, but endangers it.

The LPP provincial convention

ROM our very beginnings, we F;; British Columbia have been aware of our vast natural re- sources, conscious that from them we could create a great future for our province as part of a, great nation. :

We have seen these resources recklessly exploited and squander: ed to the enrichment of a few monopolies and we have seen. their development retarded by these same monopolies. Now, when these resources, developed in a pattern of world trade, could provide jobs for thousands of our people, we see them being handed to the ifterests of a foreign pow er, the United States, by the gov ‘ernments to whom we have en- trusted them.

No wonder the anger of our people is mounting as we see our

birthright being alienated. No wonder the cry is growing for a halt to this policy which denies our future.

All of this makes the conven- tion of the B.C.-Yukon section of the Labor-Progressive party in Vancouver this weekend the concern of every honest citizen, _ for the LPP, alone of all political parties, has raised its voice against this treason to the people’s inter- ests.

Not since the days of the Yale convention and the fight to bring B.C. into Confederation has this province faced a more critical per- iod. In its deliberations the LPP will have the support of all those who look to it as the champion today of the century-old dream of British Columbia developed by its people for its people.

Hal Griffin

FOR a fascinating glimpse of Canadian « life and accomplishments over the four and a half centuries of our history let me recommend a little book first pub- lished. in 1947, Unusual Facts of Cana- dian History ‘by William L. Styles. 4

Here, compiled by a painstaking re- searcher, are the facts of our past, some well known and some obscure, some sig- nificant and some inconsequential, but. all part of our colorful story.

For instance:

“The beaver was Canada’s first na- tional emblem. Originally suggested by a governor of New France (Canada)’ in 1673, the beaver was in use until 1821 when the amalgamation of the Hudson’s Bay and North West companies caused a diversion of the fur trade from ‘the St. Lawrence waterway to Hudson Bay, - with financial losses to merchants in Lower Canada. As a result, the maple leaf came into favor, particularly follow- ing its acceptance by the influential St. John the Baptist Society in 1834, with formal acceptance by federal authorities during Confederation.”

And elsewhere: :

“The maple leaf, when worn during the Rebellion of 1837-8, was regarded as the insignia of disloyalty by those op- posed to this uprising in Lower Canada.”

The book covers a wide range of sub-

_ jects from the first school in Nova Scotia

(1780) and the first permanent theatre in Montreal (Theatre Royal in 1825) to name changes — British Columbia was officially New Caledonia from 1806 to 1858. ;

is la = Bees 3 ee

One fact which is not in Unusual Facts of Canadian History but which might

-well have been included is ‘that when

the Treaty of Paris (1763) was under, dis- cussion the British government serious- ly debated whether it should retain the newly conquered French possessions in Canada or exchange them for the French- held West Indian island of Guadeloupe. The thinking behind this proposal was | expressed by the Duke of Bedford, who said, “I do not know whether the neigh-

‘borhood of the French to our Northern

Colonies was not the greatest security of their dependence in the Mother Coun- try who, I fear, will be slighted by them when their apprehensions of the French are removed.”

In the end, the British government de- cided to retain Canada, but for strategic rather than economic reasons. Eas

The West Indies were then the mos profitable of all Britain’s possessions. In 1790 British investments there were esti- mated to be, £70 million and their trade with Britain was almost double that of the fabulous East India Company. The temptation to add the rich French island

of Guadeloupe to British possessions was »

strong. ‘

The British government wrongly calcu- lated that the danger to the British Am-- erican colonies from Canada, if restored to France, was greater than the danger of a revolt of the American colonists. And only twelve years later the Ameri- can colonists proved how wrong the British government had been.

But in the West Indies, where the wealthy British planters, unlike the Am- erican colonists, were an extension of the British capitalist class and not a newly emergent rival there was no coun- terpart of the American Revolution. Only now is the demand for self-government and independence coming in the British West Indies, in British Honduras and British Guiana. 3

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 15, 1954 — PAGE 5