Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 23, 1950, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights leg printed published us Winnipeg free Preis company limited. 300 Street Winnipeg Manitoba. Authorized u the conf Clui matter by poit office department Ottawa. Victor s1fton, publisher. We. Lord. General manager. Grant Dexter editor. Bruce Hutchison. Associate editor. Winnipeg tuesday May 23, 1950 100 spent on that flood. What is unfortunate is that Holly needless uncertainty and anxiety should be caused by statement which was not addressed to the Little Man at All but to a question of constitutional procedure. It is regrettable that the hardships already being endured by those who have been hard hit by the flood should be made More unbearable by a false interpretation of a strictly accurate statement of fact. France and Germany while it is overshadowed for the moment by the military deliberations the North Atlantic pact Powers the proposal of France to integrate its major industries with those of Ger Many May Well Mark an historic Point in the politics of Europe and in the struggle for world peace. Teri France makes this offer Only six years after a German occupation it is proposing the most courageous and imaginative act of statesmanship in Europe since the War. For the French plan is not Only economic. It is political in the widest sense. In the end if it succeeds in strengthening Western Europe by political and economic Unity it will also be of vital import militarily. The French government s plan would put Basic Indus tries in France and Germany chiefly Coal and steel under an International authority. This authority would enforce modernization of these industries and maximum production at Low est possible Cost. It would see that the products of Industry were distributed to All customers under uniform conditions and at uniform prices. It would Pool exports to other coun tries. It would arrange common Levels of pay and labor conditions. Thus so far As the internationalized industries Are concerned an area of free Trade would be created in Western Germany and France and probably in Holland Belgium and Luxembourg which would be expected to join the scheme. A a none of the Steps toward european integration urged by the United states government is As Radical effective or hopeful As the policy Laid Down by France. Western Germany s immediate acceptance of the policy the endorsement of the United states and the general approval Given by or. Attlee for Britain would seem to assure Quick Progress on this great programme but Many vested interests in France and Germany undoubtedly will try to stand in the Way. Among them is the communist party which denounces the project As was to be expected As another Man oeuvre of United states the communists hostility and the alarm of the Kremlin Are perhaps the Best recommendations that the French policy could receive. The political results of it would prove in the end More important than the economic. France in fact is offering to make Western Germany an equal partner in the affairs of Western Europe. While Britain the United states and France announced this week their determination to keep troops in Ger Many the German government for All practical purposes would become Sovereign working closely with France in the Day to Day conduct of Western Europe s business. By this Means for the first time since the War the Chance is opened for the creation of a powerful Western Europe dominated not by a single Power either Germany or France but by both in combination. This would end he feud which beginning in 1870, desolated Europe in 1914 and again in 1939 and has left it today too poor to sustain itself economically and too weak to defend itself militarily. Western Europe in Short Suburo with tireless gramophone Ike precision one paragraph in he final statement issued by the foreign ministers the ., France and the . Arter their conference at London is of special the difference in recent weeks Rimouski que Bec has shared with the red River Valley the misfortune of encountering heavy loss. With us it has been the most Calami Tous flood in the history of the with Rimouski it has been a fire. The people of Rimouski will forgive their fellow canadians Here a twitch of envy upon learn ing that insurance companies Are meeting claims for their fire losses with record Speed. The financial Post reports that under an emergency plan of the fire insurance companies Home owners in Rimouski have already received their insurance cheques. The mayor and chamber of Commerce Rimouski have publicly thanked the companies for their prompt Ness. It is announced that some 200 companies Are involved and that loss payments approximating millions have already been paid. Losses included 300 houses 20 stores one theatre one hotel. Court House jail Seminary and technical school Hospital Convent old people s Home Price Bros Mill and two lumber Yards. In Addi Tion there was smoke damage. The great difference Between the Rimouski fire and the red River flood is that Here is no insurance a buildings. The red River in flood War of attrition by m. W. I australian government policy f the red River Ever becomes the subject a biographer s pen there is one aspect of its a ure which can hardly escape at Tention. It shares with the missis Sippi an implacable hatred of Man s works but it is a brooding Stream not Given like the father of Waters to annual furious out bursts nor like the Nile to yearly renewals of life giving soil. It stores its fury from year to year neither forgiving nor forgetting though men forget All too easily. With a patience almost Asiatic it nurses malice under a pretence of docility Content to wait a decade or a Quarter Century As if conscious that its capacity for destruction grows with every dwell ing reared in Confidence along its Banks or within its indeterminate Domain. In the last hour when the attack comes it is entirely in character. Their is a War of movement recognizable As such Only in the last hour. There is a subsequent War of attrition nonetheless real because ii cannot be photographed and dramatically presented on flashing reels to Dis Tant audiences reminded by an an Banning the communists bouncer that time marches in is expressed in the Melbourne it is difficult to recall a measure submit Ted to the Commonwealth Parlia ment in recent years which has evoked As much anxious question ing among level headed australians As he Bill dissolving the com asst Tom unit party and empowering the government to suppress other or by r. L. Curthoys nits and be Low travellers among ministers of religion teachers in schools and universities and journalists. But some of them Are join ing in the demand that provisions of the Bill curtailing civil liberties a animations advocating communism be substantially modified. Fundamental truth in these Days or mass propaganda by communist Russia and the communist filth columns which repeat the words the pol has an Opportunity of Unity and joint strength which it has lacked since the time of Bismarck. If the Opportunity is seized the whole balance of Power in Europe will be altered or perhaps it would be truer to say that a new balance can be created after Russia s destruction of the old. At last a third Force could arise in the world Between the United states and Russia As a Buffer be tween them. To fortunately however a Franco German economic Union involving also the closest political ties would be directly linked with the Atlantic Community As a whole through the Brussels pact and the North Atlantic pact. As conceived by France the plan would not take France and Western Ger Many further out of that Community but further into it. It is on this Assumption undoubtedly that the United states has so emphatically endorsed the French policy. Its main purpose indeed in International politics would be to turn Western Germany away from Russia and the East and directly toward the West. There Are dangers Here As Well As opportunities and these the French government must have carefully calculated. Western Germany As an economic partner to France free to develop its industries to the utmost would become shortly one of the greatest if not the greatest european Power West of the russian line. If its new Power were used to rebuild German militarism France would find that it had hatched Cockatrice. It must be Able to rely on the peaceful intentions of the Western German government and moreover it must rely on its British and North american allies to sup port it in suppressing German militarism if that should emerge. Britain the United states and the other nations of the North Atlantic pact Are bound to unite against aggressive tendencies in Germany As elsewhere. The British interest. It reads the strength of the free world vill never be used for aggressive purposes. The ministers find it necessary to restate this Funda mental truth in the face of the calculated Campaign of misrepresentation of our purposes and pol cies conducted by the Only militaristic and aggressive Power in the world. Faith in Freedom should not be taken for. Granted but should be built into a dynamic Force and Steps should be taken to increase Public understanding of the exact nature methods and dangers he threat to its exist to listen to the special pleading of our own Little communist group Kardash Penner Forir and Zuken and the endlessly changing the pres ent peace the hold up in front them in the silly Hope of deceiving the Public the Root of the that free people never Start wars might be overlooked. There is Only one great militaristic and aggressive Power in the world today Only one great Power which could pro Voke a world War. That Power is and remove communists from the Commonwealth service and from office in key Trade unions. The labor opposition decided by a narrow majority that since the government had a Clear mandate to suppress the communist party the second Reading of the Bili should not be opposed but most labor members regard it As a grave invasion of civil rights and intellectual Freedom. Those who have thus far prevailed upon opposing schools of labor opinion to present a com Mon front in parliament hold that time is on their Side and that could the electors be persuaded that adherence to democratic methods of applying the Rule of Law and not the suppression of the communist parly was the real Issue of a general election thai would follow a double dissolution of parliament labor would have much to gain and Little to lose. Question of double dissolution that is not to say that the opposition will risk a double dissolution by using its Senate majority to defeat the Bill. Strategy will be determined by shifts in Public opinion. There is growing Atten Tion for those who Are warning australians that in protecting other labor men though not Catholic action Are with it in regarding communism As a National peril and Are unwilling to save the party from dissolution though they do not believe the Bill will extinguish communism but insist that the Only lasting inroads upon it will be made by redressing the wrongs which have helped communism on its Way and by expounding its deficiencies As a political philosophy. Attitude of Trade unions on the other flank of the party Are men who have come into parliament from Trade Union offices. While rejecting communism As uncompromisingly As their col leagues of the right they regard the expulsion from Trade Union offices As a usurpation of the right of unions to manage their own affairs and an intolerable limitation of the right of free association. They Point to the facts that at the general elec Tion the communists polled less than one per cent of the aggregate vote that already their in fluence in the unions is waning As a result of the counteraction of moderates and that there is ample Power in the crimes act the arbitration act and other a salutes to experienced Trade Union men say that if some unions have been amenable to communist Leader ship it is because communist officials have won better pay and working conditions not because the and file Are communists. Strikes occur they argue not be cause unions have communist officials but because they Harbor grievances which communists skilfully exploit for the advancement of their own cause. The Bill they fear might be applied to any legitimate agitator who had approved socialist no. Necessarily communist objectives. The Deputy Leader of the opposition or. Evatt . Indicts the Bill for its deliberate avoidance Legal its refusal to the communist party to Deputy Leader for though the struggle continues on Many fronts the per Sonal Battle which each Man fights to save his Home is temporarily ended. The River has taken Possession it cannot be ejected until the water has exhausted its capacity for exacting tribute and takes its Way to the sea. Families Are scattered. For the moment nothing can be done and the moment stretches through endless weeks perhaps months. This is the War of attrition directed at human nerves and spirit. This no camera can record. Attrition is a process wearing Down its expressions More numerous than the Heads of the fabulous Hydra. It is Felt in rooms devoid of heat in the slow permeation of the doors of sewage in frayed tempers on Street cars in he tendency of the Over burdened to visit their feel Ings upon some innocent scape Goat in the monotonous throb of machines in the frictions besetting families living in Over crowded quarters. It rises subtly As men and women resent their dependence upon the hospitality of others however decent generous tactful and in a last vengeful refinement of torture the River hobbles time for those it displaces and condemns to watch and wait. The War of movement is a phase of material destruction. But in Ike Mountain torrents this is not a River which goes berserk Over night. It rises slowly almost imperceptibly though gaining momentum As it goes. There comes a period of feverish human activity. Men and women drive themselves around the clock consoling each cold figures which daily Register the level of a River scarcely rising or failing but jealously clinging to its stolen Empire As it draws sub stance from an immeasurable Reservoir. Main concern of Al the aspects of the flood this surely must be least appreciated by people outside the Valley. From the outset it has been How Ever a main concern of those charged Wilh responsibility for the other with the thought that they general do talc Winnipeg Are keeping ahead As sandbag Afler sandbag is piled on top of a Dike whose foundations Are being treacherously sapped in air unseen relentless War beneath the water s surface. Suddenly it becomes hopeless As the River asserts its malignant Mastery and the stunned recognition dawns in hundreds of minds that a Battle and with it the work overnight it has embarked on a programme of european unification which Only a few Days ago seemed out of Europe s reach. Or. St. Laurent s press conference or. St. Laurent s visit unfortunately has not been free of controversy. At his press conference on sunday evening the answer Given to one of the Many questions put to him has caused need less uncertainty and contusion in the Public mind. Or. St. Laurent was asked what the Federal government would do for the Little Man who has been injured in the flood. His answer which was strictly accurate was directly nothing to those who Are familiar with the interchange of letters Between or. Campbell and or. St. Laurent Early this month and with principles applied by Ottawa to the Fraser River flood of. 194s, or St. Laurent s statement about direct Federal government Aid to individuals will cause no Surprise Federal government gives this Aid through the provincial government. The Fraser River flood total expenditures were of which the Federal government put up or Over so per cent. Yet or. St. Laurent s state ment of sunday night is absolute y True Al the Fraser River flood the Federal government did no give one Dollar of Aid to individuals. It gave to the Bri ish Columbia of which was distributed Little Man and the bal o the Ance was used to build permanent dikes to prevent a recurrence of he flood. Having already stated that the Federal government will apply the Fraser River principles to Mani Oba and having appointed a Royal at appraise the Cost of fighting the Lood of refugee Aid and emergency remedial St. Aurent perhaps was puzzled by the question. In View of his pledge made in writing on May a last to or. Campbell there could be no doubt that the Federal govern ment is going to give Money to the government of Manitoba just As it did to the government of British Columbia two years ago hence the question must be re lated to constitutional procedure at any rate or. St. Laurent answered it in a strictly constitutional sense. Under the . Act the Federal government in these matters never acts directly but in variably does so through the provincial authorities. Thus there has never been the slightest uncertainty As to what the Federal government will do for the Little Man in this flood. It stands pledged to do what it d1 " for the Little Man in the Fraser River was to put up out of every rement in setting aside acres of Forest and Mountain land As a Bird Sanctuary is of some inter est in View of the efforts now being made in the United states and Canada to save from extinction the and United states soldiers in Germany Are a warning to Ger communist Russia. Man militarists As they Are to Russia. Under these guarantees France is prepared to take Large risks for the Hope of much larger gains in the consolidation of All Western Europe. It should receive the full backing of the Western world since the Taka he action of the new zealand gov whooping Crane. New zealand is seeking to per themselves against forces menacing Freedom they must beware of Impe Rilling the rights and liberties they seek to defend. Roman Catholic a zionists in the labor caucus Are critical of the Bill Only on the ground that it does not go far enough. With some supporters of the government they would like to empower the government to declare of sabotage subversion o sedition. The disruption Trade Unior organization caused by the remove of communist officials woul gravely impair the Power of Trad unionism say these opponents o the Bill and generally encourage discrimination not merely again communists but against All sort people of Radical views. The wri1 by Harold Nicolson i want to write about How different people write. I am not of course considering the Man n in the Spectator metabolism the dragon flies Star to flit again the sap to Rise an they return from their sombre despairing lonely walk among the Opportunity to prove Tseh not Many lives has been conceded guilty of seditious or treasonable intent for its proposal to furnish no particulars of his allegedly subversive activities to an individual declared and then to throw upon him the onus of proof of his innocence upon Appeal. That people participating for instance in a crusade for peace should be subject to declaration because there Are communists in the Organiza Tion conducting the crusade is he protests sheer tyranny. Al pleasure of the government a Law which debarred every communist from being a Trade Union Secretary could he under stood but that a Secretary of a Union should hold office at the pleasure of the government As pro posed by the Bill is the apotheosis of tyranny. Some lawyers doubt the constitutional Validity of the Bill. It s based on the defence Power on the ground that As the prime against the flood. People Are loathe to evacuate their Homes As if drawn by a Magnet they return to gaze pen sively at uninhabitable Homes they impatiently count the hours until they can regain their Homes and once More go to work. That such attitudes Are dangerous and must in the Public interest be strongly resisted has been pointed to the enemy. This the camera catches the devastation the Shock written in human faces. But this is Only the again Ana again. But the danger persists and must be counted one of the most serious accompaniments of the War of attrition against the people of Manitoba. . Can is great satisfaction in a the United kingdom Wilh the Canada Trade returns for March. For the first time the United kingdom s sales to Canada exceeded purchases. The favourable balance was the Manchester guardian comments that exports to Canada Are beginning to make an impression on the Dollar it proceeds to say exports of steel chemicals and non ferrous Metal products Trade amounts. With the help and support of canadians the Export drive is really one month s returns of course do not warrant too much enthusiasm. Moreover Canadian Farmers and other exporters will not be Likely to forget that while the guardian does not say so the greatest part of the gain in correcting the Dollar problem has been achieved by cutting Down Canadian sales to the United kingdom. Nonetheless it is Good to know i poets or their Fine frenzy or their Etuate the Taka he a Bird of pow Erful build about the size of a tur key. Behind this attempt lies a Curi Ous Story. A or. Mantell first discovered traces the Taka he in volcanic Ash 101 years ago. It was taken to be an extinct species until in 1849 one was killed on Resolution. Island and a second two years later. For 2s years there was no record of another Bird until one was taken and its skin and Skeleton shipped to the Dresden museum. After 19 recollections in Tranquillity. To them at the moment when they lift the barbed Hook of the pad Dock Gate As they stoop Down wards to snap the switch of an electric Radiator will come sudden intimations immortality. A perfect of Trees the Cherry swing fully formed into their conscious Ness at the very instant when they Are performing some unconscious action and thereafter will come hours of desolation and self Dis another was caught and a Trust when they flog the thighs years half Century then passed during which the country grew More popu lated much Bush was destroyed new enemies appeared in the form of cats dogs rats and weasels. During this time the Taka he was listed with the Dodo and Moa. Last year a Colony was discovered by an Amateur ornithologist. Inasmuch As the Taka he is a Large Bird Brilliant plumage the conclusion appears unavoidable that a very Small group has sur Vived the hazards 100 years. Conditions Are of course wholly differ ent on the North american continent and it is an open question whether the great cranes now so sadly depleted in numbers can demonstrate a similar capacity for survival. Of their minds seeking in vain to recapture the Speed of inspiration. The idea ventured m the brilliance of language darts like a dragon Fly before them but the Energy of creation As the Energy of lust is quickly sated and there comes an after vacancy in which the sap no longer rises and the dragon flies appear for Ever to have left this dry and purposeless world. It has always interested me in Reading the biographies of poets to observe How invariable Are these fallow periods when they com Plain that their Muse has deserted them for Ever and when they murmur to themselves the sullen words not verse now on and then by some strange decaying Woods with Roung melancholy but toning his cadences within their Rains. The poets the great creative writers Are condemned to much returning misery but their moments of elation Are like stars singing aloud. The Ordinary professional writer is spared these phases of self hatred even As he s denied these flashes of apotheosis. He plods along quite happily and what is interesting to notice s the Many different ways in which such people plod. Minister Menzies puts Australia is not except in the technical sense at peace with rus Sia and that australian comm lists Are agents of the soviet. But one Legal critic has pointed out while politically australians May be living in a Twilight be tween War legally there must be either peace or War and As one opposition member asked in the House representatives if for practical purposes Australia is at War Why not forbid the ship ment of strategic material such As Wool to Russia at a time when soviet buyers Are Active at australian Wool auctions widest possible construction in wartime the High court has always Given the widest possible counted for the main part of the that United kingdom goods Are March result. For some time steel finding a greatly increased mar and engineering products have Ket in this country1. The right Solu been shipped to Canada in a lion of this problem undoubtedly steadily growing volume. Devalue is to enlarge British sales not by Tion has reduced the Dollar value placing quotas or tariffs against but in Many lines the value has goods of other countries but regained or surpassed the previous on a competitive basis. Prisoners in Russia conference of the big three a foreign ministers which met a few Days ago at London officially took note of the fact that the soviet government is condemning hundreds thousands War Cap Tives either to slavery or to death. The big three made a Declara Tion in this regard pointing out that Moscow on May 4 had officially declared that the repatriation of German prisoners of War Fror the soviet Union to Germany has now been this in itself was a gravely belated state ment since the soviet government from the Golden books from love thou thy land by lord Tennyson you ask me Why tho1 ill at ease within this Region i subsist whose spirits falter in the Mist and languish for the purple seas. It is the land that freemen till that sober suited Freedom chose the land where Girt with friends or Joes a Man May speak the thing he will. A land of settled government a land of just and old renown where Freedom slowly Broad ens Down from precedent to precedent. Even legislation authorizing the fixing of prices but the court has held that Many functions exercisable by the Commonwealth under the defence Power in wartime Are not applicable to conditions of peace. The communist party is unlikely to let pass any Opportunity of testing the tonality of the Bill in the High court. Should the Bill produce a double dissolution of parliament involving the re election of the whole Senate As Well As the House of representatives it will not be soon for it has twice to be submitted to and twice rejected or unacceptably amended by the Senate and the government will not seek a double dissolution until its Bil amending the system of. Senate Vot ing has been submitted a popu Lar referendum. That cannot be until september or october at the earliest. Construction to the defence Power along with the governments of the which has been held to justify Solhei. Victorious countries had entered into an agreement to com Pete repatriation of War prisoners by december 31, 1948. But in the soviet government s statement is not True. It is calculated from earlier statements made by the soviet government As Well As by information received by next of Kin of that As Many As germans must either have perished there or still be imprisoned. The big three s declaration reads in part the soviet statement stands in Sharp contradiction with the fact that a very Large number German families Are still awaiting the return of their relatives taken Pris Oner whom they have had direct news during their Captivity in the soviet Union. The ministers note furthermore the inconsistencies among the scant data furnished at differ ent times by the soviet government concerning the num Bers whereabouts and Fate of German prisoners of War and deported civilians. This Situa Tion reveals a grave disregard for human rights. Not isolated incident today s scripture Brethren if a Man be Over taken in a fault be which Are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. Galatians it is moreover apparent that this is not an isolated incident since the soviet government has also failed to re Patriate numerous nationals of German occupied countries taken prisoner during the War As Well As More than japanese nationals who still remain unaccounted for in soviet territory. The ministers have agreed that they will take All pos sible Steps to obtain information bearing on the Fate of prisoners of War and civilians not yet repatriated from the soviet Union and to bring about repatriation in the largest possible number of behaviour of this sort places the soviet government in its disregard for human life upon the same level of bestiality As the nazis and ;