Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 29, 1978, Winnipeg, Manitoba Printed and published Dally except sunday by the Winnipeg free press. 300 Carlton Street. Winnipeg. Manitoba. A division of . Publications Western United. Richard c. Malone publisher Peter Mclintock editor r. H. Shelford pies and Gen. Mgt. Maurice Western Ottawa editor r. S. Malone chairman Winnipeg free press monday May 29, 1978 pages 33-48 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights illogical intervention Quebec Liberal Leader Claude Ryan in his lofty fashion has intervened in the budget controversy offer ing a Choice of methods by which the difference Between Federal finance minister Jean Chretien and Quebec finance minister Jacques Parizeau might be resolved. Either the minister of finance should collect and pay Over million to Quebec or else he should lower Federal income tax in the province sufficiently to permit or. Parizeau to collect the Money. Unfortunately or. Ryan s notion of Compromise is not impressive. By one Means or the other or. Parizeau would be Given exactly what he wants. Or. Chretien May have less to fear from his enemies than from his political friends. It is unacceptable in or. Ryan s View that the Federal assistance should go directly to Quebec taxpayers in the form of rebates instead of to the Quebec govern ment. The solution of direct payments. Is incompatible with the True Federal spirit it is administratively costly and cumbersome and socially the Liberal Leader explains that each province is Sovereign in this Field of taxation and is in consequence free to define itself its policies in this there Are at least two valid objections to or. Chretien s revised scheme. The first is that income tax rebates some of which will be diverted to savings cannot have the direct economic Impact of sales tax reductions. Secondly they amount to a special Deal not open to other provinces. There is Manifest unfairness Here but it is not Quebec which is the victim of injustice it is the other provinces especially Alberta which have a reasonable grievance. A Quebec family will receive free of strings an Alberta family in the same tax bracket nothing. Why then is or. Ryan in such strange company lending his support to a provincial finance minister who played the trickster role in his dealings with or. Chretien if the Federal government has a right to Levy income tax in Quebec As it does How can it be incompatible with the spirit of federalism for the same government to make rebates to Quebec citizens no doubt the arrangement is costly and cumbersome but it is certainly not unique in that regard. As for social Justice what guarantee of a better Deal does or. Ryan have from or. Parizeau to suggest that provincial tax sovereignty is some How violated by the payment of Money from Ottawa is preposterous. No one forced or. Parizeau to do anything the pressure reinforced now by or. Ryan is on or. Chretien. Many people placed High Hopes in the new Quebec opposition Leader. Unless he improves his performance they will be sadly disappointed. Portugal needs help the administrative Arm of the european economic Community has produced its written opinion on the request of Portugal for Community membership. A Bleak document it is. Realistically the opinion describes the severe eco nomic effects that would follow Portugal s admission in its current unprepared state. Tough Competition from established efficient industries inside the dec would Force some portuguese industries in identical Fields to the Wall. Regional disparities within Portugal would be accentuated and exaggerated. General economic hardship for Many portuguese could be the result at least in the Short to Middle term. Politically the opinion emphasizes Portugal cannot be left outside the european integration process if its hard won democracy is not to be placed under grave Strain. What does the opinion Advance As a Way out the sensible suggestion is that Portugal must immediately and urgently undertake profound social and economic reforms and must make As its priority the progressive reduction of the country s balance of payments deficit. Doing both things together will require Strong support from the european economic Community both financial and technical. The Community s commission or administration will Start the process by assisting Portugal in drafting its next five year economic plan. Political Lead ers of the Community will have to apply pressure within the International monetary fund to make it easier for Portugal to obtain new credits and easier terms on Loans As they become necessary. These suggestions Are helpful. They provide a Frame work for developing an International strategy for helping Portugal that goes beyond the recent if loan with its concomitant requirements for Domestic austerity Mea sures. Signer Lorenzo Natali the commissioner responsible for Community enlargement proposals was right when he said Industrial expansion runs the risk of being held Back if austerity measures have to be applied for too Long a this useful report should be studied by those politicians and civil servants in Ottawa who Are responsible for Canada s current niggardly policy towards helping por Tugal. Under the dome by Arlene Billinkoff Congo chickens coming Home to Roost in can take part of the blame paper Tiger the Public position taken by officials of the retail store employees Union has led Many Manitoban to be Lieve that they could be fac ing a supermarket strike in less than two weeks. However this perception is based on a cursory Reading of the reports and a casual examination of the rather complicated wording of the onion statements. The fact never hidden but Seldom emphasized is that the onion members have yet to be asked whether they want a strike. The onion officials who have set what they cafe a strike deadline of Jone 4, have yet to Call a Strite vote among their City Ber Sheip. When tace Sion strike deadline Rohs prot we. The Fly Jug Sec do Jar Pew that we Fol officials put the final proposals before the membership and ask for a vote to strike. They May get this approval but it must be remembered that the last attempt to pull store employees off the Job resulted in a number of the Union Mem Bers remaining at work be cause they wanted and needed the income. In the settlement that Fol Lowed the strike the Union obtained from management agreement that there would be no recriminations but management obtained from the Union agreement that there would be no action taken Agar St those who had decided to remain at work. It is a reseal for a onion to set a strike deadline before Caffine a strike vote unless. Of coarse Boob officials Are not Sere jest Bow port they Tan expect in a strike Affif. And so the chickens have come Home to Roost. Some Are rather ancient hens from the court of King Leopold who had run the Bel Gian Congo As if it had been his medieval fief and left it without any educated class. Some Are the chickens of an Gola and the . Senator Dick Clark s Bill that turned Angola into a soviet pre serve. But most of them Are the 18-year-old Chicks hatched at the United nations in 1960. It was the year when belgian Congo was de colonized and the United nations decreed in its Folly that the country had to remain whole whether or not the people wished so or whether or not personnel was available to administer this huge disparate country. Few in the West will re member Patrice Lumumba the congolese postal clerk who had served a prison term for minor speculations and whose name was later bestowed on a University in Moscow set up to produce pliant communist african leaders. Or. Lumumba became the Congo s first Premier his Assumption of Power being accompanied by massacres riots and uprisings that moved the United nations to Muster an Strong peace keeping Force. Meanwhile however Moise Tshombe the Leader of what then was known As Katanga and what has become since the Shaba province declared his province s Independence. Or. Tshombe had at his disposal the most disciplined native Force left behind by the departing belgians the Katanga gendarmerie. And Katanga indeed remained an Oasis of peace in the riot wracked country. On july 18, 1960, or. Tshombe explained Why he had led his province into secession since the Congo had become Independent tactics of disorganization and terror had been put into opera Tion tactics which we have seen applied in Many countries which Are now under communist dictator he accused the Lumumba regime of creating chaos to oust the belgian technicians and replace them with experts already recruited from communist countries. Rather than sub today s scripture my beloved spake and said unto me. Rise up my love my fair one and come away. For. K the Winter is past the rain is Over and gone. The Flowers appear on the Earth the of the singing of Birds is come and the voice of the Tartle is heard m our land. The Fig tree Zetteth her preen figs and the vises with the tender grape give a Good Someji. Arts Ray Jove my fair and it wac the by . Manor Mit to the communist tendencies of the Lumumba government the Katanga government had decided to proclaim the province s in whereupon the soviet government sent a cultural Mission to pre Mier Lumumba As Well As trucks aircraft and similar cultural accoutrements. In Washington president Eisenhower As was his wont took a very serious View of the soviet action that seems motivated entirely by soviet designs in Strong words but deeds were left to the then in Secretary general Dag Hammarskjold who was deter mined to crush the Katanga secession. In due course in troops occupied Katanga the swedes shooting belgian civilians in the process. How Ever doing away with Katanga s separatism did not bring peace to the newly in dependent country. Bloody feuds among the Small elite continued or. Lumumba was killed or. Tshombe was forced into exile eventually to be kidnapped in an impudent hijacking organized by the algerian government. He was then left to die in an algerian prison while the West remained discreetly silent. In the end. General Mobutu sese seko a former ser Geant in the belgian colonial Force took Over the Congo to Institute a despotic corrupt and bankrupt regime albeit pro Western but wholly in capable of maintaining order and bringing Prosperity to a country that is among the world s richest. The Chance of having a Well run state in a Region that next to saudi Arabia constitutes the richest strategic prize in the world was thus missed. From the Cru Sade of Dag Hammarskjold. Determined to remove All vestiges of Western influence from the Congo to the complacent and uninformed musings of the . Ambas Sador to the in Andy Young the West in a setae Struc Tive fury has done everything in its Power to facilitate the soviet Union s Long term plans to seize Africa s raw materials indispensable to Western econ omy. The Shaba province which is larger than France contains Copper mines that have turned Zaire into the world s sixth largest producer of Copper and the third largest exporter. It also contains per cent of the Sappy of Cobalt essential for use Jet eagles and prod Metal alloys. It is the world s Foremost producer of Indus trial diamonds and it has Gold Platinum uranium and tin As Well As being Rich in Coffee and tobacco plantations cattle ranches and Rice Fields. It is difficult to establish the identity of today s secessionists. It is rather unlikely that they Are the now Middle aged Katanga gendarmes chased from the province by the swedish in forces 18 years ago. Reports speak of boys of 14 to 18 years old carrying automatic weapons and shooting at random. And although British and Ameri can sources have strenuously denied any direct cuban involvement in the affair be Figaro of Paris stated categorically that cubans were in command of the tanks that spearheaded the invasion. Nor were the massacres Mere random murders. There was a calculated at tempt to kill essential mine personnel among the assassinated Blacks were a Large number of technically trained congolese mine workers. At the modern cop per mine of Kolwe i the entire White technical staff of highly skilled specialists was massacred. It was indeed a carefully planned operation and it had been planned for a Long time. The soviet Union which obviously had been told by a Little Bird that there would be a shortage of Cobalt in re cent months bought up a major share of the world Supply of this Metal. They had a shrewd inkling of what was going to said the British chairman of the minor metals traders association in London. It was preemptive buying in expectation of a cheers the Las have decided to have one More for the Road one More Glass of liquor debate before embarking on a difficult journey through matters such As family Law. If nothing else the subject is familiar. Every few years it becomes the Centre of relatively Brief but heated de Bate. Before the 1973 elec Tion the nip had introduced the legislation which eventually lowered the drinking age to 18. Last year Bob Banman then an opposition la attempted to raise the age limit to 19. In a free vote All but one tory supported the Bill. The nip and Liber als split but the legislation was Defeated 27 to 23. Since then because of a change in government there has been a change in num Bers with the tories holding a secure majority. If they vote again As a relatively United group the drinking age will be increased. However that vote will not occur immediately. As Al Bert Driedger the Man who introduced the new Bill stated it was a time for Educa Tion. With 17 new Las in the chamber it was important to get them involved and hear the arguments. Thus he hoped everyone would become aware of their responsibility to pass Good legislation. Obviously or. Driedger did not believe the present act was acceptable. He acknowledged that opposition would focus on the fact that the present age of majority is 18, and that it would not make sense to have the age at which a Young person is permitted to drink different from the age at which Young people Are eligible to vote enter the armed forces and be beneficiaries of a Multi tude of rights available to an adult. However he believed that the majority did not feel that Young people could make decisions about drink ing. Emphasizing that Point he read a letter from one citizen who claimed the people had had no voice in the matter of lowering the age. Instead it had been a Small group who had robbed our youth of three precious years of development by lowering the age. Or. Driedger did not necessarily agree with that argument but he wanted to get drinking out of High schools. This move was not directed to responsible people and really would not take away a privilege he maintained. While his Bill would not solve the problem he believed it was step in the right direct Ion. The pendulum did seem to be swinging in that direction but Sidney Green remained Adamant. Rather than less ening the problem As or. Driedger hoped he believed this Bill would increase irresponsible drinking in Mani Toba. It was not a new argument he admitted but there was an irony in the tories pres enting such a Bill. They had always been the party which preached a minimum of government interference but they seemed to draw a line at at the moral level he believed they tended to abandon Freedom and favor state control. Did not they realize that the Best rather than the worst would emerge when people Are granted human Freedom this problem was nothing new he admitted and the stricter the Law the More responsible people became. The Laws that existed in 1956 were an example when there were More cases of irresponsible and unacceptable drinking habits than at present. We All broke the because it was for Bidden this Bill would have a Simi Lar effect. It would not affect the drinking habits of 18 year Olds. Instead it would Tell them that they were irresponsible and would create irresponsibility. Only non restrictive Laws would give responsibility a Chance. It was a Good argument again. However this time it is less Likely that the Mes Sage espoused by or. Green will be supported by a major Ity. Nevertheless the ensuing debate will be a relaxing interlude. One More for the Road seems to be the order of the Day. Too much Energy no users r Reykjavik Iceland Iceland s Economy seems to swim or sink with the vagaries of the fish mar Ket. Given the inherent instability of both fish resources and the demand for fish products in other countries Iceland s economic base has been rather shaky in the 1970s. This has produced a Type of inflation that is Well understood though remedies for it remain elusive. Consumer prices in ice land have increased by 177 per cent since 1972. As against a 51.5 per cent aver age in the Recd countries and 43.5 per cent in the United states. But wages have similarly increased. Local socialist dominated labor unions went on strike in april and blocked the shipments of vital exports. The strike was in retaliation against a newly passed Law that Cut in half a previous Cost of living Index old contracts said that employers must automatically increase wages by ten per cent every three months. Icelandic economists see part of the problem As being due to the country s relate Iceland s Power dilemma by Jeff Endrst Cly High Standard of living. In 1976, the average income was a year. This is equal to that of France below that of West Germany but Way above Britain s average income. To maintain this Standard Iceland must keep up its exports. But there is very Little to Export except fish. Most other consumer articles must be imported and that is where Iceland sometimes must forget East West poli tics and get the Best Avail Able Deal. As a result Iceland buys its Oil from the soviet Union. When Britain stopped buying fish from Iceland in 1952, the soviets agreed to buy the surplus fish. They remain among Iceland s important customers although the United states is by far ice land s biggest Market. The soviets also buy ships the Cost of which would make them uncompetitive in other countries. Remembered words the Shepherd bands that roamed through the Young world the glory extreme of High sesostris. And that so Cubera beam. The laughing ;