“At last the ‘guardians of the peace’ have arrived.” This was the caption under
this cartoon by Le Devoir’s noted artist LaPalme commenting on the Gaspe Copper strike

at Murdochville, Quebec.

Political advice

L. H., Vancouver, B.C.: “He
who can take advice is some-
times superior to him who can

give it.

For obvious reasons I have
arrived at the following con-
. clusions. Will the LPP ever
move forward with the times?
Progress can only begin when
the old line parties are obliter-
ated. So, much as I hate to

admit it, the CCF is the only
party with sufficient backing
to do just that. A vote for
the LPP is a lost. vote at the
present time and in spite of
what M. J. Coldwell or anyone
else says the LPP should with-
draw all their candidates and
vote 100 percent for the CCF.
In this way the -long looked
for united, front is assured and
the old parties will be on the
way out.

The future will take care of
the disintegration of the CCF
opportunism, and out of the
ashes a new and more power-
ful LPP will lead the people
to a socialist victory in Can-
ada. I’ve always voted for the
LPP, but not any more until
the right time comes.

I know the Pacific Tribune
doesn’t agree with anonymous
letters, but some of us have to
conceal our identity to protect

our jobs. Half the rubbish in
the capitalist press is anony-
mous, so what?

The way to increase the cir-
culation of any paper is to pub-
lish the pros and cons of all
letters, regardless of opinions.
Letters are the essence of the
united front and the only way
we can express our thoughts
and acquire knowledge of the
clas¥ struggle and the way to
socialism. It pays to advertise.

Socialism needs a stimulant
and that stimulant is a greater
variation of public opinion for
discussion. Progress is made by
conflict of opinion.

Peace proposals

L. A., Vancouver, B.C.:. I
See that Britain has now got
into the act of making pro-
posals to have things now that
should come later and calling
them peace proposals, :

The
tions. Inspections to check on
fulfilment of agreements?
Why, no — just inspections.

.This, before agreement limit-

ing or outlawing nuclear wea-
pons, alters ndthing. It just
provides a chance to see what
the “enemy” has got.

Now Britain proposes the
registering of nuclear tests be-
forehand. Do we have no warn-
ing now? Why, yes. We have
warning of the British tests
and of the U.S. tests because
these are held on the high
seas, the highway of all.

Would this proposal help
peace? It’s doubtful. But. it
would tell Britain when the
Soviet Union plans tests be-
cause the Soviet tests are held
on land, the Soviet Union’s
own territory.

The trickery in such
posals is obvious.

pro-

women
stories of
persecution.
wherever

injustice,

been open to them.

Occasionally some
comes in with a story we
cannot check because it is
beyond our resources and
facilities.
test it, as you would a du-
bious coin, to see if it has
the ring of truth.

Just such a story was
told to me the other day by
a Blackfoot from the Blood
Indian Reserve near Card-
ston, Alberta, a man named
Duncan Dalles Battle.

In the eyes of the Depart-
ment of Indian Affairs,
Battle is a “trouble maker”
and his story has no justifi-
cation. But’then, as a young

daily, I had my own experi-
ence with the department,
which tried to suppress a
frank, honest story. I had
wriiten on the Native In-
dians. My story passed the
night editor, who was
drunk, and was in print be-
fore the department’s offi-

Hal Griffin

a= the years hundreds of men and

have come to this office with
discrimination and
Our doors and our columns,
it has been possible to verify
their stories, have always

one»

Then we can only

reporter on a Saskatchewan

4

cials arrived at their desks,
but it didn’t take them long
to reach for the phone. No
doubt they thought I was
a “trouble maker” too.

So I am not readily in-
clined to accept the denial
of men who have a policy to
defend without listening to
the grievance of a man who
has taken his people’s case
all the way to the United
Nations without obtaining
redress.

a Oo it

Battle, a well-dressed,
soft-spoken man in his fort-
ies, belongs to a band of
Blackfoot Indians who live
on a Blood Indian -reserve
between the St. Mary’s and
Belly rivers. The dispute
is over an agreement ar-
ranged by the Department
of Indian Affairs to lease
three townships. of. this re-
serve. The agreement runs
out in 1959 but is subject
to extension and expan-
sion upon the signatures of

any two chiefs.

The department claims
that the majority of the In-
dians are satisfied with the”
agreement. But Battle’s
story is enough to cause any
unprejudiced listener to
doubt this.

“When the agreement was
discussed the Indian agent
took a vote .and it was re-
jected,” he relates. “Then
he met with ten chiefs, six
of whom voted for acceprt-
ance and four. for an indi-
vidual canvass to determine
consent or rejection.”  In-
stead, the head chief, now
dead, was informed there
was a majority for the
agreement and persuaded to
sign.

“The first we knew that
the agreement had gone
through was. in 1949 when
heavy land-breaking equip-
ment was brought in.”

Battle and others wrote to
John Diefenbaker, MP, who
obtained copies of the orig-
inal surrender daqcuments
for them.

“By the time we got the
documents it was winter,”
says Battle, “and we-had to
ride 15 and 20 miles through
snow contacting band mem-
bers. We found that signa-
tures had been forged and
obtained affidavits to this
effect. Finally we called a
meeting, informed every

man how he was supposed
to have voted and discover-
ed that the majority were
against the agreement.”

From this point Battle’s
story has a familiar ring to
any one who has tried to
break through the influence
of an entrenched bureau-
cracy to find an ear still
capable of recognizing in-
justice.

The dissenting members
tried legal action and got

nowhere. Battle went to
Ottawa — but his reputa-
tion as a “trouble maker”
had preceded him. Walter

Harris, he claims, told him
that nothing could be done
and if the Indians wanted
the white man out they’d
have to get guns to drive
them out. He went to the
UN and was informed that
the case must be presented
through the Canadian gov-
ernment,

In the meantime, he says,
some of the Indians have
been bought over with lease
money and promises of new
homes, although they re-
ceived nothing in the first
two years.

That’s his story. Does it
have the ring of truth? If
only a fraction of it is true
it should cause some offi-
cial hand to reach for the
phone — dnd not to investi-
gate Battle either.

Prizewinning letters.

Each week the Paci-
fic Tribune will present
a book to the writer of
the most interesting, en-
tertaining and _ topical
letter published on this
page. Contributors are
urged to keep their let-
ters to a_ reasonable
length:

The prize-winning let-
ter in our last issue was
written by J.B., Vancou-
ver, B.C.

U.S. proposes -inspec-—

Columbia project

W. H. PHILLIPS, North
Vancouver, B.C.: Your issue of
May 17 warning -that a_ plot
may be under way to hand the
Columbia River power de-
velopment project over to the
B.C, Electric is very good and

an education to the public.
But it seems to miss some
points. :

Even if the B.C. Electric

does grab the Columbia, will
it continue to hold monopoly —
rights on the Fraser River
system for future development
or could its declared aband-
onment of plans to develop the
Fraser be only a blind

and one of these days we'll
find that the Moran Dam 1S
being built.

Will the provincial govern-
ment place reserves on the
Fraser system the same as it
has done on the Rocky Moun-
tain trench?

The Fraser is the most im-
mediate and necessary project
to B.C. The fish problem can
be handled with great benefit
to the province. The Fraser
will have to be farmed after
the pattern of our chicken and
turkey ranches. Sports fish
hatcheries prove it can be
done. Modern fishing; methods,
in the Soviet Union and else-
where, show that the small
fisherman is on the way out.

Who doubts it?

C. K. M., Nanaimo, B.C.:
The answer to your question

heading the front page of your

May 17 issue is obvious!
Columbia River deal for the
BCE is undoubtedly
way. Does anyone suppose for
a minute that the BCE has
been scratching the Socred
back all thesé years for noth-
ing?

And as for Mr. Howe and
his Liberals in Ottawa} any-
one who does not know that
the BCE and their ilk can
play both the Socreds and the
Liberals at the same time
must be, politically, babes 10
arms. “Progressive Conserva-
tives” — what a crime agains
the Queen’s English is that
word “Progressive”! —- may
rail against each other, and
damn each other by bell, book
and candle, but they are al
tarred with the same brush:
they are for big business first
the people second.

But none of your ,readers
needs to be told that! The
great pity is that, while the
right is having a Roman holl-
day, the left is all broken UP
into little bits. If, when the
day of reckoning comes, the
people cannot unite behin
honest and informed leader-
ship, fascism will stalk the
land as never before!

MAY 24, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 6 _

on the. -