Page Two

Ti

BE PE O72 is he S

ADVOCATER’E

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing
Association, Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRinity 2019.

One Vea y es $2.00 Three Months _._-3 .60
Half Year ___ $1.00 Single Copy _._.._$ -05

Make All Gheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C. Friday, June 2, 1939

Continued

Make Old Hotel Vancouver
A Civic Center!

vincial Recreation movement with
its many activities, could be pro-
vided, to name only a few of the pos-
sibilities.

There should be no further delay
or excuses. The City Council rec-
ognizes the need, the citizens have
voiced the demand, and the oppor-
tunity is here. If the Council does
not act, then Vancouver people must

“make their voices heard for an im-
mediate start on the project.

And Council members should not
forget — no civic administration
would survive the certain wave of
resentment that would follow the ig-
noring of this proposal and the crim-
inal demolition of one of Vancouv-
er’s most beautiful and potentially
useful buildings!

What Did the Tory
‘<Appeasers’’ Expect?

HE: rejection by the Soviet government of

the tricky “non-aggression” pact submit-

ted by the Chamberlain government surprised

no one who knew anything at all about inter-
national politics.

Driven to the wall by the collapse of his
rotten jpro-fascist “appeasement” policy,
Chamberlain was forced, to save the neck of
his government, to make a show of drawing
the Soviet Union into a three-power treaty
against Hitler.

But the proposals of Chamberlain were as
fraudulent as were all his other lying pro-
posals which culminated in the betrayal of
Czechoslovakia.

And this time, while making a show—1tor
consumption of an outraged public—of per-
forming an anti-aggression front, Chamber-
lain all the time was following his pro-Hitler
policy of “appeasement.”

This time, however, he found that he could
not fool the country of socialism by an offer
which left the small states bordering on the
Soviet Union unprotected by the so-called
pact and dependent on the Soviet Union alone
for defense.

The plain fact is that Chamberlain, con-
fronted with the disastrous consequences to
British interests of his betrayal of Spain and
Czechoslovakia, is, in sheer defense of im-
perialist interests—not in defense of democ-
racy—compelled to appeal to the Soviet Union
for aid.

The Soviet Union, always ready to aid in
the defense of democracy, quite correctly sees
in the proposals of Chamberlain only a scheme
to divert Hitler’s drive against British-French
interests in the Mediterranean to a Nazi drive
against the Soviet Ukraine. And, as Stalin
declared, the Soviet Union is not going to per-
mit itself to be a catspaw for pulling British-
French imperialist chestnuts out of the fire.

It can be seen, too, that the Soviet Union,
no more than intelligent people throughout
the world, can not trust the corrupt Chamber-
lain government and that before any workable
basis for real resistance to the fascist aggres-
sors can be reached, an indispensible condi-
tion is that the pro-fascist Chamberlain and
Daladier governments be destroyed.

Only a government of a people’s front, a_
real anti-fascist government, can possibly
make proposals that would be acceptable to
such a peace-desiring and alert government
as that of the Soviet Union.

And Dividends Keep on Climbing

|| Deere payments—received by those
who “own” for a living at the expense of
those who work for a living—reached an all-
time high record in 1937.

But dividend payments this year bid fair to
put 1937 deep in the shade.

During the first four months of the current
year dividends have totalled $70,380,853. In
1937 dividends during the similar period am-
ounted to $64,943,406.

Add to the soaring dividends the millions
in interest being paid out on bonds and you
will see that 1939 is a great year for those who
live on Canadian producers’ backs.

Wages scrape the bottom reached in the
depths of the economic crisis. Social and edu-
cational services are curtailed for lack of
money.

Industrial production limps, a million Ca-
nadians are on relief—yet the wealthy man-
age to squeeze more profits out of a limping
economic system than they did during the
days of prosperity.

World’s Greatest Peace Force

By EDWARD E. KiSCH
HE Red Army, with its one and a half million soldiers and
twelve million trained reserves, its 20,000 tanks, its 12,000
airplanes, is by far the most powerful army in the world.
It is powerful not because of its weapons alone but because

of its morale.

Modern conditions of war make discipline and the success
of the struggle dependent on conviction and morale rather than

on the primitive discipline of the
barrack square and blind obedi-
ence to orders.

New weapons and new methods
of warfare need a new discipline
based on intelligence and the de-
velopment of initiative in each in-
dividual soldier, and the close
connections between the army
and the people.

it is in this that the supreme
Strength of the Soviet Union lies
and in this also lies a funda-
mental weakness of the fascist
nations.

During the last war, morale
was built by telling the soldiers
that when it was over that youth
would be assured of a secure fu-
ture in “homes fit for heroes to
live in.”

It is tragic today to compare
these promises with the situation
as it exists for the unemployed,
for youth in blind-alley jobs and
with all the other ills to which
we are the heirs.

But in Soviet Russia, these
promises have been more than
fulfilled: Today in the Soviet
Union every opportunity is open
to youth for training, for study
and for a decent life.

e

TIS an age-old truism that men

will fight most vigorously to
defend that which they appreciate
and cherish.

Tt is the USSR, where the land
and the factories belong to the
people, that they have everything
to defend. This is the great source
of the strength of the Red Army.
But another source is the care
and attention which is paid to
every man in the army. Marshal
Voroshiloy declared at the recent
Congress of the Communist
Party that “the most important
and unrivaled treasure of the
Red Army is its men.”

The army is far more than 2
military machine, it is a great
school for education and culture

Japan

Y HER recent decree covering

registration of all gold hold-
ings Japan has made an unwill-
ing confession of her severe fi-
nancial-economic tension.

Every bit of gold, no matter in
what form (with amazingly few
exceptions such as gold fillings in
teeth and fountain pen points)
must be listed with the govern-
ment, Nor is the Tokio regime in-
terested in statistical games. This
is the first step to confiscation.

Here is admission that Japan’s
war chest is just about empty.

China’s leaders are fully aware
of these basic facts and many
more which the Japanese have
not yet let out.

Speaking of Japan’s coming
catastrophe, Generalissimo Chi-
ang Kai-shek in an address in
Chungking said that he hoped
that “the Japanese collapse
would not come too late to avert
a vaster war involving the entire
globe.”

In the May 24 number of the
Far Eastern Survey (a fortnight-
ly research publication of the Am-
erican Council of the Institute of
Pacific Relations) there appears
an article which uncovers some
surprising truths about Japan’s
economy and foreign trade as
conditioned by Nipponese ageres-
sion in China.

The author, Miriam S. Farley,
says that Japan’s war “has led
to violent dislocation of estab-
lished trade channels and instead
of 2 war boom there have been
losses all along the line.”

@

APAN is suffering especially

from an acute shortage of for-
eign exchange.

This is forcing severe curtail-
ment of purchases of raw mate-
rials from abroad. In an effort
to overcome this situation a rigid
control of imports has been im-
posed. But even the trade in war

as well. Last year 230 million
roubles (more than a billion dol-
lars) were spent on this work
alone.

The Red Army has more than
2,000 libraries with over 25,000,-
000 books. “The whole Red Army
is a vast school where the com-
manders and soldiers study ener-
getically,” Voroshilov has ex-
plained.

@

IN NO other army in the world
is SO much care taken of the
individual. Technical training is
developed to the highest degree
in the Red Army. When he leaves
he can be certain that not only
will a skilled job be open, but that
to have been a Red Army man is

the highest recommendation.

Of the officers Pierre Cot,
former Hrench Minister of De-
fense, says, “They are young.
They work hard. Their intellec-
tual activity is remarkable. Every-—
where throughout the Red Army
we found laboratories, workshops
and technical equipment for in-
dependent work which aroused
our admiration!”

The officers academies with
16,000 students are open to every-
one by merit alone. The over-
whelming majority of higher of-
ficers are young men between the
ages of 25 and 40 and the late
commander of the Ural Military
District was one of the leading
athletes in the country and a
champion skier.

The aim of the army is not
only to turn out good soldiers but
“thinking socialist citizens.”

Every political right, the right
to vote and to be elected to the
hghest governing bodies, the right
to hold political meetings is guar-
anteed to Red Army men. Every
opportunity is given to play a full
part in the political life of the
country and many serving Red
Army men are members of the
Supreme Soviet (the highest gov-

ernment body) and of the local
and district Soviets.
.
QUALLY important is the link
between the army and the
people, and their close unity.

The education that is carried
out, the study of political ques-
tions which is an integral part of
their training, the active part
they play in the political and so-
cial life of the country is the
guarantee that such an army can
never be used against the interest
of the people.

The besetting fear of mutiny
which haunts the commanders of
the armies of capitalist countries,
which leads them to separate the
army from the people lest it be-
come “tainted,” which sends regi-
ments away from their home dis—
tricts lest they mingle with the
people—this is banished for ever.

The Red Army is part of the
people and has the closest links
with them. Long ago, General
Ludendorf declared that the peo—
ple do not understand (and there—
fore support) a war of aggression.
It was necessary therefore to
hoodwink them with lies.

Today with the remembrance
of the lies of the last war it is
more than ever difficult to de—
ceive the people and only a real
policy of defence can rally the
majority of the people solidly be—
hind their government

@

INLY the Soviet Union, which
eovets no one else’s territory,
which has consistently pursued
a policy of resisting aggression,
has in this land the basis of a
morale which cannot be broken.
it is this combination of morale
and tremendous armaments
which makes the Red Army in-

vincible. They, m=-re than any
other country, have developed
the new forms of organization
- and discipline which enable

them to make fullest use of the
new weapons.

There are no powerful interests
which bar the way to use new
anventions and hold up produc-
tion.

They have bought the best mod-
els of tanks, for instance, from
each country and adapted them

(Continued on page 5)
See PEACE FORCE

Has ‘Yen’ Trouble

mateirals. says Miss Farley, has
felt the pinch of restriction.
Hence, the Japanese govern-

ment is getting ready to relieve
the Japanese people of their gold
rings and the like, and if the To-
kio treasury could have its way,
with the approval of the military,

all gold teeth would also be
pulled.
Japan’s financial difficulties

have produced a peculiar pheno-
menon,. The money of the boastful
aggressor imperialist power (the
Japanese yen) is valued below the
Chinese dollar, the currency of
the attacked nation.

In brief, China’s money has a
stronger backing than that of
Japan. This seems paradoxical.
And when the war started it ap-
peared almost impossible to cer-
tain skeptics and friends of the
Japanese aggressors.

Se
highly integrated
economy was sapped by its
giant war machine, and when
Chinese resistance compelled the
expenditure of ten times the
amount calculated by the Tokio
strategists to attain one-twentieth
less than the objectives anticipat-
ed, the results were disastrous to
Japanese economy.

Meanwhile, China’s more flex-
ible economy, and the retention
of economic and political control
by Ghina in vast areas claimed
by the Nipponese aggressors,
gave China an advantage that
her enemies did not foresee

@

ESIDES losing heavily all
around in foreign trade, al-
ways so vital to Japan, her war
economy has worked to the ad-
vantage of her competitors in
markets where Tokio previously

was making speedy headway.
“The difficulties heaped upon
Japan’s export trade,” writes Miss
Farley, “have proved boons to her

UT Japan’s

competitors. For instance, the
competitive position of American
manufacturers has been strength-
ened in Latin-America and the
Philippines, as well as in the
home market; and there seems
to have been some shift in Amer-
ican purchases towards Europe
as well.

“For the sake of anticipated
Sreater gains in China, Japan
has deliberately given up advan-
tages in her older markets.”

But in South America and the
Philippines the Tokio aggressors
are cooperating with the Rome
Berlin axis, endeavoring by poli-
tical intrigue to make up what
is being lost in trade.

Tokio is especially concentrat—
ing in the Philippines for this
purpose.

e@

APAN’S economy and finance

have been so weakened by the
aggressions in China that even
partial restrictions on war mate-
rials from the United States
would have a drastic effect.

Japan still counts on certain
credit resources in the United
States to carry her alone When
the records are finally examined
it will be found that such finan-
ciers and trust magnates as J. P.
Morgan, the Du Ponts, and Henry
Ford, are contributing in more
ways than one in a futile effort
to save Japan from the catas-
trophic effects of her rapidly
erupting economic crisis.

Within Japan the political con-
sequences are varied. Though
there are very few reports we can
be certain that mass discontent
is growing.

The results on top are more vis-
ible in the press. We already read
of sharp conflicts over policy,
whether to take the desperate
plunge along with the Rome-Ber-
lin military pact or whether, more
concentratedly, to court “appease-
ment” concessions.

Comments From Our Readers

FRED CARR REPLIES.
Editor, People’s Advocate:

Replying to Mr. Chiverton’s let-
ter of criticism on my remarks at
the Open Forum meeting in Fleet-
wood Hall recently, I must ac-
knowledge that the writer’s point
ed remarks brought forward in
a very good manner the prelim-
inary steps that must be taken
in bringing into life the proposals
brought forward at that meeting.

The meeting was held to de-
termine the immediate program
that the various political parties
had to offer the people as an an-
swer to their problems.

Had Mr. Chiverton been pres-
ent, he would have heard me
state that it was only through
unity of the people that my pro-
posals could be realized and that
only by starting with our local
administrative bodies, and con-
tinuing onward through the pro-
vincial and federal administra-
tions would the program be
realized.

My main stress was placed on
the fact that we in Canada could
have an excellent standard of

living, pay all government ex-
penses, make larger grants to the
municipalities, and remove from
the overburdened taxpayer in the
small income bracket the present
rate of taxation which is rapidly
becoming confiscation.

Allthis could be done by taxing
those who could afford to pay
much more without jejopardizing
their needs, since the rate of
profit in Canadian business is
approximately twice that of the
United States, while our income
tax rate is very low compared to
that of Great Britain.

Tf Mr. Chiverton and all those
who realize the necessity of tax
revision would demand that such
steps, as contained in the brief
submitted by the Communist Par-
ty to the Rowell Commission on
Dominion-Provincial Relations,
should become the law, then pres-
sure could be placed on our pub-
lic men to that end. The steps
to be taken would naturally be as
has been stated through our
own municipal bodies and thence
onward.

—FRED CARR.

THANES SUPPORTERS
Editor, People’s Advocate:

Would you kindly print the fol-
lowing note of thanks in your
current issue:

On behalf of the Langley press
drive committee I wish to extend
our sincere thanks to our many
subscribers and friends for the
support which enabled our com-
mittee to win the provincial hon-
ors and set a press drive record.

We feel the success of the Ad-
vwocate press drive is a fitting an-
swer to the Leadership League
and Mr. George McCullagh. May
there be many such answers.

HAROLD ELD.

Editors Note: May the edi-
tor, on behalf of the entire staff,
also extend thanks to Mr. Eld
and the members of his com-
mittee for their splendid work.
Their success was a tribute to
the effectiveness of the Peo-
ple’s Advocate and clear evi-
dence that BC needs and will
continue to build the progres-
Sive press,

SHORT JABS

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Ol’ Bill

Why Following the lead of their

European fellow gangsters,
Not? ~ Hitler and Mussolini, the Jap-
anese fascists have turned to acts of piracy on the
high seas. The case of the P. and O. liner Ranpura,
reported in the press during the past week, is not
the first of its kind.

A couple of months ago, although it got little
publicity in the press, Japanese government pirates
boarded the British steamer Sagres, took the crew
off and shipped them to Hong Kong, put a prize

crew aboard and took the Sagres into a Japanese
harbor.

An SOS had been sent out by the captain, and
during the “incident,” it was answered by HMMS
Thracian. The Japanese refused to allow Her com-
mander to board the Sagres, just laughed at him,
in fact, and the Sagres is still in the hands of the
pirates. And he Chamberlain government does
nothing about it, although they are “considering”
a “stiff note” about the Ranpura.

Vernon Bartlett, writing in the News Chronicle
compares this do-nothing policy of the Chamber
lains with that of the Soviet government in similar
circumstances. The Japanese, he says, captured 4
Soviet ship as they seized the Sagres. The Soviet
government did not waste any time sending pro-
tests but sent destroyers out and arrested a Japan-
ese merchant vessel. Without any more palaver
the Soviet ship was released.

Britain has the biggest navy in the world and

there are plenty of Japanese maru boats to be
picked up! :

Flags And The royal visit was respon-
B x sible for an exposure of the

unting bourgeois method of dealing
with problems the solution of which does not pay
dividends.

The Greater Vancouver Youth Council ferward-
ed a resolution to the City Council pointing out that
“several buildings of prominent position on or near
the route of the procession are covered with dirt
and grime of many years” and requesting the Gity
authorities to try to have something done about it

City Hall officials questioned on the matter
stated that the buildings could not be cleaned suc-
cessfully but “since they would be profusely covered
with flags and bunting the grime and dirt would
not be seen.”

This is the good bourgeois method of handling
all the sores and evils of society—if they do not
give promise of fat dividends. For this reason thou-
sands of our people musi live in vermin infested
slums which should have been razed years ago.

Behind a showy facade of “flags and bunting” is
hidden the hand of the destroying angel, the accu-
mulated filth, the dieases, which sap the health
and vitality of the people. But the good bourgeois
is only interested in 6, 7, 10, 15 percent, so, as the
“noble” Romans used to say, “duet the carrion rot”

Something There is one exception, how-
E U ever, to this general rule, an

or Ss exception which makes the
individual bourgeois dig up some of his ill-gotten
wealth. He fears the consequences of his own nig-
gardliness if the institutions he worships should

suffer thereby. This was also demonstrated during
the royal visit.

Im many cases the poles carryine the wires of
the BC Collectrie grid have been doing duty for
nearly forty years or even more, when they were
installed at the expense of the Vancouver people who
desired to have electric lighting in their homes or
stores. Many of them are so rotten that they are
held up by the wires. Nobody worried about them
falling on long-suffering John Taxpayer of Van-
couver. But if you happened to be on the route of
the royal procession during the last few weeks, you
might have seen BCG CGollectric linemen inspecting
poles, crossarms and wires. All defective poles were
dug out and replaced and crossarms and wires made

safe so that nothing untoward should mar the
royal progress.

Let’s hope the King pays ancther visit soon and
makes a longer and more extended tour of the city.
He has done more for us with this greedy plunder

bund than the aldermen who paid him gastronomic
homage seem capable of

Build-up For The joke of the airways this
week ! “Chamberlain hopes to

Chamberlain convince the Soviet Union
that they should sign the treaty against aggression.”

Ever since the rape of Czechoslovakia, Cham-
berlain has been doing everything in his power to
prevent the proposals of the Soviet Union being
adopted, knowing well as he does that this is the
only plan yet proposed which will halt the murder
program of Hitler and Mussolini.

The three-power alliance for immediate and con-
ecerted action against aggressors, proposed by the
Soviet Union, is the best guarantee of peace. It is a
a demonstration of power against which the fascist
gangsters quail. This is proven already in the
change of tone, from the bluster and sword-rattling
of a few weeks ago to the dove-like cooing of today,
by both Hitler and Mussolini.

Already before the treaty is signed they no longer
demand Tunis, Corsica, Nice or Danzig but talk
of “discussion.” Since the threat of a treaty has
produced this effect, will the actual treaty not be a
powerful factor ror peace?

The terms of the treaty which will be signed are
those originally proposed by the Soviet government
and steadfastly maintained. These terms demand
that Britain assume equal obligations with the other
signatories, instead of as Chamberlain demanded,
a unilateral undertaking in which the Soviet Union
was to be left to tackle Nazi Germany and Fascist
italy alone. During these intervening months
Chamberlain ,showing his hatred of the Soviet
Union, has executed every Manoeuver to prevent this
peace alliance, but the weight of public opinion, of
the British people who have no desire to become
fascist slaves, has forced his hand.

The Soviet Union’s plan is the same in principle
as that proposed on their behalf by Litvinov before
Chamberlain
3000 planes should fly from Paris and Moscow to
Prague and that the British navy should demon-
strate in the North Sea. Had this been done then
G@zechoslovakia would still be a tower of strensth
for peace and Germany might have been on the way
to joining the ranks of the democracies.

The Gliveden set, and their papers, the Times and
the Observer, then proclaimed that the Soviet air
service was a miserable affair and that all the Red
Army generals had been shot and the Red Army
was not to be depended on. Today they sing dif
ferently. But it is the people of Britain who have
brought about the change, not Chamberlain or his
Tory reactionary clique.

5 7

sola Czechoslovakia to Mitler—that ~

/

mo
}

a]
y tS

i

Sap erer

eager:

i
i
{