NEW STAGE IN CANADIAN-SOVIET RELATIONS

‘Neighbors across North Pole’

By SERGEI MOLOCHKOV
MOSCOW
The Soviet farm delegation’s

Visit to Canada, the visit paid to |:

ts Country by Canadian Fisher-
S Minister James Sinclair and
© visit by Canadian External
: fairs Minister Lester B. Pear-
On, have been received with
Widespread satisfaction by the
Public here, People hope that,
With the tension in the world be-
Smning to let up, these visits
Will mark the commencement of
New stage in relations with
anada, :
Ayle potentialities for friendly
®S between the people of our
WO countries are much broader
4 might appear at first sight.
ee begin with, both countries
he Tougshly in the same climatic
b t. Both have large territories
“Yond the Arctic Circle; and in
“veloping these territories, with
“it rich natural resources, they
€Q encounter the same diffi-
CUltias.
ee €xpediency of cooperating
he effort to open up the North
realized long before our

ay: Back in the eighties Can-
‘n 7an and Russian explorers
Unched a joint program of

year Arctic observation, which
S Successfully carried out. The
lar station set up by the Can-
ee at Great Slave Lake was
fem in this common plan.
1€ work done by the Soviet’
Loe in opening up its Arctic
oy sories has always been fol-
Ge With interest in Canada.
the nen, in the early thirties,
with ng government was faced
j the problem of counteract-
Se drastic decline in the
i €er population of Arctic
Rada, it bought in Alaska a
Whi herd of Siberian reindeer,
ae had been introduced from
tent ta at the end of the last}
Ury,

Many of the practices employ-
of 3 the Northern nationalities
.“€ Soviet Union in -raising
Valuable animal were taken
In this scheme, which was
erenvised by the Northwest
‘tories Administration.
city Se aba
much Soviet farm delegation saw
ing 4, 0f interest and value dur-
Its Tecent visit to: Canada.
bap dian newspapers for their
Visit Temarked in discussing its
vd that Canada could benefit
Dotap ine on Soviet experience,
tur al Y in acclimatizing agricul-
Crops further North than
An eeo™ at present.
been Mpts along these lines have
tha Made with good success in
t Dast,
Pants 1881-82 a visit to various
Slaw. of North and Central Rus-
of @S paid by Dr. Charles Gibb
Styg;, pPOtsford, Quebec, who
aged the possibilities of intro-
dys “8 Russian varieties of vari-
lay “tops in Canada and particu-
Studi I the Northern areas. His
Rened, aroused lively interest in
og 8, especially in the matter
Centres. In 1887, Canada’s
tup al Experimental Agricul-
Whe Farm distributed Russian
to farmers in Manitoba
top} the then Northwest Terri-
Albert Now Saskatchewan and
§dmj ta, This wheat, by general
tang ‘sion, played a very impor-
fam, Part in evolving the world-
Ag _Wheats of Canada.
Soyi in, the remarkable résults
et
&q
a

Ver

i Plant breeders have secur-
 Tecent decades in growing
aby, © Variety of fruits, veget-

8nd cereals in the North
of great interest: to
ver viously, if sharing of ex-
og ee in various branches
Veay, Search and practical en-
tog, -* Was fruitful in the past,
> When both countries

© a highly developed agri-

Here Canada’s External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson (left) is seen with Soviet Communist party secretary Nikita

Krushehev (centre) and Soviet Premier Nicolai Bulganin in discussions held in Crimea.

culture and industry, the pros-
pects it affords are still wider.

When Sinclair was in Vladi-
vostok he said that exchange
visits of fishing experts would
be arranged next year. This is
a very important thing, he said.
We're both Northern nations, and
we want peace and friendship
between our peoples.

Fishing, lumbering, hyroengi-
neering, ore mining and refining,
the chemical .and many other
industries, not to speak of agri-
culture and Arctic exploration—
in all these fields pooling of ex-
perience can be of far-reaching
value.

xt xt it
“Immense potentialities f or
building up Canadian - Soviet

economic intercourse reside in
developing air communications.
With the progress of aviation,
man has learned to look at the
relative geographical positions of
Canada and the USSR from a

novel viewpoint — the North
Pole.
In the words of the late

Mackenzie King, “in the new
world which air power is mak-
ing Russia, next to the United

States is becoming our nearest
neighbor. ... The Arctic wastes,
so long an impenetrable ‘bar-

rier between us, are now com-
ing to join us closer.”

The possibility of non-stop
over-the-Pole flights from the
Soviet Union to North America
was demonstrated by Soviet air-
men even before the war. And
aviation has gone on far ahead
since then. So that today over-
the-Pole air traffic between Can-
ada and the Soviet Union is a
perfectly practical and feasible
proposition.

Nor is it only from Canada to
the Soviet Union that the North-
ern route is the shortest. Planes
flying from New York to Mos-
cow, from Chicago to Calcutta,
from San Francisco to Shanghai
would all save considerable time
by heading across the Canadian
northland and the USSR. And
valuable service in the operation
of these lines could be given by
the Arctic meteorological stations
of the Soviet Union and the “dis-
tant early warning” systems
which the military have been
building so intensively in the

Canadian northland.
503 Be ot

An important factor in build-
ing up friendship between” the
Canadian and Russian peoples is
broader cultural intercourse.

A number of Soviet scientists
and public leaders have visited
Canada in the post-war years.
Soviet artists have gone there
too, and have performed with
much success before Canadian
audiences. In the same _ way,
many Canadian delegations, from
trade unions’ and other public

organizations, have come here.
But there is still room for ex-
tending these cultural contacts,
and more mutual visits by scien-
tists, students and tourists, more
book exchange, more exchange
of exhibitions, giving us an in-
sight into each other’s life would
be highly desirable. .
Contact in the realm of sports
would likewise be very wel-
come. Sports fans in this coun-
try are much interested in Can-
adian sports; and it may be
safely said that exchange of

sports delegations, and especi-
ally a visit by Canada’s splen-
did ice-hockey players, would
be hailed enthusiastically both
by our athletes and by fans.

In the past, closer ties between
our peoples were hindered not
only by distance and the barrier
of the Arctic, but by. the lack of
information and by feelings of
mistrust. The development of
intercotrse in various fields will
help to melt the ice of mistrust.

A beginning has already been
made.

By LLEW GARDNER

PARIS

A French diplomat, Mme. Rose-
Marie Ollier, whom Vladimir
Petrov had accused of being one
of his contacts in Australia, has
\been acquitted by a French mili-
tary tribunal.

Madame Ollier who, on Pet-.
rov’s “evidence” had been with-
drawn last year from her posit-
ions as vice consul and filing clerk
in the French embassy in Can-
berra, stood trial on a charge
of failing to reveal Soviet espion-
age activities.

Petrov (a renegade minor
official of the Soviet embassy
to whom the Australian govern-
ment paid $12,000) and his wife
had claimed in a joint statement
that Madame Ollier had offered

to. provide information to Soviet

officials and that he had had a
series of meetings with her.

The French authorities, appar-
ently sceptical of Petrov’s “evi-
dence,” made no serious charge
against her, and the military
court in Paris took only 25
minutes to agree on a verdict of
Not Guilty even on this charge
of misdemeanor by omission.

The whole trial took only just
over four hours.

Madame Ollier admitted she
had met Petrov but said he “only
asked me one question about the
cipher. He asked it in such a
way that I was sure he was not
trying to make me betray a
secret.”

As she thought the matter was

not a danger to her country she ,

had not reported it to her

ambassador.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

Thousands participate
in British peace lobby

LONDON

The British people reopened parliament when they came from the four corners of the
land for a lobby in which more people interviewed more MPs than on any occasion since
1939. Carried through with complete smoothness and clockwork precision the lobby was a
triumph over those sections of the press which had hoped for violence and disorder.

French acquit woman
accused by Petrov

Demanding the fulfilment of
Geneva’s hopes: disarmament —
banning of the bomb — European
security — East-West friendship
|— they made a tremendous im-

pression .on the House of Com-
mons.

Early in the day it was obvious
that this lobby was going to be
as big, if not bigger, than the one
on German rearmament earlier
this year..

By evening police estimated
that over 2,000 people had been
into the lobby of the House of
Commons — and there were
several thousands more still
Waiting outside.

The lobby over, the thousands
joined in a great march from the
Embankment to Montague Place
—taking their message of peace
to the people of London.

William Wainwright, secretary
of the British Peace Committee,
said: “The turn-out has been
first-class. There can be no MP
| who is now in any doubt about
the feelings of the people.”

NOVEMBER 4, 1955 — PAGE 3

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