Umbia,
Sp

Fifty-five years ago, only a handful of P

the man who had led the colonists in their st
Self-government and fought to bring British
- federation was laid to rest in Victoria’s Ross Bay cemetery.
his opponent, Dr, J. S. Helmcken, was moved to deplore
mockery of honor paid to Amor
ago, and thirty after, a large section of
Sidered g hero, a patriot who fought for the
. Provement, progress and welfare of the country - . -
n July 4, anniversary of his death, Keith Ralston,
respondent for the Pacific Tribune, placed a wrew
Neglected grave of Amor De Cosmos who, with his
ist, founded the tradition of the democratic

eople attended as
wole for democratic
Columbia into Con-
Even
“the
De Cosmos, whom forty years
the people of Victoria con-
emancipation, im-
*” Last week,
Victoria cor-
th on the, long-
British Colon-
press in British Col-

By BURKE HALLIDAY

|X THe summer of 1944 people
M America became generally
PR §re of a man named John
‘ster Dulles, Up till that time,
it was known mainly to in-
€rs in Wall Street and to U.S.
ate Department career men.
hat brought Dulles notor-
In the midst. of the Second
Bans War was a series of blasts
a a fighting liberal Senator.
Bisa” Pepper of Florida. Dulles
fore; a8 Thomas| EH. Dewey's
, &N policy adviser. Dewey
S$ then opposing Franklin D.

lety

y~

Roosevelt for the presidency.
Pepper showed that Dulles had
long and intimate connections
with the German banks and car-
tels which supported Hitler’s war
of aggression. The game was
true of many other businessmen.
But Dulles’ ties with Nazis were
unusually close. His law. firm,
Sullivan and Crowmell, repre-
sented the J. Henry Schroeder
banking interests and the Schr-
oeders in Germany were closer
to Hitler than any other bankers.
Other corporation figures
made reactionary remarks, But
Dulles hit a new low when he

Amor De Cosmos:
a patriot is
onored

By KEITH RALSTON

WENT on a sad pilgrimage

the other day to Victoria’s
Ross Bay cemetery—sad because
the man who lies there is now
practicaly unknown by the peo-
ple for whose democratic liber-
ties he fought so long and hard.

The grave that I was looking
for marks the last resting place
of Amor De Cosmos, the founder,
in his British Colonist, of the
democratic traditions of the
press in B.C. now inherited by
the. Pacific Tribune, and the
leader of the struggle for self-
government which, in 1872. cul-
minated in his election as pre-
mier of the newly-created prov-
ince. :

I went on behalf of the read-_
ers and staff of the Pacific Trib-
une to pay honor to this almost
forgotten popular leader on the
55th anniversary of his death
on July 4, 1897.

After searching without suc-
cess through the oldest section
of the cemetery, reading the
names of many famous in B.C.
history, I enlisted the help of
one of the caretakers. He con-
sulted an ancient book and led
me to an untidy grass-grown
plot.” Kneeling close to the
‘esranite column, I was able to
trace with an exploratory finger,
the almost unreadable inscrip-
tion:

To The Memory of the
HON, AMOR DE COSMOS
who died at Victoria, B.C.
July 4th, 1897, aged 72 years
less 1 month and 16 days

A Native of Windsor,
Hants County, Nova Scotia’
A Faithful Servant of the People

Now at Rest

Later, I took the colorful
spray of summer flowers — a
tribute from the readers and
staff of the Pacific Tribune—
and Jaid them against the gray
stone, A couple of friends watch-
ed and qa passer-by looked up
curiously at the flash of the
photographer’s bulb.

As we left and the little eddy
of movement around the lone
pillar subsided, the graveyard

said in 1939, shortly before the
war: “Only hysteria entertains
the idea that Germany, Italy or
Japan contemplates war on us.”

Now eight years after he en-
tered politics and Pepper first

exposed his connections. Dulles

dominates American foreign af-
fairs.

Both major contenders for the
Republican nomination for the
presidency, General Dwight D.
Bisenhower and Senator Robert
A. Taft, endorsed Dulles. In
Bisenhower’s case, the connec-
tion is obvious. He stands close
to Dewey and naturally to Dul-

t

resumed its imperturbable quiet,
only the flowers glancing bright,
as they must have on that other
July day after the small knot of
mourners had turned back to
the distant town.
e

De Cosmos once described his
political career by saying, ad |

have beat the bush while others.

have had the bird,’’ and even
at the time of his death, his tre_
mendous role in:securing demo-
cratic victories was a fading
memory, overshadowed by the
shrill chest-thumping of lesser
men, ’

So marked was this indiffer-
ence that one of De Cosmos bit_
terest political foes, Dr. J. S. Hel-
mcken, son-in-law of Sir James
Douglas, and opponent of re
-sponsible government. was mov-
ed by the spectacle of his fun-
eral, to write the following let-
ter to the Colonist, which pub-
lished it under the heading ‘Sic
Transit Gloria Mundi.”

To the editor: A few hacks,.

a score of men at the residence,
the footfalls of a dozen men
sounding from the wooden side-
walks, three-score men and few
women in the church, no sepul-
chral tones from the organ, no
singing of sacred, hopeful
hymns, a short reading of the
burial service—all dead, dead.
as cold and lifeless as the
corpse in the dismal coffin. At
the graveyard some twenty or
thirty saw the casket lowered
to its last resting place—ashes
to ashes. dust to dust—al]l is
over.

This was the mockery of honor
paid to Amor DeCosmos, whom
forty years ago, and thirty af-
ter, a large section 6f the peo-
ple. of Victoria considered a
héro. a patriot who fought for
the emancipation, improvement,
progress and welfare of the
country less for his own ma-
terial interests than for fame.
honor and glory—even those,
and they were not few, who dis-
approved of his course and op-
inions, for the most part admit
this much. That such a man
should have come to this—

. alas, poor Yorick.

les, tgo.

Taft, eagerly proving himself
‘as many things as possible to as
many people as possible, has,
also endorsed Dulles’ foreign
policy advice, and has sought to
win at least neutrality from Dul-
les '

Curiously, Dulles’ .influence
among Democratic policy makers
is equally great. In this connec.
ition, Dulles stands slightly apart
from the lunatic fringe of the
Republican party — as in the
case of Senator Joseph Mc-
Carthy — but benefits from Mc-
Carthy’s smear camapigns.

... This ig not the first time
that a public man, a pioneer,
who has “stood behind the gun”
has been thus heartilessly treat-
ed! Governments, corporations
and the public seem to have no
hearts, no sentiment, no mem-

ory—callous to all but their
own interests or affairs.

. No wonder that public
men nowadays should think of
‘their own interests first and
those of the country last or not
at all; the public men are only
the representatives of their
constituents. Doubtless there
are still some who value honor
and honesty more than the dol_
lar, and it.is heped that the
“brave days of old’? may soon
reappear and virtue again be in
the ascendent, to render honor
and respect to whom honor is
due——to those who have serv-
ed their country. not necessari-
ly politically, but faithfully and
well,

Some ten years later, Helme-
ken’s letter was reprinted ds a
part of some _ reminiscences
about De Cosmos by David W.
Higgins who, as editor of the
Colonist after De Cosmos sold
the paper, had opposed the for-
mer owner most fiercely in its
columns. Higgins, then retired.
said that he included the letter
so “that never again will a man
who has served the public in-
terests as Mr. De Cosmos served
them, be laid away ‘in the cold-
blooded fashion-in which he was
consigned to the grave by a peo=
ple who owed him so much.”

Today, forty-five years after
Higgins wrote these words, the
people of British Columbia have
yet to accord Amor De Cosmos
his rightful position as one of
the foremost democratic leaders
of the province. But surely one
of the most elementary injustices
to De Cosmos’ memory ¢an be
removed at once. The progres
sive movement, which is now
defending those democratic lib-
erties: which De Cosmos fought
to win, can undertake to seé
that his grave is no longer left
in a state of heart-breaking ne-
glect. ‘ :

John Foster Dulles in the driver's seat 7

For example, in the spring of
1950, when the state depart-
ment recoiled from the falsehood
which McCarthy piled on: false+
hood in the Lattimore hearings,
it sought to buy a respite from
the other Republicans in Con-
gress. The department brought
in a special Republican adviser
to Secretary of State Dean Ache-
son. The adviser, of course, was
as usual John Foster Dulles.

It looks as if #he only sure
winner in November wil! be Dul-
les. He will have a firm grip
on U.S: foreign policy no mat-
ter who wins the presidency.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 11, 1952 — PAGE 9