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LCA TTT

1HE PEOPLE

Telephone MArine 6929

Published every Saturday by the People Publishing Company,
Room 104, Shelly Building, 119 West-Pender Street, Vancouver,
British Columbia, and printed at Broadway Printers Limited,
151 East 8th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia.

EDIFOR: HAL GRIFFIN
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: AL PARKIN
UTA TTT

The Old-Line Parties
Show Their Hand

AWA big business, preparing to stifle the aspirations

of the people by recasting the Canada of the future
in the outworn molds of the past, is intensifying its attack upon
labor, the people have just been given a revealing insight
into the campaign plans of the old-line parties for the next
federal election.

What the Liberal Party plans was made quite clear by
Hon. Ian Mackenzie, minister of pensions and national health,
in his speech at Vancouver this week. The Liberal Party,
whose governmental policies exemplified by the so-called labor
code enunciated by Prime Minister King assist and encourage
the attack upon labor, intends to represent itself as the party
of “practical reform,” the alternative between “extreme reac-
tion” on the one hand and “socialism” on the other. And
Mackenzie strove to strengthen that illusion by charging that
monopoly interests supporting the Progressive-Conservative
Party had created a vast slush fund to defeat the government.

A few days before Mackenzie made his speech, John Brac-
ken, the national leader of the Progressive-Conservative Party,
gave an address at Hamilton. A plausible speech, it was
also calculated to create an illusion in the minds of those still
seeking a medium to express their desire for change that the
Progressive-Conservative Party is no longer the openly re-
actionary party of Arthur Meighen and R. B. Bennett (“In
the councils of the party younger minds and more vigorous
opinions have triumphed ...”) but now is the party of “ration-
al reform,” the alternative between “extreme bureaucracy”
on the one hand and “socialism” on the other.

NEFORTUNATELY for his efforts to create this illusion,
while Bracken was enlarging on the: question of full

employment and caustically commenting upon what he chose
to term “socialist” proposals, “There is no unemployment in
a prison where men are sentenced to labor,” a spokesman for
American big business was making essentially the same pro-
posals without troubling to disguise his advocacy of unbridled
free enterprise as “rational reform.”

Frederick C. Crawford, president of the National Associa-
tion of Manufacturers, was brutally frank when he spoke at
New York. “The planners have asked us to drop freedom of
opportunity in the material world and substitute twe negative
freedoms—tfreedom from fear and freedom from want,” he
stated. “The very expressions imply statism, that the state
or somebody will do something for us, to organize our lives.
Only a man in jail can enjoy the four freedoms.”

N juxtaposition, the two statements point the plans of big
business and the policies of the Liberal and Progressive
Conservative parties for the future, no matter how they are
disguised. The two parties are now vying with each other
to represent themselves as the “reform” alternative to “social-
ism.” But the issue is not “socialism,” a term they use for
anything that savors of progress. The issue is the democratic
advancement of the people which must first of all be based
upon greater economic security for the people. And the “re-
form” policies now being put forward by the old-line parties
to make Canada safe for “free enterprise” are in opposition
to the people’s interests because, in essence, they envisage only
a return to pre-war conditions.

Big business and its representatives are endeavoring now
to weaken the people’s organizations and thwart their aspira-
tions fer the post-war period. The people’s answer must be to
close their ranks, to establish unity on the job, in local cam-
paigns, in order to break down the barriers created by the
narrow partisan position of the ‘CCF leadership. Reaction is
gathering its strength, striving to deny to the people what they
expect of victory, and the people must unite to defeat it.

=| ‘s S
By COL. E. M. TOLCHENOF
Or ‘Dec. 7, 1941, Japan’s armed forces launched a surprise
attack on American and British positions in the Pacific.
The Pacific war in the past two years can be divided into
three different stages. The first of these, lasting approximately

until the spring of 1942, was characterized by a sharp contra-
diction between the operations of the J. apanese and the grow-

ing strength of Allied armed forces, who were already in a

position to actively counteract the
enemy in the area of hostilities.

The Anglo-American counter-
offensive in the area of the Solo-
mon Islands, the first attempt of
the Allied command to recapture
territores taken by Japan in the
course of the war, can be regard-
ed as the beginning of the third
stage of the Pacific war.

The first stage of this war
brought the Japanese armed for-
c@s considerable success. But
the extensive area of the captured
territories give rise to difficulties
which the Japanese command
later had to cope with. The size
of the theater and scattered na-
ture of the centers of struggle
complicated the problem of field
operations.

In proportion the expansion
of the theater size of military
operations, the struggle for sea
and air superiority, demanded
ever greater efforts from Japan.
All these reasons, as well as the
growing strength of the Allied
armed forces, changed the nature
of further operations in the
Pacific. By then Japan had al-
ready lost to a certain extent the
advantages which secured her
success in the first stage.

In like measure Japan also lost
her advantage of a hundred at-
tacks which had had a decisive
bearing on the results scored by
Japanese troops in the _ initial
period of the war.

In the second stage of the war
the Japanese command rejected
large-scale offensive plans. This
Gid not signify their passing over
te strategie defence on all fronts.
On some sectors Japanese armed
forces actively attacked in order
to improve the positions held by
them, but these attacks were
unsuccessful. However, the Japan-
ese troops could no longer carry
out their assignments with the
Same ease as in the first stage of
the war.

In the second stage of the war
the Japanese armed forces dis-
played no activity on the ma-
jority of sectors in the Pacific
theater, launching offensive oper-
ations only in some directions
without, however, being able to
complete any of them successful-
ly. Ihe increased strength of the
Allied armed forces and their
growing resistance was one of the
decisive factors in these failures.

ie the third stage, the center of

gravity of the Pacific war
shifted to the Australian area.
The Allies took advantage of the
prolonged lull at the fronts to
inerease their forces and to pass
over to the counter-offensive.

The outcome of the general
situation which now exists in’ the
Pacific theater of hostilities is
that, whereas in the first months
of war, Japanese aviation domi-
nated the battlefields, the situa-
tion is now sharply changed. The
Allied air forces now hold the
upper hand in the air war which
has acquired a wide scope. Be-
cause of this, the Allies have been
able to wrest the initiative in the
air and to ensure naval and
ground operations._

Japan’s position at sea is no
better. The American fleet oper-
ating in the Pacific outnumbers
the Japanese fleet in battleships
and aircraft carriers, being twice
as large in cruisers, one and a

- half times in destroyers, nearly

four times as large in submarines.
Bearing in mind the considerable
superiority of the U.S. ship-
building industry over the Japan-
ese, it can be said that the growth
of the Allied naval forces will
proceed far more rapidly than the
Japanese.

The bulk of the territories cap-
tured by Japan are islands. Hence
the supplies to nearly all fronts
must be delivered by sea. The
patrol of greatly stretched sea
routes heavily taxes Japan’s
navy, but Japan is no doubt ex-
periencing even greater difficul-
ties as regards her merchant
fleet.

Due to the shortage of cast

iron, steel, non-ferrous’ metals of
different’ kinds, equipment, and
labor power, and the fact that
shipyards are overburdened with
current repairs of vessels, Japan
is unable to considerably increase
the capacity of her shipbuilding
industry in keeping with the de-
mands of a long war, Japan has
suffered great losses in her
merchant marine.

In the meantime, the U.S. in
the first seven months of this
year alone has built ships with
a total displacement of 12 mil
lion tons—double the size of the
whole of Japan’s present merch-
ant fleet.

@

Wwe has Japan achieved in
the course of the war? Mili-
tary operations started by the
Japanese against the Chinese
people have been in progress for
more than six years already.
Japan’s hopes of a speedy conclu-
sion of the war in China haven’t
justified themselves, and consid-
erable forces of Japanese troops
are still tied down on this front.
Nor for that matter have Japan’s
ealculations.

By occupying British,.American
and Dutch possessions in the
Pacifie, Japan has unquestionably
greatly improved her positions,
shiftly advance bases far from
her own territory. At the same
time, however, she claimed to
lave fully solved the tasks she
had set herself. The front passes
close to the territories of India
and Australia, place d’armes
when Japan’s enemies can
strike at her with hammer blows.

Japan hopes that fascist Ger-
many will, in the course of the
war, greatly weaken the United
States and crush Britain. But the
forces of Britain and the United
States have indisputably reached
the level of development where-
by the successful conduct of the
war in the Pacific cannot in the
slightest hinder the urgent devel-
opment of decisive military

operations on the European con-—

tinent against the main enemy—
Hitlerite Germany.

The ratio of belligerent forces
in the Pacific has radically chang-
ed in favor ot the Allies, who are
strong enough there to carry out
the assignments set them. The
war in the Pacific is primarily a
war on the sea and in the air,
combined with landing operations
of ground troops. Hence its out-
ecme to a considerable extent
depends on the strength of naval
and air forces and the condition
of the merchant fleet.

In all these respects the Allies
have the upper hand and from
this viewpoint the Pacific holds
no favorable prospect for Japan:

Short
Jabs

@

—by OF Bill

e .
Indians ‘
A LETTER published in a |

cent issue of a Vancouw

paper throws the spotlight on
a question in which too few p
ple in this province take an
terest. Major MacKay, who is
charge of Indian affairs in Brit”
Columbia, has spoken at the UE}
according to the writer, and ¢-
plored the fact that “the pub
did not take enough interest ~
the indians.”

The writer, H. Glynn-Ward, ~
Victoria, protests that Major Mi”
Kay is not the man to make #
question public; that; com
from him “the statement Jac
Sincerity.” Glynn-Ward, it ¢
pears, had at one time been wr
ing a series of articles exposi
the scandalous conditions une
which the Indians on Vancouy
Island are forced to live. ‘The |
were being published in the Vy |
toria Times and were creati |
much interest. They were sic |
ped by an inspector instructed |
Major MacKay. 4

Well, what should we expr
from an Indian agent? Indi
agents are not appointed becar
they are interested in the India
The job is a reward for being
good, loyal, party heeler—of hi
parties. A sort of political Wi

The job of the Indian agents
to administer the Indian A
Anyone who has read that /
will not be deluged by the hok
about protecting the native rac i"
of Canada from swindling whit
The Indians had - already be |
despoiled of their lands hbefe
that Act became law. Tf it E
any merits at any time, it ] |
none now. f

Tin Gods

wut the Indian Act beh?
him, the Indian agent is
powerful among the Indians:
administers their lands, okays ©
vetoes all their buying and si
ing and is often just as effici q
as the Custodian of Enemy Pr |
erty who wanted to charge H’
vey Murphy, the Pacifie Co
labor leader, $4.50 for “admir §
tering” the 37 cents Murphy ov
ed while he was im the inte 2
ment camp. _ !
The Indian agent sits in at el &
tions and council meetings, j |
as a British resident sits in at <4
durbars and courts of the raj:
and nabobs of the Indian nat
states. He is the judge whe
Indians are concerned. ;
it is small wonder then, ti
the Indians are no better off th |
they were 75 years ago. An ¢|
Indian woman in the Cariboow :
is now 105 years old and is ivi
on $4 a month relief she ¢
from one of these kind Indi}
agents, tells what is was Ii
when she was a girl. She us
to go out‘and wash gold on i
Fraser sandbars. When she h
a cupful of gold nuggets Sf
would take it to the Hudson’s B
Company store and trade it -
the same cup full of sugar T}
is how the HBC took an inter |
in the Indians! '
But the Indians are besinni@
to take an interest in themsely ®
without the aid of Indian ager
The recent conferences at Bra;
ford and Cape Mudge are pri
of that. They demand full citizi
ship rights so there will be
need of Indian agents, and c
task is to dig in and help th
Win their demand. g