Behind Soviet proposals on the

Membe

problem of control of the

Black Sea straits is again very

pressing in connection with the

evident necessity of revising the

Montreux Convention of July
20, 1936.

This question of the straits al-
ways played a very significant
role in international relations. It
is important to note, first of ali,
that the question of control of the
Straits has for a long time been
considered very important from
the point of view of economic as
well as political, interests, and
particularly from the point of
view of security; of the state
boundaries of the largest Black
Sea state, namely the Soviet
Union.

This country’s vital interest in
the Straits received official rec-
Ognition as far back as 1774 in
the Russe-Turkish peace treaty,
in the Adrianopole Russo-Turkish
peace treaty of 1829, in the Lon-
don convention on Straits of 1841,
in the Paris agreement of 1856,
and in the London agreement of
1871. :

We will not go into an analysis
of the different -variations of
these agreements dealing with
the solution of the question of
the Straits. We will, however,
note that at the beginning of the
First World War the Straits were
under full sovereignty of Turkey.
Ali the above international agree-
ments on the Straits recognize
the principle of freedom of pas-
Sage for the merchant ships of
all nations, prohibiting admission
to the Straits for any warships
excepting those of Turkey itself.
But in practice the Turkish gov-
ernment constantly violated both
principles.

Violation Of Pacts
GLARING example may be
found in the historic incident

with the German warships “‘Goe-

ben” and “Breslau,” which were
admitted to the Straits as the
result of a fictitious “purchase”
by Turkey. Later, these ships be-
came very, well known because of
their piratic actions in the Black

Sea against Russian navigation

and the unfortified parts of the

Russian seacoast.

Throughout the first World
War, Turkey, Germany’s obe-
dient vassal. was of great help
to the latter. Turkey’s maneu-
Ver established Turko-German
control over the Straits, there-
by cutting direct communica-
tion lines between Hussia and
ite allies.

Upon the defeat of German
imperialism and its allies in the
first World War the Black Sea
Straits passed for some time
under the direct control of the
‘Entente, first of all Great Bri-
tain. These powers made very
broad use of the unimpeded
Passage of their naval forces
through the Straits into the
Black Sea, primarily for purposes
of anti-Soviet intervention in
southern Russia.

Sevres Agreement
REAT BRITAIN and other
Powers of the Entente took
full advantage of the situation
and forced Turkey to accept the
Sevres agreement of August 10,
1820, giving the Entente a ju-
dicialiy advantageous position in
the control. of the Straits. The
Sevres agreement, particularly
the parts relative to the control
of the Straits, deprived Turkey
Of the major part of its Euro-
Dean coastline. This territory was
turned over to Greece in the form
of eastern Thrace, certain islands
in the Aegean Sea and the west-
em entrance to the Dardanelles.
During 1920-22, the course of

PACHKIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

issue of Dardanelles control

By PROFESSOR L. IVANOV
©, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR

eventS in the Near East over-
threw the Sevres Peace treaty.
The Sevres treaty was replaced
by the Lausanne peace treaty of
July 24, 1923. However, the En-
tente Powers, headed by Great
Britain, managed to include into
the Lausanne peace treaty their

Own idea of 2 Straits conven-
tion. é

This Lausanne Straits con-
Yention re-established condi-

tions considered most desirable
frem the point of view of the
imperialistic interests of the
Emtente Powers, at the same
time constituting the greatest
menace to the security of the
Black Sea countries.

Warships of all nationalities,
2s well as war Planes passing:
through the Straits zone were
to receive “full freedom of pass-
age day and night, under any
flag, without any formalities, or
Payment of any fees .. . This
rule was to be in force in peace
@S well as wartime.

Imperialist Pact
AES condition clearly demon-

Strated the essence of the
Straits convention as an instru-
ment securing for the imperial-
ist naval powers the possibility
of aggressive operations directed
against Black Sea countries.

In Lausanne the Soviet Union
categorically objected to the pro-
posed Strait convention. The
Soviet Union proposed that a
Straits convention be worked out
in a conference of representatives
of states adjacent to the Black
Sea_

The Proposal imcluded a
_Suarantes of free passage
through the Straits for mer-
chant ships of all nations and
provided for the ciesing of the
Straits against warships of all
States except those of the Black
Sea coast. The USSR refused to
ratify the Lausanne conven-
tien fer the reason that it did
not in any way help to estab-
lish peace in the Near East.

Later events proved the very
evident fact that this convention
could not serve the interests of
any of the Black Sea states in-
cluding Turkey itself. A new
international conference was ini-
tiated by Turkey in Montreaux
on July 20, 1936. This conference
worked out a new Straits conven-
tion replacing that of Lausanne.

Contained Defects
LTHOUGH this xconvention,
signed in Montreaux by Great

Britain, France, USSR, Japan,

Romania, Turkey, ‘Yugoslavia,

Greece and Bulgaria, to a cer;

tain extent did improve the con-

trol of the Straits as compared

with that of the Lausanne con-
vention, nevertheless it con-
tained essential defects and a
great. lack of clarity about dif-

ferent important points. ‘This
Convention allowe@ Turkey to
build fortifications and main-

tain Turkish armed forces in the
Straits.

The convention established the
principle that “during war time
when Turkey itself is a belliger-
ent... the passage of warships
will be left entirely to the jude—
ment of the Turkish government
- .. (Article 20).”

his formulation of the agree-
ment actually laid the ground
for a good deal of abuse and
violation of the rights, which
damaged the interests of the
Black Sea powers and first of
all the Soviet Union. These
acts assumed an especially dan-

gerous and impermissible
Character during the second
World War.

_ On August 8, 1946 the Soviet
government delivered a note to
Turkey citing numerous  in-
Stances when during the last
war, Turkey permitted passage
through the Straits for warships
and auxiliary vessels of Germany
and her satellites, which consti-
tuted a flagrant violation of the
Straits convention.

During July-August 1945 the
Berlin conference of Great
Britain, USA and USSR adopt-
ed a resolution calling for the
necessity of revising the Mon-
treux Straits convention on the
round that it did not correspond
to present day conditions.

- Soviet Proposals —

new proposals of the So-
viet Union state:

@ The Straits must always
be open for merchant Ships of all
nations.

@® The Straits must always be
open for the warships of all Black
Sea countries.

© Passage through the Straits
by warships of non-Black Sea
Bowers is not permitted, with the
exception of certain specially pro-
vided for cases. -

@© Control of the Straits, as
the only sea route in and out
of the Black Sea must be held
by Turkey together with other
Black Sea powers. :

@€ Turkey and the Soviet
Union, as the powers most ca-—
pable of guaranteeing freedom
of merchant shipping and secur-
ity in the Straits, will mutually
maintain the defence of the straits
im order to prevent their use by
other countries for purposes in-
imical to Black Sea countries.

AAA

rapidly as possible.

leaders.

fully accomplished.”

‘The common herd, that’s us
; Editorial from Bankers’ Magazine

“Capital must protect itself in every possible man-
ner, through combination and legislation. Debts must
be ‘collected and mortgages and bonds foreclosed as

“When through a process of law,
people have lost their homes, they may be tractable
| and more easily governed. Through the influence of
the strong arm of the government applied by 2 central ;
power of wealth under the control of leading financiers,
a people without homes will not quarrel with their
History repeats itself in regular cycles. This
truth is well known by principal men now engaged in
forming an imperialism of capital te govern the world.

“By thus dividing the voters through the political
parties system we can get them to expend their energy
in fighting over questions of no importance to us $3
except as teachers of the common herd.

“Thus by discreet action, we can secure for our-
selves what has been generously planned and success-

the common

—~
————

-that does the bidding of Mackenzie King and

- picture mountie”’™

Short Jabs »y o a

Scarlet Baldur von Shirach, Hitler’s youth gauleiter, is in
and Gold jail for the next twenty years (et us hope). He
earned that, he earned much more actually, for the part he played
in corrupting the minds of the German youth. y

But the fate of von Shirach does not seem te fizz on some of
our would-be gauleiters in Canada, for the story in last week’s
Tribune on a program the RCMP is setting for itself among the
youth of our country, reported by Commissioner T. S Woods in the
current number of their quarterly Magazine, is actually an attempt
to corrupt the minds of our school children.

It is not only a cynical but a sinister move on the part of the

‘top apparatus of the Canadian Gestapo or Orva or Siguranza, or- :

whatever name suits them best. ‘The proposal to have members
of that body go into the schools and poison the .minds of.Canadian
ehildren is the nakedest kind of politics. They would contaminate
the schools as they contaminate the courts.

At the same time as that story was given publicity in the
Tribune, the Vancouver daily press’ published one of the worst
stories of Star Chamber Court methods that has come to light in
the West since Captain John Mears said “Howdy” ta Chief Maquinna.

Two Vancouver merchants were arrested by the gallant moun=
ties, held incommunicado,
brought before a magistrate until eight months afterwards.

Why they were arrested is immaterial. What counts is the
high-handed and lawless methods of this Slamorous force, the force
Louis St. Laurent.
These methods are so far from the reutine prescribed by the
“Jaw” of this country, and so raw,
tion of the police magistrate, W. W. B. Macinnes,
particularly celebrated for being ‘humane in his deatings
those who are unfortunate enough to appear before him.

with

Instead of being the Slamorized red-coats who shine on the
sereen, who always ‘get their man’, these yellow-stripes are now
earning their claims to glory by reintroducing the Star Chamber
Court of the days of Charles the First, where evidence was extracted
from the victims by a well-paid official of the court, the torturer.
Their instruments are different; they do not have the rack or
thumb-serews. Their machinery is modernized, but it is torture
apparatus just as surely. This particular case and the recent

alleged espionage case prove that statement. :
Record of is this what the Canadian school children are to -
Corruption hear from the “nice fellows” whose job will be-

“to sell the -force” to them. Decidedly not! It is the “moving.
who will be paraded before them—with ‘the -

express Purpose of deluding them. ~

But we suggest they tell our youngsters about ‘the corrupting
influences of stool pigeons and dope-peddlers, who have played the
most prominent part in ‘‘mountie” history in this country, ‘the. only”
outstanding part in fact.

Some of the stool pigeons they would, of course, dress in a
blaze of phoney patriotism) to make them appear as something they
never were, which would follow naturally from the attitude of
Commissioner Wood to the working class and its political champions.

Leopold-Bsselwein; Zaneth-Zanetti, may have their ugly, rat—
colored raiments hidden under a garb of scarlet and golad—but they
will still be stool pigeons. 5

The notorious local rat, “Doe” Smith, whose real name nobody
ever learned, whose claim to mountie fame in getting his man, was
earned by introducing young girls to the dope habit so he could
make “the pinch,” since everybody in the OBU was wise to him and
he could not earn his salt stooling on the labor movement——he too
ought to be one of their heroes of scarlet and gold .

And don’t let us forget Corporal Wilson and his second in
command, Tarassov-Durassoy (which was his real name Tf don’t’
know}. Wilson organized the case. against the Vancouver Rus_
Sians who were arrested for being Russians in 1919 and Tarassov:
or Durassov, whichever his name wes, was the stool pigeon.
Tarassov-Durassov was shamed out of this part of the world and
Wilson was hanged in Saskatchewan for murdering his wife. Tell
the children about them too, Commissioner Wood. 2

And about Corporal Trulove who joined the Communist Party

“in Vancouver, but was spotted when we saw him sitting: on 2

horse in a May Day parade. He claimed to have learned toe ride
a horse in the Cameron Highlanders (of all places). As a stool
pigeon he was a frost, but he sheuld be in the story.

I had almost forgotten, probably because these had not been
tangled with the labor movement, the three mounties of the
“narcotics” squad in Victoria who landed in the dock instead of
the prosecutors’ stand. These three brave searlet and golds, were
convicted of smuggling and peddline narcotics. They had a dope
ring all of their own. Tf forget their names for the moment but
there are plenty of people in Victoria who can supply that informa-
tion. They were all smugglers; they were all depe peddlers and
they were all mounties. They should be in the glamour tale if Our
Canadian children are to get a true picture of Canada’s patrician
band.

Time was when the RNWMP served a useful purpose to CGa-
NMadian society. That was in the days when they used to heip the

settlers in the Northwest—bringing in the homesteaders to Brandon

lunatic asylum afier they had been driven crazy on the lone prairie
or collecting wages for gypped harvest hands from skinflint farm-—
ers. Then their activities were confined to the Northwest.

But when they were organized as a Dominion force and their
Main job was to stool on the trade unions and the political parties
ef the working class, they ceased to have any sociai value and
their job became a purely class one. At the same time they also
ceased to have any glamour about them. Today they are no more
glamorous than any other body of stool pigeons.

They are no different to the fascist state bodies mentioned be-
fore the Gestapo, the Ovra and the Siguranza, except in degree.
They have given us warning of what to expect of them in the
alleged espionage cases if they are allowed to get away with it.

They must not be allowed to defile the minds of our
children. The labor movement must stop them!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER it, 1946

school

released after a erilling and never -

that they earned the condemna- -
a2 Man not...