made to the final victory over

Score Action Of Council — In North Vancouver

By JOHN NUTTALL NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.—Those who read the

account of the North Vancouver city council’s request for the repeal of federal legislation regarding residence qualifications for relief were treated to a typical example of Tory contempt and disregard for the splendid contribution that labor has

fascism in Europe.

The council petitioned the gov-

fied down by enemy bullets, marines take cover in a cemetery on an Okinawa ridge. IS yy crouch behind the shot-blasted tombstones until the Japanese position can be spotted.

Housing Muddle

jation of the serious propor- that the situation in the city: | ceacheds

cording. to. information fe- id. by Cowley, the::. Federal ~ament is prepared to take - steps to relieve the pres- firain. Proposals outlined by ay,on his: return include the fining of blocks of, housing it reasonable rates. from the

1 zipality. to be built..on: by .2 !

ng administration;. granting tax. concessions.-~-by civic @srities for a* period of at ® ten years; purchase of the ing units from the federal nment by the civic author- at the end of a.ten-year i. ,In return, . the , federal -nment pledges to fmance an iad to" procesd: with con-

ys Control effective

NTEVIDTQ. —Giharges the Argentine-@regime has fectively intervened in Axis orises were made recently 2 democratic. weekly El] Pa-

&., which was raided and clos-

- the police last week. The

'y stated that only 120 Ger- and Japanese - controlled

ii were intervened and that

fis only 40 interventors were

ated. Whén Argentina Hi the Chapultepee — inter- iean accords, she promised,

=,pther-things, to take ef=}': Ee action against Axis in=<

PS.2 Ghee xt Patriota charged that under ntervention arrangements

interventor * was responsible ai: average’ of three large en- Bses* and that” this “made Eetely — impossible the exer- Sf£.effectivé control. It add- at the German and Japan-

‘€ thus left free to continue work. ‘The weekly also’ stat- at no: inventory of the Axis Was: thade by technically tent’ personnel and that to r discourage: the Anterven-’ sthey™ were’ paid’ very low 2s, ae

struction; grant labor and ma-

terial priorities for building and

expedite the flow of materials; and construction of the necessary roads and services- for the new projects,

SIDESTEPPING THE ISSUES

Lack of materials and. short- age of available manpower have been expressed by many sources as being directly responsible for the inability of private contrac tors to !meet requirements. The City Council has on numerous oc- easions echoed this plea, and utilizedthe excuse extensively as.a means of avoiding immedi- ate action to meet the crisis.

Approaches have been made to the municipal authorities for im-

| mediate’ action, but civic “authori- -ties have so far sidestepped all

responsibility by pleading inabil- ity to’ grant special tax conces- sions due to legal restrictions of

-| the City Charter. Pressure from

contractors, real estate operators and property holders have con- tributed to the fear to set up what is termed “a class of pre- ferred property holders.”

The Rehabilitation Council rep- resentative will consult with the Provincial Prime Minister, John Hart, and attempt to obtain def- inite commitments from the provincial government as to how far they will go in aiding in the situation. It is felt that if the provincial government pledges itself to offer assistance, the local Civic authorities will be left with no alternative but to take defin4 ite action.

Civic action has so far been

frustrated by the opposition to a jow-cost housing plan as an im- ‘mediate prospect, by such ob-

*| structionists as Alderman George

Buséombe. Buscombe, a. large property owner himself, has for years championed the property

owners and real estate operators, to the detriment of the citizens

of Vancouver. His ardent oppo- sition to low-cost housing as -a ‘solution to the present. crisis is reflected in the do- -nothing atti- tude of city authorities.

The Ottawa government ‘formed Cowley that an inter- departmental committee has been set up to consider housing prob-

‘léms and facilitate the easy pas-

sage ‘Of measures which will aid

=” PACIFIC ADVOC ATE

| meet the

in. a solution to civic housing problems. Minister of Recon- struction Howe recognizes, Cow- ley told P.A., that housing is the number one problem in Canada today and that Vancouver is the “hot spot in the nation.” PUBLIC SENTIMENT. GROWING : . Growing publie* sentiment ‘is strongly against the present in= adequacy of civic plans to cope with the crisis. It is recognized that of the hundreds of state- ments which have eminated from the council, promising an early solution to the problem, very few if any, have resulted in anything

that even remotely resembled a definite step. The refusal of the council members, led by Alder- man Buscombe, to get off of the tence on this important issue, has led to a steady decline in the housing picture.

The federal government has committed itself to measures to situation, and it is hoped that the provincial govern- ment will assume its responsibil- ity in this regard. The civic authorities will have to be shaken

,out of their,.present complacency

and. forced to take immediate action. The public distrusts the promises and future plans of the city fathers. The present ‘policy cf seeking refuge in the limita- tions of the City Charter must. be exposed as an avoidance of responsibility. All obstacles to an early solution of the problem must be removed, and the hous ing crisis, which the Welfare Council estimates as responsible for over 40 percent of the cases of delinquency, must be met and solved.. -

The grandiose schemes report- ed in: the press, which purport find the solution of the problem in -prefabricated houses, have been rejected by almost every competent housing authority as

@ | misplacement of emphasis:

_-| Land must be made available by in-4,

the civic: authorities: so that ‘their plan, approved in February, may be. consumated, and- any steps

-which will assure federaj backing an ‘the fact. of the situation must

be taken without any falteri ing.

ernment, and urged the Van- couver city council to follow suit, | to amend the residence regula- tions so that “immigrant war workers” will not become the re- sponsibility of the municipality in which they reside when the war is over, “at which time;” council presumes, “they will all be back on relief.”

The North. Vancouver couril, which represents at most about 10 percent of the people of the North Shore, here makes the fol- lewing false assumptions:

The council is apparently re- signed and, prepared for a return to the “hungry thirties’? and: re- lief rolls.

That the business people of North Vancouver have played hosts to “immigrants” at the cost of a great deal of inconvenience for which they have“received no compensation.

That. all war workers in the shipyard “areas ‘are from else- where than B.C. (In point of fact about 380 percent are natives of the province.)

On’ all these counts the city council is away out. In_ the first place, Canada’s -war work- ers are not prepared t6 zo back on relief rolls even if it means throwing every reac- tionary politician from Vancou- ver to Halifax out of office.

Italian Govt. Strengthened

ROME — The appointment, of Ferruccio Parri as Italian Prime Minister _is regarded . here. as strengthening, the hand of., the Italian resistance movement, particularly in the north, against remaining -pro-fascist elements. Parri is a former president of the Committee of National Lib- eration of the north and the head of its. military’ commission, which included General Raffaele Cadorna, one of ames zew ariti-fas-

‘cist traditional “mitt Fo Tea aders, and Luigi Longo: “a Fleadee of the International “BMehde” in Spain. The Action” Party, which Parri represents, is strongly / commit ted to an anti-monarchist policy.

Parri’s work during the Ger- man occupation of North Italy included the organization of gen-

and civil administration. His anti-fascist record extends back over 20 years, which were spent mainly in jail or exile. He has succeeded in bringing all six parties into the new government. Alcide de Gasperi, Christian Democrat, retains the post of Foreign Minister; Socialist lead- er’ Pietro Nenni is Vice Premier, with'the job of preparing for the election of a. constituent’ assem- bly;; and Communist leader Pal- miro Togliatti, as Minister of Justice,. will supervise the purge of fascists.

i

era] strikes, direction of supplies.

And if you examine the con-

tribution made by North Vancou- ver shipyard workers to the last eight Victory Loans, here is what you will find:

They have contributed upwards of 10 million dollars to Victory Loans in the past five years. They have built and launched over 300 ships and repaired an- other 200. They have done busi- ness with the merchants of North Vancouver to the tune of six to eight million dollars, a transfu- sion into the city’s economic blood stream that. has helped bring it out of a condition of eco- nomic stagnation almost unequal- led in Canada.

The impact of production, of

progressive thought, has resulted in a return to civic democracy and to the election of a mayor and council for the first.time in 12 years. (The fact that the vot- ers made a poor choice does not matter here,)

Many other benefits. have ac- crued to this city as a result of of the great strides forward in production which has undoubtedly brought great wealth to the com- munity. :

It would appear, in view of the backward:-looking attitude of the present council, that the only so- lution is the election of a coun- cil which is more in tune with the times. That can be done by every resident seeing that his or her name is on the voters’ list when poll taxes are paid.

North Vancouver needs new leadership in civie affairs. That much is clear by the council’s latest action.

Vote Denied Servicemen

LONDON — Over ‘one-fifth of the British armed forces over- seas will be unable to vote in the July 5 general’ election because their names are not in the elec- toral register, a war office spokesman stated. this week Members of the services have their choice of voting by proxy or postal ballot. but some troops have protested that they were not notified that the register closed last March 15.. Service ballots will be counted in a three- week interval after the polls open en July 5.

An indication of the politic- al views of British soldiers was contained in a New York Times report June 17 of a mock election held» by a tank squad- ron stationed in Germany. Out cf 90-men, 65 participated in the voting and the results were 32 for the Labor party; 16 for the People’s party, a progres- sive group invented by the men themselves; 11 Communist and 6 Conservative. The Times: cor- respondent pointed out that most of the soldiers expressed resentment toward the Con- servatives, believing they . are to blame for the holding of an election on such short notice.

SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1945.

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