CANADIAN " REDS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 286, 3 December 1931, Page 15

CANADIAN " REDS."

SENSATIONAL EVIDENCE.

ORDERS FROM MOSCOW

ORGANISATION OF "COMRADES."

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

VANCOUVER, November 6.

Charges that the Communist party of j Canada, under instructions from Moscow, I planned to gain control of the farmers' organisations on the Canadian prairies, bv securing membership and agitating for seizure of property and refusal of tax payments; that it; fomented strikes and planned defence" classes in which CommuI nists were to be taught how to fight the police in street demonstrations, were heard when nine leading Communists were placed on trial in Toronto, charged with being members of an unlawful j assembly.

Sergeant T. Leopold, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, made the amazing revelation that in order to secure evidence he had for seven years been a member of the Communist party, and in that time had acted a* secretary of the Eegina branch of the party. He produced a large number of letter* and; documents, which related the activities! of the Communists, who. he eaid. maintained two organisations, one "legal" and the other secret, and in direct communication with the Red Internationales in Moscow. "Self-Defence" Proposals. The "self-defence" proposals were contained in a thesis by "Vaesilieu/ , of Moscow. The document said that party leaders who were not capable of respondin- to the demands of the class struggle ■should be replaced. The party press should not publish the real names of "comrades." but rather should use distorted photographs or names so that the police would not be assisted in identification of party members. Another extract read: "One of the members of the committee should undertake the duty of the organisation of proletarian selfdefence. This is now beyond ail doubt essential. There is a great.deal o* talk about proletarian eelf-defenee, and if all these conversations were brought together they might annihilate the bourgeoisie by* their elieer weight, but the Iracticarresultc- are not worth a halfpenny'. "It must become a rule that every partv committee appoint a special comrade' to take charge of this work. Tms comrade must definitely arrange special training for members of the organisation of proletarian self-defence, in oraer that the organisations may be real selfdefence organisations. The* don t understand the tactics of street JgMing, don't even know how to bos, and as a result, in certain cases, one policeman broke up dozens of sections 01 proletarian self-defence because onr comrades waved their arms about aimlessly, while the policemen were quite confident and u<=ed all the rules of well-trained boxers,

How -To Throw Stones.

'In nianv cases the comrades from tne proletarian self-defence units deiended themselves with stones. But again here is evidence from those who were present at these operations, showing that our comrades don't know how. to throw stones. It is not enough to pick up a .tone and throw it, but it is important that that stone should hit its target, and not merelv hit its target, but that some effect should be seen from the olow. Il members of proletarian sell-defence organisation* rvstematically tram themselves in throwing stones, say, each evening when they finish work and each

j morning, throwing stones at a target 2o I paces away, we can say that in two weeke the result of such a -training in any attack-may be quite different." A document railed "draft agrarian pro- j gramme of the Communist party of j Canada, submitted by Leslie Morris and J. M. Clark," was read. It was an "outline of the programme of development among the farmers of Canada." A letter sent from Moscow criticised the "draft agrarian programme." It eaid the property of wealthy fanners should be i seized, and a worker-farmer government ishould be established. There would bej I refusal to pay taxes, rents, and other i debts. Resistance to the forced collection of debts should be organised. Strike iand demonstrations were to be held. Self-defence by farmers, mass resistance against war' and organisations of farmer-delegates to the United Socialist States of Russia were ell advocated. Communist members should join the United Farmers with a view to the. disintegration of that body. A report of a convention in 10-P > declared the Canadian party had not! carried out .the tasks set for it, and] should start organisation work among j the French-Canadians in Quebec. The I "poor farmers'-' should be organised to fWht "rich farmers/' li The most oppressed section in Canada was the FrenchCanadian, who was still under the domination of the Catholic Church."'

Judge Refuses Bail. In "defence, Tim Buck, one of the accused, declared that the party had j never advocated violence. It believed, lie declared, that a "'claslr between workers j and capitalists was "inevitable. . Questioned regarding frequent use Oi the world "revolution"' in Communist documents, he stated that a revolution might be peaceful or violent, according to circumstances. ; A sensational turn was given to the proceedings as the first day ot the trial closed, and an application had; been made to permit the accused freedom on bail. The judge announced that; he had just received circulars urging a street demonstration as soon as the accused were released. In view of this he flatly refused to grant bail, and ordered'that those responsible ior the publication of the circulars be arrested for contempt of court, Nest day two printers were sentenced to two months imprisonment.