CANADIAN COMMUNISTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1931, Page 10

CANADIAN COMMUNISTS

REVELATIONS AT TRIAL. [BY CABLE —PBESB ABBS'. —COPYBIGHT.] TORONTO, November 6. “To the members of the Communist Party of Canada, Sergeant Leopold was known as a devoted, faithful worker to the cause, one who was always ready to entertain our organisers, always prepared to help us out financially, and always willing to pay his own expenses to our conventions, or meetings.” These were the words used to-day by Tim Buck, the alleged leader of the Communist Party in Canada. He was a defence witness and thus told how Sergeant John Leopold, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, had, under the name of Comrade E. W. Esselwain, acted as Secretary of the Regina-Saskatch-ewan branch of the party for seven years from 1921 to 1928. • Tim Buck, with eight others, is being tried on charges of being parties to a seditious conspiracy.

Leopold has been the sensation of the trial. In testifying, he stated how, for the purpose of getting information, he had obtained a position of confidence in the Communist Party, attending its conventions and having access to its correspondence. Leopold stated that in 1923 three thousand dollars were sent from Moscow, for Canadian Communists, -but -after that Moscow felt the organisation should be self-supporing. The Crown concluded its.case today with the filing of documents linking Moscow and Canada. Among these was a thesis on Communism, written by E. Vassiliev, of Moscow, who said that proletarian self defence should be organised. The police had broken up dozens of sections of the proletarian self-defence, Vassiliev wrote, “because the comrades do not have the slightest conception of selfdefence.” He recommended that the comrades should train in throwing stones. They did not know the tactics for street fighting, and did not even know how to box. He says: “It is not enough to pick up a stone and throw it, but it is important that the stone should hit its target, and not merely hit the target, but that some effect should be seen from the blow.” It was also suggested that each evening and each morning, instead of going through gymnastic exercises the comrades should practise throwing stones at a target twenty-five paces away. The Communist Party in Canada, however, has never fomented revolution, never advocated the use of force or violence in overthrowing the capitalistic system and has never preached the overthrow of the existing Government by force, according to the testimony given by Tim Buck and Tom Ewan, in their evidence on their, own behalf.

Plans to wreck the United Farmers’ organisations on the Canadian prairies were revealed at the trial. Circulars that had been seized in the police raids disclosed that members of the Communist Party were to join in order gradually to disentegrate the Farmers’ Associations by agitating against the payment of taxes and by promoting a movement for the seizure of the richest farms. Tim Buck admitted making several trips to Moscow, and also the organisation of strikes among Alberta coal miners. SYDNEY~DOMAIN. SYDNEY, November 8. About two thousand men, women and children participated to-day in a march from the Railway Square to the Domain to celebrate the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The speakers included a couple of red-beretted boys. A few street onlookers paid little attention to the procession. MELBOURNE CONCERT. MELBOURNE, November 8. Elaborate police arrangements to prevent any Communist march through the city, resulted in not a single demonstration in the streets. It was later discovered, however, that the Communists had substituted for a march through, a community song programme at a hall where a small band confined themselveis to these vocal exercises.