COMMUNIST MENACE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21450, 25 March 1933, Page 9

COMMUNIST MENACE

SUPPRESSION IN CANADA GOVERNMENT'S ACTIVITY UNPOPULARITY OF NAME [from our own correspondent] VANCOUVER. March 2 The Canadian House of Commons is having its annual inquest on Communism. Latterly, the occasion has boon supplied by one of the Winnipeg Labour members—there are four Labour members in the House—who seeks to expunge the "unlawful assembly" clause from the Criminal Code. The mover, Mr." Woodsworth, lias a good deal more status this year, as he is President of the newly-formed part} - , the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which has attracted to its fold the extreme elements of the farmers' movement. He got as far as securing permission to introduce legislation, and the debate gave the Minister of Justice, Mr. Guthrie, the opportunity to let the people hear a little, from the Government's point of view, about the activities of the Communists.

Since the president and the five directors of the Communist Party of Canada, with headquarters in Toronto, were sentenced to five years each in Canada's largest penitentiary, at Kingston, Ontario, for their part in the Toronto riots, the name Communism has been officially disowned by the apostles of Sovietisin. It is now known as the Canadian Labour Defence League. They are one and the same to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are a most effective bulwark between the citizens and the revolutionary party. Communism is also disowned, by name, by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, but it would be difficult to persuade the Government of Canada that there is not a very fraternal entente between them, judging by the speeches of Ministers on Mr. . Woodsworth's resolution to change the present form of Government t« that of a cooperative commonwealth. Threatening Telegrams Mr. Guthrie said he had received a large number of threatening telegram® and a great batch of petitions in connection with the imprisonment of the eight Communist leaders, and the riots at the Kingston Penitentiary, for which the Communist president, among many others, awaits trial. " The Canadian Labour Defence League and the Communist Association have their affiliations outside Canada," he said. "I know that from telegrams I have received,, threatening myself. I have been warned that 150,000 Communists in New York, and I do not know how many hundreds of thousands in Chicago, are watching me. I judgd? this from their telegrams—telegrams, all framed, I believe in the city of Toronto. No sooner did the disturbance take place in Kingston Penitentiary than I was flooded with telegrams from every quarter of Canada—almost before the riot started, and all framed in practically the same language." Thousands of petitions have been received by the Minister, -which he hands over to the Mounted Police, so that the names and addresses may be recorded. He said he had received communications, sent him in error, saying these petitions must not be sent to the Minister, but to the head office in Toronto, so that the Department of Justice may not know who signed them. " I can assure the House," he said, "that, in long petitions, there does not appear a single Anglo-Saxon or French-Canad'.an namenothing but the names of foreigners, and unpronounceable names, for th*> most part. These societies are operating in every corner of Western Canada, and their literature is most seditious." "Work ol Deportation

Immediately after the Minister made such disclosures, his predecessor in the Mackenzie King Government, Mr. Lapointe supported the Woodsworth resolution, saying that, when he was Minister, " these men were devoted to law and order; nobody would accuse them of being Communist, or even Socialist." Meantime, the work of rounding up and deporting Communists goes steadily on. Names of agitators become bywords to-day, and to-morrow they are forgotten as they are in prison or on the high seas, destined for any country in the world, in preference to Russia, whose system they would transplant in Canada.