Canada: Left at the Pier

Canada’s government had decided that it was in Canada’s interest to sell surplus warplanes (and ammunition for their guns) to the Nationalist government of China. Theoretically, Ottawa’s policy toward the Chinese civil war was still “hands off,” but by selling excess war equipment the government saw a chance to turn an honest dollar. For 323 Mosquito fighter-bombers, and to put them in condition for shipping, China spent $10,000,000.

But last week, Canada’s Communists and fellow travelers were trying to overrule Canada’s government. In Halifax the freighter Islandside was loading general cargo, but 600 tons of ammunition and six crated aircraft destined for China lay on the dock. Members of the Red-tinged Canadian Seamen’s Union would not man the winches to load ammunition. If the ammunition were loaded, C.S.U. men would not take the ship out.

In Vancouver, Commy agitators who had no connection with shipping succeeded in delaying another shipment of 630 tons of ammunition. Before it could be loaded on the Pakistan-owned freighter Colima, 100 pickets (many from the University of British Columbia), led by avowed Communists, paraded past the pier with signs reading: “Students say no arms to Fascists,” and “Load bread, not bullets, on the Colima.” Anti-Communist labor leaders in Vancouver and Ottawa forced the meddlesome Reds to back down and withdraw their pickets. But the Colima had overrun her charter date for loading the cargo, and Chinese officials had to seek another ship to carry it. At week’s end, the cargoes were still waiting at the piers in both Halifax and Vancouver.