THE GUARDIAN

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i. mant. Who knows but that a teen-ago Utopia

I "visory Vocational Committee?"

leaning belly (lauded in llli) Altherlned u ilocorsd Olnee lull, Poet Office Department, Ottawa. The hllnd Gnu-din Publishing 0e. minor nail lleneging Director, J. B. Burnett; Aaeoalele Idftor, Irenl Weller

(‘The Strongest Memory is Weaker Than the Weakest Ink.“

cnenwrreaown WEDNESDAY, ocr. 2o. me Proposed highway conference

lt has been announced by Rt. Hon. C. Howe that a Dominion-Provincial conference will be called to discuss the construction of a trons- Canada highway. ,The date of this important meeting was not indicated, but the Minister stated that such data and information as is es- sential to the conference has been gathered, and that the Government is "seized with the econom- ic importance" of this long-promised project.

ln Prince Edward lsland the proposed high- way is expected to run from Borden through what is known as the Bradford and Big Clear roads to the Tryon road. According to Hon. Mr Barbour, Provincial Minister of Public Works and Highways, this project would greatly facilitate traffic between Albany and Victoria, Tryon and adjoining centres and would have special advan- tages in the matter of winter snow clearance. lt will involve acquiring a section of land between Borden and the Cape Traverse road on the south- ern side of the railway.

The trons-Canada highway should also in- clude construction of the Brighton Bridge. As intimated by Mr. Barbour two years ago, plans for this bridge have been prepared and some borings taken. Nothing has since been done in the matter, but it is to be hoped that at the forthcoming Dominion-Provincial conference this project will be strongly pressed by our lsland rep- resentatives. lt is one which already has the support of the Conservative Party, and the Gov- ernment need fear no Opposition criticism on this point.

liew Defense Plans

That a serious view of the world situation is token at Ottawa is evidenced by the appoint- ment of a "ca-ordinator of civil defense plan- ning" in the person of General F. F. Worthing- ton. The main task of the co-ordinotor Will be to supervise the creation of plans for civil de- fense which could be placed in operation if war become imminent. lt was indicated that he will travel extensively, checking on vulnerable spots and advising local authorities on what to ex- pect if the international situation grows tense. The announcement said that the first step would be to plan for co-ordination of Federal departments that would be involved in civil defense —Defense, Health and Justice. The next step would be to decide and arrange the port pro- vincial ond municipal authorities would ploy in an emergency. Government sources emphasize that these are precautionary measures merely, taken "partly for morale, partly for strategic reasons."

Certainly no one will accuse the Government of being unduly extravagant in initiating meas- ures of this kind. Should the defense plans prove unnecessary, the expenditures can be written off as on insurance premium. The ap- pointment of General Worthington to head these activities is also to be commended. His career indicates that he is not only an ex- perienced soldier, but a very capable and bril- liant one. Canadian Press refers to him as "one of the pre-war officers whose ideas about tanks first seemed unorthodox and then became the essence of orthodoxy in the last war." That is as good a recommendation as one could wish for a defense ca-ordinotor.

llox Ponulll

One of the reasons advanced by a member of the Provincial Government for supporting the abolition of Latin in the public schools was that Latin was an unpopular subject, and the Government should not go against public opin- ion. By the same token, it is proposed that the study of Shakespeare be abolished in the public schools of Toronto. This has been suggested as an aftermath to the disgraceful behaviour of secondary year students at special performan- ces of Macbeth and Hamlet given for their bene- fit. A membe. of the Advisory Vocational Com- mittee of the Board of Education argues that as the students evidently do not like Shakespeare, it would be a waste of time to teach them to appreciate his plays.

This inspires the following ironic comment from the Globe and Mail:

"There is something in the suggestion, as everybody will agree. Some of us did not like algebra, and we could never understand the de- termination of our elders that we should wade through it and even pass on examination at the end of the year. There are not a few to whom history is an abomination, and others find grammar insufferable. lf there is any chance of the suggestion being taken up, it should not be limited to Shakespeare alone. Why not talre a poll of the students to find out what other subjects might he dropped because of their un- popularity?

"lt is easy to see how much could be saved ll this policy were put into effect. The salaries of the teachers concerned could either be saved, or divided among the others who were unlucky enough to have popular subjects, like football. ln fact, if a large enough number of subjects were unpopular, we migth be able to close the schools altogether. That would be a great relief to the Property Owners‘ Association, because then there would be no more nonsense about school taxes, or pampering the pupils with too much equip-

ls just around the corner —all because of a

lily llaiiarla lrsports Butter One reason why Canada has been forced to arrange for large imports of butter-aside from the fact that the manufacture and sale of a healthful and palatable substitute is still forbidden-—may be simply ascertained, says the Kingston Whig-Standard. Before arrangements were made for importing approximately 15,000,- 000 pounds of butter, discussion of reasons for the shortage were heard everywhere. There were complaints about the high price, arguments about the predicted shortage. There would have been even more complaints if the commodity were not still under a ceiling, and the reason the ceiling remains may be found in some figures recently made public. They show the approxi- mate average return to a farmer for one hun- dred pounds of milk, when used for various pur- poses, as follows:

Fluid milk . . . . . . ..$4-02 l-ce cream 3.17 Condensories, etc. . . . . . . .. 2.97 Fluid cream ., . . . . . . . 2.95 Cheese . . . . _ .. . . . . . . .. 2.70 Butter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2.55

The answer may be, and probably is, that milk as a beverage has become more popular than ever before in the history of its sale. We do not know whether the various campaigns ex- tolling the healthfulness of milk as a beverage

that millions of gallons are now being drunk which hitherto were diverted to other purposes. ll was once exceptional to hear o person call for milk to accompany breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack; today it is commonplace. And since Con- ada’s cows have apparently failed to keep up with this change in habits, the nation must import butter.

EDllURlAl. N0 YES

The Prince Edward lsland is in Mon- treal being overhauled. fi fl fi I lunshlne and shower still in evidence here while snow falls elsewhere.

I I O‘ There ore prospects of a trade in canned meat for lsraeli being developed here at Summer- side. I I i i A nice daily trade of 50 gallons of oysters for Montreal has been developed through the enterprise of Charlottetonians. i w w i Candidates are being sought for the forth- coming Federal election, though it be sti|l'un- certain whether it "be this year, next year. 0f sometime later." I I I Everyone in the newspaper business and elsewhere must be wondering what was the secret Lord Beaverbrook learned on how to stop wor-

rying.

a a w a

Trade is being predicted by the Business Agents Association, Toronto, to continue good for at least-nine years. By that time the pros- pects of war -will have disappeared or—realized.

Q R it i

Rolling troop convoys on New Brunswick

roads are reminiscent of wartime, but the state

of preparedness which they indicate is the best

guarantee that we will not again drift into war. i i I C

Nova' Scotra rs taking another step fore- word with the establishment of a plant at East- ern Passage to service and later build Fairley aircraft for the Royal Canadian Navy.

I i‘ i Q

Finance Minister Abbot told an audience that taxes will be reduced by the Federal Gov- ernment as soon as circumstances justify a re- duction. As the financial situation has long justified greatly reduced taxation the Minister must have been referring to political circum-

STGHCGS. a e a a

There will be much sympathy for the Trades and Labour Congress in its aims to improve the lot of seamen in Canadian vessels, but its con- demnation of the shipping laws is another mat- ter. For the safety of crews as well as ships so. called "anti-democratic" are just and neces- sory. I I I I

It is strange in what different light people look at the various activities of government. No one expects highways to pay their way as long as they are of service to the community. Rail- ways, on the other hand, however essential, are regarded as unsuccessful unless they can show a profit.

I O I I

Lord Palmerston, Irltlsh statesman, born this date i784; one of the most compromising politicians in British parliamentary history; he blundered in both home and foreign policy; was censured by the House of Lords, and dismissed by the Queen, but returned to office, and ulti- mately became Prime Minister. Ha was not on impressive personality, but was skilful and vary popular: "Die my dear doctor! That's the last thing l shall do."

O I I

The further embargo on steel is going to handicap business considerably. The Canadian Press was up ogginst the steelishortage in build- ing their new offices in Toronto, but overcame it by using cement wherever steel would ordin- arily be necessary. The building was straight quo-, tation priced-no cost plus-with- a specified date for handing over, and the contractors lived up in both respect: to th‘eir.undertaking.-

I

Mr. Fred T. Parker, manager of the traffic and customs department of Canadian Industries Limited predicts that freight rates in the East

is another warning that the lsland needs some- one responsible for watching our interests in this field. Left to their own devices the railways keep rates low where they have to meat competi-

simple suggestion from a member of the Ad-

tion and make up the loss where they have the

and food are responsible, but it seems obvious .

may be increased and in the West reduced. This_

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ffibiiibii PUBLIC FORUM l

This column ls open to the discussion by correspondents of questions of interest. The Guardian doea not necessar- ily endorse the opinion of correspondents.

b§oo&oo-@oo@>ao=@~co< NEGLECTEI) TIGNISH

Sir,—Whal. is wrong with the present. Government? Tignlsh pro- per and surrounding country have at least. two thousand citizens. They have neither a medical doc- tor nor a dentist. 1f the unfin- ished project. tihe paved highway connecting Tlgnlsh and Alberton, was complete, the snow-plough cculd keep the road open during the winter months and then anx- ious people would be able to get to (the Westem Hospital ln Alber- ton. The people are engaged in the lobster industry, seed potatoes and moss, which makes it one of tihe most. prosperous sections of the Island. They have numerous cars and it seems n great. injustice that. these people have not a paved road which ls only a distance of six miles. The Tlgnlsh people are now in a precarious position, es- pecially when the roads begin to break up in the spring. Should an emergency operation arise they are helpless martyrs. I am, Sir. etc.

A SYMPATHIZER.

DUCK SHOOTING EAST Sin-I noted with particular in- terest the reference in "Hunter's Corner" to the bright. prospects for duck shooting 1n the coming season. From personal pbservat- ions at. the numerous haunts in Eastern King's I em happy to agree with you: columnist. that the wild duck population appears to be increasing most. satisfactor- lly. However. for the duck hunter in Eestrenr Kings the matter of this increase will contribute little, lf any, to his enjoyment of this sport. After the first. salvo on opening day few birds are to b: found outside the confines of Black Pond sanctuary. The mass flight. of wlld ducks to this safety zone causes one to marvel at their lirsllnct. of self-preservation.

I recall that. when the duck population was dwindling rapidly all hunters felt. comet-hing should be done to old ln their conservat- ion and it was at. that time the sanctuary at Black Pond was es- tablished. slnoe then, the Eastern hunters have been content to soc- rlflce their season's sport. The use of the lakes and ponds in this area as duck hetoherles and the subsequent safe assembl, of the grown bLrds at Black Pond for their annual migration to the south has. no doubt, been a gen- erous response from the Eastern gunners.

They now feel that. over s. per- iod of years their contribution to this cause has been out. of pro- portion to that asked of apart-s- men in other parts of the lsland. In view oi’ the above facts I em far from satisfied u to the jus- tice of continuing this sanctuary in our midst. After rneny lean years the master-n hunters and their former visiting companions long for the day when they will have the opportunity to enjoy this great. out-dooij sport. in a zom- rnon privilege with their fellow hunters of the Province. I be- lieve titre "Hunter's Comer" will agree, that if sanctuerles- eperl. from the National Perk. must. be maintained to ensure a reasonable margin of increase. in all fairness another laetlon of the Province should be selected and the pres- ent one at Bleak Pond discontin- ued. Ottierwlee we of the lest

field to themselves.

might as well auction our guns

She Wasn't Hanged

(The New York Herald Trlbunei The Ilse Koch use generates some rather sober thoughts. When the news came out. that the lifc sentence of "se Koch. the world celebrated "pitch of Buchenwald". had been commuted ta four years by the American military authorit- les, n storm of indignation went up from six continents. Everybody “knew" that Ilse Koch was the per- verted woman who had made lamp shades out of the skins of Buchen- wnld prisoners whom she had scl- ected for destruction because of tlic tattooing they bare. That. the seni- ence of this fiend should be com- muted instantly took on n pollllcul significance, and columns have been poured out implying that the Am- erican authorities in Germany who were responsible for the reduction of this sentence were pulling their political sympathies for Nrizl react- ion above the claims of justice. I l I

Yet in all the uproar (and it bus consumed many more newspaper columns than were ever given orig- inally to the facts of the Koch easel almost nowhere could one find a serious statement of llu. evidence on which the Amerizari reviewing authorities acted.

Our correspondent, Edwin C. Hartrlch, endeavored to supply this important deficiency. He went to the record. His report may not be complete or final. but it is disturb- lng. In essence it is that the rec- ord contains no reputable evidence that Ilse Koch committed the crime attributed to her; there was a coi- lectlon of tattooed human skins, but Ilse Koch was never reliably con- nected wlth ll; one chief witness admitted that. he had never been ln the Koch house where he was supposed to have seen these skins: the very fact that another chief witness, a Buchenwnld prisoner, was alive in 1947, and able to give testimony threw doubt, at. least. on the accuracy of the picture of sadis- tic perversion which the prosecu- tion sought to establish.

The American chief prosecutor at the Buchenwnld trial and at least one of his aides have both publluh- ed articles, since the commuting of the sentence, arguing that. llae Koch was even worse than she was depicted at the trial. but admitting that they only introduced a small

But, under any decent system of justice. a court of review can look only at. the iictunl record, not at what might have been introduced if the prosecution had had more time or burl used more diligence. What crimes Ilse Koch may ln fact have been guilty of. there is no way of telling. On the record rl appears that. what everybody "known" about her ls actually a misty compound of fact and largo amounts of legend, a sensational concentration of passion and haired on one woman about whom no one really knows anything. O l I

On this showing, the reviewing authorities commuted the sentence. Perhaps the action was question- able. Undoubtedly it tended to blur with the allegation of "atrocity story" all the only too well eltub- ilahed facts as to Nazi brutality.

too lightly to be taken. On the other hand, would it have been wile to endorse en unproveil

uneontrovertlbie fact? One

case where so much doubt actually

the Allied prosecutions of Criminals than could have been provided by any effort to lulinln the clearly legendary material which has gathered around tho case of Ilse Koch, even grunting that Koch was guilty of everything alleged against her.

such I sport. as duck etiootlng ever existed. r inn, an. m,

rind equipment. and forget. that

EASTERN HUNTER.

Isle Koch And Why i

part of the total weight of evidence prjnce Edward Island‘ “that the which they had accumulated “c! dechmng "m! Bapusm up against her" Slaves shall not exempt them from

WlliLE ITHESE REMAIN Now in this precarious peace we are gaining a. little time Against. the tide of destruction. The crash landing of one plane may make n headline.

The burning of one building a news item.

The deed are buried singly and not by the hundred.

There are no sign-posts in the sky To mark the places Where smoke and screaming terror Desecrated the starlight;

No crosses on the sea

To mark the going down of men and ships.

And the earth is covering her scars with buttercups.

flame and

The comradeshlp of men-ln-arms Ls fading into the unacknowledged credo

Of every men for himself.

We ere returning to the old joys, the old sorrows,

The old, small hates.

WhCYG are they who dreamed of o. fau- world brimming with plenty

And people with brothers?

Some are bewildered and silent, Some are bitterly loud

But there ere others who soy: "The fault. ls ours. Our dream was not. great enough,

And we forgot. to psyf’.

While these remain. tihere ls hope.

—Ve:rno Inveday Harden in Tor- onto Saturday night.

F§OO€OOQ

l Old Charlottetown (And r. r. r.)

SLAVERY ABOLISHED

"It seems curious," wrote the late Judge Warburtan in his History of

Bandage,’ passed in 1781, was not repealed until 1825, having re- malned a blot on our statute books for forty-four years." The repeal legislation, passed 71th October, 1825. reeds as follows: "An Act to repeaf an Act made and passed ln the twenty-first yenr of his late Majesty's reign. in- tliuled ‘An Act. declaring that Bap- tism of Slaves shell not exempt them from Bondage’:

"Whereas by the nforelisld not, Slavery is sanctioned and permit.- ied within this Island, audit I

-= Notes ‘ By

Abruteleamenwlsoleevaehie wife home all day long-without u cigisret. — Kltchener-Wgterloo Rec- ord.

i’?

Horn eaneo le probably a fine thing but it doesn't. seem to have done very much for the horses.- Galt Reporter.

Only forty-one of Ill law etu- dents, it's announced, pulsed sup- plemental exemlnaiiune at Oagooile Hail. What do the seventy-three losers do now—lsunch an appeal?- Wlndsor Star.

Since we have got our new oar we do not have to walk to thc bank to make deposits. We just do not make any. - Brandon Sun.

Busy boyl stay out of mischief. They are laying a good foundation for later years. A good many of today's carrier boys will be among the city's leading citizens tomor- row—just as many of today's lead- ers once had newspaper routes of their own.—-Vuncouver News-Her- nld.

“Not too much sleep at night," ls the latest recipe for longevity given by n cenlennrlan. The sharp dif- ferences of opinion on formulas for long life have convinced us that the only reliable guidance was giv- en by a gentleman not long ngo who said, when asked how he men- nged to attain such a ripe old age: “By being born so long ago." — Suull. Ste. Marie Star.

The story la told and fully '- ed for of n Canadian lady, having business with a senior official of n leading Boston trust company, who found this otherwise educated mun displaying an almost pathetic lack of knowledge of Canada. To him it was inconceivable that Can- ada could produce peaches and other tropical fruits and that this nation had natural resources in abundance which the United States lacked almost. entirely. — Sher- broake Record.