‘n.

veaa-n-‘na-

vvvwvYwI-w

229E sures" _- THE G UAR DIAN

now available in ‘the Unit-ed States. From our Ottawa despctches yesterday it

Morning Dally (Founded In 1881). Authorized as Second Class Mall. Post Ofllce Department. Ocean‘.

r eeident. Ian A. Burnett; Vice-President. Was It. Burnett; Seey.-Trena., G. M. Burnett; Editor and Managing Director, .I. R. Barnett; Associate Editor. Frank Walker.

“The Strongest Memory is Weaker Than the Weakest lnk."

CHARLOTTETOWN. THURSDAY, DEC. l8, 1947

For A Safer Christmas

The days before Christmas are getting few- er, and with the election campaign over we can all concentrate on the pleascnter chores of pre- Christmas shopping. Today's issue lectures many terpting bargains in this connection. It is only through the co-operation of our numerous ad- vertisers that this annual Christmas supplement is mode possible.

Worth remembering at this time is the par- ticular fire hazard which too often accompanies Christmas festivities. Among the precautions suggested by those interested in fire control is to bring the Christmas tree into the house ct the last possible rninute before Christmas and to re- move it soon after the festival is over. Once indoors the tree quickly dries out, but the pro- cess can be retarded by standing the tree in a pan of water and keeping the pan well filled. Some authorities suggest a solution of ammonium sul- phate and as a further precaution, spraying the tree with the solution before decorating.

Placing of the tree is equally important. lt should be stood away from fireplaces, radiators or other sources of heat. lt should also be plac- ed in such a position that should it fall it would not block a doorway, and thereby cut off escape from the room in event of fire. Christmas tree lights should be kept in good condition. A short circuit from worn wiring might be enough to start a disastrous fire.

With such precautions equal care should be taken to use incombustible materials in trim- uzing the tree and the home. In some munici- palities it is compulsory to have decorations treated to reduce flammability. But there should be no casual assumption that this has been clone during manufacture. By taking simple precau- tions sucn as these, Christmas can be freer of those tragedies which have marred it in the

post.

llew ll. K. Food contracts

It is news of importance to all cur farmers th-at new trade agreements with the United Kingdom covering bacon, cheese, eggs and beef are likely to be accepted, involving increased prices for these Canadian products of roughly I0 percent.

lt appears that the prices of practically all our farm products other than wheat are con- trolled indirectly by contract between the United Kingdom and Canadian governments. This was the gist of Agriculture Minister Gcrdiner's re- marks ot the closing session of the ‘recent Do- minion-Provincial agricultural production con- ference. The reason for this situation is that the Canadian Government has prohibited by orders- in-council the export of farm products to the United States. As we produce more of them than are consumed ct home, the surplus can find c market only under the U.K.-Canada contracts. The prices fixed in these contracts, therefore, become in each case effective domestic price controls. .

The passage in Mr. Gardiner’: speech oc- curs in an answer given by him to Mr. H. H. Hannam, the president of the Canadian Fed- oration of Agriculture. Mr. Hannam asked this question:

"There are two things we would like to know. ls our agricultural policy to be based on needs of the peoples of Britain and Europe or on dol- lars? ls cur agricultural economy to be on the dollar or the sterling basis?"

Mr. Gardiner answered: "The most difficult thing in the world is to try to live on two dif- ferent price levels. I om not too sure that price levels in Canada and the United States have not reached the same point except for food pro- ducts and if Canada places her food products on the world market it would mean that our twelve million people might be paying a lot more for the food they eat."

The Minister explained that if the United States market was thrown open for Canadian cattle, Canadian producers of hogs and dairy products would also want high prices comparable to those which would be paid for the beef. So Ilse would grain growers.

Mr. Gardiner‘: meaning is clear. Prices at the various farm products are related to each other and must be kept in balance. Some of these products-cattle for example-cannot be allowed cntry to the United States market be- cause the U. S. prices are higher than the United Kingdom contract prices. Farmers who raise hogs would also demand entry to the U. S. mcrket;_ so would dairy farmers and finally so would the grain growers.

The wheat agreement is a four-year con- tract with more than two years to run. The res’ of the contracts with the U. K. are not binding contracts. They are what are known as target contracts. In each ccse, Canada was assured a market at a fixed price but there was no obli- gation as to the quantity to be shipped. How- ever, these contracts plus the embargoes for- bidding exports to the United States, served to keep down the domestic prices of bacon, pork, eggs, beet and so on.

lt was the inability of the United Kingdom government to renew at higher prices these tar- get contracta for farm products other than wheat which, in Mr. Gardiner’: logic, threatened to overthrow the whole structure of farm prices, in- cluding the wheat agreement. For if farrn pro- ducts, like cattle, are to be sold in the United States then all other branches of the agricul- tnrd industry will insist upon getting the prices

'han<ls of the temperance forces.

,, s that this difficulty is likely to be re- moved. Should cunfirmafion of the I0 percent price increcseunder the proposed new agree- ments be received, it is expected a full state- ment will be made in the House of Commons today or Friday. lt would be a very acceptable pie-Christmas message indeed.

— EDITORIAL NOTES ._.

Accidents on the footpaths and pavement are almost inevitable unless care be taken to sand or ash them.

i I I I

Veterans entitled to awaiting returns allow- ances have only until the end of this month to apply unless they were discharged later than January I, I947.

I i I Q

We are worried about Los Angeles. The city felt an earthquake the other day that was not collossal, stupendous and astounding but mere- ly short and fairly sharp. Could all the high pressure press agents have perished?

i I I I

Adam Borsk is no longer a director of the United Packinghouse Workers of America. Ap- parently the union and Mr. Borsk disagreed on negotiation procedure and policy. lt is unfortun- ate for the local members that he was able to impose on them his own brand of negotiation.

is n n I

Hope our special Christmas issue today will answer its, purpose--to bring the spirit of Christmas to the hearts and minds of our read- ers. We need it in a world of non-Christian strife surrounding us. I l‘ i Manitoba is experimenting with various types of recording devices or the purpose of keeping a record of legislative proceedings. The mem- bers should take warning that corrections can more readily be made in Hanscrd thanon a length of wire. I I I ‘O It is satisfactory to note that the name of Lord Vansittart, pre-war chief diplomatic ad- viser of the British foreign office, has now been cleared of suspicion over leakage of informa- tion. An Italian servant had stolen the docu- merits concerned prior to Italy's entry into the war and has now confessed. I I I I

There are more than three thousand Bop- tist churches in the USSR. Baptists form one of the country's largest religious communities. There is a Baptist presbyter in practically every region and district of the USSR. At the head of the community is the All-Union Baptist Council in Moscow. Sermons are published in the Baptist magazine, Bratski Vesfnilr, which is sold in every Soviet city.

i R I I

Charles Wesley, parson, hymn-writer and evangelist, born this date I708; an Oxford

Mother lnalnia aha in a alave. but slaves never talk to their masters as she talks to poor old dad. -Que- bne Chronicle-Telegraph.

An one turkey aayn in another; if grandfather knew what we are coating nowadays, he'd tum over in his gravy. - Brandon Bun.

Bella. dresses modestly ainoe be- coming reel about. She realizes that her efforts to be immodest; would turn out to be comical. - Kansas City Times.

Yaneouve in a city of moods. Sometimes it Ls entirely convinced of its destiny; it wlll be one of the great cities of the world. At other tlmes, it. dreams it is still Gas town, playing with logs on the sea- front. and watching the mudiiv ivater squish up between the planvs of the wooden sidewalk. _ Van- couver Province.

Ten yearn ago a. year's crop of babies in New York was nbout 100.000 in the city. This year it. will be about 170.000. In five yearn the 153,736 babies of last year will be going to school, says The New "York Times. All over the country this process will be repeated, straining our capacity in teachers and classrooms ,ancl later the col- lege facilities. It is a responsibility to reckon with st once.

If there were no water, what would the eariih be like? From pole to pole, the earth would be a desert. o! granite, basalt. and lava, shaken by repeated earth- quakes. The unbernpered sun would. beat down on the rocks and in the absence of oceans there would be almost no wlnds. Without water there would be no weathering and no erosion. 'I'hese are necessary for the making of soils and the form- ing of rocks other than granite. basalt. and lava which are formed from the earth's molten interior.- Sclence Illustrated.

To relieve the housing problem, legislation was recently enacted in New Zealand providing for the compulsory letting of unoccupied houses. The responsibility of de- ciding what is an unoccupied house was given to the local authorities whoee decision is subject to an appeal to a magistrate. The legis- lation was brought down at the request of returned servicemenu organizations which took the view that. people should not have two or three houses while ex-servlce- men had difficulty in obtaining housing accommodation. - New Zealend News.

It In n sobering thought that. the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on highways have made little or no contribution to the safety of motorists generally. Statistics

graduate and member there of "the Holy Club" or "Methodists", he was a brother of John, and became the poet of the evangelical revival, writ- ing no fewer than 6,000 hymns, including ‘Uesiis’ Lover of My Soul" and ”O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing":

”Roses all that's fair adorn;

Rosy-fingered is the morn;

Rosy-armed the nympths are seen; Rosy-skinned is beauty's queen."

Hon. William Johnston Tapper, who died at 85 in Winnipeg an Tuesday, was the disting- uished son of a distinguished father. As Lieut- enant_Governor of Manitoba he visited Prince Edward Island with Mrs. Tupper in July, I939, on the occasion of c_ur celebration of the 75th anni- versary of the Confederation Conference in Charlottetown. His Honour was then the only surviving son of Sir Charles Tupper, former Premier of Nova Scotio, one of the Fathers of Confederation.

a a e

lt was interesting to read an account of the first performanceof Handel's Messiah in the year I742 and especially about the soloists, writes a correspondent. It is worth noting that Handel insisted on having a Choir-boy silrlig [three solos, namely: "There Were Shepherds ,‘ How Beautiful Are The Feet", and "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth." Handel set a high value on the musical quality of a boy's voice. In St. Michael's college, Tenbury, Wales, is preserved the original score cf the Messiah, used by Han- del at its first performance in Dublin and In London, and over these three airs may be seen in red pencil, written by Handel himself, the

words—-"T he lay?‘

I Q

The ill-wind of austerity is playing into the A gradual shutdown of Scotland's distilling industry start- ed this weck with suspension of operations by a score of smaller -units, says the New York Times. The large distilling establishments have enough grain on hand to carry them through the rest of this month, but must shut down immediately after the first of the year unless new supplies are made available. The difficulty of the dis- tillers is due to the fact that the Ministry of Food which has authority to allocate barley and other grain for whisky production has hesitated to announce its decision regarding the allot- ment for the coming quarter. Distillers were cs- sured early in the fall that they would receive 75,000 tons of grain each quarter provided that three-quarters of the whisky produced from the grain would be earmarked for export principally to the United States and other dollar areas. Since

the Ministry of Food made its commitment, there has been agitation in the United States against the idea that distiller: in Scotland should be per- mitted to operate while American distillers were shut down for a period of 60 days in order to conserve grain for use as food in Europe. It ls felt that the Government has delayed Inuk-

ing new grain allocations to whisky producers

show that the great majority of fatal accidents occur in daylight, in good weather, on perfectly straight. gscretches of_ good nigh- way. To that extent._ ‘by providing more unobstructed miles of good highway, which incite the thought- less driver to higher speeds than he can control, those expensive highway projects might almost. be regarded as n method of subsidiz- ing the crime that has become known as "motor manslaughter."- Toronm Globe and Mail.

If we didn't feel that UN ha! too many things on its hands al- ready we'd be tempted to urge that it take up the question of the Olympic games as an enemy of world harmony. For as long as we can remember these games, thought up in the first place to nurture in- tematlonal good will, have nur- tured little but international bick- ering. Nor do they improve ivith age. Time was when the bickering came after the games were over; now, as we see by the despabchee the grouslng and bickering have started contests have been chosen. The Ideal of sportsmanship and world fellowship, which should be high above petty quarrelllng, is sim-ply discarded. One of our prec- ious cliches ls that. the more peo- ple are brought, together the more they ivtll love one another. book- ing over the tale of these Olympic games. plus the tale of some other things, we sometimes doubt. it. It. was a French cynic who, com- bating the claim that. proximity was the parent of harmony, said that after all most. quarrels tooic place within families. Whatever the truth, it is all too clear that the Olyrnplcglmel an a p. mater of international goodwill an the worst sort of a washout. —~ Ot- tawa. JournaL

A tabulation of the eolor schemes of next. year's automobile licence plates for Canada and the United Statics shows that. about. two-thirds of the states and provinces have returned to the old plan of mark- ers on front. and rear. ln Canada Manitoba, Quebec and Saskatche- wan will issue only one plate in 1948. says The Ottawa Journal. An interesting trend in toward per- mnrient. markere, with an inserted date for each year. These have been adapt/ed by Connecticut, Dela- ware_ Maryland» and Wisconsin. while n. couple of others are to use their i947 markers. one with n "48" windshield sticker, the other with "48" as an insert in the plate itself. The needless cost. of annual markers, plus the bother of putting them on and taking thorn off, is likely tn cause this move- ment to grow. leaders will be in- forested in the color schemes of Canadian platen for 104i: Alberta. Al»! an aluminum. Brit-Ills Col- umbla-Whlte on Green. Manitoba -8lnck on Yellow. New Brunswick Nova Boot-ta-

vlnitteoa Blue. Prince-Inward te- Jand-Blaek on Aluminum. Que- beo-Grlen an White. Infiltratio-

for fear of gifending American public opinign.

.4‘

wan-mu: eralnniinm.

THE GUARDIAN. CHARLOTTETOWN

Christmas At War

Over a million fiX-aclVlOfimCn and "thirty thousand men who "stayed in" will celebrate Christmas this year and many will recall their Christmases “in action.“ when it didn't. serm a. bit like the festive season. The war was only too real and they were playing "for keeps." Here are acme of those chi-Isl, mas-es.

On Christmas Day, 19B, Canad- ians. scrapping with the British Eighth Army in Italy. were flgiht- ing in and around Ortona. It was cold. raw and unhealthy. but there

was no snow-that caimc a week later. on New Year's Eve. At the ttrne. there was an old.

battered church ln Oriana, no dif- ferent from half a dozen other ruined churches in the hotly c n- teslcd town, except lilllil. In Lils Particular church 0n this particular Cilirlslltnas Day. the Seafortli High- landers from Vancouver decided to serve their Christmas dinner. And serve lt. they did, but never was Christmas dinner eaten in more in- connucus surroundings.

But a word about the Seaforlhls themselves. Without. doubt they'd have been the last people in the world to tell you they had time just then to eat Christmas dinner. They were shre-et-flgihflng 1n Grimm, Street-fighting and there wasn't a "Mn present who would have bed you fifty cents that he'd live to see the new year.

They served Christ/mas dinner in that shell-battered old church and they ate it.—orie company at. a time. 'I‘.hat. was only way they ccyuld manage lt.. Sneak in, a company at is time. and when they'd eaten, sneak beck and let the next com- tplny come in. They piped chem 1n 1n true Scottish style. When they were seated, and while they ate, 1511B Padre. vnho had managed to put: tihe church organ ln some semblance duh-ape. plaice Christmas carrols. Vihthout qulte knowing why. men. W110 01113’ minutes before had been Sighting through the sights of a, rifle. sang the carols tihey had at. ways sung at Christmas.

Company after Qflfnpany may sneaked in. and COlIlDany by gym. Pally they were served mm 0f the finest Christmas din- ners ever served in the line-titr- key. nuts, beer, nitrite table cloth and all the tiri-niniinb. A great show; a brave show. And at. the end 0f the block and in the next street ifimmy Elms answered Schmelsers. Men died that dav~scme with and some ivlthout. their Christmas flln- ner. Bil-t that was Christmas: that was war.

O O I

In Holland. n year later, it was a slightly different story. “Slnt Nikolas-s". according to tradition. come to many children that yrear from Spain in n. barrge. He was mounted on a. fine white horse and Mwmpflfllfid by a good Peter and a bad Peter. His bag was full, too, which ls as it should be, but; lrmeld few» 11 “Y WH- Canadlan soldiers stationed In Holland felt, portion. 1811i! bad about. that. However, rather than disappoint the "km.

bag with chocolate end- candles, hsrdtack and tinned meat: butter and jam-in fact anything they

could salvage from their rations of

parcels from home.

Santa. sponsored by Headquart-

ers. 10 Armoured Regiment (Fort

Gaff!’ Horse) duly arrived at the

little village near the now frmous

Grave Bridge on the road to Nlj.

megen. On either side of him were

his two Peters-the good Pete; with

s. saokful of presents; the bad “um

e ere-t. empty Sack in which to

carry away all the children who

had nob been good. The tittree drew

11D in fine‘ style in front of the

hues crowd which had gathered.

Santa. beamed at the children. The

children happily beamed back.

Then Santa. W-ho quite possibly knows more about reindeer iihanlie does about horses, fell off his

white steed. It we; probgbly the

biggest laugh those Dutch children

had that Chiristmas . . .

a e e I

71M You". too. member-s or ill;

l" Railway Company ma‘, threw n bit of e Christmas for the young. er generation in Beaumont-lie Roger. France. In the "Boche" Theatre. built by the German; early in the occupation, Sgt. vii; Lemieux of Ottawa played 5mm l° 50MB 250 EOREIY-éyed kids who really believed Christmas had died with the war.

There was lots of fresh snow in Beaumont-lo Roger that year and it reminded the Canadian soldiers of Christ/mas at lloime, so they l,“ $1115 Dotty for the youngsters and it. was a. great success. It wasrrt. much o! l 987W the way the Engineers tell it, but Frenchmen. that Christ- mas. came in by slelgih frcrm all aver the surrounding countryside. Saint Nicholas was in town, and all though the Brown-ups knew that off-duty he was just another guy in Canadian battledress. the kids, didn t. And. after all, who‘; ($11.15;. inns for, anyway?