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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1963-03-14, Page 9Our Responsibilities Are Confused Though we hesitate to return to an editorial subject which has been given space in this column for the past two ' weeks -- that of national defense -- so much comment has been aroused that we feel compelled to outline our own views as fully as possible. It is apparent that we have not dif- ferentiated with sufficient clarity be- tween Canada's military needs in purely defensive areas, and her duty as a mem- ber of the NATO forces in Europe. The opinions we have expressed here pre- viously have nothing whatever to do with our forces in Europe, firstly for the very good reason that we are not sufficiently informed, and secondly because there is no doubt that the decision in regard to nuclear weapons for use by Canadian forces in Europe is fraught with many complications. It is also true that there appears to be some alteration in the at- titude of the American military leaders about the emphasis of nuclear armaments in Europe. Let us then repeat that what has pre- viously been stated here was in reference ONLY to Canada's urgent needs as far as the defense of North America is concern- ed. Since our country lies right across the most likely path of invasion, the de- cision is an urgent one. There are many people who will con- tend that the two problems — nuclear weapons for NATO forces in Europe and nuclear warheads for NORAD defensive mechanisms in North America --- are in- divisible. We disagree, completely. If you knew there was a possibility that your house might be surrounded by a band of red -skinned savages, intent on murdering you and your loved ones, you would arm yourself with the biggest and best gun you could secure. You would have only one thought in mind—your re- sponsibility to keep your family secure. You wouldn't quibble about the possi- bility that your new rifle would only en- courage others to get rough with the In- dians. You would grit your teeth and get ready for action. However, if you were chosen to equip and lead an expedition against the Indians in their own territory you would wisely ve some thought to whether or not you could succeed in your mission without leaving such scars that your enemies would be certain to retaliate. in simple terms that is the situation we face today. AL Here at The Advance -Times we have ceived many comments about Canada's defense position. The Canadian people are deeply disturbed—and rightly so. A great number of those with whom we have talked or who have written letters, do take a courageous stand and express the belief that we must make every effort to meet danger with determination. On the other hand, we find an alarming num- ber who seem to believe that Canada should become a neutral nation, They harbor the fantastic notion that our coun- try—the very path from the USSR to the United States — would somehow be spared in the event of war. One of the letters which arrived dur- ing the past week not only contended that all our efforts to defend ourselves are hopeless, but even included a map of North America (clipped from The Ad- vance -Times of two weeks ago) on which the writer had laid out the entire Russian plan of attack, so complete that we have refrained from publishing it. The USSR might get some fresh ideas from it. The writer did not sign. the letter with a re- cognizable name, so we will not pass on to you the utterly pathetic spirit of defeat which it contained. The strong opinions about the need for more effective defense on Canada's part which we have expressed during the past two weeks were gained, as you will recall, during a visit to NORAD headquar- ters at Colorado Springs. There are among our readers those who doubt this writer's ability to accurately assess such a situation. Therefore we have decided to reprint here the comments of the news- papermen who accompanied us on that trip, These men, far from sitting down in a huddle to concoct similar observa- tions, wrote the comments in the cramp- ed quarters of an RCAF aircraft on the return journey, with no opportunity 1 whatever to compare notes. The men who have written these paragraphs, as you will see, come from towns across the entire Dominion, and include certainly both Liberals and Conservatives, and pos- sibly Social Crediters and NDPs, You may safely assume that they are average and reasonably intelligent Canadians. If Canadian voters knew the true facts on NORAD there would be no doubt in their minds how they should vote on April 8th. They would vote for the party with a clear cut policy on defense. It seems impossible to form any other con- clusion. This being the case, what are the facts. One day at NORAD Headquarters will provide the facts for any interested group. They will find that no more than 178 Canadians visited NORAD last year, and that very few members of Parliament or ministers were among that 178 which, when comparedHith 21,000 from the U.S,A., is almost nil.. It would be found that NORAD is for defense only. It has no other function nor could it be used in any other way. Warheads for the carriers Canada now has, cannot be used for any other purpose than as intercepters. An atomic bomb destroyed by a nuclear warhead could be non -effective, while destroyed by conven- tional warheads, it would explode at a predetermined height. —K. E. G. Patridge, The Camrose (Alta.) Canadian. The single most indicative fact, un- covered during the CWNA tour of NORAD Headquarters was the almost unbeliev- able lack of communication between our military specialists and elected parlia- mentarians. The published erroneous statements by many parliamentarians can only be justified by their lack of understanding of the situation. We cannot justify their ignorance of the situation when they have made little or no attempt to broaden their knowledge of the basic concept of North American Air Defense. —David R. Dills, Acton (Ont.) Free Press. was shocked by the disparity be- tween fact as found at Colorado Springs and what the Canadian public has been told by our Government and opposition leaders. The nuclear issue has been seriously misrepresented by all parties with the re- sult that the basic responsibility of our Federal authorities—to defend our coun- try and our people—has been consider- ably short of our basic security needs. In the face of our imminent election, serious inquiry into the true facts relat- ing to NORAD, NATO and nuclear de- fense, and informing of the public of these facts, is urgent. —J. W. Sancton, Monitor Publishing Co. Ltd., Montreal, Que. Was tremendously impressed with the complex communications system, and the state of readiness in which all NORAD forces appeared to be. Further, I am now fully convinced that Canadian Defense Forces acting as an arm of NORAD cannot work to maximum efficiency, nor can they be an effective deterring force unless equipped with nu- clear warheads. Would suggest that M.P.s quit wrang- ling amongst themselves about merits of nuclear defensive arms and visit NORAD Headquarters, to obtain factual informa- tion regarding same. —Walter Migowsky, Maple Creek (Sask.) News. If our visit to NORAD Headquarters taught me one thing, it was simply this: Canada by accepting nuclear weapons for defensive purposes only, would be safe- guarding the best interests of her people, by doing anything Tess, our leaders fail ih their duty towards us. —C. I. McIntosh, North I3attleford (Sask.) News Optimist. Further Comments, Page Four, Section Two. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President - Robert 0. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulation; Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ- ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and for payment of postage in cash Subscription Rate: One Year, $4.O0; Six Months, $2.25, In advance $5.00 per year; Foreign rate, $5.00 per year Advertising Rates on application BOARD RETURNED •— The 1962 board of directors and officers of the Turnberry Federation of Agriculture were returned to office at the annual meeting of the organiza- tion in Bluevale on Monday. The group includes, front row, from the left: Ed Walker, secretary -treasurer; Walter Woods, president; Sid Moffatt, first vice-president; centre: directors, J. J. Elliott, Harold Elliott, Gordon Mundell, Eldon Kirton, Arnold Jeffrey; hack row: Harry Mulvey, Raymond Neill, Jack Willits, William Merkley, Ross McKague, Les Fortune and James E. Currie—A-T Photo. bwm titian ctZintt Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, March 14, 1963 SECTION TWO • VI i111llllilllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllplllll "I' r�illllllilll;ll!IIIIIII '.''ll f�4tilIIIIHIG�Ifullha�hn�iP'i� II I I SUGAR and SPICE urufililllllllullllllll,By Bill S m i i ey,IiilV,ilfll(Illlllllllh A month from now it will be all over. Have you ae- cided yet which way you're going to vote? It's tough, isn't it? The experts tell us there's only one real issue in this election—that of nuclear arms. Well, I'm telling them right now, if they can't think of something a little brighter than that to vote for, or against, they needn't expect me to vote at all. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that .I'm an ordinary Canadian voter, which I am, who is flatly opposed to nuclear arms for Canada, which I am. Who the heck am I going to vote for? Diefendummer says we won't have any of these atrocities in Canada, sort of. But if a war starts, he'll blow his whistle and stop the play while we sent a couple of trucks down to Detroit or somewhere and pick up nu- clear noses for those Bone- heads or whatever they call them, that the Yanks un- loaded on us. Makes me go all hot and cold when I think that I voted for that fellow one time. * * * Then there's Lesser Person. Lesser reminds me of the girl who sang in the choir and taught Sunday School, but took a drink one night on a sleighride and now dances third from the left in the chorus line at the Purple Garter. Lesser, who once remarked sensibly that he'd rather be red than dead, who once won the Nobel Peace Prize, now wants to press those hideous heads into the hot little hands of our gal- lant lads in uniform. How could I vote for him? And of course we have that new party. Tweedledum vows that the party wouldn't touch nuclear arms with a 10 - foot Tory. Tweedledee says the party will accept limited use of nuclear arms, Twee- dlediun says to Tweedledee, "Comment ca va, Bob?" (English translation, "How's that again, Bub?"). Tweedle- dee informs Quebec audience that the party wouldn't touch nuclear arms with an 11 -foot Tory, I'd like them to be a little more explicit. Is it to be no nuclear arms for any- body, or just a sprinkling here and there, or no nuclear arms for Quebec? There's only one party left. It's been left for years, and will probably be left again on election day. The grinning leader of the Indee- pees, somewhere in there among all the jokes, has stated unequivocally that his party is against nuclear arms at hone or at school, at work or at play. Does this mean that, because it's the only party that agrees with me, I have to vote Socialist, whether I want to or not? I told you this one -issue business was ridiculous. The sooner the politicians get back to some good, old-fash- ioned election issues, the sooner we'll all know where we're at. You know the sort of thing I mean: higher sal- aries for everybody and lower taxes for all; free dentures for everybody who believes in fluoridation; government subsidies for credit card car- riers; free twist lessons for all over 80; a month's supply of oil, free, on April Fuel Day. We want something the voter can get his teeth into, not this tasteless, rubbery nuclear nonsense. * * * What about a shot in the arm for bilingualism, and thereby Canadian unity? More French in the schools would do it. And I don't mean text books. The party that prom- ised it would import a few thousand Parisian models and plunk them on our teach- ing staffs would be doing more to create national unity than all the shredded wheat boxes printed in French and English between here and Trois Rivieres. What I'm looking for is a straightforward party of the old school that will offer a solid program of the type we're familiar with: outlaw- ing liquor and lowering the legal drinking age; free medi- cal care for every man who can prove, In triplicate, that he's dying of an incurable disease; polygamy, With all household expenses to be REMINISCING MARCH 1913 Mr, W. Clendenning of Wingham has sold one of his residences on Minnie St. to Mr. Fred Hardie of Culross, who takes possession to -day. Mr. Hardie is to be congratulated on securing such a fine home. Mr. Waldo Miller, who formerly conducted a bake -shop and restaurant in Moorefield, very successfully, has purchas- ed the business of Mr. Robt. Johnston of Wingham. Mr. Miller was a former pupil of the editor in the Wroxeter Pub- lic School, and the Advance heartily commends him to the business public of Wingham and community as being expert in his line. We hope that Mr. and Mrs. Johnston will still con- tinue to be residents of our town. Miss Lillian Baer of Leth- bridge spent the week -end with Mrs. Jas. McKie. Miss Baer is a graduate of Wingham General Hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Sheriff and daughter Cora left for Star City, Sask., on Saturday. We regret losing such estimable citizens, but trust that they may meet with every success in their new home. Herbert, a son, took a position in Star City upon gradu- ating from the Wingham Busi- ness College about seven years ago and has remained there ever since. The father and son are going into business together. In 1901 the population of Huron was 61,820 in 1911 it was reduced to 52, 983. We confidently anticipate that the county of Huron Publicity and Improvement Association will assist in stopping this exodus and start an influx. 0--0--0 MARCH 1926 The March meeting of the Community Literary Society of Currie's School was held on Monday evening, The follow- ing program was presented to a large audience. Opening Chorus -0 Canada Reading of the minutes. Pantomine—Wilmor and Sack Taylor. Violin Selection—Messrs. Robt. and Jim Coultes. Reading -Irene Taylor. Mock County Council. Duet—Mary Elliott and Irene Taylor. Reading of Journal—Louise Fraser, shared equally by the work- ing wives; a chicken in every Jaguar. Nuclear arms niy foot! If they keep up that foolishness, I'll vote (and I think I can swing my wife) for Mahatma G handi. Violin Selection—Messrs. Robt. and Jim Coultes. Critic's Remarks—Mrs. W.J. Currie. Miss Simpson left on Mon- day for Jaspar, Alta., after spending the winter in Wing - ham and vicinity. A good one reached our desk on Tuesday. A Toronto subscriber (who is three years in arrears) wishes us to discon- tinue sending the paper as he is moving to another address. 0--0--0. MARCH 1938 _ .-... r - Mr. Gordon Murchison, a former Wingham boy, who has been Edmonton branch manager of the Canadian Farm Loan Board, has been named as Di- rector of the Soldier Settle- ment Board in Ottawa. He has already commenced his duties. His many friends here will be pleased to hear of his splendid appointment. He is a brother of Mrs. Gordon Godkin, of town. Miss Dorothy Douglas of Lucia -tow well known in this district, is in Tamsui, Formosa, attached to the mission school conducted by the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The school is in the centre of the area which was bombed by Chinese planes recently. Miss Douglas is a cousin of Mrs. G. David- son of Town. At the Mount Forest Bon - spiel held on Tuesday, Joe Evans, A. Wilson, T. H. Gib- son, D. Rae, skip, won three games with a plus of 14 to take third prize. The winner had 3 wins plus 19. 0--0--0 MARCH 1948 Mr. Chas. C. McKibbon re- turned home on Monday eve- ning after spending the past three months in England. When he left London the temperature was 72 and the country was turning beautiful with flowers and shrubs coming to life. A highly respected Wingham resident in the person of Mrs. Samuel Bennett, passed away on Thursday, March llth, at her home on Leopold St., in her 85th year. She had been in very poor health for over a year. Formerly Mary Jane Jeffer- son, she was born in Hullett township and on Dec. 3rd., 1884 was married to Samuel Bennett, who predeceased her in 1937. In 1896 she came to Wingham where she since re- sided. Mr, and Mrs. Henry Patti - sort moved on Thursday to their new farm on the 10th concession of East Wawanosl, which they purchased last Fall from Mr. Alex. Menzie,