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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1970-11-26, Page 2PAGE TWO ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS Huron MP Outlines NATO Experience (by R. E. McKinley, M. P) As many of my constituents are aware, I have just finished attending meetings of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO, in the Hague in Holland, It was very interesting to say the least. The first three days were spent on committee' meetings with separ- ate committees set up for dis- cussion on defence, political affairs, economic affairs, as well as social and education affairs. About two of our mem- bers attended each of the com- mittee meetings for the three days, I was allotted to the ec- onomics committee and found the discussions very interesting. Canada has reduced its commit- ment in expenditure to maint- ain defence troops in Western Europe to counteract any poss- ible aggression on the part of the Soviet Union. The United States are presently bearing the major share of the expenses as well as the supplying of troops and are desperately endeavour- ing to have a larger share of this expense taken over by the Western European countries who receive the main benefit from the maintenance of the defences in NATO. As a result of the meetings that were held, it seems evident that these West- ern European countries are not prepared to supply increased fin- ances towards this cause, and I surmised from the discussions that they are reluctant to do so because they feel secure that the United States will continue to supply the finances and troops needed. The Western European countries are reluctant to antag- onize the USSR in any manner that may make tensions worse, but in the meantime evidence shows that Russia is strengthen- ing her forces and while they maintain that these forces will only be used for defence, I am sure there is no one who really knows what they may do with the strength in the military they are building up, Most of the partners in NATO do not consider Canada as being able to play a very significant role in any confrontation that may take place, but it seems to me they tend to forget the tremendous contribution Canada made to the European liberation and defence during past wars. Of very great interest to the delegation were talks we had for two days in Brussels, Belg- ium, regarding the organization of the European economic com- munities, better known as the common market. The discussions centred around Great Britain and that they might achieve entry in the near future in this community Many Canadians are not aware that this community's goals are to achieve political union as well as economic union and are well advanced in that regard, The six countries involved have set up a central Parliament in Belgium but the representatives are appointed by each country's ' Parliament rather than elected, Most of the officials seem to feel quite sure that Britain will be a member of the common market in about three years' time. The system that they oper- ate under with regard to agricult- ure products is extremely detrim- ental to Canada's export possib- ilitiesin agriculture products. Prices for all commodities are set by the community which guarantee a reasonable return to the producer and any import- er in the community that imp- orts agriculture products from another country is required to pay the price they can be pur- chased at in that other country as well as a levy that can be as high as 507/0 on top of' the pur- chase price. The levy is paid by the importer to a levy fund maintained by the common market, and this levy fund is then in turn used to subsidize exports of agricultural products, whenever they are in surplus, As you can see, this not only allows them to buy our products at the world -free market price but when they use this additional fund to subsidize exports to other countries they can in effect drive the world -free mark• et prices down and set the price that we can receive for our products from other countries as well as themselves. In the meantime, the United States and Canada are expected to allow free access for their man- ufactured products into our country and this is a tremendous hardship on our manufacturing firms and production workers, and is one very visible cause for our present rate of unempl- oyment, The rate of wages paid by manufacturers in these European countries, including England, is considerably lower than the rate our manufacturers are expected to pay, so their cost of production is lower and they can easily compete with r'a9 SPECIALS * New Ford 3000 Gas * New Ford 3000 Diesel, power steering x. New Ford 4000 Gas, power steering * New Ford 4000 Diesel, power steering Larry Snider Motors LIMITED FORD TRACTOR EXETER 235-1640 LUCAN 227-4191 our products. In this way, they achieve the best of both worlds and insure very nearly full em- ployment, If our country is ever to achieve status as a great manufacturing nation where we can manufacture many of the products now imp- orted, often out of our original raw materials, it seems to me that some consideration must be given to the setting of import quotas of many manufactured products, especially textiles. Some effective retaliation as what I have suggested would seem necessary, especially if Britain should become a member of this European economic com- munity. 0 Gunfire Causes Hydro Trouble Irresponsible gunfire is bel- ieved to be the cause of a hydro interruption last Friday morning, which affected close to 6, 000 customers in the Centralia, Exeter, Hensall, Zurich, Dash- wood and Grand Bend areas, The break occurred on the main feeder line west of Exeter, at the Devil's Elbow, and accord- ing to a hydro spokesman, the shots could have been fired at the line a day or two before. The hydro spokesman said that the damage might easily have taken place the day before, but since the weather was dry the cross- arms would have acted as insulators until the wet weath- er arrived early Friday morning. The interruption took place at 6:09 in the morning, and by 7:03 power had been restored to the Centralia and Exeter areas. By 7:58 the entire area was back to normal, Mrs. R. Taylor Tr, is a pat- ient in St. Toseph's Hospital, London, where she underwent surgery. Charles Mickle, Hamilton, visited recently with his parents, Mr, and Mrs. Laird Mickle. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1970 Mrs, Eric Kennedy has return- ed from a three weeks visit with mern.bers of her families in Hamilton and Burlington. While on the visit she was admitted as a patient in Toseph Brant Memor- ial Hospital, Burlington. MINOR HOCKEY NIGHT in the Hensall Arena Saturday, December 5, at 7 p.m. 4 --- HOCKEY GAMES — 4 Sponsored by: HENSALL MINOR ATHLETIC ASSOC. 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