Leaky Embargo

It occurs to many a simple citizen of North America that in selling anything even as lethal as pop bottles to the Japanese their Governments are simply fattening up a snake. And yet the sales of armament materials go on.

Dr. Robert McClure, director of the International Red Cross in China, came back to his Toronto home last December very much upset by this situation. Said he: "For three years I have been digging Canadian scrap iron out of Chinese bodies and I expect someone will soon be digging it out of British bodies, for Japan is now ready to attack Singapore."

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King immediately challenged Dr. McClure, demanded that he present proof of his charge or apologize. After a chat with Dr. Oscar Douglas Skelton, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. McClure backtracked, was promptly assailed as "irresponsible" by the press.

But last week there was new evidence that Dr. McClure had not been far off base. An investigator of the Duncan, B. C. Chamber of Commerce declared ships were putting out for Japan regularly, carrying pulp logs, which can be made into nitrocellulose (basis of explosives) just as easily as into rayon.

Other Canadians were as mad as Dr. McClure by now. Ernest Jameson, B. C. Army & Navy Veteran leader, pointed out in a blistering resolution that "the Government of Japan has signed a treaty with the Governments of Germany and Italy assuring aid to one another," demanded that Canada stop supplying its enemies with the materials for killing Canadian and British troops.

Mr. Jameson also had something to say about U. S. ethics. Longshoremen loading Japanese ships had reported that below-decks cargo space was filled with U. S. copper, steel ingots and brass scrap. He told of "millions of brass slugs from slot machines" being transshipped from the U. S. For the so-called U. S. embargo on war materials for Japan is even leakier than the Canadian. Only U. S. bans are on iron and steel scrap, allowing other scrap metals to go through unchecked, and on aviation gasoline, which simply forces Japan to crack unrestricted low-test fuels in its own plants. Other exports are subject to a licensing system, which can, but has not yet, stopped the steady flow of U. S. war supplies across the Pacific.

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