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14
The
PLAIN TRUTI-1
September 1971
and vitality to Canada - especially her western regions.
British Columbia is today the home of Canada's largest west
coast port, Vancouver - the hub of North America's trade
with Asia. Before this burgeoning trade with Japan, Vancouver
was a quaint town in an undeveloped "frontier province."
Japan's ravenous industrial appetite makes her Canada's
third best customer, after the United States and Britain.
Moreover, Japan is expected to replace Britain as the number
two market withio four years.
In British Columbia, the Japanese take an important
part in prospecting and mining for copper ore. They do the
same in the exploitation of timber. In Maoitoba, Japanese
firms are searching for copper and zinc. Japanese engineers,
collaborating with Canadians and Americans, are prospecting
for oil in Alberta and other provinces. Investment in fisheries
and the auto industry is also pact of the Japanese trade drive.
The results of this joint effort have beeo spectacular.
In cold figures, here is what Japan imported from Canada in
1970: $153.1 million worth of copper ore and concentrates;
$137.5 million in forest products and newsprint; $40 million
in aluminum; $26 million in coal; and $14 million in potash.
All, however, is not as rosy as the figures indicate. There
is a heavy imbalance in the overall Japanese-Canadian trade
picture. Canadian economic experts are disturbed because
95% of Japanese purchases from Canada are in raw materials,
while only 5% are in finished products. The United States,
in contrast, takes nearly half of her imports from Canada in
end products. Ottawa would like for Japan to do a little more
of the same. And on the other side of the Pacifi.c, the Japanese
are concerned over rising Canadian labor costs, which are
pushing up the price of raw materials.
•
A Soviet Economic
11
Soft Line
11
Toward Europe?
July 14 may prove to be a significant milestone in East–
West relationships in Europe. On that day the Benelux
countries of Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg signed their
first trade treaty with the Soviet Union.
The treaty, negotiated in Moscow last fall, and signed
in Brussels, Belgium, is seen by sorne observers as a very
significant
politicaJ
move.
It
could be a first step toward rec–
ognition of Europe's Common Market by the Soviet Union.
The Benelux union is a smaller "Common Market" within
the EEC, whose larger members are France, West Germany
and ltaly.
Other trade negotiations between the Common Market
and its East European counterpart, Comecon, are in the offing.
This trend was spotlighted in mid-March by Janos Kadar,
First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. Both blocs,
said Kadar, "represent a reality - and obviously will remain
so. Therefore 1 find it reasonable that sorne sort of contacts
be established between the two organizations and most likely
this is going to happen."
The Soviets also have come to realize that Comecon will
never successfuly compete with the EEC. Comecon's lack of
success is shown by the fact that its trade with the West has
been growing more rapidly than has trade among the coun-
tries within Comecon. This increasing attraction of the
EEC
to
Russia's satellites has given Russia cause to worry.
Faced with these realities, the Soviet Union has been left
with only one alternative. Moscow has, in effect, been forced
to adopt the "if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em" philosophy - at
least for the time being. She has apparently decided to pro–
mote bloc-to-bloc collaboration, in the hope that Comecon
can deal more
as a unit
with the EEC and therefore stem
the westward drift of Communist bloc countries.
Comecon-EEC collaboration may also be given ímpetus
by the growing normalization of Sino-American relations.
Russian phobia over any possible Peking-Washington alliance
could prod the meo in the Krernlin to seek a relaxatiorr of
tensions in the West.
•
Emergence of ltalian Neo-Fascism?
Neo-Fascism may well be replacing Commuoism as the
greatest threat to democracy in Italy. The Movimento Sociale
Italiano (MSI) - ltalian Social Movement - as the Neo–
Fascists are called, made galloping gains in the recent June
elections. Observers described the election results as the
greatest change in the mood of the electorate in post-war
ltaly. For the first time the Communist tide was stopped and
reversed, while the governing Christian Democratic Party lost
votes everywhere.
The elections were mainly confined to the South with
seven million voters or one fifth of the electorate taking part
in municipal and regional elections. Tbe mood of voters in
central and north Italy could reverse the trend. But nonetheless
the surprising results in the south may well portend the future
political makeup of Italy.
The
Missini
(MSI followers) obtained 13.9% of the
votes overall compared with 5.2% in the last provincial
elections of barely a year ago. The MSI thus became the
third largest party in the country.
The party's gains in Sicily exceeded aH expectations.
The MSI increased their seats in the Sicilian Parliament from
7 to 15 while the Communists dropped from 20 to 14 and the
Christian Democrats dropped from 36 to 29.
Relaxing in his Rome office under a picture of Mussolini,
Giorgio Almirante, national Secretary of MSI, described the
pacty's success as puoishment for the Christian Democrat's
softness on Communism. Everywhere the party stressed the
theme of
law and order,
capitalizing on growing social unrest,
unending strikes, and a pervading mood of discontentment
characteristic of ltaly today.
The party also proclaimed itself as "The Defender of the
Faith." This was particularly appealing to a large number of
conservative Catholics who are seriously disturbed by recent
government actions such as legalizing divorce, and removin8
the law against the promotion of contraceptives.
Presently the MSI has 25 members in the 630-man
National Chamber of Deputies and 13 members in the 322-
man Senate. What alarms observers is not just the size and
gains in the recent elections, but the fact that the wbole ltalian
society may be moving toward conditions similar to those
which brought Mussolini to power in 1922.