At
the same time as the Spanish Civil War was being waged, the Japanese again
invaded China beginning the second Sino-Japanese
War (July 1937). The Canadian League for Peace and Democracy undertook an
additional series of meetings presenting the films, “China Strikes Back”, “Shanghai
Bombed”, “Thunder over the Orient” and arranging speakers. Quoting further from
Marilyn Jensen’s 1988 interview, Dad recalls:
“First of all we organized a
program of opposition to Japanese imports, and opposition to Canada’s export of
war materials to Japan. At that time, a train, not a car-load, but a train-load
- a mile long train of scrap iron - went west everyday in Canada to be shipped
to Japan. So we launched a boycott of
the scrap iron trains and the shipment of Canadian nickel, which was vital to
the aggression of Japan against China, against Manchuria. We launched campaigns against the shipment of
war materials to Japan. At that time
Canada [supplied] 90% of the nickel to the world, so in effect, if you could
put a ban on the shipment of nickel, you could stop acts of aggression. Nearly all the nickel that went into bullets
came from Canada. So we made a big stink
about that. Mind you, it’s not an easy
thing to go into a town like Trail, like we did, (and Rossland), and put on a
meeting which advocates the banning of the shipment of nickel to Japan, but we
did it and we got good meetings in those times.
I remember going into Trail and someone saying, “You won’t be able to
find a hall in the first place and you won’t be able to find anybody to hire
for putting up posters or being chairman or handling the machinery of the
meeting” or anything like that. But we went into Trail and strangely enough in
a drug store - one of the first people I spoke to was the owner of a drug store
– and he volunteered to be the chairman and put on this meeting.”.
Returning
from the third annual congress of the Canadian League for Peace and Democracy
in November 1937, Dad also addressed at least two meetings, one in Fort William
and the other in Regina. In Fort William, he spoke along with scholar Edward
Wing and in Regina, he shared the platform with Chinese businessman Joseph Hope
from Victoria.
One
of the press clippings from Fort William notes: “Mr. Roberton is the president
of the Calgary League for Peace and Democracy and is in much demand as a
speaker throughout the Dominion.”
Below
is a Canadian League for Peace and Democracy handbill from this era.
