U.S.
PRESSURES CANADIAN BANKS ON CASHING CHECKS FOR CUBA COMMITTEE
Toronto
How petty and spiteful can the world's biggest and -- to judge from appearances -- strongest government become?
The question is being raised in Canada where, it seems, the State Department (or the CIA?) has been putting the heat on some very big banks over a very small account.
The story was made public in a statement to the press April 13 by Myra Dickson, secretary-treasurer of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. "The Toronto- Dominion Bank," she said, "has refused, on head office instruction, to honour any cheques payable to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee originating in the U.S."
Mrs. Dickson said that she was first informed of the bank's policy "by an official of the Wellington and Church streets branch, who refused to accept a Fair Play account involving U.S. cheques, saying that pressure from the bank's U.S. affiliates would prevent it from honouring the cheques. The official affirmed that the case was parallel to the Quaker medical aid to Vietnam, which the U.S. government has attempted to halt, claining that it constitutes trading with the enemy."
If this seems unbelievable, it is nonetheless true. "I have now received formal confirmation of this new policy, in a written note sent to us along with several returned cheques by the Roncevilles branch of the bank where we have had an account for some time," said Mrs. Dickson. "The note specified that Head Office instruction prevented the branch from honouring the cheques."
The representative of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee asked some pertinent questions: "Has the Toronto-Domin-— ion Bank taken on itself the responsibility to declare Cuba to be an enemy power? Has the bank given in to the U.S. government policy of blockade and harassment of Cuba? This would seem in contradiction to Canada's long-standing diplomatic and trade relationships with the present Cuban government, as well as with Canada's invitation to Cuba to participate in Expo 67."
"Is the Canadian government unaware of this policy decision?" continued Mrs. Dickson. "The government is responsible for supervision of the banks and it is hard to imagine that it would not be informed of such a fundamental change of policy by a major bank."
The Fair Play for Cuba Committee, Mrs. Dickson explained, is an educational organization consisting of Canadians. It has worked for over six years to acquaint the Canadian public with the facts and ideas of the Cuban revolution. "We have held countless public meetings," she said, "and sold tens of thousands of pamphlets -- thousands of them to U.S. residents -containing speeches, documents and reports of Cuba since the revolution. The cheques refused by the bank were in payment for educational pamphlets sold to U.S. residents."
Mrs. Dickson asked whether the U.S. government had a hand in the bank's move. The U.S. government "was involved in the similar harassment of the Quakers, and has forbidden its citizens from visiting Cuba to see the truth of the situation there. Does this mean they are trying to prevent U.S. residents even from reading G2ctuat reports of what is happening in tuba?
"The bank's action is a grave attack on the Fair Play for Cuba Committee -- indeed on Cuba itself. We demand that the Canadian government instruct the bank to honour these cheques. We will make every effort to inform the Canadian public of the Toronto-Dominion Bank's action, and persuade it to reverse its policy."
HOW MAO'S THOUGHT