PAGE 4. WEDNESDAY APRIL 13, 1983, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Voice of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, I The only Whitby newspaper Independently owned and operated by Whitby P r gPu Publlsher - Managing Editor residents for Whitby residents. bished every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography nc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. Regatration No. 5351 TLMOTHY BAINES Communlty Editor ELIZABETH NOZDRYN Advertising Manager Second Class Mail Regist ration No. 5351 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir: In your April 6, 1983, editorial, you are painting a nalve picture of how peace can be achieved in this worid. Your per- spective of Soviet behaviour to your proposal would de- finitely lead to war. The. Soviets spend a dispropor- tionate share of their GNP on mili- tary expenditures when compared to our western demo- cracles. Moreover, their desire for su- premacy of power 1> .~i i was glad to see in the Globe and Mail recently that under the presidency of Pierre Juneau, the CBC shows signs of coming to its senses. There is some reason to believe that the fragmentation of the television au- dience brought about by cable, satellites and the Pay TV phenomena may have the effect, at long last, of freeing the CBC from its quest for a mass audience, and enabing it to replace quantity with quality as a net- work hallmark. When the CBC began in television thir- ty years ago, and it was the onlV television signal in most parts of the country, the brass at the mother cor- poration told themselves that they had a responsibility for balanced programming, that is a little something for everyone. If it was true then, it was much less true fif- teen years later, and by now has become nonsense. In 1983, there is no reason at all for the CBC to carry DALLAS beyond the fact that it needs the money. My only quarrel with Mr. Juneau is that he still believes he needs at least some revenue from advertising and that he believes the network should go to about 80 per cent Canadian content as opposed to about 70 per cent now. If i may speak for a moment as a viewer, rather than a producer of Canadian programming, i would be happier with no advertising at all on a network for which i help stump up some $820 million dollars an- nually. And I would be happy if the Canadian content stayed at about 70 per cent, or even lower, and the CBC relied on more quality foreign programming to fill up its prime time schedule. My wife and i watched TV On- tario for a couple of prime hours the other night, for a one hour program on the Canadian painter, David Milne, and two half hours on ballet. The Milne program was produced for the CBC and TV Ontario jointly by an independent producer. And one of the half hours on ballet was produced by CKND Winnipeg, a Global af- filiate. i don't know when the Milne program played on the CBC, but you can bet your boots it wasn't opposite THE LOVE BOAT or anything like that. And the CKND special on Pugh and Glasco and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet probably won't be played on this network at all. That's too bad, in my view, in both cases but i have to accept the fact that it's part of the current Cana- dian reality. The struggle for the diminishing mass au- dience has become ali-consuming, in the public and private networks alike. The CBC's main concern now should not be balanced programming for the mass au- dience, but quality programming for the large parts of Canada which can't get either a TV Ontario or one of the PBS border stations. That is the constituency that is starving. And it's not just quality Canadian program- ming that a lot of us hunger for. Why, when collective- ly we give the CBC nearly a billion dollars a year, should we as individuals, have to pay 15 bucks a month for the privilege of watching NICHOLAS NICKLEBY on C CHANNEL? I have high hopes that with Pierre Juneau, the CBC will at least acknowledge the fact that the question is a reasonable one. through strong per- suasion and mili- tary ways can be demonstrated by their involvement in the affairs of Hungary, Czecho- slovakia, Poland and Afghanistan. Soviet objectives have not changed. Their ultimate goal is world domination through the dis- guise of economic revolution. Through their pawns, for example, Cuba, the Soviets have further expanded their domination to Angola, Ethiopia, and other nations. To protect oùr freedroms, we must curtail Soviet ex- pansionism. The most effective way Is to depart from our current priori- ties, and make them correlate with So- viet objectives, namely power first, peace second. We must apply strate- gic policies that the Soviets respect, and consequently on that basis can peace and arms development reduc- tion be negotiated. Continuing with policies of appease- ment to the Soviets. wil cause us to play into the hands of the Soviets. Remember the phrase that Cham- berlain exclaimed after his meeting with Hitler in Ger- many prior to the Second World Ware; "Peace in our time". Such ap- peasement gave Hitler the impres- sion that the west was weak and divid- ed. A revision of our policies to increase nuclear arms in the short term, will not increase chances of nuclear war, but lessen them. By showing the Soviets that we mean business, their willingness to negotiate a real ar- ms reduction will finally become more sincere. Peace may then become a reality. Next time when you write 'an edi- torial of this nature, please think first of Soviet monstrosi- ties In Afghanistan. Soviet dissidents who are punished for free thinking in the Soviet Union would be most grateful then. Yours very truly, Anthonie Den Boef, 64 Teresa Drive, Whitby. Dear Sir: The Issue of dis- armament is be- coming Increasing- ly prominent in the minds of many.of us because we per- celve the appalling danger inherent in the military policies of the two super powers and their allies. In Canada our federal government seems committed to supporting the Reagan administra- tion in its very ag- gressive policy Of nuclear arms de- velopment and de- ployment and sup- ports the testing of the cruise missile in Canada. Building bigger and more- efficient means to destroy each other is not an intelligent solution to our différences or an assurance of safety. The new wave of protest to nuclear armament is surely our only hope for the future because it may bring world leaders to realize again the necessity of com- promise for survi- val. The vast numbers of people involved in "anti-nuclear" demonstrations both in Canada and Europe during the recent Easter week- end encouraged those of us who seek the disarma- ment option. If demonstrations of these proportions continue and multi- ply we can only hope that national leaders of both alli- ances will begin to take the wool out of their ears. .Ail of us know that It will not be easy to deal with the Russians be- cause they fear us just as much as we fear them, but dia- logue and negolia- tions must continue and we ln Canada can do our part by refusing to be in- voived In activity re- lated to nuclear weapons deveIop- ment or testing. Some work and progress has be- gun. Much more needs to be done. Geoff Rison, President, Ontario Riding, NDP Association.