VICTORIA CONDUCTOR ATTACKS ‘PETTY DICTATORSHIP" Gruber denounces dismissal of Toronto Symphony musicians HANS GRUBER, permanent conductor of the Victoria Sym- phony Orchestra, the fifth larg- est in the country, has attacked “the petty private dictators and dictatorship’’ which resulted in the dismissal of six musicians from the Toronto Symphony. Gruber devoted the whole of his weekly column in the Victoria Daily Times of June 28 ‘to a re- view of the case, saying “I should have thought this the very last country in all the world where such high-handed- ness can be gotten away with.” Capsule Reviews BRIGHT VICTORY The rehabilitation of a South- ern-born GI, blinded in battle in Italy. Highpoint is action ser- mon on stupidity of anti-Negro prejudice. James Edwards, Ar- thus Kennedy, Peggy Dow, Will Geer. SYMPHONY OF LIFE This Soviet film introduces us to the new Siberia in striking color, the kind first used'in The Stone Flower. Photography is excellent, but plot is somewha mechanical, : PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER Surprisingly human _ Holly- wood film about a lawyer (Gary Merrill) who survives a plane erash and in trying to comfort the families of some of his dead eompanions solves some prob- lems of. his own. ROOM FOR ONE MORE Entertaining story dealing with the adoption of children. Cary Grant and Betsy Drake. LAVENDER HILL MOB~ A collection of British char- acter actors turn the theft of a million pounds worth of gold bullion from the Bank of Eng- land into a pleasant frolic. _ SENGING IN THE RAIN ‘another Hollywood musical of the new, slicker (American in Paris) type, Holywood kids itself somewhat on ¢ircum- stances surrounding advent of talkies, but otherwise standard Gene Kelly stuff. PAT AND MIKE ‘ Katherine Hepburn as athletic director for women at a big col- lege, who turns pro and stars at golf, tennis| and sundry other sports, then falls in love with hardboiled manager Spencer Tracy, who is just a Broadway softie at heart.. Mildly amusing. DEADLINE—USA Humphrey Bogart again, this time as the editor who believes in honest, fearless reporting of the facts and the exposure of anti-social elements. Bogart turns in a stereotyped perform- ance and the picture turns into just another crime thriller. The brilliant young musician who is entering his fifth season with the orchestra, came to Vic- toria from Toronto. While still an undergraduate at ‘the Uni- versity of Toronto, he organized and conducted the University Symphony. “In not one single instance has there been any mention of any documented or other con- crete proof of the guilt of these musicians,’’ Gruber pointed out. “Tt appears that these musicians were simply pronounced guilty, and not even given a legal chance ta prove otherwise, if in- deed they can. But surely they must be given the chance before the stigma of political unrelia- bility it attached to them which threatens to bar them for life from further exercising of their professions for their very liveli- hood.”’ Gruber castigated the Musi- cians’ union for its failure to protest the Toronto Symphony’s action, observing, ‘‘The Toronto local of the American Federation of Musicians, which, incidental_ ly, calls itself the Toronto Musi- cians’ Protective Association, ” 3 sss THE BOOK UNION reports that it has secured two of the most important books of the year ~ for its next two selections. The current July-August selec- tion is the great Chinese novel, Daughters and Sons, by Kung Chueh and Yuan Ching, which has created a literary sensation throughout the world since it was translated into several lan- guages from the Chinese. For September-October’ the Book Union has obtained a book long awaited by Canadians—a appears to have supported the dismissal without question.” Returning to the attack in his column of July 5, the Victoria Symphony conductor revealed that he had been warned to leave the cases of the dismissed musi- cians alone. “Tt have already been told this is none of my, business,” Gruber wrote. ‘I am not im- pressed. I choose, this once, to poke my nose into something that is ‘none of my business,’ and hereby make it mine. a shall, in fact, keep you posted, through this public medium, how this business of mine pro- gresses.”’ ° Calling attention to the fact that there had been no official action on behalf of the six musi- cians, Gruber asked, “‘Is it really conceivable that this matter will rest there, too? Is it really pos- sible that these people have no legal recourse, in this country, against so far unsubstantiated accusations of the sort that will bar them for life, possibly, from exercising their profession or an- other profession, to gain their livelihood?”’ Y The late Dr. Norman Bethune performing a surgical operation in China, Bethune | biography to be Book Union fall selection biography of Dr. Norman Beth- une. The Scalpel: The Sword, by Ted Allen and Sydney Gordon. In conformity with the policy that has enabled it to distribute 30,000 books to Canadians over the. past six years, the Book Union will offer these books to. its members at reduced prices. Intending members who want to obtain these selections are asked to write the Book Union at 738 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ont, impossible and THE WELL KNOWN liberal journalist, I. F. Stone. under- toc-x to unravel the truth about the Korean war from the con- fusing’and contradictory state- ments of U.S. officials and stories im the commercial news- papers, What a fascinating and significant story it makes, as set down in his The Hidden History of the Korean War (obtainable here at the People’s Cooperative Bookstore, 837 West Pender, price $5). It is not. a secret history of the Korean war he tells. He has had no access to secret documents or confidential sources. (But it is a hidden history in the sense that its real import must be dug out from a mass of published material and from the deliber- ate and endlessly repeated lies and distortions about how the~ Korean war got started, why the | U.S. got into it and why the U.S. government refuses to end it. Stone debunks the fable of a “surprise attack” by the North Koreans. showing both that the Syngman Rhee regime in South Korea had been preparing for a fight for a long time and indicat- ing that high U.S. officials had expected conflict in Korea for a long time and were preparing to make the most of it. His pres- entation'of the admission by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John D. Hickerson that the U.S. State Department had drawn -up a United Nations resolution con- demning North Korea before the war started is utterly damning. The myth of a UN venture in Korea falls by the wayside. Stone tells how the ‘UN was dragged into the war by the tail after President Truman had already, committed U.S. forces, and on the flimsy and unsubstantiated statements of the’ notoriously venal Rhee regime. The claim of Chinese ‘‘aggres- sion” is utterly destroyed, Stone makes it plain even from the of- ficial record that the Chinese People’s Republic refrained from entering the war until its vital interests were endangered, and even then attempted to inter- vene only on a limited and temporary scale. ‘Moreover. he effectively docu- ments the record of General MacArthur’s deliberate provoca- tions to extend the war to China. And he reveals how time and * time again the U.S organized of- fensive military operations for the sole purpose of making peace of disrupting cease-fire talks, ke te x THE WHOLE narrative gains from a sense of anger and shock growing partly out of the fact that Stone himself was at first taken in by the official version of the Korean war as “‘unprovok- ed aggression.’’ But while Stone has seen his way clear through much of the jungle of propa- ganda, he has not fought all the way through by any means, And while his book has much genuine merit. it suffers from important shortcomings, For example, Stone makes the remarkable statement in his pre- face that “in Korea the big powers were the victims, among other things, of headstrong itch- ing for a showdown which Wash- ington, Moscow and Peking had long anticipated but were alike anxious to avoid.”” Much of the evidence in Stone’s own book contradicts this thesis. He himself shows that Wash- ington. far from being Rhee’s victim. was in on the ground floor of the war. that one of -of the most°barbaric methods President Truman’s advisers: John Foster Dulles, was in Seou! and that General Omar Bradley of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Recretary of Defense Louis Joh son had conferred in Tokio with MacArthur just before the Wa! started. He cites no evidence 1 prove Moscow was in any Way linked to the war, and he him- self proves it was not the Pee ple’s Republic in North Koreé which involved Peking but Mac Arthur’s provocation and agste™ sion. Stone’s statement on point, does nothing to imp the clarity or consistency of narrative. . : rove nis Stone goes easy on. Truman i? the early sections of the b0™ heaping all the blame, on Mae Arthur—who deserves plenty of it but was not the only culprit. As his story advances, he casionally takes after Truma! as in the following passage: “Caution in September (1950) might have brought peace. TH man preferred to push anead across the Parallel, Caution it November might have brous peace, ‘Truman preferred t push ahead into the Yalu bor der regions, Whenever peace came within talking range p common bond seemed to aPP between Truman and Aches? on the one hand and MacArthu and Dulles on the other. while only the latter seemed bent OF ‘widening the war, none of the seemed eager for peace.” Even here Truman’s guilt understated. Truman sanction ed the advance to the Yalu which did widen the war. If there ws not all-out war with China, was largely because of the ™ straint of the Chinese. What is missing is a hensible and clear expl of why Truman, no less MacArthur, wanted war in is rea and refused to end it. RK: could be supplied only by rela” ing the Korean war to the ow all war program, by showin& was an indispensable shot-in-V" arm for the war economy at Is lagging war hysteria. Stone tai : to show this relationship. Missing also is an adeqa account of the kind of war W@ 4 by the U.S., of the cruel ie wanton destruction of a W! er country, of the deliberate ny co mpre- anatio® Koo warfare to kill not only soldie® but also innocent civilians. As a result of these omission® and because of his tendency softpedal many touchy poi to Stone does not do full justice | his own story or make the ™ of effective use of his rich ™ terial, ‘But he has shown of age by tilting against the ee cial version of the Koeran Wi f and has provided a treasure iy facts for all those anxious t0 peace in Korea and everyWi” in the world.—ADAM LAPIN. - il ner? (CN EUE NEUE EEE EEE EEE Tl ananstinie EAST END TAXI UNION DRIVERS HAstings 0334 FULLY ..: + HOU INSURED SERV! 811 B. HASTINGS ST. il PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 11, 1952 — PAGE 9