RKMEN building an ex-

tension to the Burns
Museum at Ayr joined hands
with Georgi Malenkov in
singing Auld Lang Syne out-
side the poet’s birthplace last
week.

First the eleven men, in
overalls and caps, stood and
sang two verses to the Soviet
minister, who listened with
a hint of tears in his eyes.

Then he and the men linked
arms to sing a verse together.

And on leaving the low,
thatched cottage, first home
of Scotland’s national poet,
Malenkov warmly embraced
85-year-old Thomas McMynn,
the curator, who wistfully
remarked to Malenkov, “I
wish you could speak Eng-
lish.”

Earlier, in the museum,
Malenkov had shown great
delight at seeing the original

Malenkov visits Ayr

copy of Auld Lang Syne in
Burns’ own handwriting. He
leaned across the showcase
and, opening his own copy of
Burns’ poems at Auld Lang
Syne, closely compared it
with the manuscript.

In the visitors’ book, signed
by Samuel Marshak, the
Soviet translator of Burns,
Jacob Malik, Soviet ambas-
sador to Britain, Boris
Polevoi, the Soviet writer,
and many other Soviet. cit-
izens, Malenkov wrote: “We,
the Soviet peoples love and
honor your great Scottish poet
Robert Burns.”

His autograph also went
into a treasured volume of
Burns presented by Sandra
MeCartney, 20-year-old stu-
dent, who asked him: “Will
you please sign the page at
‘A Man’s a Man’?”

PHIL STEIN

City audiences to see

e

unique Chinese film

UNIQUE film from China,

Shan-Po and Ying-Tai, is to
be given its British. Columbia
premiere on Friday, April 20,
at 7:45 p.m. in Pender Auditor-
ium. .
_.This reviéw was written by
Gavin Lambert for the London
Observer.

ee ae

HAN-PO and Ying Tai is the
S story of a girl living in the
seventeenth century who, in

order to gain admittance to the
university of Hangchow, has to
disguise herself as a boy.

' For three years‘she conceals
her love for a fellow student,
Shan-Po; instead they become
“sworn brothers.” Then, after
disclosing her identity through
a matchmaker, marriage vows
are exchanged and Shan-Po
comes to claim his bride.

But Ying-Tai’s father has pro-
mised her to another, and the
story
Juliet with a magical inter-
vention—as .Ying-Tai throws
herself on Shan-Po’s tomb,. it
_ Opens and swallows her up, and
the parted lovers find each

other again as butterflies.

_The original opera, it appears,
Was first performed three years
ago at a festival in Peking, and
the genre go which it belongs
was created by strolling players

Vancouver 4, B.C.

s

TRIBUNE.

ends like Romeo and

and musicians in the early part
of this century.

The style of playing and the
formalised, minimal ~ scenery
(the exteriors are simply flat
painted backdrops) preserve the
essentials of an art of extreme

refinement, combining drama,
mime and opera, and dispensing
with action, settings and props
to an almost abstract degree.
The parts are all taken ‘by

girls, a modern reversal of the.

ancient custom. One might
think, with a girl playing a girl
who impersonates a boy and
falls in love with another boy
played by a girl, that a discon-
certing amount of sexual con-
fusion would result. But a high-
ly formalised art takes this ex-
tra refinement in its stride, and
finds an innocent piquant hu-
mor init. |

The two leading, actors, in
fact, draw subtly upon native
traditions in emphasising dif-
ferences between the _ sexes,
Shan-Po maintaining a grave
stillness and discreet strength,
Ying-Tai all quick and eager
fragility. Their radiance and
precision, the music with its
hypnotic, sensuous dissonance
and primitive instruments
(bamboo flutes, guitars, casten-
ets) and the gentle pastel colors,
create an exquisite and aston-
ishing novelty.

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SCIENCE

Soviet science-fiction depicts

how man will

NLY yesterday, space travel
§ eseers to most people a

fascinating but fantastic idea.

Today the progress of rocket
techniques has brought within
the realm of practical feasibility
the construction of a composite,
multi-stage rocket that could
fly beyond the range of the
earth’s power of gravity and
either become an artificial satel-
lite of our planet or leave it
altogether. |.

An interesting plan for an ex-_

pedition to the moon was pro-
posed recently by the Soviet
scientist Y. S.  Khlebtsevich.
This is how he pictures such an
expedition.

* * x

Bagi TH a roar of its mighty en-

gines, a giant aircraft, its
broad wings outstretched, runs
along the ground and shoots
into the air. Its speed rapidly
mounting, it soars higher and,

_ higher, and before long it sheds

the broad wings, which were

only needed for the takeoff, as
well as the piston engines turn-
ing the ,propellors. Only short,
backswept winglets remain,
making the craft look like an
arrow shot high into the sky.

The uniflow air jet engines
now start working, imparting
even greater acceleration to its
climb; and when it reaches the
upper, rarefied strata of the at-
mosphere, the space craft
switches on its liquid jet en-
gines and discards even the
little winglets, now no longer
pocced. either.

There comes a point when the
rocket ship attains a speed of
about 6.5 miles per second. At
this speed it travels round the
earth like a new moon, making
the full journey along its ellip-
tical orbit in something like
eight hours.

This inifial rocket is unman-
ned. Its cabin houses. only in-
struments and. apparatus, all
automatic and radio-controlled,
and these instruments are con-
stantly “tuned” to the earth,
ready to receive any order it
may send.

In .time this order comes.
When the rocket is at the top-
most point of the ellipse, the
engines are switched on again,
adding another mile per second
to its velocity. This causes a

tremendous spurt that brings ©

the rocket out to its: “stationary
orbit,” a body moving along it
in an equatorial plane always
remains over the same point o
the earth’s surface, for here it
performs its revolution around
the earth in 24 hours.

It is very convenient to have
the rocket thus stationary over-
head. This makes it easy to keep
it under telescopic observation
and to control it by beamed
radio signals. And on this sta-
tionary orbit the craft is kept
until it has been refuelled.

bad * *

of fuel is despatched to the sta-
tionary orbit and, with radio
signals controlling the opera-
tion, the two rockets are
brought together and ue fuel
duly transferred.

The tanks refilled, the iet en-
gines are switched on again and
give the space ship a fresh im-

petus,

increasing its speed by

A similar rocket with a cargo |

another half. a ae or so a
second.

Four and a half day’s travel at
this speed brings the ship to the
moon’s orbit. It begins to move
parallel to. that orbit, then, suc-
cumbing to the moon’s attrac-
tion, starts to fall on it...
‘Is it going to crash? No, pro-
vision has been made against
that. A sensitive radio beam fol-
lows the rocket, and at a certain
point in its approach to the
moon’s surface, it “turns” the
craft so that the nozzles face
forward, switches on the en-
gines, and the rocket makes a
smooth landing. .

The flight is over.
would searcely have been worth
all the labor, expense and time
merely to ship a few tons of
dead metal to the moon! What
would, a flight like that contri-
bute to’ science and. engineer-
Ing? = eerie

Ce aes
Let’s continue to watch our
rocket. © Evidently the spot

where it landed was not quite
level, for the silvery ship gives
a slight lurch and turns over
on its side. As it does so its
body opens downs the middle
and from inside it, leaving
hoard tracks on the dusy sur-
face of the moon, a little paby
tank emerges. ‘

No instrument or svmbol of
war is this little tank. but a
peaceable instrument of science
tackline the riddles of the uni-

verse. Inside, it has automatic -

instruments for studying the

But it.

APRIL 6, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 8

explore the moon

Soviet | scientists envision

a radio-controlled tank, its
camera relaying the scene to a
television screen on earth, being
used to explore the moon’s sur-
face. The first rockets to the
moon, they believe, will attain
the limit of the earth’s*atmos-
phere and soar beyond the
earth’s reach by  jettisoning
engines and wings at various
stages. ©

‘

conditions obtaining on the
moon: the temperature, the
composition of the rocks, and
Soon, |

Mounted on a revolving teles-
copic tripod above it is a tele-
vision camera, and every thing
that comes within the camera’s .
“field of vision” is seen on a
television screen by scientists
in their laboratory on the earth.
They are also able to follow the
readings of all the tank’s in-
struments and to. direct its
movements by radio signals.

There may be places on the

,moon where a landing rocket
‘would meet with disaster, and it

is the tank’s‘job to investigate
the terrain and find a suitable
landing ground forthe rockets
that will follow.

It is only when these rockets
have brought everything need-
ed that the first manned ship
will arrive. The crew will put
up the inflatable houses; the
fuel, too will be stored in caves
for protection from meteorites;
the instruments will be set up,’
the heliopower station started.

Subsequent automatic rockets
will replenish the expedition’s
supplies and also deliver the
fuel’ for the return trip. ...

a SR

. §. Khlebtsevich believes

that a flight to the moon on
the plan he proposes can be

made a reality within five to

_ten years from now. And then

areials on the earth will register
not faint, barely detectable
radio waves reflected from the
moon. but the clear signals from
# rocket that has landed there.
It will communicate the first
results of the investigations and

\ determinations and signal across

the cosmic void:
“The trail has. been blazed!” ib
’ MIKHAIL VASILYEV