eee ence ais

Review

Tun stage props, lighting effects and
supporting scenery didn’t amount
to much.. The players were loggers
with calloused hands, workers not vers-
ed in stage technique. But the skit
they présented contained an element
of genius in its final scene, that and
an old, old lesson: in the search. for
living art and culture one must always
go to the people.
The skit was well through its second
scene when I arrived in Nanaimo by
the late boat. The theme was a Mc-
Carthy “tribunal” with a logger star-
ring in the role of Tom Alsbury as a
“sympathetic witness,” sometimes more
vulgarly described as a plain stool.
“MeCarthy” was giving his “witness”
a noisy going over for not turning 1n
a more finished job in a series of re-
cent_articles in a local newspaper. The
audience could readily see that the
‘witness’? was a psycopathic case. —
Then came the third scene, brief,
and tensely dramatic. The “sympa-
thetic witness” was laid out flat on
a hospital stretch, waiting for removal
to a mental clinic. There he lay, moan-
ing and twitching in a high state of
hervous tension, while two apprehen-
sive attendants did everything possible.
to soothe his frayéd nerves. Finally

One hit upon the novel idea of giving

the “patient” a copy of the Pacific
Tribune to read. : :

That stroke of genius did it. With
an ear-splitting yell and a leap like a
mountain goat taking a high ridge, the
“patient” rushed screaming from the
Scene. Curtain. nah

The moral is twofold: to satirize the
role of noisy and ignorant red-baiters

Whos scribblings annoy union men as

fleas annoy a dog, and to underline the
value of a labor paper like the Pacific
Tribune, which makes all who tamper
with freedom of thought and action do
a bit of political screaming.

In this the Nanaimo dramatic effort
Set a fine precedent, *as well as reflect-
ing.a high standard of creative art —

ause it was taken from life.
mips Kt
Andre van Gyseghem, British actor-

director who adjudicated the B.C.

drama festival of 1954, observed in
Passing that in B.C. there was an abun-
dance of material all around us for the
Production of great contemporary

ramas.

Could van Gyseghem return in 1956

he could add to the rich list of themes:

the Alsburyian red-bogey hallucina-
tions in the field of labor, armed ser-
Vices, ad infinitum, noisily featured in
the local press; the case of the “landed
immigrant” Mulligan; the affair of the
Dimming Socred Halo. To this could
be added the Memoirs of a Rat Race
Y a retiring gentleman’s gentleman.

In fact, there is no end to the dram-_

atic themes ready to hand. It just re-
Quires the creativeness shown by a
few Nanaimo loggers to weave these
Vignettes of life into a drama — SO
that the people, looking at themselves

88 in a mirror, will laugh, perhaps cry

— and certainly act.

——

e C e e e

Pacific Tribune
: Published weekly at

Room 6 —.426 Main Street

Vancouver 4, B,C.

_ Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Business Manager — RITA WHYTE

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The oldz= =

EDITORIAL PAGE

‘ya othe new

The changing face of Vancouver's West End

in White Sulphur Springs, West
Virginia, this week of President
Eisenhower, Prime Minister Louis
St. Laurent and President Ruiz Cor-
tines of Mexico are causing some
speculation, defense and “‘security”’
being among those prominently
mentioned.

Officially there is to be no agenda
for the conference, from which, at
Pacific Tribune press time, no state-
ment had been issued. But it is
unlikely that President Eisen-:

hower’s purpose was a. jolly get-

together of the leaders of thethree
North Amrican countries.

A. meeting of Canada with any
of the Latin American countries
would be desirable if it was
brought about through the recog-
nition of their common problem vis-
a-vis the United States and resulted ©
in plans for mutual assistance in
the development of manufacturing
industry based on their own rich

Meeting at White Sulphur Springs

“WHE reasons behind the meeting

natural resources. But that is not
the case at White Sulphur Springs.

U.S. policy towards Latin Am-
erica as towards Canada is based
on exploitation of natural resources
justified by supposed needs. of
western ‘“‘defense.’’ This “let's
arm’ policy is in head-on conflict
with Latin American demands for
aid:to develop indsutry.

The meeting called by President

‘Eisenhower could be of great value

if it does not perpetuate the exist-
ing situation but instead leads to
increased trade between Canada
and the Latin American countries
and industrial development based
on long term credits with no
political strings attached.

It is to be hoped that this will be
the first of a series of meetings be-
tween Canada, the U.S. and coun-
tries of Latin America and that dis-
cussions will be carried on as be-
tween equals with mutual. respect
for the integrity and sovereignty

End the terror
in Cyprus

TERROR rules in the Mediter-

ranean island of Cyprus, stark,
brutal terror such as the peoples of
Europe knew only under the Nazi
occupation. But in Cyprus the
troops wear the British uniform.

The ‘purpose of the terror has
been admitted by Sir Anthony
Eden. It is to hold Cyprus by
force, to retain the island as an

armed base against all the demands
of the Cyprian people for self-
determination and union ~ with
Greece.

Mass arrests; medieval “‘curfew’’
laws; cruel beatings of citizens;
terrorizing of families in their
homes; imposition of collective
fines on towns and communities
because some citizen speaks out
for self-government — these are
the forms of the terror. None is
spared, neither the aged nor the
young. Children going to and re-
turning from school are halted by
British patrol troops and ‘“‘frisked’’

or herded into over-crowded jails.

and compounds. Terror grips the
island from end to end. -

These terrible events in Cyprus
are being promoted by a reaction-
ary Tory imperialist’ government,
determined at all costs to hang onto

its colonial possessions and, above ‘
"all, the oil of the Middle East.

Canada, a member of the British °

Commonwealth must speak out.:
We must say for the people of
Cyprus as we say for ourselves —
that it is their right as a people to
fight for sovereign independence
and self-government; the right to
shape their own destiny.

Hal
Griffin

Ware the garish lights of the
” used car lots along Kingsway
the shadows of crisis are gathering.

The statistics tell you only how

- many new cars are being sold each
month. They don’t tell you how
‘many more cars have been pushed
on to the used car lots.

To appreciate that figure you have
to see the cars lined hub to hub
on the lots along Kingsway, to watch
the lots expanding until they present
almost a solid line of polished
chrome and gleaming paint.

The salesmen no longer sigh for
the good old days after the war
when they could sell any old jalopy
at.the price they asked. Now their

signs — “Drive away today at No
down payment” — and their ad-
vertisements — “We're practically

' giving cars away” — reflect their

of each country.

desperation to sell at any price.
It has been said that if all the

cars on the used car lots along Kings- .

way were suddenly placed on the
road they would plug Kingsway
from end to end. And that is another
part of the crisis, for within a few
years that is going to happen. The
used car lots may still be jammed,
as they will be unless this country
boldly bids for export markets in
the socialist countries, but the
growth of population will put that
many more cars on highways unfit
to absorb them.
* ee

_ We are already experiencing, the
traffic problem created by years of
myopic government which often
failed to plan for today, at best
planned for tomorrow and let the
future take care of itself. ‘

Now the future is catching up with
us. The ‘Lougheed Highway, com-
pleted after the war, was to have
been an express highway across
Burnaby and Vancouver. | :

But the men who planned it, like
the governments which now sell
our raw materials to the U:S., had
neither vision nor faith in the future.
They built a two-lane highway with
only limited provision for expan-
sion. They provided no entries, no
turnoffs, no overpasses.

‘planning.

; Today in the rush hours traffic
is' slowed to a crawl.. Traffic. lights,
which had to be installed at. main
intersections, back the traffic up
for blocks. ; :

The same thing has happened on
the North Shore. The Guinness in-
terests showed considerable acumen
before the war when they bought
up and developed the huge tract
of land that is now the British
Pacific Properties. But when they
came to build the First Narrows
Bridgé their vision failed them. Now
the very people who have justified.
the confidence of the Guinness
interests in the future growth of
Vancouver must cope with the con-
sequences of their shortsighted

If metropolitan Vancouver jis to
fulfill its bright destiny it must be-
gin to plan and build in a bold way.
The government should be planning
for not_oné but two or three more
Burrard Inlet crossings. The de-
velopment of adjoining municipal-
ities — Burnaby, Richmond, North
and West Vancouver — should be
planned, not. left to real estate
agents who reduce it to a farce or
oil companies which make of it a
shambles. What are we doing —
creating new slums or planning a
future metropolis? _ . _

_ MARCH 30, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE |

mn