or oeniete i : a iff 1 See Me gin or ORR errr ~~ “sculpture, ee Soviet return of art treasures contrasts with Canadian refusal HE action of the Soviet gov- . ernment reported below is in sharp contrast to the refusal of the Canadian government to re- store to Poland the art treasures sent to this country for safekeep- ing during the Second World War. The Polish art treasures are held by the Quebec govern- ment of Premier Maurice Duples- sis which has spurned all requests for their return to Poland. ae Qaheccetend ; cin Soviet government is to re- turn to the Dresden Art Gal- lery later this year over 750 works of art removed to a place of safety by the Soviet Army during the war. i The Dresden Gallery is justly famous for its collection and the pictures included are among the: most famous in. the world. Among them are Raphael's Sistine Madonna, the Rembrandt self-portrait with wife Saska on his knee, perhaps the most con- vival of all Rembrandt’s works. ’ There is also a superlative Hol- bein of Sir Thomas Godsalve and his son, a calm and meticulous masterpiece, the preparatory drawing of which is at Windsor Castle. An article by Soviet General I.- Petrov, published in Pravda on April 1, this year, describes how these Priceless paintings Great Mexican artists support peace appeal EXICO’S three greatest paint- ers, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego. Rivera and Leopoldo Men- dez, have issued an appeal to artists throughout the Americas to sign the World Appeal Against Preparations for Atomic War. Their appeal states: Wars have destroyed human beings and devastated towns — their architectural beauties, their their paintings and ‘their engravings. Hundreds of thousands of works of art, of every culture, have been wiped - from the face of the earth or ir- reparably damaged. This raging fury was many * times unleashed on the world be- fere our mechanical age, but what are we to say of what has happened in our time, of the ‘two world wars in which mass de-- struction was on a scale unimag- inable to those who lived before our century. It iso exaggeration at all to- say that a third world war, waged _ with nuclear weapons thousands . Of times more powerful than the most powerful weapons used dur- ing these last two terrible wars, would destroy not .only whole . districts, but whole towns and ; countries. : Indeed, all the monuments of human culture that have lasted through the ages are threatened. it has been possible to recon- { struct mankind’s historic past from the works of art that have $ ‘ : peSNe of their tradition- | al spirit of independence, the : Scottish people have a proverb | which says: “A cuddy ‘(donkey) ; of your own is worth a stable o’ racehorses belonging to someone else. i Everyone in this phovitice felt ‘ something of that proud senti- ment when the UBC Players ; Alumni won the Calvert Trophy in the recent Dominion Drama Festival with their historic play, The Crucible. Not only did they - earn the award with their superb production, but in their choice : of a play they laid bare a page from a ruthless witch-hunting éra of a people’s history — an era corresponding closely to the political and cultural witch-hunts of today! On every hand, and among the widest sections of the Canadian people, there “is a great awaken- ‘ing taking place; a realization that an arrogant American im- perialism, with “inside help,” is taking over our country; that Canadianism in every field of en- survived. Atomic’ weapons will consign them to oblivion. ‘Where an atomic or hydrogen bomb falls, it is not only the architectural and __ sculptural monuments that will perish: - books, written music, the printed works of poets will be reduced to ashes. It is the whole treas- ure of science, technical theory, historical archives, all these sources of human knowledge; it is the best teachings of philoso- phy, medicine and law, the sum of thousands of years of human experience and work; it is this treasure of beauty which strengthens the highest emotions that will disappear. The peoples of the Americas, who did not suffer any material destruction during the last two great wars, as-did the other cont- inents, can be sure that they would not escape the destructive effects of a nuclear war. ‘The great cultural centres and mu- seums of the United States, Ar- gentine, Brazil, Mexico, Colom- ‘bia, Peru, indeed the whole cont- inent, would be exposed to an- nihilation like those of the great European cities. We artists, the creators of beauty, have the duty of. playing a leading role in the struggle against the. forces that. would destroy human, culture. It is only in a peaceful world that we ‘artists can use our creative powers to the full. Labor-Progressives deavor — industry, science, tech- nique, education and -the arts — is being subordinated to the war mania and profits of the U.S. trusts. f ne tt Bos In its program, Canadian. In- dependence and a Canadian Peo- ple’s Parliament, the Labor-Pro- gressive party places the prob- lem cleariy and with prophetic directness: “For the Wall Street magnates the Canadian boundary does not exist. Their invasion of Canada disrupts the Canadian economy. They politically subordinate Can- ada to the dictates of Washing- ton. U.S. imperialism looks on Canadian national sovereignty as an obstacle to the complete control and domination of our country. It seeks by all means to prevent the rise of Canadian national consciousness and the development of Canadian culture. In their place it fosters ‘cosmo- politanism” — the ideology of surrender to Wall Street’s gang- ster ‘culture’.” In the cultural conference to were saved from destruction. ° $09 6Og bes During the U.S. air raid on Dresden in February 1945, just before the city was freed by the Soviet Army, the art gallery was bombed and burned out and not ‘a trace of the paintings was to be found. After a careful search, in which surviving art gallery employees and leading Dresden officials helped, the pictures were found many miles away in the moun- tains. The great majority of them were piled up in cave-like dug- outs. The atmosphere was ex- tremely damp and sticky, and water was dripping from the walls. What was worse, however, was ‘that the dugouts and the . en- trances to them were mined and were in danger of exploding at any moment. : On orders from Soviet com- manders at the front, the mines were removed. Art experts came from Moscow: to supervise the removal of the pictures to a castle in the neighborhood of Dresden. -Then these experts, together with ‘leading Dresden personali- ties, examined the paintings, which were then listed and pack- ed. Since, under conditions pre-. vailing then, it was not possible to keep the paintings in suitable conditions in Dresden, they were, sent to Moscow. Bos Bes 5o 3 General Petrov describes the extraordinary interest of the So- viet soldiers and officers in the paintings and how men who had just come from battle spent hours studying them. Soviet care for art treasures— even at the most difficult mo- ments of a war—is, of course, nothing new. liege ; The film Lenin in October shows a workers’ detachment in 1917 chasing the retreating White Guards down sumptuous. corri- dors in. the Tsar’s Winter Palace lined with works of art. At the height of the fray there was still time for the Bolshevik leader to remind his comrades that the art treasures in the palace now belong to the people, and must be protected. JAMES DUDLEY be held in Vancouver on June 19 under the auspices of the B.C.- Yukon section of the Labor-Pro- gressive party, the above quota- tion from the LPP Program must become the underlying theme; how to replace Wall Street’s gangster “culture’* with a proud, vigorous and healthy Canadian culture, expressive of our rich piéneering traditions of struggle and achievement, and of the equally great future of an inde- pendent and sovereign Canada, in which the arts will be a true reflection of a great people. ; ok 4s te ° When Mrs. Gerda Wrede of Finland, adjudicator of the Do- minion Drama Festival express-. ed surprise at the lack of nation- al theatre in Canada and, as a consequence, little if any en- couragement by government for the promotion and~-development -of a distinctive Canadian art, Harold Weir; Vancouver Sun columnist, opined that ‘such a “socialized” theatre would “prob- ably be the kiss of death on dra- matic art,’ that the adjudicator had “talked out-of turn’ and ee EL eee I ee SAE, nk ETT Ae EEL ES tN AR ed ARE ie Ce Pak Se ao Festival. seats go fast ‘Here Florence Pelton indicates the growing popul ke of the Stratford Festival by displaying tickets for the 13, pen formances. which have already been sold out. a Shakespearian productions will be Julius Caesar, Mercha of Venice and Oedipus Rex. BOOKS Dyson Carter planning to publish new novel DYSON CARTER sponsoring cultural conference without due regard for “the in- stitutions of a country in which she is an honored guest.” A wordy sneer to help hide a national crime! Weir expounded the theme that all great artists from Michel- angelo to Shakespeare and since were “hard up’ ’and that their greatness could only be attribut- ed. to their perpetual state of economic hardship. ~ Such nonsense, of course has little in keeping with historical fact or present day realities. But it does help to discourage Ciana- dian talent from “reaching for the stars” in their cultural inter- pretation of the drama of Can- ada. Great artists have gone hungry — but never (as now) be- cause their ruling class has sold their birthright for~ a mess of Yankee pottage!, It is not sufficient, however, to condemn the evils of Yankee “comic strip” gangster and sex depravity of culture; to bemoan the “cultural” filth of Hollywood; or to gripe destructivefy at our CBC-TV programs, already in danger of having to surrender PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 10, 1955 — arity This year’s UBLICATION of a new one by Canada’s best known f io gressive writer, Dyso? he has just been announce™ 4) novel, Fatherless Sons: * nose story of a young mine? Mee family, for generations, ible e ‘been shadowed by 4 never curse . . . the sons havé his # tracing known their fathers, d fortunes from the time od (0 turns from the war resolvé defy his family’s fate. assibl® To make publication Be » of Carter is asking for advan” im at ders at $5 to be sent 10 | for 740 Bathurst Street, TOF? -oive which subscribers W1 phed copies of a limited auloe’'s ose edition. Proceeds fro™ 94 fo | advance orders wil cover initial costs of print limited edition, plates ‘pub’ which will be used later © —— lish a HORI edition. or entes ihe TV. field to pre a US: prise’* and its impor “culture.” ch 2 Nor is it a case Of a 7, mu every artist, poet, woe ites for sician, who sings an His. Canada, having to rely OP | its ib “divine energy,” aS we a tiv? to survive. It is mot nil! problem — a problem q front on an extremely. broad ould sind the unity of those who ¢ nada for Ganada to fight for “ ult P that our heritage and ° who o hat will sunvive when thos€ th bartered Canada | Bee ow? river’ will perish 1n backwash. Be ae The preservation 2? ral ner! «tion of Canada’s cultura is half’ the battle for ne independence at To this end ae ence on June the LPP will make ® ae oe tribution towards pla net " banner of the ioe te TH nag of those who build # ee pul and in the sweat of ! ngs nd ? ing, are writing its 80 N [4 dramas! ; :