Guatemalan peasant

Anton Refregier, famous American artist. drew this sketch of
a Guatemalan Indian farmer clearing a slove for planting shortly
before the constitutionally elected government of: Guatemala was

eeerioronn:

Odd but entertaining
group of passengers

LMOST the entire action of
The High and the Mighty
takes place in an airliner between
Honolulu and San _ Francisco.
Cinemascope helps to give it the
contemporary look.

But what makes this a film to ~

see is a combination of two in-

gredients of mature and well-

tried age. ef

One is the omnibus story, deal-
ing with the histories of a set of
carefully assorted characters who
happen to find themselves thrown
together.

The other ingredient is simple
suspense —a grating feeling : of
danger leaving you guessing
whether or not the worst will ac-
tually happen in the end.

Screen writer and novelist Ern-
est K. Gann -has_ peopled his
fatal plane with a load of human
problems heavy enough to crack
up the sturdiest aircraft. The
skipper is too nervous, the second
pilot too inexperienced, the navi-
- gator too old.
The passengers include a rich
wife with a bought-and-paid-for

husband, a rich stage genius, an

insanely jealous husband, a good-
time girl afraid of growing old,
2 wealthy cripple, a Korean wo-
man,-.a child, a philanderer and
a disillusioned scientist. —

_ The insanely jealous husband
has just pulled a gun on the.

philanderer when one of the

-OVALTINE
CAFE

251 EAST HASTINGS
Vancouver, B.C.

QUALITY SERVICE

plane’s engines catches fire and it

becomes clear that the aircraft

will probably have to come down
in the sea.

In the face of this danger the
characters stop quarrelling and
reveal the sterling qualities that
lie beneath unpromising exteriors.

A long cast-list of well-known

. Players do well as passengers and

crew. John Wayne as the senior
pilot, and Claire “Trevor and
Laraine Day as good-time girl and
millionairess have effective mo-
ments,

But’ an intelligent-looking new- ~

comer, 29-year-old Doe Avenddn,
walks away with the charm hon-
ors as the stewardess.

The film is so competently put
together that it is easy to forget
that its story is banal, its charac-
ters stock puppets and its prevail-

ing mood a shallow esate ale :

ty. is j sims
, . pe Fou x gst
It begins where The Robe left

off, say the maker of Demetrius
and the Gladiators, and I can’t °
think of a better summing-up of

its content and the reason for
making it.
Victor Mature is again a Greek

Christian in ancient Rome, Jay —

‘Robinson is a screaming, hysteri-
ca Caligula, Susan Hayward is
Messalina, an ambitious and de-

ceitful lady infatuated with Ma-’

ture, and ancient Rome is still
doing business at the old stand
with tigers, gladiators, orgies,
Christians, dancing girls, Caesars,
senators, massive pillars, marble
halls, Cinemascope, Technicolor
and the wonder of stereophonic
sound.
Result: an orgy of empty vul-
: arity and tired cliche. ‘
: —THOMAS SPENCER

- operative Bookstore,

BOOKS

Writings of Mao Tse-tung vital
to understanding of new China

wits the rise of the Chinese

People’s Republic to the sta-
ture ‘of a great power whose in-
fluence in world affairs brooks no
denial, a study of the writings of
Mao Tse-tung, its chairman; is
essential to an understanding of

_ how the new China came to be.

Two volumes of the Selected
Works of Mao Tse-tung are now
available in English (both are ob-
tainable here at the People’s Co-
337 West
Pender Street, price $1.25 each).

The second volume, just pub-
lished, tells for the most part of
two simple things — how the
Chinese people came to be united

sin the struggle for independence

and a new China; and what the
strategy was that enabled the
People’s Liberation Army to fight
so successfully against Japan.

In addition it contains Mao’s
valuable philosophical essay “On
Contradiction” and his sometimes
misunderstood “Combat Liberal-
ism,” which is directed against
bad styles of work among Com-
munists.

They are all written in the
clear and entertaining way with
which Mao enlivens all his work.
They show the political insight of
the Communist party which won
the admiration and trust of the
Chinese people.

Here is auoted the interview
with Edgar Snow in which, a year
before the main Japanese inva-
sion of China (that of 1937), Mao
expounded in simple outline the
strategy by which a weak China
could defeat a strongly militariz-
ed Japan. ;

Snow asked. Mao: “Under what
conditions can the Chinese peo-

ple defeat and exhaust the forces

of Japan?”

Mao replied: “Three conditions
will guarantee our. success: first,
the achievement of the national
united front against Japanese im-
perialisms in China; second, the
formation of a world anti-Japan-
ese united front; third, revolu-
tionary action by the people of
Japan and the oppressed peoples
at present suffering under Japan-
ese imperialism.

“So far as the Chinese people
are concerned, the most impor-
tant of the three conditions is
the great union of the Chinese
people themselves.”

Even then Mao was speaking

- not as the leader of a small, out-

lawed party, but as a leader of

the whole Chinese people.*

og b°3 uy
On the basis of this understand-

ing, set out most fully in “On the ©

Protracted War,” the Communist
party was able, from the moment
the Japanese struck, to rally the
resistance. .

vt combated defeatism and also

easy illusion of victory. It steel-
ed people, especially in areas
overrun by the Japanese, to carry
on the struggle, despite all the
dangers, in confident expectation
of the victory that would come.

At a time when John Foster
Dulles is now putting arms back
into the hands of the reviving
Japanese militarists this reminder
of what their invasion of China
meant strikes home.

’ Here, too, are discussed many
of the problems which confront
Communists everywhere in unit-
ing with other parties and classes
in a struggle for a common end.

In such a unity should the Com-
munist party end its independent
role? How should it carry on
the class struggle?

Here one can find the main

lines of how the Chinese Com-.

munist party solved these prob-
lems in the Japanese war.

Through these writings one can
see in operation Mao’s criticism
of lack of study and of doctrin-
airism whose indictment is one
of the chief purposes of “On Con-
tradiction.”

Western civilization’s
great debt to China

FROM the humble wheelbarrow

to printing, paper and the
compass, our civilization still de-
pends on the machines and tech-
nical devices borrowed, directly
or indirectly, from China in the
past.

The promise of China’s past
inventions is that, now Chinese
scientists for the first time have
been given full scope for their
work, they will again very soon
make new great contributions to
the welfare of the world.

In the first volume of his
Science and Civilization in China
Dr. Joseph Needham shows that
for 13 centuries before the Re-

naissance in Europe, it was Eur-—

ope which borrowed heavily from
China.

Cast iron, suspension bridges,
deep drilling (such as is now used
in all oilfields), porcelain, effici-

ent harness for horses, the stern.

rudder of ships, and many other
devices now deemed essential
(apart , from those mentioned
above and gunpowder) all came
from China.

Only with the development of

-modern’ science in the 16th cen-

tury did Europe go ahead. Why
modern science should have de-
veloped in Europe and not in
China is a problem on which Dr.

é A travelling art Hains pre-
pared by the University of

of Extension leaves next week
for the first of a series of 24

munities.

Original art and craft works,
castings, reproductions and
facsimilies
mastenpieces will be included
in the travelling show which
will be open to the public
without charge.

Itinerary of the exhibits
starts in the Fraser Valley in
the month of October. From
there it will cover the Okan-

UBC art exhibit on four

Cariboo and \the Peace River.
British Columbia’s Department |

visits to British Columbia | com- |
of world-famous~
orgione, Tintoretto, El Grecco, -
‘Goya, Blake, Constable, Ren-

_ the exhibit. eS

agan, the West Kootenays, the

It will return to Vancouver
late next spring by way of
coastal points: and. Vancouver —
Island.

Such artists as Duecio, Gi- ;
otto, Martini, Giottino, Masac-
cio, Francesca, Hugo Van Der
Goes, Mantegna, Giovanni Bel-
lini, Michelangelo, Titian, Gi-

Pieter Bruegel, Rubens, Rem-
brandt, Poussin, Innes, Corot,

oire, Cezanne, Picasso ‘and
Paul Klee. are represented in

_ light.

-an event.. Others before him hav®

Chinese and with Chinese assist

_@se slaves in medieval Italy.

. from being more fascinating

~ world shows the possibilities —

costs so much, but it is well w?

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 8, 1954 — PA

MAO’ TSE-TUNG

One thing one always notices
about Mao—how proud he is
China, her history, her traditions
What happened or was said cel
turies ago is for him a living thine
which lights up the present.

—ARTHUR CLEGG

“a E

fe

Needham’s last. mane (on social
background) should throw some =

ee bo ie
The appearance of his book is

told parts of the story of the re
lations of Europe and China P&
fore the’ Portuguese Me
direct sea communications in
16th centuty.

But he is the first scientist to
tackle the problem and, reading

ance, he has been able to dé
thoroughly both with the Euro —
pean and Chinese written records:
And what a fascinating st?
it is—of Greek soldiers reaching
the Central Asian frontiers
China and Greek traders reac?
ing what is now Indochina. _
Of Chinese emissaries trying
reach the Roman empire and D&
ing discouraged by the Pert
who were reaping rich middle
man profits from the silk trade-
Of a possible group of Sone :
legionaires captured by the Chit
ese, of the great Arab sea jout® ate
eys to as far away as Japan a?
the Chinese discovery of Africa, 3
of the Polos and the heroic Fra?
ciscan monks who travelled —
China in Mongol times, and Ch

The story of all this, —

most novels, is not by any means”
remote from present problems.
No One can understand pres'

day society except from know
ledge of how it grew up.

the fact that China was, for over
a thousand years, the most tech” ‘
nically advanced country in thé

which lie ahead “for Peon
China. i:
It is a great city that this book

getting this first volume, the b

of which is intended for the 8°
eral reader, from the library: on
And one can hope that wh a
the other volumes are more 4
vanced Dr. Needham will be
ed to make the pith of his W?
into a Pelican book suitab

the widest public
—ARTHUR fo