Vill . Db | tiver p - Sele Sto IS mil A’ you read this, a pathe- tic trail of human beings mn eves across open ground a an African village. : na Comes a child of may- ae years, holding a stick, ae adult, clutching the a €nd of the stick fum- ng his way forward. Very adult person in this hen and others is blind. oe dren are going blind ae until they lose their a US Sight they will lead Parents to the fields. the ie their rivers breeds oe nulium fly, whose bite Mits onchocerciasis. or lindness. ..1 Who served in the eee and Far. East remem- on the Weeping eyes of inflame With trachoma, an which aten® virus disease He . tacks the inner struc- majors the eye — another Cause of blindness. te World Health Organi- 4 Teckons that between and 500 million people, ae of the world’s choma, nN, suffer from tra- or o : in thts and other causes 10 Ate imated that between lost th 15 million people have thitas €ir sight — and two- done i them need not have a oa if modern preventive me and surgery had Pplied in time. Lik : Scourge many other terrible Prevalent blindness is more where poverty, een a { | f SS malnutrition, ignorance, and poor standards of health are the rule; but even in more well-to-do countries, blindness takes its toll. Again and again, as with other diseases the World Health Organization has em- phasized that the cost of pre- ventive services: is but a fraction of the burden impos- ed by loss of sight — on the individual and on the com- munity. In certain areas of Kenya, for example, insecticide wip- ed out the simulium fly; thus cutting off a source of blind- ness. The cost was very small compared with the sufferings the community endured be- fore. Milestones’ to tour ‘terior of province performances. in the follow- h : © Association of United rainig Cc * ahno n Canadians has ing ore that it is sponsor- know, Ncert tour by the well- The n folk song group *— llestones. Co es Milestones will be ac- Dano, wt by the Kobzar Et and will stage _-WORTH _READING Dj Worrnament—the Road to Ctio Without war, 25c. A S oA 2 of documents of the et Government 1958- forth t 1S pamphlet puts Soviet © Proposals that the fory, Government has put Yearg Over the past few Dlete’ See general and com- Spine mament. Ne and courage. 50c. aT he s about Soviet youth. the .2der will learn about Stienti l€vements of young a 8eologists and S of the first Com- f the ork Team, and more Who . Ung Soviet people Sevens’ Carrying out the Sy. “8? Plan. f ao ing places: e Revelstoke — Saturday, ‘May 19, Revelstoke High School Auditorium, at 8 p.m. e Kamloops — Sunday, May 20, Elks Hall, at 2 p.m. e Vernon — Sunday, May 20, Polson Park High School Auditorium, at 8 p.m. The Milestones have won 4 good measure of acclaim in performing on the Lower Mainland for trade unions, ethnic organizations, the pro- gressive press, PTA and unl- versity groups, and so on. Their repertoire consists of Canadian and Labor songs, as well as folk tunes gathered from countries all around the world. : The Kobzar Dancers are familiar to thousands of people who have enjoyed the famed Ukrainian festivals that have contributed SO much to the B.c. cultural scene. All readers of the PT are advised to avail themselves of this opportunity to wit- ness what promises to be a top-notch show at popular prices. lion never see f In Britain, the Royal Na- tional Institute for the Blind is establishing a foundation for research into prevention of blindness at a cost of ap- proximately $114 million. This sum, large though it is in comparison to what has previously been spent, repre- sents only .03 per cent of “defence” allocations of -that country. Besides preventing total blindness, a proper distribu- tion of funds would do a great deal for those who have al- ready lost their sight. In Sitapur, India, one hos- pital operates on up to 200 cataract patients a day. This effort, immense as it is, can only touch the fringe of India’s two million blind. In India they calculate that the 600,000 young blind per- he sun sons will spend 24 million years in darkness during the rest of their lives. Many people are making a contribution by bequeathing their eyes for this purpose. As many as 100 offers a day have been coming into the RNIB in Britain recently. In Japan 35,000 people are employed in specially reserv- ed occupations. In the Soviet Union there are nearly 300 workshop schools for the blind, many of them under- taking highly mechanized forms of production. And science can help the blind in many ways. Emboss- ed maps, instruments to en- able a blind engineer to work to a 5,000th of an inch, stoves with brailled devices. In Britain it is estimated that blind people do more than 700 different jobs. The problem is immense, but it can be attacked, solved or reduced at many points. What is needed more than anything else is a realization that if only a tiny fraction of the appalling sums now be- ing wasted on arms were to be used to tackle the problem of blindness, a new day would quite literally dawn for un- told millions of our fellow human beings. Warm Soviet film opening soon at : Summer to Remember,” the latest production from Mosfilm Studios, is a film to remember: The sec- ond film in a Cultural Ex- shange series presented in the United States by. J. Fay Fran- kel and M.J.P. Enterprises International, and distributed by Kingsley International Pictures, “A Summer to Re- member” will open on May 22 at the Varsity Theatre. Right on the heels of their first prize-winner, “Ballad of a Soldier’, “A Summer to Remember” has emerged with laurels from the Strat- ford Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. : The picture has also been acclaimed by the critics as one of the 10 Best Foreign Language Films of the Year. A warm-hearted venture into the world of a sensitive child, the film departs from similar dramatic offerings previously viewed in _ this country. With frank, un- adorned realism, it portrays beautiful, happy people, in a simple rural setting. The story depicts a child’s world —-a happy child, whose ad- ventures ring true to life. His parents are realistic and understanding, and the three of them together live a re- markably happy life. and co-writer of the screen- play, Vera Panova, must be commended on her superb knowledge of psychology in _ general and the world of chil- effort Varsity dren in particular, for she has created a scenic panor- ama of the inner world of a child. Her remarkable insight, coupled with the understand- ing of the film’s directors, has produced one of the most sensitive films seen in recent years. The film is the first major directorial effort of Georgy Danelia and Igor Talankin. Danelia, an architect, and Talankin, a theatrical direc- tor, have combined their tal- ents in an outstanding repre- sentation of their artistry. The six year old star of the film, Borya Barkhatov, gives a performance in the role of Seryozha that is astonishing in its natural candidness. His intense emotional responses to the world around him cap- ture the heart of the audience. Sergei Bondarchuk and Irina Skobtseva, who portray Seryozha’s parents in the film, are, in reality, husband and wife. Their performances too, stand out among the ex- ceptional feats in screen his- tory. Making deserts fertile of the USSR is presently engaged in putting out a fun- damental work on “North Af- rican Subterranean Waters.” Similar works are to be pre- pared for the South-East As- ian countries, as well as In- dia and Pakistan. : c ee Academy of Sciences The first work has been prepared under the editor- ship of G. Bogomolov, promi- nent Byelorussian academici- an. “The experience of Soviet scientists in the study and development of subterranean waters will be beneficial for the countries of that area,” the academician said in a re- cent interview. It has long been contended that the water shortage prob- lem faced by these countries could be solved by a detail- ed study of the water re- sources by geophysical meth- ods and deep well drilling. SCIENCE “The countries of Africa and the Orient,’ he said, ‘possess tremendous hydro resources hidden in more than 10 artesian basins. In the Sahara, for instance, sub- terranean waters with a very May 11, 1962—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9 low salt content have been found at depths ranging from 550 to 1,300 yards. According to available esti- mates 22 billion gallons of water could be obtained daily from bore holes in the Sa- hara. The Sahara conceals one of the biggest subterran- ean water basins in the world, with an area of 232,- 000 square miles. This can be of great benefit to Mor- occo, Algeria and Tunisia.’ As for the southern part of the United Arab Republic, it is advisable to go deeper. Wells sunk to a depth of 1,- 100 yards tap good fresh water and in reasonably large quantities.