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Page Four

Poo PJs Ey S) “Arp v0 CAI

Q@ctober 1, 1937

BOOKS
and
AUTHORS

THE WAR IN SPAIN—By
Ramon Sender. Faber &
Faber.

THE SPANISH COCKPIT—
By Franz Borkenau. Faber
& Faber.
Reviewed by Valentine Ackland
in Left Review

ERE is history, still be-
ing made but already,
by this book of Sender’s, as-
sumilated and commuted into
life again. Even in trans-
lation (and that ‘even’ is by
no means a reproach to Chalmers
Mitehell whose translation is near
perfection) the style of this book
is selid and beautiful, and in places
euriously like Sir Walter Raleigh.
The book is like a piece of finest
eloth, very close in texture, very
smooth and solid. You can’t poke
your finger through it, and the
few quotations I haye room for
you must consider as small cut-
tings, patterns of the material that
is superlative in piece.

“ooking at the faces of my
comrades I saw that two of them
were dead, although they were still
upright and advancing: In war
there are many dead men who still
keep on their feet, advancing, re-
treating, firing. The face is losing
its expression, the glance its viva-
city, for that is the way to die.”

‘“Mhe hundred per cent officers
eould be distinguished at once by
the way they joined freely in
criticisms and censure of our de-

fects. - But there were others,
unpleasantly reserved, who came
to us only in flattery. They would
he seen’ to be on guard against
their own mistrust.’ (This last is
a sharp piece of observation. One
notices, under war Conditions, how
any lack of affection, lack of de-
cision, shines lividly, unmistak-
ably, whatever familiar face may
wear it. Sender records this for all
time in that last sentence).

Then there is this account of
the arrival at the front of the
Gompany of Steel. They raise their
war-ery: “Ra! ra! ra!”

“But then the ery ceased, as

* if they were listening to the echo.

Hverythinge sounded differently in
Guadarrama. There was silence,
the silence of dead birds, which
they noticed as soon as the motors
of the lorries stopped. One of us
Jooked all round, and, staring at
a stripped acacia, said: ‘Here we
don’t hear even a miserable spar-
row’!’’

And, at the very end of the book,
Sender’s personal tragedy is treat-
ed briefly and courageously. His
brother, his wife’s brother and
then his wife were all shot by
Fascists. Sender got leave and took
his two baby sons to France, and
then returned to fight again in
his own country. Im the trans-
Jator’s mote, Chalmers Mitchell
describes the Senders’ home, just
before the rebellion, saying:

“Wis young Wife, a musician
and member of a Catholc family.
his two children respectively of
two years and a few months old.
and his own ‘affectionate and
tolerant nature made a picture of
domestic happiness which I can
never forget. Sender has begged
me not to add a word of comment
on what he has written in the last
pages of the last chapter off his
book.”

Sender's own words must be
yead as he wrote them, and in
their context; his conclusions are
magnaminous and just.

e
WE publishers say of The
Spanish Cockpit: “Dr. Borke-

nau was... in the field, watch-
ing and recording with scientific
detachment.”
At any time, but more than
ever after reading this book, it
would be reasonable to ask
whether anyone can write a de-
tached and scientific account of a
war in progress; and, can anyone

under war conditions?

What his conclusions are any-
one who spends a good deal of
time on a rather long, rather
dreary book, can perhaps discover.
But the reader will discover it
rather difficult to decide which
way up the author likes himself

pest—he turns so many cart
wheels.
I should have thought it al-

most impossible to write a really
dull book about Spain at war (from
which ever side it was written) but,
in spite of the cartwheels, this is
dull.

The author, in his preface, says:
“T pbezan my studies under the
eommon delusion that the Spanish
Revolution was simply an incident
in the fight between Left and
Risht, Socialism and Fascism in
the European sense of the word;
T have been convinced by observa-
tions on the spot that this is not
so.”

That sounds all right, but al-
most immediately afterwards, the
reader finds this sentence, which
shows the inadequacy of IDES,
Borkenau’s powers of observation:
“The fight against oppression, the
mentality of the brigand who
leaves his village in order to be
free, is still much stronger than
the mentality of the trade union-
ist who accepts hard months of
strike in order to become well-
to-da.””

If the author sees this as the
motive behind an organized strike
of trade unionists, it is difficult
to believe that his observations,
however scientifically detached,
can be useful to anyone who wants
¢o assess the weight of opposing
forees in the Civil War:

How the Loyalists Stormed Belchite

In this delayed despatch to
lis paper, IHerbert Lb. AMat-
thews, correspondent of tive
New York Limes, tells how the
Catalonian army, recenty 7re-
organized and unified under
General Pozas, captured the
towns of Belthite and Quinto
near Saragossa on the Aragon
front im one of the most sig-
ne ane victories of the war.

Fighting with Loyalist forces
was a section. of the Interna-
lional Brigades, including Ca-
nadian, American and Latin
American volunteers.

THREE-DAY vyisit to
: the Aragon front has
satisfied your correspondent
that the government won a
victory there greater than
has been realized. It ranks,
in fact, as one of the Loyalists’
bigzest triumphs, and as such it
has repaid close Study.
Gperations began the morning of
August 24 when a heavy concen-
tration of troops moved swiftly
up the highway from Hijar. Other
smali columns moved forward to-
ward Zuera and Villamajor de Gal-
lego, while another force pushed
northward from Azuara to isolate
Belehite.
Quinto also was quickly cut off
from Saragossa by a column which

droye across the Ebro River at
Pina, taking the railroad Station
on the western side of the river
and then moving on to Fuentes de
Isbro.

The first great objective was
Quinto, and it was a tough one-
The village itself is down on the
banks of the Ebro, but its defenses
were on two heights to the west
and south. The storming of those
heights and then the town itself
was one of those rare occasions
in warfare when an intricate plan
of attack is carried out perfectly
to the last detail.

Wo planes were used, reliance
being placed entirely on artillery
and tanks for the preliminary
phase, The artillery’s precision in
that and other phases of the of-
fensive were apparently remark-
able.

>

HE western heights were

stormed first by frontal at-
tacks, and then the southern
eminence fell after a stern defense
that forced the Loyalists to edge
around to the right until they
could make a flank attack.

Then came stern fighting in
Quinto, the first the Americans
had ever done, They learned sey-
eral bitter lessons in the process.
After a few unnecessary losses,
they and their comrades realized
the only way to take the fortified
houses and streets was to sterm
the first available building and
eut their way from house to house

through the intervening walls
without ever exposing themselves.
As it happened, the Fascists had
organized Quinto’s defense to a
certain extent in Such passages
themselyes to permit a retreat.
That helped somewhat, but it was

exciting until] the village was
cleaned up.
While Quinto was being taken

the northernmost column made re-
markable progress toward Zuera,
fighting through difficult moun-
tainous terrain until it reached the
height over the eastern bank of
the Ebro. This was heavily forti-
fied, and some 3,500 men set them-—
selves grimly to the task of storm-

ing it.
*

NOTHER small column, led by
General Emilio Kleber, started
prilliantly enough by driving west-
ward to the right to Villamajor de
Galleso, only five miles from Sara-
gossa. +

South of that city more than a
division of Spanish soldiers were
pressing against Fuentes de Ebro,
while other troops, including the
British Battalion, pushed west and
north to Mediana Alborton and be-
yond Euendetodos. Belchite was
cut off and to the WFascists in
Saragossa it must haye seemed as
if that city itself might be lost.
Loyalist reconnaissance planes fly-
jing over Saragossa, reported a
ereat panic among the inhabitants
with a stream of refugees pour-

in= out alone the highway to the
west.

However, for them it was a false
alarm. The Loyalist general staff
apparently had no hope of taking
the city itself, for the columns
working on the north were much
too small and obviously were only
making a feint while the real push
occurred around Belchite.

*

HE American brigade was on

the northern side of Belchite,
facing the cathedral, where the
Fascists had their heaviest concen-
tration and in whose square they
rallied for their last stand. Aerial”
bombardments and artillery were
so effective that literally mot a
pbuilding escaped destruction.

The lessons learned at Quinto
stood the gevernment troops in
good stead at Beichite. No mass
effort was made to storm the town.
First its outer defenses had to be
captured, and they were unusually
powerful. They were, in fact, as
the Fascists planned, virtually im-
presnable to frontal attack. But
the Loyalists, by surrounding Bel-
chite, were in a position to take
them from the rear, an operation
completed during the night of
August 31 and September 1-

Barly that morning the assault
on the town began from all sides.
It took four days.

Belchite had been so well, sys-
tematized by the Fascists during
their year in the town that every

house had its exit through other
houses, while sixty machine-gun
nests were scattered throughout
the town. So although the Loyal-
ists actually took possession of
Belchite at 3:30 on the afternoon
of September 4, it waS not until
five days later that the town was
entirely cleaned up.

*

Wee the taking of Belchite
and the fortification of its
new lines the government’s Sara-
fossa drive ended. On the extreme
right flank, however, an important
operation was still being carried
out. General Kleber’s columm, for
some obscure reason, bogged down
just short of Villamajor de Gallego
and was unable to take that town
and move on to jo ‘the Catalan -
eolumn at Zuera.

The latter force did better. It
stormed the heights aboye Zuera
in a bitterly fought operation cost—
ing more than 500 men out of
3,500. Howeyer, it was worth it,
for the Loyalists now held the
strongest possible positions on that
flank. That Catalan force took
more than sixty square poiles of
territory.

With this offensive General Se-
pbastian Pozas takes his place with
General ~Miaja. among Loyalist
Spain’s most important command-
ers. All agree that he did a re-
markable job of organization in
whipping the army of the East
into its present shape.

(Chu Teh-- the Chinese V oroshilov

MONG the masses of

. China legends are cur-
pone full of heroism, about
new people who are freeing
China from thousands of
years of oppression, slavery
and violence, who are
the imperailist chains which fet-
ter the people and the country.
These legends acclaim the
courage of the people who are
building up a new country on
the remains of the old. In these

legends, there iS an invincible
knight, a healer of the people's
sorrows, who rids them of op-

pression and suffering.
The people have given him a

strong and simple name—Chu
Teh. ,

This fearless: commander - in -
chief of the former Chinese Red
Army, now the -Highth Route
Army, hails from Szechwan, a

where
good part of his life.
fave many years of
his Jife to arduous, exhaustms
Jabor as a Coolie. His hands and
shoulders are hardened and
marked by labor. He saw the lfe
of the long-suffering people of
China at close quarters.

He first came into contact with
military affairs in the school of
the Yunnan militarists, and im-
mediately grasped the tremen-
dous importanee of military mea-
sures in the struggle of the peo-

province of South China,
he spent a
Chu Teh

ple. From this time onward he
pbecame such a capable student
that the hard-boiled generals
who were his teachers feebly
shrugged their shoulders: they
could not tell him what they

themselves did not know.
e

HE roar of the waves of the

ereat proletarian revolution
of October, 1917, met with a
sharp echo in China. Soon the Chi-
nese Communist party was formed.
Chu Teh, ever in the vanguard
of the people’s movement, became
a Communist. The revolutionary

movement in the country srew
at a rapid pace.

Then Chu Teh became a regi-
mental commander. His regi-

ment distinguished itself among
all the other troops of South
China for its splendid organiza-
tion, for its discipline and its ex—
cellent knowledge of military
science. Wo one ever suspected
that there was a reyolutionary
organization in this regiment, led
by the commander himself. Chu
Teh was painstakingly hammer-
ing out cadres ef revolutionary
fichters.

At the will of the party, Chu
Teh left China. For a2 - number
of years he was in Europe,
studying new Jands, the art of
war, and foreign languages. He
displayed extraordinary capabil-
ities. In a short time he mastered
the French, German and English

QUSEWIVES have a big re-
sponsibility on their hands.
to support the boycott of Japanese

goods.
Japanese While Japan is
Boycott mercilessly bombing

women and chil-
dren in China women in other
countries can do their bit to stop
these atrocities by refusing to buy
eoods manufactured in that coun-
try.

non-combatant

The main buying power is in the
hands of the women, and although
many of uS don’t even bother
usually to enquire where foods
were manufactured, we should
from now on make sure that we
are not being fiven Japanese
goods.

Most of the cheap chinaware
comes from Japan, and it is very
hard sometimes to the

resist

breaking ~*

languages. His close friends called
him a revolutionary linguist when
he learned also the Russian lan-
suage.

On returning to China, he said
to a close cirele of comrades:
“Now I have matured, I have ac-
quired new knowledge. I, shall
devote it to our cause.”

e
HE party once more sent him
to South China, into the troops
of the militarists. Chu Teh took
command of his old regiment
and was soon giyen charge of a

Tevrom Left Review, Lendon.

cheapness of dishes which
needed badly in the home. We feel,

“Oh well, what difference can this
once make?” but the trouble is
that so many people are apt to

think that, and so the boyectt be-
comes meaningless-

Tf we remember,
see dishes that are

every time we
marked “Made

in Japan, that by refusing to buy
these goods we are helping to
brine an end to Japan’s invasion
of China, it will be much easier

to do without the thinss we need,
even if they are cheap.
©
HAT would the average Ca-
W nadian have to say if he were
given instructions as to what type

Ary of woman he should
= ea ao marry?

Ideal T imagine every man
in the country could feel like

are -

brigade. General Fan Shi-shen,
the famous Yunnan mailitarist, to
whose army this brigade be-
longed, appointed Chu Teh his
adviser and shared with him his
dreams of conquering the prov-
jnces of Yunnan, Kwangsi, Kwan-
tung—the whole of South China;

Tan Shih-shen would be the
master, and Chu Teh the military
governor.

Smiling inwardly, Chu Teh gave
his agreement to this plan, but did *
not lose a single day in organizing
and preparing the first reyvolution-

ary detachments. Soon, Chu Teh
with little opposition left with his
crack brigade for Kiangsi province
to meet the troops of heroic Mao
Mse-tung. Im April, 1928, the his-
torie meeting took place in Nin;
kane county near the inaccessible
mountains of Tsinkanshan of the
two main fighting detachments of
the red fighters.
ot

AO TSE-TUNG brought the

partisan detachment of Hu-
nin miners and workers, of Ka-
angsi farm laborers and of revolu-

“Hello, big bey.”

A Woman’s Diary —

marrying the exact oppostie of the
specified type. Yet in Germany,
Wazi men are required to marry
only a woman with wide blue eyes,
Jone oval face, pink and white
skin, small mouth and, particularly,
She must be a virgin.

Women who do not conform to
these specifications are not cap-
able of standine by their husbands!

The bride-to-be must also not be

one who out a Jot or who
likes theatres amusements or
sports. The factor of love is not

an important one to Nazi mar-
riages. Most important is not that

_ the husband or wife find satisfac-

tion but rather that they have pure
Aryan children—and plenty of
them.

To ensure the latter point, the
sale of contraceptives is illesal, is

by

are abortions, and. premiums are
laid on child production-

These children, from the time
they are born, must be imbued
with the spirit of Nazi Germany,
must be trained and educated to
fill their great role—soldiers for
Germany. “Until the brain of the
tiniest child is penetrated by the
prayer—Almighty God, bless our
apons again ... bless our bat-

In this task particularly, the
women have the responsibility, and
knowledze necessary for this up-
bringing is dished out to the
swywomen in various camps, schools,

and clubs. membership in which
for 2 certain period of time is
compulsory.

These and other enlightening

facts are contained in a book by

tionary peasants to Ninkang. ronz
all surrounding provinces, partisan
detachments of peasants and work-
ers flocked to Ninkang-

With pikes and swords, knives
and sticks, the national fighters®
collected together under the ban-
ner of the overthrow of their
oppressors. Thus was the famous
Fourth Corps of the Red Army
formed; the Central Committee of
the Communist party of China ap-
pointed Chu Teh Commanderain-
Chief of the Fourth Army Corps,

and Mao ‘Tse-tung its political
commiissar. 5

Since this time, Chu Teh and
his men haye not met with a

single serious defeat.

Through the work of the Fourth
Gorps, the provinces of Eaangsi
and Kulkien were cleansed of re-
actionary forces and Soviet organ-
ization was set up-

Be during this period of 1930-

1986 General Chiang Kai-shek
under the instigation of pro-Jap-
anese elements of the Nationalist
government, sent seven expedi-
tions against the Red Army. De-
spite the Chinese Communists
pointing out that Japan was the
real enemy of the Republic and
offering unity in an anti-Japanese
front, still China was torn by civil
strife.

The overwhelming superiority
of the enemy’s forces com-
pelled tke Chinese Communist
party to save the main units» of
the Chinese Red Army, which was
inferior in technical equipment to
the armies of Chiang, by with-
drawing them from the hostile
encirclement they were in, into
the open spaces where a war of
maneuvers could be conducted.

Chu eh, as commander-in-chief
of the Red Army and president of
the Revolutionary Military Coun-
cil, Jed his army across rivers
and over mountains, through des-
erts, and through traps laid by its
mortal enemies. He brought it to
Szechwan, after Aan unexamipled,
historie trek, during which the
men and their commanders cov-
ered the tremendous distance of
4.000 kilometers. The Red Army
marehed, with iron discipline,
through Central and Southern
China. And alone the whole Jensth
of the road traversed, they did not
meet with a single defeat! No
wonder the heroic commander of
the Red Army has become an al-
most legendary figure in the minds
of China’s millions.

Today, Chu Leh and his vali-
ant followers are fighting
north of battle-scarred Tientsin for
the national salvation of China
from the Japanese imperialists.
Now the Red Army of 100,000
yeteran fizhters is an integral part
of the great Chinese National
Army and is designated as the
Bizhth Route Army.

Chu Teh is a true national hero
of the Chinese people. They eall
him the Chinese Voroshiloy-.

Victoria Post

Robert A. Brady, Associate Pro-
fessor of Economics at the Univer-
sity of California. The title is: “The

Spirit and Structure of German
Fascism” and on the title page is
written:

“If that the heavens do not their
visible spirits

Send quickly down to tame these
wile offences,

It will come,

Wumanity must perforce prey on
itself

hike monsters of the deep.”

At the beginning of the book,
these lines mean to the reader
nothing more than a quotation
from Shakespeare, but when the
hook has been read, they take on
a much greater significance.

STAGE
AND ~
SCREEN

OW the New Film Alliance
sizes the new pictures up:

WIFE, DOCTOR AND NURSE:
Seemingly trite theme refurbished
into clever, entertaining film with
Loretta Young, Warner Baxter
and Virginia Bruce.

BIG CITY: Story of gangsters,
thugs and racketeers—and a final
cleanup by strong-arm athletes
who take the law into their own
hands. Besides abusing talents of
Tuuise Rainer and Spencer Tracy,
picture contains a thinly-veiled ap-
proval of ‘citizens’ committees”
and other vigilante groups. -—

MAYERLING: F'rench-made
film of the death pact between
Archduke Rudolph and Marie Wet-
sera. Pine picture; fine acting by
: Gharles _Boyer and Danielle
Darieux, both in Hollywood now.

40 NAUGHTY GIRLS: Back-
stage comic-mystery, with Zasu
Pitts as girl friend of detective
who does the detecting for him.

HEART OF SPAIN: Spain, with
war and peace side by side, af
fectine civilians and soldiers alike.
Taken in Spain by Herbert Kline
and Gezaz Karpathi. Available for
bookings by organizations.. Garri-
son Film Corp., 1600 Broadway,
New York City.

)

OTH in Vancouver and

Victoria the Progres-
sive Arts Players are prepar-
ing for extensive winter ac-
tivities with the emphasis
laid on mobile one-act pro-
duetions.

Vancouver, with an active mem-
bership of some thirty members,
has now three plays ready—
Blocks, by Molly Day Thatcher,
The Secret, by the Spanish poet
and playwright, Ramon Sender,
and Hostage, by Harold Griffin,
chairman of the group. Already
Hostage has been produced for
ten organizations and groups, in-
cluding performances at White
Rock, Burnaby and Victoria, while
Ben Golden’s group in Seattle -has
it under consideration, and Blocks
for three organizations. These in
addition to several performances
at the PAP’s Granyille street
elubreoms. ,

Recently Ben Golden, New The-
atre League director, came up from
Seattle at the invitation of the
group to aid m organizational
work.

Victoria, membership of which
has now srown to fifteen or so
active members, is making con-
siderable headway.and has The
Giant Tiller, a one= -act play, The
Little Accident and The Man on
the Street, two Sketches, the lat-
ter adapted by Fred Goodman, a
member of the group, in course
of production.

6
Gane ammunition for
its fifth’ barrage against social
and economic injustices in this
country, the WPA Federal Theatre

Project’s ‘Living Newspaper” will
soon produce the newsdrama,
“Wousine.’ In an attack as vigor-
ous and factual as any of its four
predecessors, “Housing” will em-
blazon on the living stage the
stark truth of President Roose-
velt’S words that—‘‘one-third of
the nation are ill-elothed, ill-housed
and ill-fed.”

Wo longer is the technique of
the Living Newspaper an experi-
ment, says Irving Mendell, gen-
sral manager of Living Newspaper.
Through almost two years of ex-
perience with this new dramatic
form, the capable staff of news-
eatherers, librarians and drama-
tists have developed the system of
living news presentation into a
workable and effective pattern.
The first Living Newspaper ¢€n=
deayor, “Ethiopia,” told the story
of Italian Fascism and of the ruth-
Jess invasion of a weaker nation’
so vividly that it was censored out
of production.

e
NDAUNTED by official veto,
the Living Newspaper staff
courazeously brows ht forth

“Triple-A Plowed Under,’ an un-

piased revelation of the plight of _

the American farmer and the facts
behind the Supreme Court’s rejec-
tion of the
clusively that news can be effec-
tively dramatized on the living
stage and became one of the lead-
ine dramatic hits of 1936.

The next production “1935,” 2@
resume of important news events
of that year. was followed by “Tn-
junction Granted,” a story of labor
and the courts. Then came
“Power,’? from the pen of Arthur
Arent, the Living Newspapers
ace dramatist, which surpassed all
other contemporary Federal The-
atre shows and played to capacity
fiouses even during the summer.

6

© one person is responsible for
a Living Newspaper play, Es=
Perienced newspaper men, welded
into a keenly (ftrained staff xf
newsdrama specialists, supply the
material that gops into the scripts:
Aidine them is a staff of librarians
who clip and record all newspaper
and magazine articles relating to
eurrent topics.
When the material is gathered
_and tabulated it is
over to a staff of accomplished
dramatists who make the first
drafts of Living Newspaper plays:
Durine the comings year the Liy-
ins Newspaper plans many more
newsoramas on contemporary s0=

cial and economic problems con=
fronting the American yorker. The:

research staff is even now engaged

in collecting material on such
tfopies as “War.” “Transporta-
tion,” “Youth” and “Medicine.”

HAAA™ Tt proyed con=—

then turned