NSE

| NEEDS
cific Tribune,

450 million people
mocracy instead of 2
e of dictatorship.
the Chinese people
¢: must decide the
so0vernment they want,
att is needed and can
fhened by a better
ling. in this connec-
S encouraging, that
ublic pressure, Am-
Fervention appears to
nevertheless Chinas’
s re by no means solvy-
Sastance, even though
ga-shek should resign,
gild still remain the
fir-lords to savagely
ry effort to establish
democracy. ee
doese situation is easy
sand because it dupli-
conditions through
Tope passed in the
eS. History records,
{ ing barons, in order
it extermination of
in factional fights,
render homage to
monarchies. The
relied on the feudal

‘al to world peace that

= armed forces, just -

IHAT DO YOU THINK?

Europe, the growth of mer-
chant capitalism evolved to the
point where the centralized

monarchies were able te-wipe
out the power of the weakened

“barons. However, Chiane Kai-
~shek wishes history to stand _

‘still, and he opposes every ad-
vance of capitalism.

Though reviewers of his
book “Chinas’ Destiny”, dub it
it the Generalissimos’ “Mein
Kamp?’, and claim he is follow-
ing the lines of Hitler and Mus-
solini, there is a vast difference.
They used fascist terror to
strengthen capitalist dictator-
ship, whereas Chiang Kai-shek
is uSing it to retai& the supre-
macy of feudalism. In a word,
Ghiange Kai-shek correctly re-
flects the power of the feudal
families of China: This is why
right from the time of the
death of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, he
has constantly engaged in civil
war, and jails or executes all
opponents.

Americans and Canadians
should ask why, after all these
months since the Jap surrender,
there are two huge armies. the
Kuomintang and the American
army with 500 planes, tanks
and masses of artillery, alleg-
erly needed to disarm a few

recognize and strengthen the
Generalissimos’ fascist forces,
and te announce that American
armies would remain in Ghina
indefinitely? Surely it is clear
that imereased armament will
not bring democracy to China,
but will only bring increased
misery and bloodshed!

As'a Canadian Chinese, I by
mo means place all the blame
for Americas’ Imperialist in-
tervention on the
Government. I must ask why
doesn’t the foreign department
of Canada make an official
statement pledging support of
President Trumans’ new policy
of aiding the establishment of
a democratic China? Such a
statement would aid the presi-
dent and few congressmen now
opposing the powerful imperial-
ists. Such a declaration also
would win the friendship of
Chinas’ teeming millions. Can-
ada’s silence is certainly not
compatible with the tremen-
dous influence she wields
among the nations of the world.
Continued mass pressure in the
most effective method to win
freedom, and I earnestly urge
democratic people everywhere
te oppose a fascist policy for
China, and to demand immedi-

American

= Chiaz Kai-shek de-
the military support
: sudal war-lords.. In

bund Town »

woman enters politics, makes the
es as often as a movie star, and is
recognized as spokeswoman for a large
rroup, we have to sit up and take

thousand badly
And why does
shali deem it

Sch a woman becomes a sort of celeb-
particularly.

St overnight, it seems,
| border, where the
R .S-agentry is much
ced than in Can-
woman who won
call it distinction
e—of haying her
ome a household
°s Manner was the
tian Clare Boothe
ve had a lot of
her favor. First,
ilready won fame
Wright. She had a
lair for Wwearing
d for being seen
aem. And she was
ef labor-hating ‘‘Time” editor, Henry
man who made a joke of “objective”

uch a background, Clare couldn’t fail
attention. Wearing a Tilly Dache hat,
repotter suit, we saw her grin toothily
a the pages of every newspaper and
éver Since she arrived in Washington.
e publicity in the world couldn’t hide
lat, as far as decent people were con-
are Boothe Luce was just too darned
tematically, she attacked progressive
; and stood in fayor of almost every
% proposal ever advanced. There were
Wbels applied to her, with justification.

anti-Soviet, anti-British, anti-Labor,
). Her every act was an insult to the
io enter polities to honestly serve their
ud people who live in it.

his week came the good news that
leaving, politics. Like many another
7, and a few progressive renegades,
tly discovered a spiritual home in the
‘hurch. The man who converted her
ain Monsgn. Sheean, who is becoming
the Pope’s best recruiter this side of
fic. :

lexaggeration to say that the political
ne United States will be greatly im-
ih the removal of Clare Luce. We can
_that she will keep her promise to
Pr activities to the religion she has
jmbraced. The Catholic Church’s loss,
jadmit, is Washington’s gain.

iCIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

ate withdrawal of all Ameri-
ean forees and eauinpment.
H. SHAN GEN

beaten Japs.
General Mar-
necessary to

Cynthia Carter

ONE day this week, more than 750 B.C. vet-

erans arrived in New York on the liner Queen
Elizabeth. In a matter of days, they will arrive
in the province to be enthusiastically greeted by
friends and relatives. The whole town, as usual,
will turn out to meet the train, and local digni-
taries will make the usual speeches about our
“gallant fighting men.” Then several hundred
of our heroes at least will start in on the heart-
breaking search for a place to live. Is it hard
to understand why a number of them will begin
to wonder just what it is they were fighting
for?

Down the street from our house is a broken-

: down, unpainted, dirty apartment building which

one day last week had a vacancy, an unheated
two-room suite complete with beautiful view of
the False Creek dump. Within a few minutes
after the news got round, two tenants appeared.
The first was a quietly dressed colored woman
who was told brusquely that the landlord was
not going to haye his place cluttered up with
Negroes. The second was an ex-serviceman whose
wite had committed the unpardonable sin of
bearing him two fine kids.

The landlord looked at the kids and shook
his head. His filthy two-room suite was too good
for the likes of them!

That did it. The soldier let loose a flood
of invective that set the landlord back on his
heels.

“And EF just finished four years overseas to
come home to this,” he said disgustedly. “I was
never uncertain of what I was fighting against—
but I sometimes wonder what the dickens I was
fighting for.”

The landlord was scared stiff. He threatened
to call the police. The soldier and his little family
left peacefully, to go on searching for some
place to live in this glorious democracy of ours.

It’s a pretty sickening situation. When gov-
ernment officials ignore demands for housing
plans, when contractors combat every move for
low-rental housing, we have to admit that some-
where our system is breaking down.
Speaking of color lines and discrimination, I
heard a story the other day which I’d like to

ass along.

Z It oe Groucho Marx, of the famous Marx
Brothers, had submitted his children’s names for
membership in a swishy swimming club. The
applications were rejected: Marx was a Jew,
and the club did not allow Jews membership.

Groucho swiftly penned a reply: “Since my
kids are only half-Jewish,” he wrote, “will it
be all right if they just go in up to their navels?”

Short Jabs 1 o si

ADOETERRSURGRESORSRDSSURNEPDESLELTED SESE

Adventures In Bokhara

SOLS time ago I read a list of the (alleged) twelve best pictures

of the year. I had seen three of them: two were very good but the
third one, in which Errol Flynn and half-a-dozen Americans drove
the Japanese out of Burma, was so much drivel.

The list may have been compiled according to box-office returns
or it may have been the result of the judges’ personal opinions. Tf
the latter method was the one used, we must remember that movies
are just like books and the personal likes and dislikes of the. judges
were bound to affect their decisions. If I had been the judge, the list
would have been different.

For one thing it would have included a Soviet .picture that is to
be shown at the Paradise Theatre here this coming week. ‘The story
it unfolds ts not what would be called a revolutionary epic in the
sense that term might be applied to Ghapeyev or Kronstadt or some
of the other pictures from the Soviet Union which preceded it, but it
ig an epic of the early struggles of some of the peoples who once
grovelled before emirs and khans but who now walk upright because
they are free men in a classless society.

Most countries, where poverty and suffering have been the lot
of the common people, have a-mythical heroic figure who robs the
rich and helps the poor. Robin Hood played that part in England as
Stenka Razin did in Russia. Even the United States, whose history
is but a span-long, has its Jesse James. The hero, Nasredin, lived in
the time of Tamerlane, 500 years ago. ‘The picture is described as
“escapist” but it does not strike me that way, as the satire, both in
the situations and the dialogue, is worthy of Marx himself. The class
character of Bokharan society is demonstrated more clearly than it
might have been in an article devoted to that purpose alone.

Saving A Rich Man

How Nasredin saved a rich man from drowning has to be seen to be
appreciated. (I don’t intend to tell you how it was done), and you

, will note that the rich man kept his promises just asi the Boss Loggers

do today.

. Ley. Sverdiin, as Nasredin, is as near to perfection as an artist
can come. He is sort of combination of Charlie Chaplin and Douglas
Pairbanks. There is none of that over-acting that some Soviet artists
are guilty of The other players in the cast are excellent in their
parts, too. The photography is as good as Hollywood at its best.

The New York Times, commenting on the picture, says, “it has
-. . a distinct value in its . ... authentic picturization of Asiatic
Russian costumes and customs.” That is a misleading statement, be-
eause the scenes depicted are of the Bokhara of 500 years ago when
ii was under Yurkish rule, a dirty, squalid, smelly Oriental town,
where poverty and luxury rubbed shoulders, the glamor of which is
imagined rather than real.

The Bokhara of today is a modern city. It has been industrialized,
is sanitary and clean, no longer a hotbed of poverty-inspired diseases
or poverty-breeding luxury. The Soviet people of the Uzbek Republic
have recreated the city but without destroying any of the old historic
relies that suggest the Arabian Nights and the romance that went
with them.

Spring Song

AN OTHER picture which will be seen in the week’s festival of Soviet
films is “Spring Song,” a musical piece that will help to clear the

air on discussions about classical music and light opera.

This is a satire, the script of which was written by that master
Satirist, Hugene Petrov, co-author of “Tittle Golden Calf,” who -was
killed in the defence of Sevastopol. The heated, and sometimes
threatening, arguments of the advocates of the two schools of music
involved, have to be finally settled by conjuring the ghost of Johann
Sebastian Bach from his gold-framed picture hanging on the wall.

Only classical music and light opera are embraced im the clash
of opinions. I felt myself wondering what Johann Sebastian would
have had to say if jazz, swing and boogie-woogie had been brought
into the dispute.

The snatches of classical music, however, are tantalizing; just
long enough to make one wish for more. The leading singer, Ludmila
Tzelikovskaya, so far as her voice is concerned, could be cast with
success in a picture depicting the life of Galli-Curci.

In another picture, script also by, Petrov, “Taxi to Heaven,’’ We
are to be treated to another feast of operatic music. Pique Dame~-by
Tchaikovsky and I. Pagliacci by Leoneayvallo are used to give the pic-
ture a musical setting 5

The rest of the picture centers in the love imterest that intrigues
the Soviet audience just as it does those of the West Coast.

Last Hill

The last picture of the series is of the kind we have had most ex-
perience of in Soviet films. It is not a documentary but a studio picture
based on Boris Voyetekhoy’s book, “The Last Days of Sevastopol.”

The 250 days defense of Sevastopol was an epie in itself. During
those eight months, thousands of heroic incidents occured. Hach.day was
its own epic. Not alone were the military and naval men and women,
the .heroes,, but the civilians also. Even to live in Sevastopol then was
to be a hero. It was only natural then that the newspaper observers
should register many of the individual exploits.

Readers of “The Last Days of Sevastopol” know how much rich
material that book of Voyetekhov’s provides for a picture of a people
defending their homes and liberties against the greatest menace to
liberty the world has yet known. :

Although not a documentary film, the principal incidents in the
story are replicas of events that actually occurred in Sevastopol dur-
ing the siege. ;

All of those pictures may be seen at the Paradise during the coming
week. See the advertisements in another part of the paper for particu—
lars. But see the pictures.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1946