MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV ‘QUIET DON’ MAN HONORARY DOCTOR Mat. SHOLOKHOV— Wider wouetedly the most a pawn of Soviet writ- Brit; as interviewed by a Be be Daily Worker reporter Prise eve of his departure anand, ‘where, on April el made an honorary hiversity aws by St. Andrew n stating his impressions ed: Bese enition, he reflect- Dleasag Sides being personally ‘ at the high honor, I ne aes this kind of act as tions oy helps to bring na- Reis beoples together.” and oo of the new, young ne peated writers that Soviet ej ometeing in. the ecomi nhion and who were Soviet zr known outside the S0me ., 0% — certainly in Puntos, the Scandinavian nina. a Should be borne in Usually at “young writers leg» Start with short stor- buteg Ich are seldom distri- ®broag On the: same scale Tather as Novels, and “it is Beat y Icult to write a is . vel from the start.” Writer, Miticism that Soviet ‘Ss “ that aes aloof from life” ———_ Many of them lived and worked in the big towns and cities rather than in the countryside was recalled to him, and the question asked: Had there been any change in this situation? His reply was that it was not easy to make these kinds of changes as it was a natural tendency for writers to live and work in the great cultural centres. In pleading for critics to be tolerant of youth he said: “Youth can sometimes make mistakes, and sometimes be a bit rash—but otherwise what kind of youth is it going to be? The most pitiful sight is a lot of ‘young grandfathers’.” He also made it clear that, in his opinion, reading had not gone out of style by saying: “T qon’t think that television. is a substitute for a good book.” The first volume of Sholok- hov’s epic trilogy “They Fought for Their Country will appear at the end of this year, and the second towards the end of 1963. These are even his millions of admirer the capitalist as well as the socialist world—look forward. ts to which oan FEATURE FILM WILL MARK STANISLAVSKY CENTENARY eat ' ae film about Stani- Moscgy, 4) 18 being made in of . Mark the centen- Russian stacc tt Of the great falls due «8° director, which the fi January 1963. y Tepe Will be directed no . jrinov, well artist: his screening of fil €mes, including a The film rovsky. Nislavakyig Vl Portray Sta- — work, his WORTH ~ READING the Forei ua oreign ne Ublishing House’ Coleg iin Mpt at issuing a Mtaing of art photographs, Blish per hons in Russian, ermar ees Spanish and ; an photographs by ate Ing Soviet Photo- the “a Photogra th be d from the twenties Won pry nt and most have ‘ernatig 78s at Soviet and in- B Availay Photo exhibits. Brians 9°t peoples Co-op Bee eo.’ Pender, phs represent famous “method” and the his- tory of the Art Theatre. The plan is to show Stanislavsky’s views on acting and stage direction by filming a studio lesson given by one of his. pupils. Stanislavsky’s pupils will be consulted in making the film and their remini- scences will be included. Sequences from documen- taries, including excerpts from the best productions of the Art Theatre filmed in the thirties, will also be used. Scenes from a number of Stanislavsky’s produ ctions which played a decisive role in the history of the Theatre ‘are to be re-staged specially for the film. It is hoped that a number of interesting se- quences from documentaries from the United States, where the company was on tour in the twenties, will be included, The last part of the film will be devoted to the influ- ence of Stanislavsky’s work and his “method’ on the devel- opment of Soviet and world theatrical art. — The Lenin library in Mos- cow contains no less tha billion books, magazines publications. and es a n.2.- Role of U.S. . capital in Asian war exposed Cash & Violence In Laos & Viet Nam, by Anna Louise Strong. Obtainable at Peoples Cooperative Bookstore, $1.65. ‘Last year the number of American military personnel in Vietnam was about 700, today it is nearly 4,000, and by midsummer 3,000 more may have arrived. In this heavily defended city (Saigon) the main hotels are filled with newly-arrived: American offi- cers and other ranks, and rents have soared by 60 per- cent.” Thus wrote the London Observer in February of this year. And Time magazine last September: “The U.S. has made a major decision. South. Vietnam must be defended at all costs.” Defended from what, would seem to be a reasonable ques- tion, and according to the U.S. State Department: “South Vietnam is under attack .. . Communist troops are infil- trating from the North, from Laos, from Cambodia.” The old familiar story. What really is going on in this strife-ridden corner of South East Asia is told by the indefatigable Anna Louise Strong in her latest book. Written in her customary fresh and graphic style, from first-hand information and well-documented sources (she was in Hanoi in the spring of 1961) this little 124 pp. book is packed with information. This is a civil war openly financed and assisted by the United States — where U.S. planes scatter poisons to de- stroy the people’s crops. The author points out that “for six years the U.S. ran Laos and paid its bills, supplying all costs of the Royal Army... the U.S. poured into Laos twice as much cash as the ex- perts said Laos could absorb, and thus wrecked the cur- rency, corrupted the officials and doubled the cost of liv- ing.” All this, of course, in the name of defending the “democratic way of life’ in South East Asia. In South Viet Nam the Am- erican puppet Ngo Dinh Diem, who was described by Walter Lippman as “extremely un- popular, being both reaction- ary and corrupt” is getting more and more U.S. military aid. According to Newsweek. the Pentagon promised to send to South Viet Nam ‘‘some of its latest, most wonderful weapons”. “But,” says Anna Louise Strong, ‘this is the way Am- erica ‘lost? China ... This is the way Kennedy will lose South Viet Nam. This is the way monopoly capital will lose the world.” Cash & Violence is an in- teresting book and an import- ant book. It is a clearly, sim- ply yet dramatically written book about a complex situa- tion. The inclusion of a map would have made it still more useful, but that is a minor flaw. It is a book most heart- ily to be recommended. —R. Ross Science-fiction shows grim nuclear r THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE. British Lion- Pax presentation of a Val Guest production. Directed by Guest, screenplay by Guest and Wolf Mankowitz. This movie is a contribu- tion to peace and, most speci- fically, to an end to testing. It is also well made, well directed, well acted and gen- uinely exciting. © The best of science fiction (and there is very little of that) always includes a little satire mixed with enough compassion to balance out the prophecy. This film qualifies. We are in no position to judge the accuracy of the prophecy but it is credible, and based on the terrifying reality of testing. To wit — as the film opens the U.S. and the USSR have, almost simultaneously, set off test explosions, one at the north pole and one at the south pole. The impact of these giant explosions tilts the axis of the earth. Fantastic weather changes occur; floods, heat, drought and winds of cyclonic force scourge the entire! world. The earth moves in a new orbit which will bring it closer to the sun. As the film ends, the great nations of the world have joined, finally, in an effort to tilt the earth back on course _-one does not know whether they will succeed or not. The story is told by a oung charming and alcoholic Peper (Edward Judd) and much of the action occurs. in the offices of The London Herald-Express. There is tre- mendous opportunity for some excellent British satire (the prime minister’s voice dron- ing on over a loudspeaker in impeccable accents as forest fires threaten Windsor castle, or the incredible efforts of the weather service to hide the ~ US. horrors of seismographic cal- amity). There are also a marvelous variety of British beatniks, pobbies, bathing beauties and ordinary outraged citizens. And as the film progresses, there is an understated but most powerful comment on the terror and pain produced by the disastrous weather. A good deal of this is ac- complished with newsreel clips of actual disaster—very neatly merged with the rest of the film. The most moving and effec- tive reality of the film are the scenes (some news clips, some staged) of the Alder- maston marchers. The Alder- maston symbol dominates the film — almost literally. The opposition to the peace move- ment is shown, too, with its banners proclaiming, “The bomb is strength.” The lové story is worked into the vision of international eality holocaust with more skill and credibility than usual. The girl (Janet Munro) is nice, not glamorous—pleasant, in fact, with a tidy round face. It seems reasonable that the hero should give up drink and begin to worry about the human race because he has fallen in love with her. This is not a great effort — it won’t go down in the his- tory of the cinema but it offers more hope than “On the Beach’. It says quite de- finitely, ‘‘There is still time, brother.” —Abridged from a review by Nancy Scott, People’s World. Four hundred officers and men of a new U.S. Marine Corps Helicopter company were flown into South Viet- nam recently from the U.S. aircraft carrier Princeton. armed forces are in South Vietnam, in violation of treaty obligations, which Canada as a member of the UN treaty commission has not protested. LETTERS DIGEST A number of readers have written to point out an error on Page 5 of the March 30 issue of the PT. In the article on overpopulation, the total amount of land in use was listed as three million acres, instead of three billion acres. We apologize to our read- ers for this editorial oversight, and thank all those who were kind enough to draw it to our attention. We are always happy to have these things pointed out to us, as this is a sure sign that the paper is being read. April 26, 1962—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 13