EONARD DE PAUR, con-
ductor of the famed Negro
male chorus which carries his
name, recently had some
sharp things to say about dis-
crimination during apre-con-
cert interview in London Ont.
Speaking specifically of Ca-
nada, he noted that in a Nova
Scotia town the post office em-
ploys three Negroes. ‘That
wouldn’t have happened 10
years ago,’’ he said,

But when told that a Univer-
sity of Western Ontario study
Several years ago showed dis-
crimination among large cor-
porations in London, he said,
**T could have told them that
and saved research money,

**Canada has been like San}
Francisco. A Negro could go
anywhere, spend his money,
be received politely. But un-
less he was a top professional
man or would work for arail-

De Paur talks about
racism in Canada

road, he just couldn’t get-a-

fob: shad

He spoke from @Xperience of
hunting for jobs, and oftouring
across Canada many times
with his Infantry Chorus and
subsequent ensembles.

He recalled an ‘‘incident’’
in a small city in the Mari-
times. Local hotel and res-
taurants refused to serve him
and his men and told them they
could get service 15 miles
away.

De Paur proposed an ulti-
matum to the concertspon-
sors - no service, noconcert.
Integration was accomplished,
and many townspeople were
shocked at the incident, not
realizing discrimination was
practised regularly.

Integration in the U.S, will
continue to be a problem for
some time, De Paur said, ‘‘If
demagogues have control, the
trouble certainly will in-
crease,”’ ;

‘Weavers’

UNDAY, December 29, will

see the end of an era in the
realm of folk singing. For on
that day, in Chicago, ‘The Weav-
ers,’’ most beloved of all Ameri-
Can folk singing groups, will pre-
Sent their final performance.

*«The Weavers”’ will no longer
Weave their magic after that day.

For 15 years millions of people
all over the world have been in-
Spired and cheered by the sound
of this group ‘‘belting out’’ their
almost patented brand of folk art.

During that time they have

.Steadfastly remainedtrue to their

Principles, have not surrenderéd
to cold war pressures onthe cul-
tural scene, have not caved in to
the infamous blacklist, have re-
fused to be told just what’and for
Whom they could sing.

While the general easing of ten-
Sions has helped some perform-
€rs have their names erased from

_the blacklist, the same cannot be
Said for ‘‘The Weavers’’ - both
Collectively and individually. Ha-
tred for their stand is apparently

SO deep-seated that the fresh
Winds of change are not yet warm

The Weavers

Il it quits
enough to be of comfort to them.
They are still barred (unoffic-
ally, of course) from all major.
radio, TV, and film outlets,
When they, along with one of
their originals, Pete Seeger,
were not invited to perform on
the national U. S. folk singing
show ‘*Hootenanny’”’ (a word that
Seeger practically invented) a
movement developed to have
other top stars boycott the pro-
gram.

To their credit some, like Joan
Baez, cooperated. Others, like
‘‘The Limelighters,”’ ‘‘The Chad
Mitchill Trio’’ and many more,

_ did not.

Perhaps this was the crowning
blow. For, while continuing to
enjoy unprecedented popularity
on their concert tours, this med-
ium is aparticularly hard way for
an artist to earn a living - es-
pecially for a family person, as
**The.Weavers’”’ all are.

And so, they are each going
his own way.

America - and the world - will
—J. Shack.

be the poorer for it.

‘Request for

HE Pacific Tribune has re-
Ceived a request for assist-
ace from two boys - both 16
Years of age - all the way from

S
Ne! oS were,

~ WORTH
READING

Poss

eer Enemies, by Gwethalyn
aham and Solange Chaput Rol-
Nd. Price $1.75.
‘ nie Wialogue on French and Eng-
fer oacethat reveals the angry
a ng now driving Quebec to-
"ard separatism as the gap be-
: a the two Canadas widens.
‘ ee many of the issues
‘ai, ing Canada, such as prej-
% Ce against the French lang-
@8e outside Quebec and the back-
Sees and political corruption
at has afflicted Quebec in the

pen pals
the German Democratic Repub-
lic;

The request is a simple one;
they want thenames and address-
es of ‘fa Canadian boy or girl’
with whom they can correspond,
Both are interested in music (es-
pecially Jazz), dancing,
collecting, etc.

Rather than ask some of our
younger readers to write intothe
paper and then forward the names
on to our two young German
friends, we thought it would be
more appropriate if they were to
write to the boys in the GDR di-
rectly,

Names and addresses follow:

Wolfgang Loew, Lobenstein/
Thuer., Markt 27, Eastern Ger-
many/GDR,

Detlef Laussmann, Drognitz/
Thuer., Krs, Saalfeld, Eastern
Germany/GDR.

\

stamp

‘Mad World’ not so crazy
when seen in proper light

laughed like a drain through

_ the first half of ‘‘It’s a Mad,

Mad, Mad, Mad World’’... When

the intermission came, I thought
they’d never keep up the pace.

But by the end ofthis marathon
Cinerama comedy, I was laughing
so much it hurt.

I don’t want to mislead you, sc
I’d better tell you that there were
plenty of stony faces around me.
It’s clearly not everyone’s cup of
tea,

There’s nothing subtle or ori-
ginal about it. It’s just one long
succession of silent comedy gags;
and the only thing that’s missing
is the custard pie.

It’s filmed in a new Cinerama
process that does away with the
irritating join lines. It alsodoes
away with much of the three-di-
mensional effect. The director,
Stanley Kramer, however, has
understood that Cinerama is at
its most effective when it’s out-
doors and on the move,

His master stroke is to string
the whole thing together with the
oldest silent gag ofall - acomedy
chase which lasts the entire
length of the film.

It begins with a car crash ona
remote highway. Before the vic-
tim (Schnozzle Durante) kicks the
bucket (literally and metaphori-
cally), he tells the group of dri-

vers that has collected around

him of a fortune buried in a park
several hundred miles away.

A half hearted attempt to form
a joint treasure seeking party
ends in a bust-up. . From then on
it’s every man for himself
scrambling to reachthe park first,
in amounting crescendo of crash-
es, explosions, collapsed build-
ings, hairsbreadth escapes on
land and in the air, punch-ups,
let-downs, and people whooshed
up, bounced down and thrown
through walls.

Every new face that turns up
belongs to a famous comedy ac-
tor or actress from the silent
days or from television: Zasu
Pitts, Phil Silvers, Buster Keat-
on, Ethel Merman, Terry Thomas
- the list is as endless as the
gags.

But the joke’s onthem from the
beginning. For they don’t know

(as we do) that the police - led_
by the adorable old man Spencer *

Tracy - have been watching their
every movement, waiting for
them to guide them to the mys-
tery spot. d

The joke’s on us, too... though
I won’t give that part away.

And the joke’s on all of us in
quite another way. For behind all

the clowning is Kramer’s serious
message... a sardonic comment
on a world gone mad with greed,
in which some people will sell
their grandmother for the sake
of the dollar.

-Nina Hibbin

Spencer Tracy, veteran Holly.
wood actor, in a surprised scene
from Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World.”

No Defence

L. A., Vancouver, writes: En-
closed is a letter which I for-
warded to the Secretary-General
of the UN. I am sending the
*PT’ a copy because, on advice,
I sent an almost similar letter
to the Sun, with little hope that
they would publish it. This was
some weeks ago and so far they
haven’t featured it.

The letter in question contained
a criticism of Pearson’s ‘‘peace’’
policies so I didn’t expect theSun
to be anxious to feature its con-
tents,

In this letter I ponted out that
**the factual implementation of
‘defense by deterrence’ has pro-
duced many dangerous absurdit-
ies’? and that nuclear war heads

and nuclear weapons would not

‘‘defend’’, Thus the seeming logic
should be apparent—‘‘the more
deterrence the less defense’.

I have heard over the radio’

that some MPs now Say that we
should have nuclear submarines
(presumably with rockets). How
can anyone argue that this would
*¢defend’’ Canada better?

Just Made It

Alf Bingham, Burnaby, writes:

‘Gentlemen; In reply to your
request for a cheque covering
my subscription I have the fol-
lowing to mention. My shattered
financial condition is due to fed-
eral laws, local laws, liquor laws,
mother-in-laws, etc.

Through these laws I am com-
pelled to pay business tax, head
tax, school tax, gas tax, oil tax,
light tax, water tax, excise tax,
etc. I am also required to get
a business license, car license,
selling license, not to mention
marriage and dog licenses.

For my own safety I am re-
quired to carry life insurance,
property insurance, liability in-
surance, burglar insurance, un-
employment insurance, old age
insurance, fire and hospital in-
surance, etc.

I can only say that except for
a near miracle that happened, I
just couldn’t enclose this cheque.
The wolf that comes to many

doorsteps nowadays just had pups
in my kitchen, I sold them and
am enclosing the money.

Remember

D. McTaggart, Vancouver,
writes: As Remembrance Day
passed it was not hard for me
to remember the dead since I
went to school with many of them
and in turn served my time in
the airforce with them.

One can hardly say they died
in vain, but few people realize
how much their sacrifices depend
on what the living do today.
It grieves me very much that al-
most simultaneously with Re-
membrance Day our brazen and
double-crossing leaders seek to
haul into Canada the atomic in-
struments of total destruction.
In this they obstruct, perhaps
beyond repair, the opportunity
for Canada to take an independ-
ent policy which could be a very
great influence throughout the
world for peace. :

Canadians have generally been
popular the world over, and are
in the best position, since we
are neighbors of both the USA

and the Soviet Union, to serve

as a great negotiator for peace.
Now however, since our leaders
have brought in these destruct-
ive weapons from the U.S. and
in effect aligned us with the

U. S. war machine, our posi-
tion as a spokesman for apeace-
ful world is greatly weakened. .

So I hope Canadians will al- —
ways ‘‘remember” our war dead
by uniting wherever possible for
world peace and disarmament.

Alberta, writes; At long last I
see the Open Forum is moving
again with a good letter from my
friend Joe Ivens, much of which
I am in full accord with. :

I. often wonder why the
Western Producer published four
times the amount of letters than —
I get in the Pacific. Tribune? I
might ask Joe Ivens if we are
not looking backwards too much? _
Yes, little Cuba makes us look
like the ‘Shas beens’’ of a dec-
adent glory that has passed away.

Ye gods, are there no guts in
the younger fry, that they so
complacently continue to hand
over our Canadian heritage to
home-grown and foreign capital-
ists? Are we to write our own
epitaph as a nation not worthy —
to survive? Wake up Canadians!

(Editor’s Note; the Western
Producer specializes in featur-
ing farm correspondents and runs
weekly editions of anywhere from
36 to 60 pages tothe PT’s modest
8-12 pages weekly.)

To Jimmy

passed away recently.

Jimmy;

From a decadent social order.

Thirties,

The following tribute was sent to the Pacific Tribune by a long
time friend of Jimmy Diamond, Spanish Civil War veteran who

There were no muffled drums, nor the toll of bells for you, ;
After all a Rebel would scarcely merit such recognition

But in the little Chapel on the hillside,

There were some friends and comrades who knew you

On the picket lines and in those long drawn struggles of the :

And there were those who fought by your side in Republic Spain
Against Franco’s Fascist hordes. :

You didn’t leave any money Jimmy, the till was empty.
But you did leave us a cherished Memory.

Diamond

wry

—C.L.

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