cin temas, pitted at the forum. Die 3 (0 ae above are a few of the 679 delegates from 91 } ene na who took part in the World Youth Forum which Mae 2 Moscow! July 25. Over 300 organizations em- all shades of religious and political opinions were icurriceny is the most the 3 ing word to describe of the ay premier presentation Va a Red Army Chorus in 2p er last week at the Forum, ae three successive nights, idea afternoon matinee in- Soviet the 190-member of the Req Union’s world-famed hp OY ensemble of music, Ceci dance played to illy Y audiences and _liter- An, 0k Vancouver by storm. Wig he audiences responded tj; Ovations seldom witness- tian this or any other Cana- tn the opening three na- the anthems to the finale, Buggy istic presentation of oy a and Canadian folk Slog a €xcerpts from the clas- Noe Verdi and Rimsky-Kor- tha the matchless soloists eg ae fantastic dance of the ‘Udi tmy ensemble kept the boy Nee on its toes and thy 8ht forth a steady roll of ous applause. ,, ler the direction of its 4). “fT and conductor, Boris ten, Eamrov, the. varied pre- Chon ons of the Red Army hog Us displayed all the ‘tj Am €xpressiveness and sen- ly > Volume of a master art- ty, STticularly was this evi- Wij, “2 the solo presentations Tey : Chorus accompaniment. Math) and baritones in a tg less performance which ty et thunderous applause tg, ncores from receptive ences, wth reading Sgn JUNGLE, by Upton Dest alr, 50c. One of Sinclair’s Nek Teprinted now in paper jyelets th This dramatic story ‘ factory life in Chicago © early twenties. Magnificent’ lor Red Army Chorus is word And the Red Army dancers, as a Vancouver Sun reviewer put it, were ‘fantastic without using space capsules the performers attained extra- ordinary elevations in their leaps and danced with a speed and boldness almost unbelie- able.’ To that description there is little to add. Superb as many famed Russian dance groups are, the Red Army Chorus dance group is equal if not tops of all. An orchestral group of fifty with accordions, wood winds, brass and other instruments accompanied all choral and dance. presentations. General consensus of opin- ion of all who have witnessed the performance of the Red Army Chorus is that it was by far and away to most out- standing feature of the Van- couver International Festival. Festival management have been rubbing their hands with glee ever since, having gross- ed well over $100,000 in this outstanding feature. Press reactions to the visit of the Red Army Chorus rang- ed all the way from a modi- cum of praise to the usual stereotyped coldwar wise- cracks. The Vancouver Pro- vince of August 15 deemed it necessary to scribble an alleg- ed editorial warning against “setting agitated into par- oxysms of applause at times when a mild expression of ap- proval might be in order.”’? Ob- viously the “Old Lady? of Cambie Street is not easily moved, culturally or other- wise? But “Grandma” just cannot stop people applauding real talent . . . especially. when such talent is dedicated to friendship and peace. e T. McEwen Another view N. E. Story writes: article by “R. S.” in your issue of August 4th on this year’s Vancouver Film Festi- val is a most irritating ex- ample of the superficial and jll-informed commentary that sometimes creeps into our press because it is cloaked in 2\ left and progressive-sounding terminology. Firstly, R. S. opines that it is “generally agreed that this year’s Festival was not up to last year’s standard.’ Gener- ally agreed by R. S.?2. What nonsense, in a Festival which included films like Fires on the Plains, L’Avventuré, The Higher Principle, Macario, Seryozha, Rocco and His Brothers, Stars, S aturd ay Night and Sunday Morning and dozens of valuable shorts headed by (to mention only the chief award winner) Rick- shaw. Secondly, if R. S. is so eager for “humanism” and “real life’ in the medium which he so confusedly and repetitious- ly defines as one which has “marvellous possibilities for implication, suggestion, subtle delineation or eharacter, eVvo- cation of mood”; how could he avoid mentioning at least the last five of the above mention- ed titles? ; Seryozha is a warm and thoroughly “humanist” treat- ment of a little Soviet farm- boy; R°cco and His Brothers is a powerful social document about southerners in working class Milan made by a leading Italian Communist; Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a penetrating and sympathetic analysis of British working class life; Stats could hardly be more “humanist” in its treatment of the love between a German soldier and a doom- ed Jewish girl in occupied Bulgaria; nor can too much The| praise be heaped on Rickshaw | for the impassioned humanism of its treatment of human beasts of burden in Calcutta. Finally, there are R. S.’s alarmingly illiterate comments on. L’Avventura. He says it is “almost completely devoid of content” and doubts that it is “an expose of the worthless- ness” of the upper crust. R. S.’s effrontery quite defies suitable comment, in the light of the film’s strength and com- plexity of analysis of con- temporary decadence; in its universal praise from the pol- itical left .(and_ practically everyone else); and in the 15 years of responsible film work by its creator, now in his prime: leading Italian Com- munist intellectual, Michelan- gelo Antonioni. R,. “SF also avoids mentioning CFFS people, whom he praises for their award to Fires on the Plain, had to give a second award (something they . have never done before) to . L’Avventura! In fact, R. S. substitutes pri- vate opinionation and leftist sounding shallowness for a critique of the Festival, which he was supposed to provide. A fine idea West End Club, CPC suggests: ‘“That the Party should take the lead in a boy- cott on Portuguese goods en- tering Canada. That special note should be taken of the fact that the B.C. Liquor Commission buys directly from the Portugal government, large quantities of brandy and wine in bulk which they then pottle and sell under the liquor commission label. In fact the only brandy and wines pought in bulk by the liquor commis- sion are purchased in Portu- gal. In view of the fact that the conveniently If we do approve them, we mean not to use them. If we fire the first shot, weapons. more nuclear weapons. the sea tonight. SIMPLE SOLUTION Either we approve of nuclear weapons, or' we don’t. If we don’t approve them, we don’t want them. then we mean to use them or If we mean to use them, we don’t need them. If we mean to use them, we will fire the first shot or the enemy will fire the first shot. If the enemy fires the first shot, we shall at once nearly all be dead; so we shall not require nuclear weapons. then we shall nearly all be dead and uninterested in nuclear The conclusion which the (British) government draws from all this is that everybody should have lots and lots A much cheaper and simpler’ way of arriving at ithe same result might be that we shall all agree to jump into —LORD REA, British Liberal peer. we shall get retaliation: and that the'| ‘|for the N.D.P. to same goods could be purchas- ed_in Australia, and that the goverment is facing a pos- | sible election in the. near | future, we feel that the Ben- nett government is particular- ly vulernable to pressure in this case and that such a boy- cott could be made effective.” e e Obvious mistake Rey Reid, Saskatoon writes in part: The founding conven- tion of the New Democratic Party made a mistake in ac- cepting NATO. This action in- volves them in a military alli- ance with the western powers against Russia. Any war even if started with, what they call, conventional weapons could develop into all out nuclear word war. Judging by history any war at this time is very apt to go that way. A peace treaty between Russia and. East Germany could be the excuse used by Hitlerite gen- erals to start a suicidal war over the Berlin crisis. Under these conditions it is craziness support NATO. In the Financial Post of July 22nd, 1961, J. B. McGeachy has a well reasoned article from which I quote: “A world war over Berlin, instantly in- volving Canada as a NATO partner with armed forces jn West Germany, would surely convince any rational man that the human race has gone collectively, irretrievably off its head,” again I quote, ‘The Western presence in the city is now a muddle, nothing more purposeful than that. A war about a muddle would be an idiot’s delight.” One man’s opinion Returned Visiior writes: Tf have just returned from a visit to Saskatchewan and that great CCF government. Maybe they are doing something for the farmer (little as it is) but they seem to forget the poor worker in the city. The cost of food (meat, fresh vegetables and fruit) is stag- gering. I also noted that land- lords are allowed to charge rent on condemned houses, two to three miles from city centre, and generally around $70 a month. These places contain* no closets, no bathtubs, four small rooms, many of them with out- side toilets. I have an uncle who, put in six years in the war in one of these so-called “wartime” houses. He ‘was told if he stayed in it that the rent would be $35 a month. Now it is up to $75. Makes one wonder about the promises of CCF politicians. August 18, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5