RADIO-TV

CBC Soviet Portrait
cold: war distortion

N the eve of the 38th. anniver-
sary of the great Russian
Revolution of 1917, the CBC
featured a much advertised TV
program entitled Soviet Port-
rait, by a well known Canadian
writer, Len Peterson of Tor-
onto.

Having received quite a build-
up in the CBC Times and other
publications, leaving the im-
pression that the warm winds
of Geneva had begun to blow
around CBC production rooms,
a -lot of people looked forward
to the unveiling of this Soviet
Portrait.

A few minutes on CBUT with
Peterson’s “portrait” soon dis-
pelléd all such illusions. As
in the old biblical story, the
script was that of Len Peterson,

but the voice was the cold war

Voice of America.

One of the “experts” collab-

orating with the CBC (and ob-
viously with Peterson) in the
production of this CBC-TV dis-
tortion was a Harvard Univer-
sity professor, Raymond Bower.

Another collaborator in. the
production of Soviet Portrait
was an emigre Slav who edits
an anti-Soviet journal from the
sanctum of Columbia Univer-
sity, Leo Gruliow.

Gruliow poses as an “expert”
on Soviet Affairs, and turns out
the fabrications needed to sus-
tain John Foster Dulles’ schemes
for “communist containment.”
Gruliow’s job is to provide the
theoretical foundations of 20th
century McCarthyism. From
time to time while Soviet Por-
trait was on display, Gruliow
outlined what he considered to
be the finer nuances of the
“portrait,” expressed in innuen-
do and insinuation.

The art of the professional
smear is a subtle one. In his
script, Peterson undoubtedly
presented a limited quantity of
truths and half-truths. The pro-
ducers, with the aid of a couple
of professional anti-Sovieteers,
stripped these truths of their
real meaning and content and
came up with a fine mixture
of distortion, misrepresentation
‘and unblushing slander” of So-
viet society.

The story was a simple one
and could have been told frank-
ly and truthfully, without the
need of McCarthyite embel-
lishments. The housing prob-
lem; how a Soviet family lives
(and no one knows better than
the Soviet government and peo-
ple what a. collosal problem
housing is since the Second
World War); how a factory is
administered, how bureaucracy
expresses itself (and as Sections
of the Soviet press frequently
state openly and sharply, it fre-
quently operates to the detri-
ment of production levels); how

' Soviet young people look at life

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and what they expect from it—
all these features of Soviet so-
ciety. could have been relayed
to the Canadian public in such
a way as to combine reality and
understanding. Instead, Peter-
son and the CBC dished out un-
adulterated McCarthyism by a
“portrait” in which even the
camera was put out of focus.

Life in the Soviet Union is
not a Utopia. Its government
and people emphasise that fact
every hour of the day. The
Communist Party of the Soviet
Union is a constructive force,
created by the people and serv-
ing the people. The history of
these past 38 years has confirm-
ed that, even if the CBC to-
gether with Peterson, Bower
and Gruliow, with true Mc-
Carthyite “artistry” try to pre-
sent it as a pitiless “sword of
Damocles” hanging over the
necks of factory directors, scien-
tists, doctors, artists and other
Soviet citizens.

The incidents of Soviet life
illustrated in the “portrait” of
a worker malingering, of a So-
viet doctor betraying the ethics
of her profession to promote
idleness, of Soviet artists wilt-
ing under the scathing criticism
of the “party” commissar, leave
the impression that the CBC
believes a nation or a social
system can only be authentic-
ally portrayed from the bottom
of its garbage can, rather than
from the heights of its ae
achievements.

There is no doubt Peterson’s
Soviet Portrait will create a
wide controversy among TV
audiences, but it will be the
kind of debate which will
scarcely add any new literary
laurels to a man who was re-
garded as an up-and-coming
Canadian writer. Peterson
should know that cold war “‘por-
traits” are becoming a drug on
a market that not even Yankee
“experts,” trained in the odious
school of McCarthyism, can
stimulate. Such “portraits”

should be left to the Gouzenkos »
and the hired perjurors of the

FBI.

CBC-TV rendered an ill ser-
vice to itself and ‘its audiences
throughout the country, by al-
lowing itself to become a cari-
cature of the Voice of America
in its presentation of Soviet
Portrait.

TOM McEWEN

OPEN FORUM

City archivist writes on Froser Midden

MAJOR J. S. MATTHEWS,
City Archivist, City Hall,- Van-
couver, B.C.: In your issue of
October 28, Mr. Hal Griffin has
written an excellent article on
the Eburne midden. He is un-
doubtedly much interested or
he would not have gone to such
trouble,’ and it seems proper
under the circumstances to re-
mark upon one: sentence where
his facts are not quite as stated.
Tf I point out where, he will
avoid repeating it.

The North Arm Road, now
known as_ Granville Street
South, was cut through in 1889.
Mr. Griffin gives the date as
1902. The exact words he uses
are these:

“Tt was accidentally discover-
ed in 1902 by workers cutting
a road through the virgin tim-
ber to Marpole.”

Of course, actually it was not
to Marpole, as the name Mar-
pole had not been adopted; it
was Eburne, and the road con-
tinued on to Steveston.

I enclose a sheet of a relic
taken out of the midden in
1895 by Professor Hill-Tout.
How much earlier Mr. Hill-Tout
conducted his excavations I do
not know; I could easily find
out, but-I think it was about
six years earlier than 1895. My
recollection is that Mr. Hill-
Tout sent a large quantity of
relics to the National Museum

at Ottawa, and I think still
more to England—over 60
years ago.

The midden is aDinAe new.
Sometime soon after 1914 much
of it was destroyed. Point Gray
residents moved away great
quantities of its earth for their
gardens; it was rich garden

RECORDS

soil, and the Point Grey munici-
pal street graders took away
a great deal for filling hollows
when laying concrete sidewalks.

I excavated there some time
in the twenties and at that time
it was considered exhausted of
reli¢s.

Accompanying Major Mat-
thews’ letter was the follow-
ing leaflet describing a stone
relic, two inches long, now
in the city archives:

“In presenting this tiny relic

to-the Vancouver City Archives.

on May 29, 1955, Lieut. Col. H.
StG. Hamersley, son of Lieut.
Col. A, StG. Hamersley, Van-
couver pioneer, wrote:

“*A stone image I dug up
about 1895 in an ancient midden
where the old road, through the
forest, from Vancouver reached
the North Arm of the Fraser
River. As a boy I went with
Professor Hill-Tout to dig. It
was beside a skull.: The skull had

/a slate or shale spearhead in

it.’ :
“The midden at Eburne, now
called Marpole, was on the

north bank of the North Arm of

the Fraser River, and covered
two or three acres on the flat
summit of a cliff. The low
land bordered the river about

New company eniers

(CLASSIC _ Editions, another
small record company to enter
the field of Soviet music, has
issued many first-class record-
ings. The following, obtainable
at the People’s Cooperative
Bookstore, 337 -West Pender
Street, are particularly recom-
mended.
Kabalevsky: Wards Family
2 Classic 3004 (8614. minutes).
An abridged version of the
1950 opera, this is the first
recording of a Soviet opera to
be released in the Western
Hemisphere. Dmitri Kabalev-
sky (1904) is one of the most
famous Soviet composers.
Taras’ Family, based on Gor-
batov’s Stalin Prize novel, The
Unbowed, centres around an
old Russian worker whose com-
munity is captured by the Nazis
during Second World War. :
This vigorous theme has an.
expressive technique to match,
and many delightful melodies. »
The Leningrad Kirov Theatre
cast (formerly Mariinsky) is
fully worthy of the music. Re-
production: excellent.

Miaskovsky: Symphony. No.
16 (35 minutes) and. Overture
in G (10 minutes) — Classic
3005. Symphony No. 27 (34
minutes) and Oivertimento, op.
80 (21% minutes) — Classic.
3006.

Nikolai Miaskovsky (1881-
1950), most unjustly neglected

Soviet record field

in North America, ranks with
the greatest composers: of this
or any other century. Recipi-
ent of Stalin Prizes and num-
erous other honors, Miaskovsky
was also a ‘distinguished teacher
and organizer, and an impor-
tant link with pre-revolutionary
times.

Miaskovsky was a significant
pioneer of Soviet music, who
went on to mature stature as a
Soviet composer. A prolific

composer in most of the major |
_ forms, his 27 symphonies more

than double the number written
by any other leading composer
since Mozart and Haydn.

The Symphony No: 16 (1936)

includes a tribute to Soviet —
aviation and a deeply moving —

funeral march. The Symphony
No. 27 (1950) was Miaskovsky’s

last completed composition and —
received a posthumous Stalin —
~ Prize. It is one of his most pro-

found and best compositions.
The little Overture (1909),
thoroughly delightful, is the
earliest work represented, while
the Divertimento dates from
40 years later. All these com-
positions are part of thé stan-
dard Soviet concert repretoire
and have been performed abroad.

Théy are ‘melodically rich, en- |

during works, revealing a great
mind and talent. Reproduction:
adequate, with some crackly
surfaces. »

N.E. STORY

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 11, 1955 —

°

“NEWS AND PICTURES

30 fost below. The whole area .
of the midden was hidden be-
neath a dense forest of tower-
ing trees varying from saplings
to seven feet in diameter. .

“The exact site was a few
yards east of the junction 0
Granville ‘Street South and
West Marine Drive, and is
crossed now by a_ busy
thoroughfare, smooth paved,
flanked by business buildings:
Relics were unearthed at depths
from a few inches to five or
six feet.

“This small carving is part —
of a. comprehensive stone
sculpture industry of an un:

known race of people who, cel —
turies ago, occupied south-
western British Columbia.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The fact —
that many artifacts are still be-
ing recovered from what re-
mains of the Great Fraser Mid-
den, notably by Dr. Charles E.
Borden of UBC in excavations
financed by the Vancouver
Art, Historical and Scientific —
Association last summer, 18
proof that the midden is not
exhausted.

Vancouver Art, Historical and
Scientific Association, which
governs the Vancouver City
Museum, Marpole community —
organizations and other groups
are united in their demand that
city council reserve the six *&
maining lots to permit excav4-
tion and that ultimately thes?

be made into a park. ‘

Marpole community orgat-
zations are considering a P1a?
to reconstruct a Salish India"
house in the park where art
facts from the midden can Pe
displayed. Other groups, how”
ever, feel that the first
sponsibility is to give Vancou-
ver museum facilities com
mensurate with a city of }
size so that relics of ancient cul-
tures recovered from the mid-
den, among the: oldest on the
continent, can be adequately —
displayed. _ is

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