> Guests from the Soviet Union, Czechoslo vakia,

Poland and Uruguay are seen at the

-Second Canadian Slav Congress at Toronto in July, 1955.

job for the
anada Council

ToL House of Commons has

been discussing culture.
Here is a note for members to
consider.

The Toronto Star on Febru-
ary 16 reported that the De-
partment of External Affairs
frowns on visits to the Soviet
Union, The other day a Cana-
dian government spokesmen
in the United Nations defend-
ed Ottawa’s action last year
in refusing -visas to prominent
Ukrainian artists for whom
concerts already had been ar-
ranged.

Despite the tensions, an un-
precedented world cultural ex-
change has grown up in the
past few years from which
Canada is excluded.

The bureaucrats: of the Lib-
eral cabinet. are preventing
Canadians from enjoying per-
‘formances of artists from al-

By LESLIE MORRIS

most half of the world in Eas-
tern Europe and Asia. And, by
the same token, Canadians are
prevented from performing in
that vast area which the ma-

jority of mankind lives.

The government, tongue in
cheek, says private agencies
ean arrange performances of
artists from socialist countries.
But what agency would fly in
the face of Ottawa disapprov-
al?

It is to the credit of Glen
Gould, the Toronto pianist that
he is going to play in the
USSR. To my knowledge he
is the only Canadian perform-
er to do so. It is also a fine
thing that-J. S. Wallace is now
in Moscow + meeting Soviet
writers. But these are rarities.

In Moscow last September

I was told that all tickets for
the London Philharmonic Or-
chestra and the Boston Sym-
phony Orchestra had long
since been sold.

In Shanghai and Peking in
October I saw marvelous con-
cert parties about to leave for
Australia and New Zealand,
although the governments of
those countries do not recog-
nize the People’s government
of China. :

London last year was thrill-
ed with the Bolshoi Theatre
Ballet and the Soviet Army
choir which performed for
weeks to sold-out houses, as
a Polish dance group is doing
at this moment. And now there
is A new move to send the
Sadler’s Wells group — the
Royal Ballet — to keep the en-
gagement cancelled by cold
war pressures last year.

David Oistrakh, the Soviet
violinist and Emil Gillels, the
pianist, have played a score of
countries, including the U.S.
They have not been heard in
Canada, although thousands
who have their recordings
would like to hear them.

Porgy and Bess was played
by a U.S. group in the Soviet
Union; Jan Peerce and Isaac
Stern, American artists, re-
ceived great applause in Mos-
cow. ,

Canada’s record is among
the worst in the world, worse
even than that of the United
States.

In 1956 alone, 2,500 Soviet

stage artists and entertainers

tries (the former’s Paris and
London performances were
memorable) but Canada is on
the Liberal blacklist.

In 1955, 1,300 cultural per-
formers from 11 countries were
greeted by Soviet audiences,
including many from Latin
America. Not one from Cana-
da.

The Comedie Francais and
the Theatre Nationale Popu-
laire of France were sold out
when they performed in the
Moscow Art Theatre. So was
the English performance of
Macbeth.

Film festivals take place
frenquently in the Soviet Un-
ion, China and Czechoslovak-
ia. Film stars from Italy,
France; India, Belgium, Fin-
land and a dozen other coun-
tries are constantly travelling
to meet their counterparts of
the socialist film world.

The National Film Board of
Canada, with many fine pro-
ductions to its credit, is absent.

The cold blast comes from
the East Block on Parliament
Hill: “We rather disapprove

» and the iron curtain
comes down.

*

Canada’s cultural life is
growing apace right across the
country. —

The theatres are thriving in
English and French Canada.

We have singers, pianists,
pianists, painters and writers
of international renown. Our
ballet companies have won ac-
claim and interest in ballet is
high.

The National Film Board and
CBC Television make fine
films.

Talk was active a year ago
about sending a hockey team
to the Soviet Union, blocked
by the Canadian Amateur
Hockey Association.

Canadian paintings could
well be exhibited, as are those
of many’ countries.

The question being asked is:
What right have Liberal poli-
ticians virtually to rob the Can-
adian people of their right to
hear the music and see the
performers of countries whose

politics may not be to Prime
Minister St.- Laurent’s liking?

The Canadian public cannot
be blamed whenever Canadians
get a chance they greet visi-
tors from the Socialist coun-
tries. .Who will forget the Lo-
comotives last year, or the
excitement of the hockey
games?

It seems to me not enough
protest has been made by the
people themselves. The Lib-
erals can be made to budge.

One way of doing it would
by for the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra, the ballet groups,
the theatres, performers, and
concert agencies to start acting
independently of the Depart-
ment of External Affairs, as
is their right, and by getting
into touch with their counter-
parts in the socialist countries,
arrange exchanges.

The government will have to
be pushed. Its obstinacy in
matters of national culture is
to be seen in its refusal to re-
turn to the people of Poland
their art treasures, which
Premier Duplessis has locked
up. ’
Against this blind preju-
dice, let the people oppose
their friendliness, their de-
sire to show to other nations
what they can do, and their
wish to see for themselves the
artistic achievements of other —
peoples.

The ice can be broken. Van-
couver’s Exhibition hall, Win-
nipeg’s Civic. Auditorium, Tor-

_ onto’s Maple Leaf Gardens and

Montreal’s Forum ought to be
packed with people who have
come to see the Bolshoi Bal-
let.

In Moscow and Peking and
Prague. and Warsaw our own
orchestras, ballet companies,
singers and instrumentalists,
our painters and writers and
film-makers will make Cana-
da better known and _ so
strengthen the friendship of
peoples.

Here’s a priority job for the ;
new Canada Council, now com-
ing into being.

made appearances in 42 coun-
tries — but not in Canada.

The world-famed Peking and
Shanghai operas are constant-
ly on tour in Western coun-

Prof. A. Leontiv, who headed a group of 11 Soviet psycholo-
gists to the 14th International Congress of Psychology in
Montreal in July 1954 is shown (at centre) with some of his on
colleagues. : eed q

MARCH 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 11

Dyson Carter, chairman of the Canadian-Soviet Friendship

| Society, is shown above welcoming Soviet artists on their

i arrival in Toronto in April 1954. The artists are (left to right)
Sophia Golovkina, ballerina; Elizaveta Chavdar, singer; Ga-
lina Maksimova, accompanist.

X