SE AVE YOU started looking for toys for Christmas presents? Well, how about _ ® Banshee Screamer? This is a 20-inch toy weapon Which “launches a futuristically Shaped soft plastic grenade that _Wails like a flying shell as it Shoots through the air. ae Or there is a whole range of ‘oY battle equipment called Guards Commando.” _, This range includes a 35-inch “bazooka which _ fires plastic _ Sombs; a booby trap which, on Contact with a trip thread, re- | “©8Ses a plastic grenade and sets s a2 cap; a “rat-a-tat” tommy ' And “a smart patrol jacket set 0 make any young warrior feel €S really on jungle patrol” (in letnam?), It's guns galore, as usual, in € stores now stocked up for hristmas buying. Tanks in tl Ousands, planes aplenty, bat- €ships abounding. __ So what? many people. will Say. Children have always play- : at war and it hasn’t done ha any harm. Indeed, it does 1€m good, because it provides Nn outlet for aggressive feelings. ; And if there weren‘t any war Sys on sale, kids would pick up 4 stick and say: “Bang, bang — You're dead!” anyway. a Say this is wrong, wrong, Tong. Such arguments show tion much we've been condi- “ie to accept rationalizations thout thinking. »e WAR TOY The world-wide campaign against them is growing Now, when war isn’t hand-to- hand combat, but a mechanized killer of mass populations which could cause the extinction of mankind, we should stop en- couraging children to make a game of kiling. These battle toys glamorize war and condition children to accept something unacceptable, So kids wil pick up a stick and use it as a “gun.” I think that’s better than picking up a toy hand-grenade or tommy-gun. _ A psychiatrist on an Ameri- can TV program said that war toys were “too close to reality.” “A child can imagine a stick to be a million different things, put his imagination is severely limted by so realistic a thing as a modern toy sub-machine gun which has every detail right down to the last nut. It can’t re- present anything else.” (Incidentally, the program was unable to get a phychiatrist to come and put the point of view that war toys are good for chil- dren.) Judd Marmore, Los Angeles professor of psychiatry, says: “Supplying war toys interferes with the child’s efforts to deal with the situation at his own level. “Jt may well be true that mili- tary toys and war games serve as outlets for children’s aggres- sive feelings, but they also pre- pare the soil for psychological acceptance of war and violence.. “One could justify them only if no other kind of toy or game were available which could serve equally well as an outlet for ag- gressive impulses.” And Dr. Spock says that in — order to have’ a more stable and civilized national life we should “show our disapproval of law- lessness and violence in televi- sion programs and in children’s pistol play.” By. ROSEMARY SMALL (London) In United States, the Women’s Strike for Peace movement has been working for some time against war toys, and a particu- larly persistent and imaginative campaign has come from San Francisco Women for Peace, which has its own “toy commit- tee.” Last year’s campaign includ- ed letters to all toy buyers in local stores, to churches, nurs- ery and primary schools, libra- ries, health and welfare agen- cies. ee Their aims were to show par- ents the multitude of toys: avail- able which help children enjoy being alive (instead of glamoriz- ing torture and death), and to encourage people to register dis- approval of TV commercials, ad- vertisements, catalogues and shop displays featuring war toys. Leaflets were supplied for doctors’ waiting rooms, stores approached to promote construc- tive toys, and displays of such toys organized — puppets, con- struction toys, musical instru- ments, arts and ctaft supplies, sports equipment, etc. The last weekend of Novem- ber saw an intensive campaign. The city was saturated with 35,000 leaflets; and women dress- ed in Santa Claus outfits demon- strated in the shopping centres under the slogan: “Nice Toys Don’t Kill.” Mrs. Julia Rosenthal, chair- man of the toy committee, was widely reported when she said: “There are many toys and games that allow children to work out their hostilities and aggressions. “There is no need for children -to be made to feel that killing is fun, violence is exciting, or games of destruction are clever. Civilization demands civilized toys.” The campaign had consider- able success. Four small San Francisco stores refused to stock or sell any war toys and a large store agreed to stop advertising or pushing them. This year a major toy compa- ny has joined in active cam- paigning: its advertisements spe- cify “Sane toys for healthy kids.” Says Mrs. Rosenthal: “Numer- LAWS MUST BE CHANGED Mrs. Hilda Murray and Mrs. Nora Rodd, on behalf of the Con ress of Canadian Women last month presented a brief to the Com Mittee on Divorce Reform of the House of Commons. Broxen marriages are a SO- Cial evil, and making divorce | More difficult will not. re- MOve the cause or causes. The objective is to create such a po- itical atmosphere that men and Women can count on building a Stable family life. Ree 1961 census shows 81,000 'ves deserted by or separated ©m their husbands, and more 8n 15,600 divorced couples in ,enada, with many more Rae of homes “prisons of * ie wretchedness” and Dia Pod suffering and harm : € children. : BE vociety must accept respon- ility for these broken homes, ntil we have found the way to Prevent them. : As With Roman civil law, 5 The two officers of the Congress say that they received an “cellent response from the committee about their brief. A summary of the brief's conclusion is below. divorce should be as simple as marriage. Since founded on mu- tual affection, when that ceases to exist marriage should be dis- solved by mutual consent or, if sought by one party only, then grounds shown. It is degrading to base marriage law on the ad- versary system — to show fault. We must do away forever with the pretence that marriage is but a physical union, and that the main cause of unhappiness is adultery. In ceasing to main- tain this attitude the govern- ment will give leadership in de- veloping a higher sex and mar- riage morality, neither prudish nor irresponsble, but upholding the finest traditions of our people. Divorce is of particular con- cern to women. The United Na- tions Charter proclaims woman’s right to equality, and when so- ciety makes this a reality there will be many more happy mar- riages. Modern society needs both woman’s mind and hand— ~ one-third of our workers are women, many of them married. Society must remove discrimina- tion in education and training and surround the home with net- works of nursery schools and after-school centres so that the modern women may play this triple role. To that end the Congress of Canadian Women submits that society should surround the family with every possible safe- guard. Among these an estab- lished minimum age for mar- riage, and courses on the family not only in our college and uni- versities, and for adult educa- tion classes, but in high schools as well. Could not the marriage certificate be part of a govern- ment document including such information as the contract, ser- vices available to the family — counselling, Family Courts, Chil- dren’s Aid S¢ciety and Legal Aid? Breakdowns do not come all at once. Counseling can show the strength as well as the weak- nesses in a family set-up, says Ethel Ostry of Toronto, an ex- perienced social worker and marriage counsellor. “A mar- riage threatened by divorce may be saved if it has the strength of love.” a3 Once the marriage has broken ‘ down, however, divorce should be available, after a reasonable time, without blame or recrimi- nation, and at a minimum cost — within the reach of all — and when the custody and care of the children is taken care of. The enforcement of mainten- ance order is a most important problem. If orders for mainten- _ance of children were made sep- arately, and the right placed not in the wife but in the children, Professor O. M. Stone of the Law School of London School of Economics, maintains, much op- position would be overcome. December 9, ous churches, parent-teacher as- sociation members, nursery school teachers and parents asked us for information and toy leaflets . . . People who ac- cepted the Christmas flyer al- most. without exception. said they agreed and were delighted that something was being done.” This year’s campaign includes a “toy kit” sent to many organi- zations — background material, suggestions for action, informa- tion on creative toys, etc. _ In Canada, the campaign has been taken up by the Voice of Women. In Britain, Mrs. Kathy Delf, of the Liaison Committee for Women’s Peace Groups, has called on the women to take similar action. By not protesting against war toys, she says, “we allow, even encourage, our children to prac- tise patterns of behaviour which in adult society we deplore and condemn.” And Mrs. Delf suggests that— perhaps in preparation for a campaign focused on Christmas 1967? — shoppers should look around this Christmas to see how war toys are being presen-. ted, how far they are pushed in advertising, and whether alter- native creative toys are readily available. A child’s play is formative in his future approach to life. Toys can develop his body, his mind and his relationships with others, can help him to get to know the world and its people. Divorce should be as simple as marriage’ Would not a period of six months of separation be suf- ficient before granting a divorce, and three months before marry- ing again? What is to be gained by prolonging a state of tension and anxiety? By either party, or ' by the children? — The divorce law should be Canada-wide, and likewise do- micile. “Since the law of mar- riage and divorce is within fede- — ral jurisdiction, and national in character, there is good reason for holding that domicile should be Canadan,” counsels W. Kent Power in The Law of Divorcein Canada. This is as important for — the wife as for the husband. A form of civil marriage should be | available to all, and the religious _ ceremony to all who wish and — respect it. foe? The laws of society should ~ meet the needs of the people. When large numbers of citizens _ are circumventing the, laws in order to live in accordance with | their best judgment, these laws | must be changed. 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7