ie

EVENTY Canadians,

among them representa-

tives of trade unions,
cultural organizations, church
groups and universities, have
just returned home after a
trip thousands ef young peo-
Ple hearing them tell of their
experiences will envy. For
theirs was no ordinary tour—
they attended the World
Youth Festival at Prague,
and took part in the building
of the Youth Railroad in
Yugoslavia, being accorded
“Highest Recognition” by the
People’s Youth Organization
of Yugoslavia for their work.
The story of how they
came to make their trip, what
they saw in Europe and the
conclusions they drew is told
in their own statement, as
given in abbbreviated form
here,
Eh .
T the beginning of this year,
the Canadian Committee of
the World Federation of Demo-
Cratic Youth invited young
b€ople’s groups throughout the
Dominion to’ send delegates or
Observers to the World Youth
Festival.
In addition, those who so de-
sired were registered for recon-
struction work in Czechoslovakia,
Or Yugoslaviva. Individual young
people could also come privately
observers to the Youth Festi-
val and volunteer for reconstruc-
tion work in Europe through the
Offices of the World Federation
of Democratic Youth.
A special invitation meanwhile
had gone out from the People’s
Youth of Yugoslavia to a Yugo-
Slay student at the University of
McGill asking that a group of
Students visit Yugoslavia. The
McGill students, in accepting the
invitation, attempted to organize
& group of students representa-
tive of every section of campus
life and opinion. This group, in
turn, determined to spend some
time at the Youth Festival en
Toute to Yugoslavia. —
The other major group at the
Festival besides the students was
the delegation of the National
¥ ederation of Labor Youth, These
Young people also elected to go
to Yugoslavia, and had made «
initial ‘arrangements to work on ~
the saan gmt Youth ey

| il C amaze
ql

Yu-Hsiang
by W. A. Hunton:

by Rob. F. Hall

Here 24 “year-old Homer Stevens,

The Beaver Brigade

does a job for peace

‘organizer for the United

Travel conditions are inordinate-
ly difficult. Housing is at a pre-
mium. Clothing is scarce. We
shared these difficulties with
them in a very real way and
came to appreciate how hard
these conditions are.

But when we saw the astound-
ing amount that had been done
in the building of new: factories,
buildings, roads and bridges, we
realized why these people could
retain their tremendous enthusi-
asm while accepting the hard-
ships for the time being. We

ourselves became _ enthusiastic
about our own particular con-
tribution.

While the Beaver Brigade was
still in Yugoslavia. some of our
members received letters from
home enclosing newspaper clip-
pings and reports of newspaper
stories, allegedly giving informa-
tion about the activities of the
brigade both in Czechoslovakia
‘and Yugoslavia. One report pub-
lished by an Ontario newspaper
claimed that the Canadians had
gone on “monster military man-
euvers with the Czechoslovak
army” and suggested that we be
investigated by the RCMP on
our return to Canada. Another
report, based on a letter home
from a Canadian working on the
Youth Railroad, emphasized only
the hardships of working on the
railroad and applied them to
working conditions throughout

Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union in this province, is shown at
the recent World Youth Festival in Prague. Stevens was elected
leader of the Beaver Brigade formed by members of the Canadian

Yugoslavia. Still another, a Que-
bee newspaper, spoke darkly of
spies being recruited among the

Yugoslavia.

aga

i fc qo ESE INIEN SS

Friday, October 31, 1947. -

Hush-hush at Lake Success aes

Byrnes. reveals aim ‘of Marsh

youth delegation.

These two groups met with

other Canadian young people at

the Festival where they decided
to form one brigade to go %o
Homer Stevens, 24-
year-old Vancouver organizer for
the United Fishermen and
Allied Worker’s Union, was
named commander.
@

HE majority of the 93 Cana-
T dians at Prague attended the
first two weeks of the. World
Youth Festival, thus representing
one of the 71 countries which
sent delegations.

The Festival was sponsored by
the World Federation of Demo-
cratic Youth, representing a
membership of some 48,000,000
young people throughout the
world, which has recently been
granted consultative status by
the UN. :

Altogether, some 85,000 young
people attended the Festival,
taking part in, or just observing,
national competitions, ballets
and concerts, art exhibitions and
athletic events.

The Canadian contnibution to
the Festival consisted of a con-
cert of music by Canadian com-
posers, an exhibition and 13
documentary films supplied by
the National Film Board. Music
for the concert was played by a
Czech orchestra conducted by
Ivan Romanoff of Toronto. The
program included music by Har-
ry Somers, John J. Weinsweig,
Robert Fleming, all of Toronto,
and Barbara Pentland of Winni-
peg. The music was well receiv-
ed by the audience and obtained
good notices in the Czech press.

The Canadian exhibition was

held in the exhibition Brounen of

aN Pa Hy
WS

ING

Why I can no longer keep silent
An interview with Marshal Feng

all plan —

_-work on the railroad,
_ of the Canadian group was dec-

Prague, and included paintings,
architectural drawings, child art,
a section depicting some
phases of Canadian student life,
a mural depicting the Canadian
war effort, a large map of Can-
ada showing Canada’s industrial
potential, and a section devot+
ed to the National Federation
of Labor Youth.

EN members of the Canadian

delegation who had arrived in
Prague before the start of the
Festival spent a week at Litvi-
nov inthe Sudetenland where
they did reconstruction work,
clearing land for the erection of
miners’ homes. This handful of
Canadians was honored with spe-
cial merit badges rarely given
save after a half year of out-
standing work, but the ten had
earned their awards within the
days they were at this camp,

The brigade which went to
Yugoslavia embraced this small
unit which had worked at Lit-
vinov and adopted its name, the
Beaver Brigade. :

In Yugoslavia, the Beaver Bri-
gade worked on the Youth Rail-
road for three weeks in August.
The railroad is being built in
Central Bosnia, generally re-
garded as the most backward
province of Yugoslavia. Its pur
pose is to facilitate the better
distribution of coal and mineral

resources which are found in
that part of Bosnia and to help

raise the living standards of the
people of that district.

Owing to Yugoslavia’s lack of
machinery such as_ bulldozers,
steam shovels, rollers and. the
like, most of the work on the
railroad is being done by the
most
earth is picked and shoveled,
then carried by wheelbarrow and
tamped by hand. Some 80,000
youth are constantly at work
on the 150-mile stretch of rail-
road and in spite of the old-
fashioned manner of building,
the deadline for completion is
November 29, seven months after
the first shovel was filled.

At the conclusion of their
several

crated with thu. “Udarnik” or
“shock. worker” medal, signifying
that they had done exceptional
work. They’ were: Ray Afflek,
Montreal; Eddy Guizetti, Nana-

imo; Bess Maltinsky, Montreal;

primitive methods. The

Canadians in Yugoslavia.

; While the falsity of such re-
Max‘ Martin, Vancouver;

‘ Jean-'- ports is so extreme as to’ be
Paul Mousseau, Montreal; Hom- ridiculous, it is hoped that the
er Stevens, Vancouver; Mary above brief statement will help

Zaharuk, Peterborough. to give a more accurate picture
e of the activities of the Canadian
: group in Europe.

We attended the Festival to
- meet the youth of many coun-
tries in order that a better basis
for understanding and friendship
might be created. We wanted to
‘see the best manifestations of
national cultures possible. We
hoped that within the limits of
our combined capabilities we
could represent Canadian youth ~
and depict Canadian culture to
young people in every corner of
the globe. Finally, and most im-
‘portant, we hoped that we would
be making a positive contribu-
tion to world peace.

In this last point we see not
only our purpose but the purpose
of the Festival itself.

“To. the youth of other coun:
tries we represented Canada and
the diverse racial, religious and
political composition of our dele- —
gation allowed a fair picture of
Canada’s many-sided life. We are
proud of ourselves as Canadians;
we are confident that what we
did helped to increase the stature
of our young country.

URING their visit to Yugo-

slavia members. of the Beay--
er .Brigade were treated to a
two week tour of the country
as the guests of the 2,000,000-
strong People’s Youth aaa
ment. d

Here are some of our impres-
sions:

We found a great deal of
enthusiasm among the Yugoslav
youth. They were proud of the
59-mile long Breke-Ranovici line
that they had built last year.
They were even more proud of
the Samac-Sarajevo line. They
worked very hard, yet they al-
ways found time and energy to
sing and dance.

Our -presence there was a
personal assurance to them
that the youth of Canada wants
friendship and peace. They as-
sured us by their warm-hearted
reception that this was what
they wanted too. We saw what
sacrifices the people are making
in order to rebuild their country.
Food, while plentiful, is plain.

Yugoslavia today

yd Bs Yugoslavia, alone of the countries I visited on this tour, “|
_&there‘is no unemployment, no black market, no inflation... .

All the Allied observers I met there agreed that the government |
was giving a constructive leadership . . . UNRRA has given *
Tito a public clean bill of health for the way in which he *
distributed supplies for the general welfare and ‘reconstruc- a
tion. . The Tito government’s five year plan is said to

_ be a model of ‘farsighted planning by. our observers... .. . . Tito z=
could still easily carry the vast majority in any free election. .

“Coming from Greece, where no stone has been put on
top of another since the war, it was amazing to see Yugoslavia.
I passed through village after village ‘that had been virtually

erased from the map. Yet, there was not a ruin to be seen: -
» Every house was either repaired or completély rebuilt. Though
the capital city—Belgrade—was subjected to a vicious Nazi |
‘bombing it's hard today to believe that war. ever struck | an

“It's true of Yugoslavia—and- it is about the only European’:
country of -which you can say it—that reconstruction has ©
_ finished. _All that is going on now is a new-construction. ‘Day:
by day. you can watch new concrete highways: inching across”
_the. backwoods countryside; ‘new Trailways are being ‘laid; new —
factories are. coming under..construction in the suburbs of ©
the cities. .The pace.is almost dizzying, after seeing western
Europe.”—From a aries tase A Howard K..Smith, CBS corre- _
spondent in Europe.