ale ‘en June 30, 1908, strange oa Phenomena were obser- ‘ M Siberia. A red-hot, a body shaped like a cy- se tapered at one end, sia across the sky from nea to north-east, leav- ,~° 4ery trail behind. When log eared, a tremendous Biss Sion was heard in the ie ene a pillar of fire and sky. Tose high up to the on Seismographs of the Observatory in Sib- Wake €gistered an earth- Ments Baragraphic instru- ae In London recorded et’ which had twice ost A the . globe. For Unusy, a week, nights were ally bright and lumi- Tego “nt clouds were observed €Xxp 3 eria : | at Miles altitude of roughly 50 n West Siberia, Europe sa Africa. ‘indicate Such phenomena By. & Volcanic erpution. Mmaingg 208 all. volcanoes fact. Silent and all these Sp Well as the strange Plosion sj n in 5 * Orgotten, Siberia were * * vs * ot, the first expedition Stience Soviet Academy of the eh Made its way through } fen ee wilderness to the eachin the explosion. Upon ® am, He Scene, they saw ne panorama. &tq .. territory was cov- Which eS Cindered trees the fin ay in parallel rows— St time such a radial Siberian mystery near sol At left, a cut of larch which perished during the Tungus catastrophe. Its annual rings are spaced at 4 mm, while those of the larch at right, born after 1908, are spaced at 7 mm. falling of trees was obser- ved. Not oniy that, but while the rows extended for miles from. the centre of the ex- plosion, the trees at the very centre were still standing... their bare trunks looking like telephone poles.. The members of the expedi- tion promply labelled the oc- curence a meteorite crash and five subsequent’ expedi- tions tended to concur with this explanation, even though not one of them found so much as a gram of iron at the place. a * * In 1946, Alexander Kazan- tsev, a Soviet engineer, offer- ed anew explanation for what had happened. He noted that the description of the events resembled in many ways the result of an atomic explosion... the fiery ball and pillars of smoke . . . the - luminescence of the sky may have been a result of radio- active fall-out .. . the cinder- ing of the trees could have resulted from direct exposure ‘to radiation, with the trees in the centre remaining in- tact since the air wave hit them from above, stripping off their leaves and branches. Kazantsev also arrived at another bold conclusion — since uranium has yet to be found in a pure state in na- ture, the atomic explosion must have been artificially made (‘man’ made, as it were) probably by an atomic pow-. ered spacecraft. And a num- ber of prominent people in scientific circles were in- clined to look favorably upon this theory. * * & The advocates of this theory organized several expeditions to the scene of the disaster and uncovered some evidence which appeared to lend con- siderable support to their ver- sion of what happened. : Among other things, they’ noticed the accelerated grow- th of trees after 1908. This was particularly apparent on the sections of century - old larches which had survived the explosion. Before 1908 there were 4- millimeter intervals between annual rings on the trunks of these trees; after that the space increased two-fold. It is well known that the radio- -active treatment of some plants causes their accelerat- ed growth. Another interesting feature was the fact that the content of Strontium-90 in annual rings at the time of the ex- plosion was twice as great as usual. However, they found no in- creased radiation of soil in the centre of the explosion— and this was a feature on which Kazantsev’s supporters had counted most of all. Because of this apparent discrepancy, along with some other, more technical reasons, world scientists were forced T ; ) to look for other explanations. Of late, more and more ot them have been agreeing with a hypothisis put forward by Soviet professor Astopovich and British researcher Wip-! ple, who maintain that the thing that exploded over Si- beria was a small comet con- sisting of frozen gases and water with an admixture of iron and silicon particles. In the past, all the ex- peditions that worked in the Tungus taiga have tended to - look for facts which would’ substantiate their particular theory; at present, however, the Academy of Sciences has decided to pool the efforts of the supporters of all the theories, in order to accumu- late as much initial informa- tion as possible. To that end, a 70-man com- plex, representing a host of professional specialists and adherents of the _ varous theories, was sent into the taiga and explored over 6,000 Square miles of land, return- ing to Moscow in November, 1960. The soil samples brought back (along with other in- formation) are now being subjected to intense and min- ute laboratory analysis, which may prove that one or none of the popular theories is cor- rect. One thing, however, is cer- tain: the mystery of the Tun- gus meteorite will be solved. —Abridged from an article by YURI DAVYDOV, SOVIET UNION: TODAY. e oa wondered why Ching 22 missionaries in, *Raingt Were so dead set tin , ‘he People’s Libera- "tthe My. I have now un- : he terrible facts. . them * servants deserted rity ue the Communist Ody 1 f 8nd there was no- P t to do the cooking! mao Ttu : “mately, the two priests (On). eyj ” n't ale Never Sleeps ey bri * med out their store Bee ial; Sars, Aggy, is In the Nuclear hn Eaton. $2.85. r Non. Ba Mist aa a British eco- ts ca author of many Dita 2&8 socialism and oe offers a stim- or . sentation of the SOcialism. &b 00 Rhee K examines the ex- a ties : Various socialist tts o¢ "4 estimates the “ “°cialism upon the Person life of “oy Ris Be ha, ater ca “Dter on poverty ; ap tatigy lism shows how FT %, Muty., ciety = mangl ‘ty "Stes the human ae rel il- to despair €gates mil Pd and cognac and proceed to gorge them- selves in the kitchen, cluck- ing sympathetically at the plight of the starving masses outside. The sledge-hammer attack of this ignorant, brutish film is aimed at the “Com- munists.” But the “Chris- tian” heroes come off far worse where moral attitudes are concerned. Watch how the “good old” priest (Clifton Webb) takes. the temperature of the des- perately sick Chinese colonel “A hundred and five,’ he chortles gleefully to his assistant (William Holden): “Tet me see now, I think 106 should do it!” Even the wicked Chinese colonel, now recovered, turns his back on Communism. He decides to escape to that glo- rious and carefree haven of refuge, Hong Kong. The priests, who escape with him, are a little put out when he shoots a van driver in the back. ‘“‘That is my last act as a non-Christian,” he tells them. FILMS Five minutes later he ma-, chine-guns a carload of pur- suers in the face. “That is my first act as a Christian,” Devil Never Sleeps’ - Study in brutal slander he explains. * * * Movie audiences, like many of the critics, will laugh aloud at the naive propaganda points of this crudely made, hideously photographed film, which manages to encompass the whole gamut of cold-war slander. But its underlying implica- tions are very far from funny, It is terrifying to see at close quarters the immage of “Oricntal Communism” with which the American public is daily being fed. Even more terrifying are the revolting values, disguis- ed as ‘Christianity,’ which are being pitted against it. Outrageous as the film is in relation to Communism and the Chinese people, it is equally outrageous in the in- sult it offers to honest Chris- tians. —NINA HIBBIN “And when your child presses this button the top of the globe blows off in a small mushroom cloud!” SONG FOR End all insanity! — War must be banned! Where do I stand in the banning of the H-bomb? Whom do I follow in the West or in the East? Whom shall I trust for the dropping of the H-bomb, Raining death alike on the greatest and the least? Where do I stand with regard to disarmament? Or radiation from the fall-out of a test? Must power politics hinder disarmament? Are we not people in the East and in the West? I’m for humanity, humanity, humanity! I’m for humanity, that’s where I stand! I’m for humanity, for love and law and sanity! HUMANITY e MARION CATTO World art - Volume | ublication of a Soviet en- Pp cyclopaedia of world art will begin this year. The new work examines the fine arts and architecture of more than 200 countries and peoples. The material is being ar- ranged under country head- ings. It will include assess- ‘ments of its history and pre- if sent state of art in each country, estimates of leading artists, information about ar- chaeological and architectu- ral monuments, art centres and museums, educational centres and periodical publi- cations. A special point about the publication will be the at- tention paid to the art of the peoples of ex-colonial and colonial and dependent coun- tries. Each of the work’s: four volumes will contain about 2,500 illustrations — ranging from full page art reproduc- tions to drawings in the text and maps. The first volume will ap- pear this year. ——— : Kamb in I'Humianité “Due to certain circum: stances, the Acropolis has un- dergone some changes.” July 6, 1962—PACIFIC. TRIBUNE—Page 5..