THROUGH THE Interna-
tional Commission for Cul-

tural Exchanges, the World
_ Peace Council, at its sessions
last November, initiated cele-
brations to mark the anni-
versaries of four great fig-
ures in world history: Victor
Hugo, the French writer
(150th anniversary of his
birth, February 26, ;1802)
Nicolai Gogol, the Russian
poet (centenary of his birth,
March 4, 1852); Leonardo da
Vinci, the Italian painter
(500th anniversary of his
birth, April 15, 1452); and the

of Avicenne.
~ Yn‘an article on Victor Hu-
go’s work for peace, the
journal Defense da la Paix
“Victor Hugo was an apos-
tle of. universal peace. This
fact is Well known by those
who have read his works.
But how many people know

very first international as-
sembly for peace, called the
‘Friends of Peace,’ which was
held in Paris in 1849?

1000 anniversary of the birth-

V ictor Hugo at “Friends of Peace’’ congress

| Hugo p presided over
tirst peace congress

that Hugo presided at the.

_ esting to* contemplate the

“There is no comparison,
obviously, between this ‘in-
ternational assembly’ made
up of a small group of lib- —
eral individuals, and the
great peace movement of to-
day which is based on the
will of the peoples. them-
selves and gathers support
in its activities from more
than half a billion Sopianed
opinions.

“This group had, Cae:
but a temporary existence
. . . Nevertheless it is inter-

fact that the embryo of an
international movement for
peace was created under the
aegis of Victor Hugo.”

A resolution discussed by |
the “Friends of Peace” read:

“Peace alone can guaran-
tee the satisfaction of the
moral and material interests
of the people. The duty of
every government is to sub-
mit to the arbitration of dif-
ferences which are likely to
arise between them and to
respect the decisions of the
arbiters which they will have
elected themselves.”

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Another angry correspondent
indicts U.S. policy in Korea

ANOTHER SICK, furious and
puzzled war correspondent has
returned from Korea to write
an angry, revealing book about
his experiences.

In Korean Reporter, just pub-
lished ‘in Britain, Rene Cutforth,

“who covered the Korean war
‘for the BBC, tells how he and

an . Australian correspondent,
‘Alan Dower, forced his way
through Syngman Rhee’s
guards into Seoul prison.
®°«This, my God,’ said Dower,
“is a bloody. fine set-up to waste
good Australian lives over. I’m
going to raise hell.”

“A long column ‘of prisoners

was, marching diagonally across .

the ‘courtyard inside,” Cutforth
writes.

“At a sharp yelp from the
warder they ‘halted and knelt
fin the snow. I’ve never ‘seen
human beings look. more des-
perately ill: They coughed and
‘shook as ‘they knelt on the
ground.”

In tthe first of the steel-barred
cells they came to “a woman
lay crouched algainst the far
twall, shaking and quivering.
Long, gentle moans _ escaped
from her at regular intervals.

“We couldn’t. see her face,
but the ‘baby tied to ‘her back
was ‘obviously due to be re-
leased from Seoul. prison by

- death in the very near future.

'The cell was cold as death.”

' In Syngman Rhee’s capital,
‘Cutforth writes: “The Korean
police were having the time of
their lives faking fortunes out
of blackmail, and their other
rackets vere doing very well,
too.

1

- “Black marketeers were flour-
ishing on the material thrown

heads.”

away in the retreats and on
leakages from army stores, and
the police took a big cut out
of the black marketeers’ ad-
ventures.

“They were not doing badly
out of supplying destitute refu-
'gee girls to 'the brothels, either,
and there were various other
enterprises.”

_“An Kiu’s Victory Dance Hall
probably netted about £2,000 a
week, of which the police took
half. The result of this situation,
was, to quote an army. doctor,
‘Tt’s ‘probably the most venereal
war in history.”

There was the time British
soldiers saw some Syngman

Rhee trucks arrive about a

quarter of a mile away from

their positions.

“They walked over to see who
they were, and when they got
there, they saw this: there was
a freshly dug ‘trench about
three feet deep and the police-
men were dragging about ‘half
a dozen people—men and wom-
eh, with their hands ‘tied behind
their backs with electric flex—
out of a truck parked nearby.

“They made these poor. sods
‘kneel in the trench,” a British
officer told Cutforth, “and then
shot them with automatic wea-
pons through the backs of their
x * x

BUT THERE IS more to the
‘Kioorean war than just the rot-
tenness of Syngman Rhee, and
Cutforth feels compelled to
mention some of these ‘things.

There was the American hab-
it of “precipitate and unan-
nounced withdrawals’ on. the
flanks of British and other units
during the flight from the Yalu.

DRAMATIZATION OF MALTZ NOVEL -PRESENTED

«

‘Simon McKeever’ UJPO Drama Workshop's best play

THE DRAMA Workshop | ‘of
: the United Jewish People’s Or-
der has never done anything
better than its current produc-
tion of The ‘Journey of Simon
McKeever, a dramatization of
the novel by Albert ‘Maltz. Its
two performances at the
Ukrainian ‘Hall here this week
gave capacity audiences proof
of the group’s increasing mas-
tery of 'the theatrical arts, the
quality of the acting, lighting
and set design demonstrating a
competency that
done credit to a far more ex-
- perienced group.

The narrative form illustrat-

ed with brief stage episodes

chosen for ‘the adaptation by
Arthur Laurents presented the
group with technical difficult-
jes. Time lags between the fre-
quent scene changes ‘might
easily have marred the produc-

tion, as. was “the case with the

Theatre of Action’s production

of Stoolpigeon last year. But,

clever sét design and efficient
backstage management com-
pletely overcarhe the difficulty
and preserved the essential con-
tinuity of the production. :
In Ed Gofsky, who played the
lead in this as in most of the
group’s ‘previous productions,

the Drama Workshop has an.

actor of considerable ‘talent and
versatility. He completely won

would have.

the Senate of his audience
with his portrayal BS the arth-
Yitic Simion McKeever, hitch-
hiking 400 miles to Los Angeles
to find a “lady doctor’ who
might cure him, so that he
might leave the old people’s
home, get a job and “become a
man again.”

No less deserving of com-
mendation for a most convinc-
ing role is Searle Friedman,
who played the part of. Harold,
the insane young habo. The
scene in which Simon McKeev-
er, tired and hungry, hobbles to

Harold's camp fire under the.

culvert was perhaps the finest
of the production.
_ Two of the female roles, that
of Dr. Balzer, the “lady doctor,”
played by Ann Cohen, and that
of ‘Mrs. Lees, played by Louise
Kaplan, must be commented
upon, and for the same reason,
the ability of the actors-to bring
them to life for the audience. ©
Jack Robb, Alf Gardenits and
other artists who designed the
stage sets have evolved a tech-
nique which, with some simpli-

fication, points a solution to the

problem of mobile production,
tthe \great need of the progrés-
sive: movement at this time.
In taking plays ‘to smaller
centres, the problem is not so
much one of audiences as of
halls to play in. Few halls pos-
sess more ‘than elementary

facilities. Yet to create the at-
mosphere of the theatre audi-
ences demand stage sets. The
panel and backdrop curtain
method so effectively used by
the Drama Workshop indicates
how this can be done.

Following is the cast of The
Journey of Simon McKeever,
which was directed {by Sylvia
Friedman and Frank aegis
ovich:

*%

Narrator .... as Vertone
Simon McKeever . Ed Gofsky
Mrs. Lees .... Louise Kaplan
Pavlovsky .. Harry Levinson
Marcus Peake Ben Beckman

Painter ..... Gardenits
Harold ‘Searle’ Friedman
Audrey ....... Kay Gardner
Pa Cooley Harry Levinson
Ma Cooley Esther Frohman
Cochrane ..... Ben Beckman
Dr.. Balzer ...... Ann Cohen
* _k *

The place selected by the
group as its accompanying pro-
duction, Washington Episode,
even though _ considerably
changed from the original, was
as poor as The Journey of Si-
mon McKeever was good.

Apart from the fact tha't the
piece had racial discrimination
as its theme—the brief account
of three American soldiers, one
of them a Negro, ‘going. the
rounds of. Washington night
clubs looking for a drink and

ending up on the steps of Lin-
coln’s monument—there was al-
most no dramatic justification.
for putting it on.at all.

_ Perhaps this had something
to do with the acting which,
with the single exception of Joe
Brockenborough who played
Edwards, the Negro, was awk-
ward and unconvincing. Even
the dialogue had an artificial
sound. :

The difference in the recep-
tion accorded the two produc-
tions ‘by the audience was the
most convincing argument
against Washington Episode. —

It is this reviewer’s opinion
that the UJPO Drama Work-
shop must now turn its atten-
tion to the production of some
material, at least, reflecting its
native Canadian scene. The fact
that there is a dearth of such
material should not deter it
from undertaking to encourage
the production of such material.
Had the group waited for an
accomplished and experienced
director, although this is still a
need, it would never have pro-
duced anyihing.

The fact remains that in more

than three years’ work, in
which it has a number of suc-
cesses to its credit, it has not
produced one essentially Cana-
dian play, and until it does so
it. is falling short of its PUNE.
—HAL GRIFFIN.

‘defeat imperialism. —

And “those raids which were
becoming fairly frequent, when
a party of men would move into —
a house, scare off tthe men by ~
force, firing round them, and
then deal with the women.”

And the horror of American
napalm and its countless vic
tims, including American pris-
oners.

His closing picture of a year

-in Korea is of war correspon-

dents asking: “Why?” “What
have you got out of going to
Korea?” “Why do these
things?” :

Cutforth was once a Sahib. —
He does not think Koreans mind
being called “Gooks.” But Korea
has driven ‘him; also, to ask
“Why ?” 3

—ARTHUR CLEGG

COMMUNIST HISTORY |
Thirty years of
Chinese party

IN 1937, only 15 years ago,
the Chinese Communist party
had only 40,000 members in a
mation of nearly 500. million

_ people.

That is to say its numbers
were about ‘the same as those
of the British Communist party
today and its relaltive strength
in numbers twas hardly more
than a tenth of that of the Brit-
ish Communist party.

Yet it played the leading part
in defeating the Japanese in-
vasion of ‘China which began
thalt year; it defeated the enorm-
ously larger reactionary Kuo-
mintang party which was the
government of Chiina, backed
and armed by the United Sta'tes,
and it led the Chinese peopie

victoriously to form their own

people’s republic.
Does this seem one of the
yy apes of history?

Thirty Years of the Commun- -_
ist Party of China, by Hu
‘Chiao-mu, obtainable here at the

People’s Cooperative Bookstore,
337 West Pender street, re «
counts the struggles of the Chi-
nese people and their Commun —
‘ist party; the battles against

re-

reaction both inside and outside

China, and the disputes and ar- a

gumentts inside the Commu
party which enabled it to ham-
mer out the correct policy to

|
- Of all the valuable material
in this book, perhaps the most
useful is the description of the
way in which the Chinese work-
ers first worked oul, in bitter

experience, who precisely were —

the enemy, then the conception
of a ‘broad front of struggie
against that enemy and finally
actually built such a front up
under their own leadership.

This is one of the great stories —
of the triumph of humanity and
here in brief is ‘how it was
done—the clear conceptions of
policy, the slogans which sum-

med Ithose policies up in a few — :

pithy, words; the hard fighting
which carried. them. to success.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 14, 1952 — PAGE 8&

/