the Wake of the British de-
/ fon of the pound, rum-

Wy ould be heard through-
| be naetalist world. A fren-
| teh Tush in London, Paris.
Iesitea Johannesburg has in-
ie doll the pressure on the

ar,

a President Johnson was
ining a make a statement
lntion at the U.S. had no
site ey devaluing the dollar
A ane heavy buying in gold.
Heution Pec! analysis of the
ly atic) OWwever, contained in
Ins a . In the New York
Iter be : the question: can the
Uhat po cnded? In part this
tf Me © Times had to say:
Nticany come as a shock to
Y Hane ae that many Europ-
Ptevhar es as well as those
ly yt less than friendly—
nevhat piited States as a
Vitor €sponsible big com-
f} ' 8fOwing so fast that it

has had to defer payment of its
bills and so has persuaded other
nations to accept I.0.U.’s instead
of cash. And this suggests the
answer to the question posed
increasingly since the devalua-
tion of the British pound: can it”
happen here?

“The answer is yes. Technic-
ally, whenever the I.0.U.’s is-
sued by the United States ex-
ceed the country’s gold stock, a
run on the dollar is possible. At
present, foreign short-term
dollar holdings, or claims against
United States gold, total $16-
billion. And while the gold stock
amounts to nearly $13-billion,
$10-billion of this is required by
statute as backing for Federal
Reserve notes.

“There would be no problem
if the United States were hold-
ing its own in the balance of
payments. In fact, the willing-
ness of foreigners to take dollars

"ater
ha Peare’e ct you wrote
; S Plays th
lest; Verythi ’ at you
analy y ng and ruled
be the pure going to
| Nie Ven ey will turn to
Ave the king.

| ia not lonescu’s Exit the

Ny inst nanti-royalist play.

Ay ytetmisg; €-act work, with-
het a (some symbol-
: death non-stop progress
eS th force, perhaps?)
Pany’s second

Co ;
‘ne cq aclusion — death
"yg sent ae of; it is al-
yet Menaci

0 Ur ing, the
mate Tower
t. dear. <T declares that

0 “
| ee note. all a lot of
q

hing,” then the
= glittering,

phi:
the En osophy. Kenneth
‘De COnce Sc fears
h Bay OF r when it i
| ntay eral emulation as
Zs, that € theatre of

bleak new world

Up the down staircase.

Nothing but nothing

from which the humanist here-
sies of faith in logic and belief
in man will forever be ban-
ished.”

But despite its morbid ob-
session and its cruelty, is it a
well-constructed play? Has it
some core of fascination? No on
both counts. There’s just too
much talk. This play .about
death just talks itself to death.
There is a repetitious, static
quality. This is theatre of ab-
surdity, of silliness and of bore-
dom. Don’t expect a life from
this. anti-life, anti-dream, anti-
play about anti-persons. There
is no catharsis, no cleansing, no
hope, nothing but nothing.

Nevertheless, was the produc-
tion well conceived? Ellis Rabb,
APA artistic director, staged
Exit the King. Eva le Gallienne,
one of the great names of the
American theatre, played the
senior wife. Richard Easton, of
Montreal, Toronto and Stratford,
was the king.

Mr. Rabb selected a good cast.
His designer was the renowned
Rouben Ter-Arutunian. What
more could you ask? But this
play defies theatre. The trans-
parent plastic sheaths and the

instead of gold has added sig-
nificantly to the total of world
monetary reserves. For 10 years,
however, the United States has
suffered a steady erosion of its
gold stock until:today two-fifths
of what once was held is gone.”

In a far from optimistic mood,
it then continues:

“If foreign holders of Ameri-

can I.0.U.’s become nervous

‘watching the American gold go

out, their fears are understand-
able. In a single step, the deva-
luation of the British pound
wiped out one-seventh of the
reserves of those countries that
keep their funds in sterling,
almost $1-billion.

“The situation facing Ameri-
ca’s creditors, however, is quite
different. Britain’s creditors
knew that Britain could call on
other nations, principally the
United States, for support of
the pound. All else failing, hold-

Eccles (Morning Star)

skeletal thrones, with Nancy
Potts’ costumes and James Til-
ton’s lighting, are effective, but
they cannot make the script
soar.

Nor can Miss le Gallienne, re-
gal in bearing, classical in
speech, lift the words off the
paper to which the playwright
has glued them. No actress
could.

Mr. Easton played the king
with energy and color, though
he too was drenched with words.

Of the APA’s five plays I
missed one, George Kelly’s The
Show-Off. APA has been hailed
as the foremost North American
repertory company. For the re-
cord, I wish to enter a dissent-
ing vote. I think it has been
over-rated, especially on the
evidence of the present season.
Apart from production values,
what kind. of theatre sense and
what kind of social conscience
builds a season on the banal
You Can’t Take It With You, the
coldly cerebral Right You Are,
the lightweight Show-Off, the
anti - revolutionary Pantagleize
and the mortuary tone poem,

Exit to King?
—Martin Stone

Is dollar devaluation next?

ers of sterling knew they could
always run to the dollar. This,
indeed, is what happened in the
massive selling of the pound
immediately before devaluation.

“America’s creditors have no
such alternative. If the dollar
goes, there will be no place to
hide. Total world monetary re-
serves will contrast sharply.
Holders of dollars, principally
the less developed nations, will
suffer huge losses. Devaluation
by the world’s biggest trading
nation almost certainly will force
other devalutions, triggering a
downward spiral of trade and
commerce that could end in
worldwide disaster.”

There should be no illusions
that devaluation will mean any-
thing except a lower living
standard. In Britain, where the
pound is now worth 14 percent
less, the cost of everything that
has been imported, has gone up
accordingly. In a brutally frank
statement to the House of Com-
mons in Britain on July 24,
James Callaghan said of devalu-
ation:

“Let there be no dodging
about this. Those who advocate
devalution are calling for a re-
duction in the wage levels and
the real wage standards for
every member of the working
class of this country.

“If there were devaluation in
this country, any effort on the
part of the organized workers to
counteract it by securing higher
wages should be ruthlessly re-
sisted. If the benefits of devalu-
ation were to be secured we

would need another incomes

freeze in circumstances when
prices would be going up fast.

“This is a nostrum among
economists who are quite clear-
sighted about its purpose. Un-
fortunately it has been picked
up by a number of people who

clamour for devaluation be-
cause they believe that it is a
way of avoiding other harsh
measures. They are deluding
themselves.”

For Canadians the effect of
the British action was quickly
felt by the increase in our bank
rate. But what is equally of con-
cern is that Canada is mighty
vulnerable to any shakeup in re-
lation to the dollar, and there is
nothing being done by our gov-
ernment to begin to get out
from under. This would of
course involve a head-on clash
with the monopolists, both Can-
adian and American, whose
headlong drive for higher prices

and profits is at the root of all

the economic problems.

It is the profiteering of the
monopolies which is to blame
for the so-called inflation and no
solution can come by attacking
the incomes of the workers by
tax increases but only by put-
ting curbs on monopolies.

That’s why the determination
of the trade union movement to
continue to fight for wage in-
creases and increased social
security measures is a far bet-
ter answer to Canada’s econo-
mic future than those measures
being put forward by the fed-
eral government.

If the pressure continues to
mount’on the U.S. dollar, the
pressure will be on Canada too
to devaluate the -dollar—and the
only result will be'cuts in our
living standards as the British
standards have been cut.

A program of curbing the
monopolists, trading with all the
world including the. socialist
sector and cuts in ‘our defense
spending are all steps that could
work in the opposite direction,
and is the direction along which
the labor movement should pres-
sure the government to act.

UJPO rally
festive event

N enthusiastic rally took
place on Sunday evening,
Nov. 26 at the beautiful

Winchevsky Centre on Cran-
brooke Ave. in Toronto to mark
the 50th anniversary of the
Soviet Union.

Participants were the Shev-
chenko male choir of the Asso-
ciation of United Ukrainian
Canadians, Stanley Ryerson well-
known Marxist and editor of
Horizons and Joshua Gershman,
editor of the Canadian Jewish
Weekly.

The meeting was chaired by
J. Cowan, national president of
the United Jewish Peoples
Order which organized the
meeting.

In his. introductory remarks
he referred to the skeptics who
during the “ten days that shook
the world” avowed that the re-
volution would not last, yet now,
50 years later, the world press,
TV and radio have all joined in
paying tribute to the achieve-
ments of this first and greatest
socialist power.

The UJPO, he said, had not
approved all the ‘statements of
the Soviet Union on the Middle
East crisis but its differences
were not aS opponents of the
Soviet Union but as part of the
pro-socialist forces of the world
with the same overall objectives.

The Shevchenko choir under
the direction of its talented con-

ee ee
DECEMBER 8, 1262 7aPACIFIC TRIBUN GS ASC

ductor Eugene Dolney “brought
the house down” with songs in
Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish.
They gave the right festive
spirit to the evening.

Stanley Ryerson’s main em-
phasis was on the impact that
the revolution made not only on
the Soviet people but on the
entire world. As a Canadian his-
torian, he drew the contrast of
the .unresolved constitutional,
cultural and economic problems
in Canada in its centennial year
with the progress made in 50
years in the USSR.
he drew the contrast of the un-
resolved constitutional, cultural
and economic problems in Can-
ada in its centennial year with
the progress made in 50 years
in the USSR.

Joshua Gershman _ related
many of his own experiences in
the Soviet Union during his fre-

-quent visits there. He quoted

from conversations he had with
people he met and relatives who
had achieved high academic and
professional status as a result of
the opportunities available to
the people—unheard of under
tsarism. On the other hand he
read extracts from reactionary
writers who utilized the occa-
sion of the 50th Soviet Anni-
versary to truck out canards so
devoid of truth that they brought
laughter from the audience of

150.