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Christianity and Gommunism—
Dean’s sermons now in book form

HEN, last year, Hewlett

Johnson stood up Sunday
after Sunday in the pulpit .f
the Mother Church of. the
English-speaking world and
Pronounced the series of ser-
Mons which now comprise
Christianity and Communism
€ was making history.

After years of “cold war”
between Capitalism masquer-
ading as Christianity and the
Communism’ of Russia, China
and other countries, after lib-
aries had been published as-
Serting the fundamental dif-
ferences ‘of Christianity and

Communism, he dared to:

Stand there and assert the
asic agreement between the
two.

A handful of people walked
out, the daily press throughout
the Western countries gave
them a distorted publicity, a
Baggle of ecclesiastical digni-
taries made known their icy
disapproval, and the congre-

. 8ations which came to listen

g8rew week by week. For this
Was a subject which fascinat-
€d, and it was handled with
Practised skill,

This action placed on per-
Manent record the theoretical
Teasons which had led the Dean

TT JOHNSON

of Canterbury, the Senior
Presbyter of the Church of
England, to become Public
Friend Number One of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Re-
publics and the countries call-
ed the People’s Democracies,
and in so doing to become
within the Church Public

Enemy Number One of all
those who place the value of
the Establishment above the
truth of the Gospel.

It was the apologia of one
of the outstanding churchmen
of our time and for this reason
an act of far-reaching signifi-
cance,

Now the sermons are placed
in permanent record in a small
book, and in judging the book
honestly it is necessary to face
the fact that since these ser-
mons were preached a great
deal has happened. The 20th
congress of the Soviet Com-
munist party has revealed
serious aberrations within the
Communist movement aid
events in Poland and Hungary
have added to the picture.

This book deals with none
of this and is necessarily the
weaker for it.

Nevertheless, there could be
no greater tribute pai:i to the
book than to say that reading
it after these events makes it
both of greater interest and
greater importance than it
was before. What it does say
is of importance for Christian
and Communist alike and both
will profit from reading it.

STANLEY EVANS

Helen Sobell's poems sing long
Struggle for truth and justice

you, Who Love Life is a

book of poems by Helen
Sobel. It is a very small book,
only twelve pages of it. Not

much for a dollar some may
Say, but that depends upon
What one is buying for a dol-
lar, :
Some books, with hundreds
of pages and fine artistic hard
Covers sell for as much as $10
“nd up, in many cases a pretty
1gh price for a couple of
Pounds of fine paper.
Helen Sobell’s little book is
aielve Pages of concentrated
uffering, indestructible’ hope
Pie. great humanity — poems
at burn themselves into the
fonsciousness of mankind, de-
manding one essential quality
a civilized society—justice.
n You, Who Love Life a
iy American woman cries
an for justice and the free-
fax of her husband and the
Sor €r of her children, Morton
ra ell, framed by the men who
" e “Merica, convicted by
eae and false evidence,
aon Sentenced to 30 years of
a ving death in the “Rock”
leatraz federal prison.
Back in 1951, Morton Sobell,
= young _American scientist
8S convicted of “conspiracy
th commit espionage” during
© infamous trials of Julius-

HELEN SOBELL

and Ethel Rosenberg. Judge
Irving Kaufman, the same
judge who ordered the judicial
murder of these two victims
of American cold war hysteria,
also sentenced Morton Sobel,
on the same trumped-up evi-
dence, to 30 years imprison-
ment.

As the true nature of the
frame-up evidence — against
Morton Sobell becomes ever
more apparent, a growing body
of eminent American opinion
is insistirig that Sobell be given
the right of a new trial.

Meanwhile, in flagrant dis-
regard of the observations of
leading authorities like Chief
Justice Warren of the U.S.
Supreme Court that “the gov-
ernment of a strong and free
nation does not need convic-
tions based upon such testi-
mony,” the U.S. Department
of Justice and its judicial per-
sonnel like Judge Kaufman
cling tenaciously to the con-
clusions. of a frame-up trial,

Well they might, because
Helen Sobell, like an accusing
justice, puts the true brand
of their infamy upon them:

“Each time corruption

spawns one forth,

A human being dies.”

It is still early in this new
year of 1957, not too late to
add the treasure of You, Who
Love Life to your bookshelf.
It does not take long to read,
but its message covers an
epoch — the struggle of cour-
ageous men and women for
truth, justice and love, the
heritage they demand for their
children.

You, Who Love Life by
Helen Sobell, can be obtained
at the People’s Co-op Book-
store, 337 West Pender Street,
Vancouver, price $1 and $2.50
for the hard-cover edition.

2 TOM McEWEN

(P)SHAW’S ALPHABET

EORGE BERNARD SHAW
G usually got his way, but
the odds are that he will go
down in posterity as a play-
wright and not as the backer
of “Shaw’s Alphabet.”

In the million-dollar-plus
will that made him one of
the richest writing men of all
time, Shaw left his residuary
estate for research into a new
phonetic system of English
with an alphabet in which
each letter represented one,
and only one, sound.

The hot-tempered Irishman
worked with words all his life
and before he died in 1950 at
the age of 94 he had become
pretty infuriated with the Eng-

BERNARD SHAW

lish language, particularly its
pronunciation.

Shaw argued that the word
“fish” could just as well be
spelled “ghoti” on the basis of
present phonetics. He explain-
ed.

The “EF” sound could come
from the “gh” in the word
“rough.”

The “I” sound from the “O”
in the word “women.”

The “Sh” sound from the
“Ti” in the word “motion.”

It became Shaw’s conviction
that English could be so sim-
plified as to save tremendous
sums in energy, time, paper
and money. Peter Denison
Ridge-Beedle, who discussed
the matter with Shaw, esti-
mates the Shaw alphabet

When you use fish
pronounce it ‘ghoti’

would save $250 million a year
in Britain and $1 billion in the
United States.

xt 5 x

Shaw left few clues to the
alphabet he wanted except
that he seemed to believe that
40 or 42 letters and symbols
would cover every sound in
English.

However, he realized a lot
of people didn’t agree with him
and he left a loophole where-
by his will could be attacked
if the alphabet bequest was
judged not practical. One of
his beneficiaries, the British
Museum, is suing to have the
provision declared invalid.

But Ridge-Beedle and others
are contesting the suit, Ridge-
Beedle has tried to assemble
an alphabet using some of
Shaw’s principles. The result
is a collection of letters and
symbols as strange looking as
the Russian cyrillic alphabet.

‘Before the case was adjourn-
ed, Mr. Justice Harman ob-
served:

“Perhaps the greatest mas-
ter of language in this country
has produced a document
which has puzzled us for days.

“It was Mr. Shaw’s money.
If he wanted to spend some of
it for a limited time on a silly
purpose, why should the law
stop him?”

se at

From time to time in later
years Shaw erupted into print

( in defense of his scheme. After

the explosion of the first atom
bomb, he wrote to a newspap-

; er ignoring the implications

of the super weapon but at-
tacking the spelling of the
word “bomb.”

Why the “B” on the end?
Shaw asked. The word as pro-
nounced has three simple
sounds. There, he said, is an
example of a 25 percent waste
of time, energy and paper and
it applies throughout the lang-
uage. He blamed the spelling
of “bomb” on Dr. Samuel
Johnson.

Ridge-Beedle said that in
the Shaw alphabet a word
such as “lacquer” would be
spelled “lakr.”

The word “league” would
be “leg.”

The word “leg” then, pre-
sumably, would be spelled
“Vag.”

The word lag?

That’s where you need a
new letter, or a stiff hooker
of Scotch.

JANUARY 25, 1957 —

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 18