School broadcast series

LEWIS HOLMES, teacher at
Etobicoke’s Park Lawn Public
School, here shows a model of a
Canada goose to a group of fas-
cinated pupils, in a follow-up to
one of the CBC National School
Broadcasts series, Voices of the
Wild.

The school broadcasts have
won wide acclaim from teachers
across Canada who, like Holmes,

BOOKS

increase their pupils’ interest
in the programs by added infor-
mation and illustrations.

The National School Broad-
casts, now in their eleventh sea-
son, provide absorbing stories of
wild-life, historical adventure,
and music, as well as full-length
Shakespearean dramas and _ pro-
grams of current events for stu-
dents of all ages and grades.

Anthropologist pleads for action
to save remnants of Haida an

AN APPEAL for action to save
the last remnants of the great
Haida totem pole art “now lying
in advanced stages of decay at
deserted and isolated villages”
is made by Wilson Duff, prov-
-incial government anthropologist,
in an editorial page article ap-
pearing in the Vancouver News-
Herald this week.

“The best Haida poles were
carved 70 or more years ago, and
wood, left exposed to the ele-
ments outdoors, just does not
last longer than that,” writes
Duff, pointing out that the great
art of the Haidas will be lost un-
less action is taken soon to ’pres-
erve what is left of it.

In his article, Duff states:

In 1880 there were between
350 and 400 totem poles on the
Queen Charlotte Islands. Of
these, less than 40 have been
preserved in parks and museums.
Approximately 80 were chopped
down and burned by the Indians,
when they came under the influ-
ence of missionaries.

The rest were left to rot at the
old villages, and of these, about
80 percent have rotted away be-
yond all hope of salvage. Are

Biography casts no revealing light on
figure of Aneurin Bevan

controversial

AT 56, Aneurin Bevan is the
subject of a recently published
biography, Aneurin Bevan, by
Vincent Brome. What light
does it shed on the political
eareer of the British Labor

party’s most controversial fig- -

ure?

The answer must be: very lit-
tle. With considerable skill, but
with very scanty material, the
biographer, Vincent Brome, has
contrived to make his subject all
things to all men.

Those who feel so disposed
will find in it Bevan the great
thinker and philosopher, the con-
siderable Marxian scholar, the
master of the magic phrase, the
champion of the unemployed, the
revolutionary.

They may even find in it Bevan
the future Labor prime minister.

Others will find in it Bevan
the windbag, obsessed. by long
words, the superficial thinker,
the careerist and opportunist
politician; the lover of the flesh-
pots, the socialite friend of Lord
Beaverbrook, and the defender
of free enterprise.

This in short, is not a serious
biography or political study, but
a pot boiler.

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eC ts

ANEURIN BEVAN

It has been slung together, one
would say, from newspaper clip-
pings and the columns of Han-
sard’s parliamentary reports)
supplemented by some chats
with Bevan and letters from peo-
ple who know him.

All this fails to provide the
reader with the material on
which to make a sound estimate
of Bevan’s career, his political
role and his views.

We are told, for example, that
Bevan has been profoundly in-
fluenced by Jose Rodo, an- ob-
secure South American philosoph-
er whose works are the very
negation of Marx’s_ dialectical
materialism.

The author apparently sees no
contradiction in also making the
claim, and repeating it several

SUITE 515

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(Corner Main & Hastings Sts.)
MARINE 5746

193 E. HASTINGS

times, that Bevan is a Marxist,

with the reservation that Marx -

did not make sufficient allow-
ance for the intervention of po-
litical democracy.

Although the word “Bevanite”
has been in the headlines for
more than two years one
searches in vain for any enlight-
enment on what a Bevanite is.

Brome disposes fairly effec-
tively of the idea that Bevan’ is
a modern Danton, dreaming of
the barricades, but he fails to tell
us exactly what he does stand
for:

This may not altogether be the
fault of Brome, who has tried
to remedy the deficiency by add-
ing in an appendix an extensive
summary of, Bevan’s book In
Place of Fear.

He certainly leaves no doubt
that in his view Bevan has been
mesmerised by words. He records
that this “gift of the gab” often
enabled the more astute Herbert
Morrison to get the better of him
in the Labor party executive.

Bevan’s rise is attributed sole-
ly to his ambition, eloquence and
energy. The Labor party and the
trade unions, the mass move-

“ments of the working class, hard-
ly exist in this book except at

the top level.

It is not possible, however, to
explain the rise of a politician in
such a_ way. Unfortunately,
Brome lacks the understanding
of British politics and the work-
ing-class movement that would
enable him to explain it in any
other way.

The truth is that Bevan achiev-
ed his present position and in-
fluence because the rank-and-file
of the Labor party’s left wing
regarded him as their spokes-
man.

Whether and to what degree
Bevan will continue ‘to act as
their’ spakesman remains to be
seen. —MALCOLM MacEWEN.

of the. long deserted Haida vil-
lages, just to see what did re-
main that could be salvaged.. I
found quite a bit more than I ex-
pected. :

A century ago the 8000 Haidas
on the islands lived in about 15
villages. Today their 800-o0dd
descendants live in only two,
Skidegate and Masset.

Before introduced diseases be-
gan to cut cruelly into the popu-
lation, the many villages were
thriving places, and when the
first fur traders began to bring
new wealth and better metal
tools, larger and finer totem
poles and bettex constructed
houses than had been possible be-
we going to allow the rest to dis-
appear ‘completely? I think the
next generation would not for-
give us if we did.

Last summer I spent. a month
in the southern Queen Charlotte
Islands. I wanted to visit a few
fore, appeared in great profus-
ion.

The people of Cumshewa,
Skedans, Tanoo and other south-

ern Haida villages: were almost
completely wiped out by Ae
pox, other diseases and alcoh0™.

In the eightie and
few survivors moved 10
gate, deserting the old we
with their forests of totem P® aa

Today Skedans is fairly sd ‘
of the old villages. Not mu a
visible from the water—traces
an old clearing, Mie a gM
of young spruce, an aay
ing, bleached poles or housé bi
growth. There are denne
wher the old houses stood, ‘te
timbers lying askew a
ground, densely cover
moss, some so decayed that they
crumble underfoot. re

A search among the trees. |
veals many totem poles, cha cays |
or fallen, in all stages f Cg
Some are just mounds of -
mould, some are shells Wi and
ten hearts split by the on rot

s the
‘de

ing roots of spruces whi ith
on them. A few are sti surpls
ingly sound.

On these poles or ff cleat
the carving is sharp and e
In this strange environmen ai
strength and beauty 0° ive,
carving is strikingly impr

Skedans was a village “ios
houses and about 45 totem Piel?
Today there is only one © nous!
standing pole in sound ©M, it
condition to salvage, bu ;
are magnificent portions 1d be
or seven others which ¢0¥
saved.

agmenls

magnificent remnants ® TO
art are rapidly running 0 ‘ttle
me it is incredible that 4 pat
effort has been made 11 ¢ som
to save them. I hope tha * init
how we can overcome th 3 real
of indifference and make
effort soon. ‘

French cast buoys up

weighed down Crosby

EVERY AMERICAN hero now-
adays has to be psychiatric case,
it seems, and in Little Boy Lost
Bing Crosby is another emotional
adolescent who refuses to grow
up until a French friend tells
him a few home truths about
himself.

As always nowadays, Bing is
so weighed down with nuns, small
children and sentimentality that
he hardly has time to sing. But
with the boosted sound that goes
with the wide screen this is no
bad thing. For it does queer
things to that famous throaty
gurgle.

Crosby plays an American radio
commentator whose French wife
is shot as a Resistance fighter
during the war. Their child has
been smuggled away and nobody
is quite sure of its identity.

The story, based on a novel by
Marghanita Laski, is given unex-

pected power by the mainly ©

French cast. Gabrielle Dorziat,
as the Mother Superior in whose
care the boy has been left, and
Georgette Anys as the washer-
woman who helped to save the
child, put a genuine passion into
their parts which lifts the film
well above its natural level.

Young Christian Foureade adds

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 23, 1953 —

aiigott”

- one more to the list of sect

French children we hav
the screen.

Accent on royalty
A SUBTLE change 9 5 #

stuffy princess who snee
from protocol for 4 yeast
partakes of the simple P pa Bt
of the people in the com new
a democratic America?
paperman. «tot
Usual drill would be < ne
princess finally to giV© ‘reall!
royal birthright for the © go!
privilege, of becoming ous we)
est American, the fa7" jsici!
of Life and upstanding me
manhood being ample " us
tion for effete Europe? ubt
Now Hollywood, no kets e
an eye to the British a pe
decided that princes os
their uses. So this time Pie
evening’s fun with Gree vi ay
Princess Audrey HeP" poss
back to the serious pisos
being a good will amP
And Peck, like “ey ‘;
every newspaperma'
forbears to write the stor
night out—THOMAS _
pace