E SEEGER J AILED POLIO EPIDEMICS WIPED OUT

iol own American mittee when it was witch-hun-
B last ae Pete Seeg-|ting the entertainment husin-
imprison Sentenced to | ess. Seeger took his stand on

© f cont ment on ten|the First Amendment to the
€mpt of Con-/ Constitution, telling the com-

‘ COntem mittee that such questions
°° tely 4 Mpt was for re-} were “improper and immoral
i tives Tie House of Rep- | to be asked of an American.”

» Co Omtnit;. Merican Ac-| Seeger was due to be in Bri-

< aa about ‘al-| tain in June to record a series
<iates and sub-|of~ 138-weekly programs for

fh stanain, His trial | the British Broadcasting Com-
an two oy € Over for | mission.
(Ber nc ears, The sentence of Seeger has
Yor, : Und guilty by | aroused a storm in the United
(Fusing ral Court af-| States. In New York support-
MP as im Permission | ers ‘have organized a_coniert
sp his © 1 court. He|and funds were raised to win
4.\tchin jo with him | bail.
tereg 1 crowd waved | Seeger has appeared at con-
thee’ he + ie certs in Vancouver on a num-
i qu ee to an-!ber of occasions and not so
be ets S about his | long ago on. CBC-TV.
and associa-| Messages of- support can be
4 Un *ppeared pe-|sent to Pete Seeger, Dutchess
€rican” com- Junction, Beacon, New York.

SIQUEIROS, ON PARTING

DJ
I, ae S light I leave you,
: he of Cuba’s freedom,
Pty my &r,..Siqueiros, I await you
eS Nd of -voleanos..and snow.

| Lik, ” You painting imprisoned,
me they would put into chains.

Pt grieve:
14 Your ©. for the outrage on parting,

IP Pop Me rt and loved land are one;
bs =r is captive beside. you.
ablo Neruda, Mexico, D. F, Jan. 9, 1961.

via Sic os .
‘qu
5 ting Ueiros, One of the three giants of Mexican
hag ® and a leader of the Communist Party of

| €
Mt bel g " in a Mexican prison for nearly a year
thers Yought to trial.

5

pr
) mt oe his imprisonment and demanding
So 0 and his friends should be sent to the
€ Republic of Mexico, Ottawa.

Soviet Doctors Winning

Battle Against Disease

By MARION AND MARK FRANK
MOSCOW—Polio epidemics have been wiped out in the
Soviet Union. That is what Prof. Mikhail Chumakov,
director of the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Virus En-
cephalitis attached to the Soviet Academy of Medicine,

has announced here.

His confidence about this
is based on the last two years

|of mass vaccination. In 1960

alone over 77 million vaccina-

‘| tions todk place. The institute

provided ‘vaccine for ‘immun-
ization of over 13 million chil-
dren in other socialist coun-
tries.

Extensive repeated  vaccin-
ation and systematic immun-
ization of all newly-born chil-

-| dren will be required: for sev-

eral years to check sporadic
individual cases, says Prof.
Chumakov. The Soviet minis-
‘try of health approved a pro-
gram for repeated vaccination
of the entire population from
two months to 20 years of age
for the first half of this year,
Two vaccinations will be made
to every person at intervals
of four to six weeks. Also sys-
tematic vaccination of new-
born and unweaned infants
is also planned this year.
%* * *%

Live vaccine used in the
USSR is made from _ three
strains of attentuated virus se-
lected in 1954-56 by the well-
known U.S. scientist Prof. Al-
bert Sabin. Right now, said
Chumakov, the. Soviet. Union
has outstripped the U.S. in
production -and broad applica-
tion of live vaccine.

He thought it paradoxical
that in Sabin’s own country
there were stronger oppon-
ents of his vaccine than in
the USSR Chumakov said
Soviet scientists had given

HARRY BELAFONTE
will close this year’s. Van-
couver International Festi-
val with a concert at the Ex-
hibition Forum on August
19. He will be assisted by

the African singer, Miriam
Makeba.

convincing Shoor of the harm-
lessness of attentuated Sabin
strains for children, and for
the first time in world medi-
cal practice had given proof
of the vaccine’s. effectiveness.
Last year’s immunization pro-
gram in the Soviet Union
brought about a dramatic 44
percent drop in polio cases;
compared to 1959.
* * *&

Medicine is a two-way street.
A new universal device for
suturing blood vessels and
nerves has recently been ship-
ped to the U.S. from the Kras-
nogvardeyest plant in Lenin-
grad. U.S. doctors saw it dis-
played at the Soviet Ex in
New York and called it “a
sputnik in surgery.”

It makes possible for the
first time in medicine mechan-
ization of surgerical opera-
tions to make complex sutur-
es by simultaneous stitching
of the entire length of an in-

cision. Extremely in tantalum-
niobium wire staples are used.
which do not cause inflama-
tion and remain in the tissues.

Also shipped out of the
plant to the U.S. were instru-
ments for bactertological--an-

alysis of air. ‘There are-orders -

too for cornea transplants, us-
ing the Filatov method.
% * &

Reporting on ..medical pro-
gress here, Soviet Minister of
Health Sergei Kurashov told
the last Supreme Soviet ses-
sion that this year the Soviet
Union -would have 420,000
doctors. It would mean one

‘doctor to 520 of population.

New hospitals with space
for 93,000 beds will be built
this year.

He told of the complete el-
imination of malaria last year
in the country. Trachoma he
predicted would. be wiped out
in the next two or three years.
There are parts of the Soviet
Union where it has been inde-
mic for centuries.

Conditions had been creat-
ed as well for eliminating TB.
A new measles vaccine is now
undergoing tests, as also one
against mumps.

RED ARMY CHORUS

Following up their success
last year in bringing the Pek-
ing Opera Co., to North Am-
erica, the Vancouver Festival
Society announced last week
that the world-famed Red Ar-
my. Chorus will. make their
first . appearance in North
America in Vancouver. on Au-
gust 10-12. They will perform
at the Exhibition Forum.

180. strong, the Red Army.
Chorus will also” include - 26
dancers. and a 42 piece orches-
tra of balalaikas and. accord-
ions. The big company will
fly from Moscow to Montreal
where it will be picked up. by
two CPA Britannias to bring
it to Vancouver.

The Festival Society’s artis:
tic director, Nicholas Gold-
schmidt, stated that he hopes
this engagement is the begin-
ning of a long-range plan
which will see other major
Soviet attractions at the Fes-
tival in succeeding years.

The 1961 Festival will start
with the Vancouver Interna-
tional Film Festival to be held
from July 10 to 22nd. One
hundred documentary and
short subject films have been
entered the Festival.

Many outstanding cultural
events including ballet, dra-
ma, opera and great artists
will perform in Vancouver’s

TO CITY

Festival. Special interest ‘will
centre around a display of

Pablo Picasso’s latest art -

works at the Art Gallery for
the duration of the Festival.
Tickets for all Festival pro-

ductions will be on sale to the —

public from May 15th at the
Queen Elizabeth Theatre box
office. oe

The Vancouver Internation-
al Festival Society’s offices
are now located at 570 Duns~

muir Street; Vancouver.

PABLO PICASSO
whose works will be on dis-
play in Vancouver’s Art
Gallery during the Interna-
tional Festival.

April 14, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9