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Labor-farmer unity

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

This is Sunday. I have just
read an article in the Vancou-
ver Sun, January 4, “IWA Par-
ley Cool to Minister’s Ideas.’

This article confirms the act

‘that early this year Canadian
labor will be faced with the
greatest wage struggles in its
history. Harold Pritchett, Har-
vey Murphy, Ed Winnerlow,
Val Bjarnasen are doing splen-
did work. However, little or
‘nothing seems to be done to-
ward drawing the farmers into
this: all important struggle
which may well mark a turn-
ing point in Canadian and Am-
erican history.

If the farmers. were engaged

‘in a non-delivery strike at pre-

cisely the same moment When
the industrial workers are out
on strike, we would have no
difficulty in securing food, and
plenty of it for the striking
workers. Furthermore if all food
supplies are cut off from the
forces of reaction at that time
they will be forced to surrend-
er:

Consequently, I feel that now
is the time to begin preparing
the farmers for their participa-
tion in the struggle.

I wish: you could prepare an
article for the Tribune in this
connection pointing out to the
farmers that it is to their ad-
vantage to help win the peace

, for which the war was fought.

The wage struggle may be
won or lost according to the
degree of activity we can arouse
among the farmers. Read “Lenin
on the Peasant Question.” If such
an article in the Tribune is un-
timely, possibly some material
on the subject could’ be pre
pared,

The farmers seem. to be eager
for action and if we have some
Sort of guide to action, we will
certainly do everything within
Our power to draw the farmers

into what is their fight as well
aS ours, One of the piskets from
the Vancouver Daily Province
arrived in Kamloops last Wed-
nesday. He was seized by the
local police and given 24 hours
to get out of town or three
months in jail. Unity of farm
and city worker would put a

Stop to this brand of victimiza- |

tion,

FRANK HALVORSON.
Kamloops, B.C.

Science and economics

Editor, Pacific Tribune:
Recently, I was reading about

the wonderful advances that

Science has made in the pro-

duction of new things that will |

cutlast by far the things in
common use today, such as
boots, clothing of all kinds,
motor cars, tires, etc.

Now to some this may be
800d news, but to others who
look beneath the surface, it
bears a sinister aspect because
under our economic system’ it

_ means more unemployment.

If things that we use today
are going to last three or four
times longer than they do now,
it will surely mean that our
unemployed will be that. much

_ more numerous, and that would
- Mean a depression, the like of

which we have never yet seen,

It therefore points to a prob-
lem in economics of a very
Serious nature. The first ques-

- tion that arises is, can our capi-

talist system’ permit this to oc-
cur, It would seem more than
_ doubtful, because. it would mean
a diminished turnover of profit,
and as profit is the foundation

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

'

_ citizenship,

Your

What you Pleate.

likely
is going to

of the system, it isn’t
that the capitalist

cut his own throat.

The great disideratum agitat-
ing the minds of people today
is, how can depressions be
avoided? The only way in which
they can be prevented is to keep
everybody working, but we don’t
seem yet to have found a way
to do this under peace-time
conditions.

If the picture drawn by Dr.
Egloff, who tells of these wond-
erful things, be a true one, com-
bineq with the possible use of
atomic power for productive
purposes, it is very doubtful in-
deed that our capitalist system
can afford to put on the mar-
ket the things Dr. Egloff speaks
of.

Naturally, it would be to the
advantage of the consuming
public because we all want more
of the good things of life and
there is practically no limit to
our wants,
how can;the advancement of
science be used for the benefit
of all? This should give one
something to think about.
A, CHEVERTON.

White Rock, B.C.

New Canadians

Editor’s Note: On the an-
nouncement that the federal
government had finally enact-
ed statutory Canadian citizen-
ship, the following letter was
forwarded to the prime min-
‘ister by the Progressive India
Society of B.C, It is expected
that the coming session of the
B.C. legislature will complete
the job of establishing full
by granting the
franchise to thousands of Ca-
nadians of Oriental origin, and
to native Indians.

Rt. Hon.

W. L. Mackenzie King,

Prime Minister of Canada, -

Ottawa:

The Sikh Community of Brit-
ish Columbia expresses its thanks
to the Canadian government for
granting our people the right
of Canadian citizenship on a
basis of full equality with Ca-
nadians of all other origins.

We feel certain the Dominion
parliament and B.C. legislature
will bring a Franchise Act into
line with our new status and
grant us full voting rights in
all Canadian elections. /

We are confident that the
latter step would create much
goodwill. in India towards Brit-
ish Commonwealth, when -such
goodwill would help ease situa-
tion there. 3

NAGINDAR SINGH GILL,

Secretary,
Progressive India Society...
Vancouver, B.C, ‘

so the question is, ©

Department

Toilet paper

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

In walking home along New-
ton Road this morning I notic-
ed what appeared to:be a new
magazine covered with mud and
filth, in the wheel track. I re-
trieved it and opened it up to
see what it was. It was the De-

cember number of “British Co-
limbia Digest.” I opened it up
to see what .this local digest
would have to interest me.

The leading article was en-
titled, “The Dark and Dirty
Alley of Communism.”

I knew in an instant why the
deluded purchaser had cast the
thing away as rubbish. I started
to do the same with it, and
then I wondered what British
Columbia firms would be ad-
vertising in such a_ scurrilous
thing.

Turning through its 96 pages
I found only one advertisement
of a local firm in it, a four-inch,
one column ad on page 78, car-
ried from Smith, Davidson ‘and
Wright, Ltd., of Vancouver.

And what do you think they
were advertising in this ‘“Brit-
ish Columbia Digest?” “Sov-
ereign Brand, Toilet Tissue.” It
sems like the Digest has a use
after all.

BERT HUFFMAN.
Newton Station, B.C.

They fear truth

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

I wonder how many people
understand the reasons for the
hysteria against communism and
socialism, the banning of Al
Parkin from the radio, the per-
secution of Fred Rose, the out-
rages against the LPP party in
Quebec, etc.?

The main reason is that this
capitalist monopoly system can-
not stand exposure to the broad
dayiight---if all their skulldug-
gery, graft and mass thievery
from the public were fully ex-

posed, the right thinking pub-
lic would cast them out.of of-
fice like a shot.

Tf there were no truth in the
publicity materials that Al Par-
kin, Fred Rose, or the LPP give
to the public, the liberals and
conservatives would laugh them
off and disprove all their state-
ments with logical answers.

But, they cannot do this. They
caniot refute the plain truth,
so they do their best to sup-
press, jail or banish all who
dare to expose them.

. If these men who stand for
progress, fair employment, etc.,
are wrong, why are the capital-
ist-monopolists afraid of them?
THOMAS P. FREDERICI.
Vancouver, B.C.

Ls

.

LENIN MEMORIAL MEETING

Sunday, January 26 at 8 p.m.
in the

PENDER AUDITORIUM
SPEAKER

. MAURICE RUSH
Provincial Organizer, Labor-Progressive Party

“LENIN, THE MARXIST ARCHITECT of a NEW WORLD”

MUSICAL PROGRAM

Short Jabs 1 0 si

swoness

RITISH made films appear to have emerge@ from the war with
an acknowledged quality almost entirely lacking in the Hollywood
productions. Leading movie bodies and critics in Amerca have
admitted this in the past few days. The
British made picture, King Henry V, film
version of one of Shakespeare’s historical
dramas, is claimed by the American Board of Review of Motion
Pictures, to be the finest picture of the year. The New York film
critics who selected the 10 best pictures of 1946, picked five British,
three American, one French ang one Italian productions to oceupy
that honored position. There is a stir among the newshawks, some
of them actually asking if it means curtains for Hollywood.
Although we don’t belong in the select circle of film ‘critics,
we are constrained to endorse their findings as far as they go—
and criticize a little further from an angle which none of them
that we have read make any attempt to deal with—of the only
one of these pictures we have seen, King Henry V.

There is no doubt about the superiority of the technical work

Best of the year

‘in this picture over anything we have seen from Hollywood.

“Technicolour” is without doubt an improyement upon technicolor.
The American efforts are tawdry in comparison and this appreécia-
tion applies equally to the technical work as a whole.

Suppose we leave the superb quality of the acting to others

better qualified to deal with it; but we have to admit, however,
that the impression the acting made on us has been equalled by
few Hollywood films in a number of years.
- Shakespeare provided the producers of this masterpiece, with
material that gave them a flying start in this postwar competition
for leadership in the movie world, but they took some liberties
with the Bard of Avon, which, if he had a temperament like his
fellow-craftsman, Shaw, he might not agree with.

The picture was made to order for the British Ministry of In-
formation. That body does not exist to provide entertainment for
jaded intellectuals or tired business. men, The fact that wherever
it is shown, an advance agent goes ahead with the purpose of
“selling” it to educators and special inducements are offered
to school children in the way of reduced prices, is proof of that.
It is to them rather than to the Shakespeare “cult,” that the pic-
ture is directed. - “Oo Soour ;

In our boyhood we were taught that of all Shakespeare’s char-
acters, Brutus was the most patriotic, the Brutus who plunged his
dagger into the breast of Caeser, his friend whom he was con-
vinced had betrayed his country. 4

Now we learn we were taught wrongly. According to the Brit-
ish Ministry of Information, not Caeser but Henry V, king of
England and claimant to the throne of France, was “the most
patriotic character Shakespeare ever drew” and for that reason
they chose’ this play rather than ‘King Riehard III, Romeo and
Juliet, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream or any of the other
Shakespearean masterpieces, any of which would have afforded
them an equal or greater opportunity to display their artistic
and technical superiority to Hollywood.

Ean why should the British Ministry of Information hit on King —
Henry V. rather than some other of Shakespeare’s dramas, tragis,
comic or historical? The reason is simple to anyone who has studied

. history and knows the reason for the
Patriotism « fa BMI

existence for the British Ministry of

Information. In 1887, Engels wrote
an introduction to a pamphlet by Sigismund Borkheim, He stated
there what he thought would be the consequences of just such
a war as we have seen twice during the present century. Among
other conclusions was this one: “. . . breakdown of the old states
and their traditional state wisdom, so that dozens of royal crowns.
will be rolling on the pavement with nobody to be found to pick
them: up; . : ;

This is precisely what has happened. There are few kings left.
Monarchy as a political institution is passing into the historical
discard. Where it still persists, it needs a political blood trans-
fusion, That is one of the reasons why King Henry V. was
produced for the screen at the request of the British Ministry
of Information. Our boys and girls are to have a shot in the
arm from Shakespeare, so they will holler more lustily the old
familiar ballad they have: been mumbling for two hundred years. -

Along with that the English people are changing, particularly
the English workers. The type of Englishman whose knowledge of

_ France was confined to the names of a few battlefields where “we”

beat the French, like Poitiers, Cressy and Agincourt, is also passing |
to the historical discard. The narrow, chauvinistic nationalism that —
grew out of the insularity and ignorance of their Island is ebbing
supplanted by a spirit of internationalism. So to maintain class
rule, the chauvinism of the past has to be revived and that is an-
other purpose of this movie, King Henry V. =
. One scene in the picture shows the preparations in the French

camp on the morning of the battle of Agincourt. Sheerlegs cranes
with blocks and tackle complete, stand in the foreground. As each
of the chivalrous warriors of France has his armor fastened on
him, he is hoisted up by the tackle, his warhorse is backed under -
him and he is lowered into the saddle. Strange but true! :

‘That scene is followed by a switch to the English camp; King
Henry, dressed in full armor, after making an appeal to every
Englishman to do his duty, takes a short run up a ramp and
vaults into the saddle, as light and frisky as any western cowhand.
Being a puissant Englishman, an English king to boot, he is much
superior to those pussilanimous Frenchmen who have to be hoisted »
into the saddle with the aid of a bull block. ; : ;

In driving home this message of patriotic nationalism a great
deal of the point would have been iost if the play had been pro-
duced as Shakespeare wrote it; so the director deleted one of the
scenes. How Shakespeare would would have liked that we do not —
know, but if the same freedom had been taken with Shaw, we would ~
be able to hear his protests as far from London as Vancouver. .

In the scene deleted, three members of the English nobility are
discovered to have been engaged in a conspiracy with the French
king to bring about the defeat of their own army and are turned _
over to the hangman to be hung, drawn and quartered. The de- |

letion of that incident was not without purpose and leaving it out

was a distortion of Shakespeare. :
To leave it in the picture would have been a bad knock to the
purpose of the British Ministry of Information. It would have
shown that the leaders are not all as patriotic as the BMI desires
the people to be,
Such is King Henry V., the best picture of the year; artistically,
beautiful; tecnically, perfect; politically, rotten.

: FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1947