ie

EVENTY Canadians,

among them representa-

tives of trade unions, cultural organizations, church groups and universities, have just returned home after a trip thousands ef young peo- Ple hearing them tell of their experiences will envy. For theirs was no ordinary tour— they attended the World Youth Festival at Prague, and took part in the building of the Youth Railroad in Yugoslavia, being accorded “Highest Recognition” by the People’s Youth Organization of Yugoslavia for their work. The story of how they came to make their trip, what they saw in Europe and the conclusions they drew is told in their own statement, as given in abbbreviated form here, Eh . T the beginning of this year, the Canadian Committee of the World Federation of Demo- Cratic Youth invited young b€ople’s groups throughout the Dominion to’ send delegates or Observers to the World Youth Festival. In addition, those who so de- sired were registered for recon- struction work in Czechoslovakia, Or Yugoslaviva. Individual young people could also come privately observers to the Youth Festi- val and volunteer for reconstruc- tion work in Europe through the Offices of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. A special invitation meanwhile had gone out from the People’s Youth of Yugoslavia to a Yugo- Slay student at the University of McGill asking that a group of Students visit Yugoslavia. The McGill students, in accepting the invitation, attempted to organize & group of students representa- tive of every section of campus life and opinion. This group, in turn, determined to spend some time at the Youth Festival en Toute to Yugoslavia. — The other major group at the Festival besides the students was the delegation of the National ¥ ederation of Labor Youth, These Young people also elected to go to Yugoslavia, and had made « initial ‘arrangements to work on ~ the saan gmt Youth ey

| il C amaze ql

Yu-Hsiang by W. A. Hunton:

by Rob. F. Hall

Here 24 “year-old Homer Stevens,

The Beaver Brigade

does a job for peace

‘organizer for the United

Travel conditions are inordinate- ly difficult. Housing is at a pre- mium. Clothing is scarce. We shared these difficulties with them in a very real way and came to appreciate how hard these conditions are.

But when we saw the astound- ing amount that had been done in the building of new: factories, buildings, roads and bridges, we realized why these people could retain their tremendous enthusi- asm while accepting the hard- ships for the time being. We

ourselves became _ enthusiastic about our own particular con- tribution.

While the Beaver Brigade was still in Yugoslavia. some of our members received letters from home enclosing newspaper clip- pings and reports of newspaper stories, allegedly giving informa- tion about the activities of the brigade both in Czechoslovakia ‘and Yugoslavia. One report pub- lished by an Ontario newspaper claimed that the Canadians had gone on “monster military man- euvers with the Czechoslovak army” and suggested that we be investigated by the RCMP on our return to Canada. Another report, based on a letter home from a Canadian working on the Youth Railroad, emphasized only the hardships of working on the railroad and applied them to working conditions throughout

Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union in this province, is shown at the recent World Youth Festival in Prague. Stevens was elected leader of the Beaver Brigade formed by members of the Canadian

Yugoslavia. Still another, a Que- bee newspaper, spoke darkly of spies being recruited among the

Yugoslavia.

aga

i fc qo ESE INIEN SS

Friday, October 31, 1947. -

Hush-hush at Lake Success aes

Byrnes. reveals aim ‘of Marsh

youth delegation.

These two groups met with

other Canadian young people at

the Festival where they decided to form one brigade to go %o Homer Stevens, 24- year-old Vancouver organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Worker’s Union, was named commander. @

HE majority of the 93 Cana- T dians at Prague attended the first two weeks of the. World Youth Festival, thus representing one of the 71 countries which sent delegations.

The Festival was sponsored by the World Federation of Demo- cratic Youth, representing a membership of some 48,000,000 young people throughout the world, which has recently been granted consultative status by the UN. :

Altogether, some 85,000 young people attended the Festival, taking part in, or just observing, national competitions, ballets and concerts, art exhibitions and athletic events.

The Canadian contnibution to the Festival consisted of a con- cert of music by Canadian com- posers, an exhibition and 13 documentary films supplied by the National Film Board. Music for the concert was played by a Czech orchestra conducted by Ivan Romanoff of Toronto. The program included music by Har- ry Somers, John J. Weinsweig, Robert Fleming, all of Toronto, and Barbara Pentland of Winni- peg. The music was well receiv- ed by the audience and obtained good notices in the Czech press.

The Canadian exhibition was

held in the exhibition Brounen of

aN Pa Hy WS

ING

Why I can no longer keep silent An interview with Marshal Feng

all plan —

_-work on the railroad, _ of the Canadian group was dec-

Prague, and included paintings, architectural drawings, child art, a section depicting some phases of Canadian student life, a mural depicting the Canadian war effort, a large map of Can- ada showing Canada’s industrial potential, and a section devot+ ed to the National Federation of Labor Youth.

EN members of the Canadian

delegation who had arrived in Prague before the start of the Festival spent a week at Litvi- nov inthe Sudetenland where they did reconstruction work, clearing land for the erection of miners’ homes. This handful of Canadians was honored with spe- cial merit badges rarely given save after a half year of out- standing work, but the ten had earned their awards within the days they were at this camp,

The brigade which went to Yugoslavia embraced this small unit which had worked at Lit- vinov and adopted its name, the Beaver Brigade. :

In Yugoslavia, the Beaver Bri- gade worked on the Youth Rail- road for three weeks in August. The railroad is being built in Central Bosnia, generally re- garded as the most backward province of Yugoslavia. Its pur pose is to facilitate the better distribution of coal and mineral

resources which are found in that part of Bosnia and to help

raise the living standards of the people of that district.

Owing to Yugoslavia’s lack of machinery such as_ bulldozers, steam shovels, rollers and. the like, most of the work on the railroad is being done by the most earth is picked and shoveled, then carried by wheelbarrow and tamped by hand. Some 80,000 youth are constantly at work on the 150-mile stretch of rail- road and in spite of the old- fashioned manner of building, the deadline for completion is November 29, seven months after the first shovel was filled.

At the conclusion of their several

crated with thu. “Udarnik” or “shock. worker” medal, signifying that they had done exceptional work. They’ were: Ray Afflek, Montreal; Eddy Guizetti, Nana-

imo; Bess Maltinsky, Montreal;

primitive methods. The

Canadians in Yugoslavia.

; While the falsity of such re- Max‘ Martin, Vancouver;

‘ Jean-'- ports is so extreme as to’ be Paul Mousseau, Montreal; Hom- ridiculous, it is hoped that the er Stevens, Vancouver; Mary above brief statement will help

Zaharuk, Peterborough. to give a more accurate picture e of the activities of the Canadian : group in Europe.

We attended the Festival to - meet the youth of many coun- tries in order that a better basis for understanding and friendship might be created. We wanted to ‘see the best manifestations of national cultures possible. We hoped that within the limits of our combined capabilities we could represent Canadian youth ~ and depict Canadian culture to young people in every corner of the globe. Finally, and most im- ‘portant, we hoped that we would be making a positive contribu- tion to world peace.

In this last point we see not only our purpose but the purpose of the Festival itself.

“To. the youth of other coun: tries we represented Canada and the diverse racial, religious and political composition of our dele- — gation allowed a fair picture of Canada’s many-sided life. We are proud of ourselves as Canadians; we are confident that what we did helped to increase the stature of our young country.

URING their visit to Yugo-

slavia members. of the Beay-- er .Brigade were treated to a two week tour of the country as the guests of the 2,000,000- strong People’s Youth aaa ment. d

Here are some of our impres- sions:

We found a great deal of enthusiasm among the Yugoslav youth. They were proud of the 59-mile long Breke-Ranovici line that they had built last year. They were even more proud of the Samac-Sarajevo line. They worked very hard, yet they al- ways found time and energy to sing and dance.

Our -presence there was a personal assurance to them that the youth of Canada wants friendship and peace. They as- sured us by their warm-hearted reception that this was what they wanted too. We saw what sacrifices the people are making in order to rebuild their country. Food, while plentiful, is plain.

Yugoslavia today

yd Bs Yugoslavia, alone of the countries I visited on this tour, “| _&there‘is no unemployment, no black market, no inflation... .

All the Allied observers I met there agreed that the government | was giving a constructive leadership . . . UNRRA has given * Tito a public clean bill of health for the way in which he * distributed supplies for the general welfare and ‘reconstruc- a tion. . The Tito government’s five year plan is said to

_ be a model of ‘farsighted planning by. our observers... .. . . Tito z= could still easily carry the vast majority in any free election. .

“Coming from Greece, where no stone has been put on top of another since the war, it was amazing to see Yugoslavia. I passed through village after village ‘that had been virtually

erased from the map. Yet, there was not a ruin to be seen: - » Every house was either repaired or completély rebuilt. Though the capital city—Belgrade—was subjected to a vicious Nazi | ‘bombing it's hard today to believe that war. ever struck | an

“It's true of Yugoslavia—and- it is about the only European’: country of -which you can say it—that reconstruction has © _ finished. _All that is going on now is a new-construction. ‘Day: by day. you can watch new concrete highways: inching across” _the. backwoods countryside; ‘new Trailways are being ‘laid; new — factories are. coming under..construction in the suburbs of © the cities. .The pace.is almost dizzying, after seeing western Europe.”—From a aries tase A Howard K..Smith, CBS corre- _ spondent in Europe.