“Banquet’’, a Fipameoh by Joseph Hirsch. GUIDE TO GOOD READING i

Book exposes Fie as Xin U.S. project against peace

Ir YOU ONLY buy—and read —one book in the coming weeks, make it Derek Kartun’s Tito’s Plot Against the Peace. .

A masterly work, more thrill- ing than any detective thriller, it is the story of the plot of the Tito gang in Yugoslavia, under the direction of U.S. state de- partment intelligence agents, to overthrow the governments of Hungary and the other people’s democracies. It is the story told, for the first time, in one ac- count,

Kartun, a London Daily Work- er correspondent, covered the trial of Laslo Rajk, former Hun- garian foreign minister with whose exposure the ramifications of this plot were bared. In 128 exciting, easy-to-follow’ pages, Kartun takes the reader into the intrigue-ridden atmosphere of the pre-World War II Balkans,

traces the careers, as police in-,

formers and foreign spies, of Rajk and his associates.

Through the intricate pattern of European politics, down through the years of the Spanish civil war, the appeasement ‘of Hitler, World War IH, the Chur- chill-Truman plans to halt post- war social progress in Europe, the reader follows, step by step, the activities of Trotskyites, em- igre aristocrats and spies as they worked together.

And Kartun tells the sordid story of the U.S. intelligence’s ascension as “boss” to the agents who only a little while ago were serving the Nazis.

We have compared the sus- penseful skill of Kartun’s writing the the detective thrillers. But no fictional story matches the in- exorable logic of Kartun’s book, There are no “holes” in Kartun’s story. Rather, as he draws to- gether the diverse strands in the counter-revolutionary conspiracy, -Kartun makes thoroughly clear what the real truth about Tito is, how his regime fits into the pat- ‘tern of “Project, X,” the US. state department - Pentagon plan to overthrow the European de- mocracies.

eo ae

KARTUN answers the ques-—

tions some ask about Tito and Rajk and his co-conspirators:

“How was it possible that people with a record of anti-fascist struggle could so betray that rec- ord? How can one explain the abject confession of Rajk and his implication of his Yugoslav and U.S. superiors?”

He explains: “It is difficult to understand why people expected, or pretend to expect, anything but abject confession from men of this kind. What right has one to anticipate principled or con- sistent behavior in such a situa- tion from men whose lives have been nothing but inconsistency and a monstrous and total denial of principle? ... Could one ex- pect Rajk ,whose treachery dated

back to 1931, suddenly to be loyal

enough to his fellow conspirators to refuse to give them away?” As for Tito, after lucidly de- tailing the imperial British gov- ernment’s (and later, the U.S.) deals with Tito during the last war, Kartun sums up the Yugo- Slav regime with: . “Perhaps the word ‘Bonapart- ism’ is the most convenient and helpful for us in seeking to an- alyze the case of Tito. For Bona- partism means the degeneration

‘of the revolution into dictator-

ship and terror, the abandon-

ment of principles and the end- ing of freedom. This is precisely what has happened under Tito’s rule in Yugoslavia, And there is surely enough evidence even within these pages to indicate the nature of that downward progyession and its more salient and easily recognizable features.”

And it is exactly evidence which Kartun supplies, evidence drawn both from the Rajk trial, people who knew him and his associates, as well as newspapers and other sources.

Tito’s Plot Against the Peace is in the tradition of The Great Conspiracy by Sayers and Kahn, which in the same brilliantly ef- fective manner told the story of the anti-Soviet conspiracy. The Tito-Rajk plot, of course, was a continuation of the larger, still- functioning effort to destroy So- viet socialism.

Kartun’s book richly deserves the same mass audience which found The Great Conspiracy ex- citing reading and potent am- munition. Don’t miss Tito’s Plot Against the Peace, It is now on sale in a 60-cent, paper-covered edition at the People’s Cooper- ative Bookstore, 337 West Pen- Ger Street, Vancouver.

WHAT'S ON THE SCREEN

PREVIEWED at the Park this week was a British film, The Hid- den Room, starring Robert New- ton, one of Britain’s better tors.

ac- This is a who-dunit but with a difference. In this one, as know the murderer and the vic- tim, who hold long conversations

about getting away with murder.

The Hidden Room was directed

by Edward Dmytryk, one of the:

Hollywood Ten and a good job it is too. It grips your attention at all times and there is a very effective use of music throughout pointing up the drama. ,

By placing everyday actions side by side with the sinister be- havior of a murderer, the Script skillfully builds up the tension and you are never sure whether

Dmytryk directs different

the movement of the murderer will turn out to be just some single everyday act or not. The writer,

_too, has given us an adult ending.

Wone of the cast is less than competent, and in the case of Robert Newton and the two ac- tors playing the Scotland Yard Superintendent and the American the acting is excellent.

Whodunits aren’t my dish, but I consider this one of the better

ones, —GC.L, KKK

Home of the Brave.

* kk History of Mr. Polly; Quartet; ' The Heiress; Lost Boundaries; Johnny Belinda; Passport to Pimlico.

** The Hidden Room; Tell it to the Judge; Down to the Sea

MUSICAL TOILET ROLLS TOO

American ‘culture’ as

they sec it in Britain.

THIS SATIRICAL COMMENT on American ‘

‘culture’ ap-

peared in the London Daily Worker last month. The writer is Derek Kartun, whose book, Tito’s Plot Against the Peace, is reviewed on

this page.

IF SIR. STAFFORD CRIPPS stopped bothering about the

export of motor cars and whisky and concentrated on musical toilet rolls and self-propelled teeth, we might get somewhere in the Ameri-

can market.

I am driven to this conclusion as a result of a careful study of

the advertisement columns of the glossy U.S. magazines.

In these advertisements there’

is far more information about the American Way of Life and the U.S. market than is to be found in the Nibrary of Congress or the records of the National Associa- tion of Manufacturers.

Here, for the help of British manufacturers anxious to increase their dollar exports, is a glimpse of what the American public is being urged to buy.

x * *

LET US PUT IT squarely: Were you drunk last night? Is your head balanced insecurely on your shoulders while hammers pound it from within?

You were? It is?

Then have a Hangover Hat — “zippered like an ice-bag top. Ear- flaps have pockets for cotton wool. Blinders shield the eyes.”

It’s only $2.95 postpaid, and you can get it from a firm with the engaging title Bar Mart. :

Do you want to be the life and soul of the party, yet find that people never seem to notice your rather distinguished features?

You do? Then invest $2.98 in a Frankenstein Mask . Hit’s eerie.”

This fascinating little piece of equipment fits over the entire head and — if the advertisement is to be believed — is a “greenish, lifelike, terrifying likeness of the famous monster.” Lifelike?

Anyway, you can get it from Magic Center, and it is guaran- teed to be made of sanitary rub- ber.

Are we sending the American public sanitary rubber masks of British monsters? And if not, why not?

On the other hand, you may prefer to be greeted at parties with a guffaw rather than a shudder; in which case it’s the Talking Teeth for you.

This, says the advertisement, is the funniest gift ever. They Walk! They Talk! They're Alive! Just wind them up — and watch ’em Yakity-Yak. _

It appears that your friends will be in stitches and you yourself will achieve unheard-of-popularity

whodunit

‘in Ships; The Fan; Inspector Gemeral; The Red Pony; The Window; Portrait of Jenny; Sword in the Desert; Take One

False Step; Command Deci- sion; Scott of the Antarctic; Stratton Story. ;

Mrs. Mike; The Lady Takes: a Sailor; Black Magic; White Heat; Abandoned; Beyond the Forest; Prince of Foxes; I Was a Male War-Bride; Jolson Sings Again; Look for the Sil- ver Lining; The Fountainhead; Under Capricorn; Thieves’ Highway; Bride of Vangeance; Miracle of the Bells; Look Be- fore You Love. — SKIP;

Red Danube; Ranite of Iwo Jima; House of Strangers;

Red Menace; Walk a Crooked Mile,

as your Talking Teeth go Yakity- Yak across the table.

They are only one dollar and it is suggested that you buy several pairs immediately, keeping one for your private delight and sending the others to those of your friends who require cheering up.

* x *

THERE IS NO limit to the fas- cinating variety to be found in these advertisement columns.

‘If you are a man, you can have for $2.50, a pair of pants decorat- ed all over with brightly colored pictures of a wolf in a top hat, leaning against a lamp post.

“Whoooeeeee!” says the adver- tisement, unintelligibly.

Or you can acquire a gadget calling itself the Cocktail Eyeful.

This is a cocktail glass, in the bottom of which as you drain your drink can be seen “a color transparency of a girl in her birth- day suit.”

For just under $5.00 you can get a set of six — all different.

If you like variety, you can take

your gin in one of these giasses, and your beer in a Torso for Tip- plers. , Let the advertisement tell its own story: “Wow! what a full-’ bodied drink you'll serve in this tempting torso. Luscious white ceramic lass holds a potent high- ball.”

The illustration shows a hollow

torso. The price, $1.25. * * *

AND THEN THERE IS the musical toilet roll.

I apologize for mentioning this wretched contraption at all, but our exporters must face up to the problems they will encounter in the American market, and I re- gard the musical toilet roll as a problem of first-rank importance.

It is marketed by the Siesta Novelty Corporation of Miami Beach, Florida, and it is described as “perfect for your own home; charming as a gift to others.”

Let us call a spade a spade and say right out exactly what it is.

It’s a holder for a toilet roll with @ musical-box attachment. “Just pull the paper,” say Siesta Novel- ties, “and enjoy the music.”

The musical movement is guar- anteed Swiss. The price is $6.80. And I am sorry to have to tell you that the tune that it plays is “Whistle While You Work.”

You cannot blame me for this. It is the American way of life. I am simply reporting it to you.

There is a good deal more be- sides, but I fancy that go-ahead British manufacturers now have enough data-to work on.

I have tried to think up one or two suggestions for products Which could compete with the Talking Teeth and the Torso for Tipplers,

Frankly, I have had no success.

It only remains for me to add that I did find another advertise- ment which will be of distinct interest to one and. all.

It was a guaranteed remedy for nausea, and showed a life-like Picture of a man who was about LD

But never mind, We have had enough American “culture” for one morning, ;

—DEREK KARTUN.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 10, 1950—PAGE 10