‘made the reply.

‘Is there, for
honest poverty’

This is Earl Robinson’s music for Robert Burns’ famous poem
A Man’s a Man For A’ That, It was composed 10 years ago and is
reproduced from the January issue of Sing Out, magazine of Peo-
-ple’s Artists, Inc., 799 Broadway, New York City.

SPONSORED BY NEW FRONTIERS

Burns Night celebration
outstanding success

AFTER A three-year lapse, the
Burhs Night celebration .held in
Hastings Auditorium last Satur-
day proved to be one of the most
successful affairs sponsored by the
progressive movement in this city
during recent years.

Around 100 people sat down to

} _ a supper prepared by Mrs. Betty

Griffin and Mrs, E. Strachan after
Alec Chalmers had piped in the
haggis and Bill Stewart, who pre-

‘sided, had proposed the toast. Bill

Stewart also proposed the toast to
the lassies and Mrs. Kay Edwards

Tom McEwen, an_ associate

editor of New Frontiers, sponsors.

of the affair, gave the address to

the Immortal Memory, comparing.

Robert Burns’ part insthe people’s

struggles with the people’s strug-

gles of today.

Heather Macdonald and Bever-
ley Johnson of: Al Gallaher’s
Studio received an ovation for
their two Highland dances, the
Shean Trews and the Highland
Fling, performed with precision
and verve. Margaret Rudkevich
drew an equally enthusiastic re-
sponse for her singing of Loch
Lomond. :

The evening was concluded with
square dancing and a spontaneous
entertainment program contribut-

-ed to by members of the gather;

ing.

(PO. O

t

‘TURKEY
DINNER AND
DANCE |
_ 6.30-8.00 — 8.30-12.00
SATURDAY -
JANUARY 31

UKRAINIAN HALL
805 E. Pender

Guest Speaker
- LESLIE MORRIS
: Admission $1.25

Sen enter my subscription to CHAMPION for one year
for which I enclose the sum of one dollar.

CHEQUE

‘ .
<> Seige STEP TA VET CEE re ee

‘

Send to ‘CHAMPION, Room 200, Ford Building
Vancouver 4, B.C. |

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Biography reveals Harold Laski
as British Labor's split mind

THE LATE Harold Laski was
-probably. the greatest political
split-mind of his age.

Fundamentally he was a good
liberal. On questions of civil lib-
erty his intellect and his emotions
were at one. He also acquired
a smattering of Marxism and
sought to apply it to constitutional
questions. Here he was not so
successful. E

These facts emerge from Harold
Laski (Gollanez), the biography
by his friend, Kingsley Martin.

He would emphasise the truth
that no ruling class in history
would give up its privileges with-
out a struggle.

But at the end of the. Second
World War he was urging Prime
Minister Churchill to lead a re-
volution by consent. .

Not only did Churchill refuse,
but a few months later was par-
ticipating in the despicable politi-
cal campaign against Laski which
disgraced the 1945 -general elec-
tion. :

Few people in Britain had writ-
ten so much about the influence
of economic and class pressure ‘on
the law and on legal judgments.
Yet he took a libel action against
the Newark Observer and the
London Daily Express, which ac-
cused him of ‘advocating something
akin to bloody revolution during
the 1945 election.”

To the jury he was Labor’s Red
Bogy man, and he lost the verdict.

The action cost him a cool $60,-
000, from which he might have
drawn many lessons, including the
fact that libel actions on political
questions are decided not by the
weight of evidence but by the
political prejudices of the jury.

* * *

LASKI’S political  split-mind

was revealed in his actions imme-

}

diately after the war. Unlike many
of his Fabian colleagues, he never
discarded the conviction that the
fundamental struggle in the mod-
ern world was between capitalism
and socialism, and not, as so many
of his right wing colleagues claim-
ed, between “the free world” and
“totalitarianism.”

In his posthumously published
book, Dilemma of Our Times, he
says of the Atlantic alliance:

“What Mr. Churchill has ach-

ieved is what he failed to do in

1919-20. He has organised the

counter-revolution and brought to

°

HAROLD LASKI

its support the might of Ameri-
~ can power. ;

“Despite all his noisy thunder,
foreign policy was a realm. in
which to \Mr. Beyin, Mr. Church-
ill’s word was law. The outcome
was“his choice of a full-blooded
alliance with America the es-
sential. plans for which Mr.
Churchill drew, and the imple-
mentation of which Mr. Church-
ill really superintended.”

He was convinced that American
policy was in deadly: hostility to

MIDDLE EAST FIRST TARGET

US. State Dep artment planning :
subsidized sliching program

AN AMERICAN publishing
venture, designed to promote U.S.
policies abroad’ with secret help
from the state department, is
ready to issue books in four Mid-
dle East countries in the next few
months. The countries are Egypt,
Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

The venture, originally called a

“covert book publishing program”
by the U.S. State Depariment, be-
cause public knowledge
months ago through release of
hearings before a U.S. House of
Representatives appropriations
committee. At the time, the state
department indicated that it want-
ed to keep the American origin
and‘ financial backing for the
books secret in the cc
chosen for distribution.

AAs the project has now taken
shape, the books are to be issued
by Franklin Publications, an or-
ganization set up jointly by lead-
ing U.S. private publishers and

» the state department. President of:
Franklin Publications is Datus C.
Smith Jr., of Princeton University
Press, and some 15 leading publish-
ers in New York, Washington and

Boston have been named to the -

board of directors.

‘this month.

some >

countries .

“We have “all the money we
need. The main thing now is to
make the technical arrangements
for publication,” a representative
of Franklin Publications reported

kk road
ARRANGEMENTS for publica-
tion include having the books
printed in the countries where
they are to be distributed, not only
to give them a local imprint but

also to take advantage of cheap —

labor costs. Texts of the Am-
erican books selected will be adapt-
ed to local conditions, which ap-
parently means use of appropri-
ate phrasing and illustrations, and
avoidance of concepts which might
not be understood or appreciated
in the Middle East.

The vital Middle East is only ‘the
first target for the project. Frank-
lin Publications aims at eventual
world-wide distribution of U.S.
government subsidized books. The
Middle East publishing DRORIAN
is regarded as a test.

The purpose of the eae gov-
ernment subsidy, reported to be’.
\80° percent of the total cost, as it -
was explained in the House com-

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it Lit

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‘tively helping to prepare for the

_longer.

the advance of the working class
and of the colonial peoples.

“The American ~ government
cannot apply this policy in Asi®
because it is aware that the over
whelming mass of the population
is hostile to it both on economic
and psychological grounds. :

“To do so it would have t0
divide every people and’arm, aS
in China, the corrupt and re
actionary forces which can only
express themselves as fascist. This
is increasingly true in HKurope
and the Middle East. se :

“The Truman doctrine, as soon -
as it is seriously applied, means
the endowment with American —
-strength of all the interests which ©
seek to prevent the working class —
from winning its place. in the
sun.”

Yet the man who wrote this
went round the Socialist parties
in’ Europe in 1946-47 warning
them of the danger of associating —
with the Communists. Whether he —
intended it or not he was objec _

U.S: domination of Europe.

In this book, while admitting
the many positive achievements of ©
the Soviet Union, he then proceeds
‘to describe aspects of Soviet life”
in terms worthy of a Senator Me
Carthy.

The book is unfinished, and in-
the politically divided state of the —
author’s mind it is unlikely that
it could have been brought to any
coherent ‘conclusion:

It is plain from Martin’s bi-
ography that this dual role could
not have been sustained much
A choice was necessary, —
but before it could be made Har-
old Laski was dead.—J.R.C.

' ‘

mittee hearings, is to enable pe? —
ple in the poverty-ridden Asian
countries to buy them.» It was als?
stated in the hearings that the
U.S. books would have to compete
with the low prices of local books
and of Soviet publications distri
‘uted in Asian countries. ;

As for the themes, U.S. pub-—
lishers’ current lists afford a guide
to what the directly subsidised :
books will offer. But whether this _
cold war propaganda will have
any greater appeal to the people
of the Asian countries than the
U.S. directed: and supported hot
wars against the peoples of Kore —
Viet Nam and Malaya is some —
thing else again. 4

i

“Everything in Flowers”
FROM...

EARL SYKES

66 E. Hastings St. PA. 3855

Vancouver, B.C. a

Castle Jewelers ©

Watchmaker and

‘

(ate

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 30, 1953 — PAGE §