The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 32

THE EVENING CITIZEN A Division of the Sourham Published at 136 Sparks St. OTTAWA. Friday, November 15, 1946. Editorials Filming The Canadian Scene By Charles J. Woodsu orth Article 1 The Films Wc Sec The important role of the National Film Board in developing a greater awareness of Canada both at home and abroad is emphasized in an article published on this page, the first of two.

As is to be expected, not all of the Board's productions attain the degree of excellence hoped for. But by and large the standard is exceedingly high; witness the warm reception these Canadian-made films receives in other lands. On that score it may be pointed out that the exchange of films, which are a potent educational medium, fits well into the program projected for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. That program rests, of course, on a reciprocal basis, and while a fair number of films from France are shown in French Canada, little opportunity exists thus far for the exhibition in this country of films from such countries as Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Sweden or India. This lack of opportunity hinges to some extent on the same factor which to date prevents the wider distribution of National Film Board films in Canada itself.

This is the tie-ups within the commercial film industry, centered in the United States and Great Britain, which result in keen competition for "outlets" or theaters in which to show the products of Hollywood and London studios. National Film Board productions, such as the "Canada Carries On" series, are given regular release in some 300 or more theaters across the Dominion. These and other films also attain considerable circulation among private groups such as schools, colleges, churches, farm organizations, Y.M.C men's and women's clubs, and cooperatives. They are also shown to industrial workers in trade unions and factories as well as to white-collar office staffs. But there are many theaters apart from the 300-odd which could use the films and would, if sufficient local pressure were brought on them.

Theater managers, it may be observed, are quite sensitive to such pressure from groups within their own community, and most of them have a lively sense of their relations to the community they serve. By taking an interest in the programs presented, service clubs, boards of trade, educational authorities and other bodies interested in public welfare could do much to induce theater managers to show the kind of films which would make the greatest contribution to the communities' interests. beauty parlor. You should does the job herself!" about 670. The two objectives which the Film Board considers its main responsibilities have already been outlined: first, an interpretive job within Canada which will be a contribution to the common understanding cf the peoples within this Dominion and thus a contribution to national unity: secondly, the presentation of the Canadian scene ia all its vai led aspects to thev world at large.

In pursuit of the first-named purpo.se. the Board distributes a very large output of films, amounting currently to some 250 per year, through a bewildering variety of outlets and in all provinces. These films include such widely-known and regular productions as the "Canada Carries On" series, and "World In Action." They include also films on a host of subjects of specialized or general information on technical, educational and cultural topics. In the main the Board selects what subjects it considers suitable and desirable for filming. But it welcomes the suggestions and cooperation of all groups in Canada, and its final productions are subject, if necessary, to review by federal government authorities.

In that respect, however, the Board enjoys a wide and necessary measure of freedom. And on the other aspect, that of cooperating with other groups, it is noteworthy that a few months ago the Canadian Education Association appointed a committee to advise the Board in respect to the production of a series of films on matters of Canadian interest for the use of schools across Canada. This committee will assist in determining the themes and the treatment of several series of films on Canada's human and natural resources and on the many relationships which make for the creation of a well-knit and healthy Canadian community. Distribution in the international field has been touched on. As in the national field, the intricacies here are far too complex to more than mention.

Some part of the Board's films on international themes Is handled through world-wide organizations such as United Artists Corporation, which among others distributes the "World In Action" series. Apart from commercial arrangements. National Film Board productions are used abroad in two important ways. In the first place, all Canadian embassies, legations, high commissioners' and trade commissioners' offices are equipped with libraries of Canadian films and the necessary projection equipment for their exhibition. The second 'channel which offers great opportunities for spreading abroad the knowledge of Canada is through educational media.

Recently, for example, at the request of the United Kingdom Ministry cf Education the National Film Board has undertaken to adapt a group of films for ti5 in the schools in Britain, and to provide also as a further assistance in the field cf visual education a series of film strips, photographic sets and teachers' manuals. There is no limit to the possible extension of this particular sort of material produced by the National Film Board. Experience gained In this latest transaction will make it possible to arrange for the distribution of films and other visual media suited to the needs of schools in all other countries cf the British Commonwealth. the United States and in foreign countries generally. One year ago Canada's National Film Board entered into an agreement with an important film distributing company in Mexico, Clasa-Films Mundiales, for the release on a regular monthly basis of Spanish language films produced by the Board.

So favorable has been the reception accorded these Canadian-made films that the one-year agreement has now been renewed for three years. In addition there is currently in effect another arrangement with an affiliated company called Peliculas Mexi-canas for monthly distribution of a series of films throughout all the other countries of Latin America in the. Spanish and Portuguese languages. This development is typical of the way in which Canada's Film Board productions on a merit basis are pushing their way out into the world today. Apart from the Board's regular English and French language films which are distributed through a complex network of agencies throughout Britain, France, the United States and other countries, it illustrates the possibility of arranging for the distribution of National Film Board productions on a regional and linguistic basis in many lands with whom Canada maintains or hopes to maintain in the future extensive trade and cultural relations.

The Mexican example illustrates also how the Film Board is carrying out half of the two-fold obligation imposed upon it by the National Film Act. passed by the Dominion Parliament in 1939; that of distributing Canadian Goveern-ment films abroad. The other half of its duties is described by the act thus: "to produce and distribute national films designed to help Canadians in all parts of Canada to understand the ways of living and the problems of Canadians in all parts." Specifically how the Board is achieving this second objective, which implies also the development of a national consciousness, will be described in a second article. The immediate purpose is to outline the structure of the Board and the scope of its activities insofar as they relate to its two main functions. As indicated, the Board was set up in 1939.

Its formation was not related to the advent of the war but represented the culmination of a long-felt need for a national organization which would coordinate within a single unit the scattered activities of various existing departmental film-making bodies. Its first commissioner was Mr. John Grierson, famed Scottish-born producer of documentary films, who prepared the report on which Canada's Film Act was based, and who resigned a year ago to engage in making films privately. The present acting commissioner is Mr. Ross McLean, who in 1936, as private secretary to Mr.

Vincent Massey, Canada's high commissioner to Ijondon, prepared a pioneer study looking to this development in Canada. Mr. McLean has been with the Board since the start. In its widespread ramifications the Film Board is a considerable organization. Its personnel comprises quite an extraordinary range of skilled and talented folk, some of whom are technical experts, others artists, others literary people of no small ability.

As befits also a bilingual country the staff includes both English and French-speaking members, plus a few experts in other languages. Its numbers fluctuate somewhat according to the season and to the demands of the moment, the present staff totalling Labor Warns Of War A of a few dozen back-bench members or the Labor party in the United Kingdom House of Commons against Mr. Attlee's government is not likely to overthrow it. The like Mark Twain's death, is greatly exaggerated. The issue, one of foreign policy, is however of great significance.

It is nothing less than the world danger involved in the clash of Marxian Socialism as professed and practised In Soviet Russia and finance-capitalism as endorsed by the vast majority of the people of the United States. The misunderstandings and frictions inherent in these rival systems, as the British labor critics see it, may readily provoke war some day. Consequently, in the hope of preventing such a calamity, the back-bench labor members, in an amendment to the Speech from the Throne, demand official support "for all nations and groups" striving to secure "lull Socialist planning and control of the world's resources." By such a policy, they hope to provide a constructive and peace-bringing alternative to "an otherwise inevitable conflict between American capitalism and Soviet Communism" a conflict which would undoubtedly "destroy all hope of world government." That the Labor minority attacking the Attlee Cabinet's present foreign policy, reads the world-situation aright, anyone who has attended the United Nations gatherings at New York of late can verify for himself. But evidently the Prime Minister and his colleagues do not think this a suitable moment for the British Parliament to say so. Hence their rebukes to their over-urgent colleagues.

Letter And Spirit In Law A proposal for a committee of the two Houses of Parliament to meet with representatives of the provinces and draw up a comprehensive Bill of Rights" for the citizens of this Dominion, will be made r.ext session by Mr. John Diefenbaker, K.C., Progressive-Conservative member who last session put forward an amendment to the Canadian citizenship bill to the same effect. In his new measure, Mr. Diefenbaker would have Canadians ensured such "inalienable rights" as freedom of religion, cf speech, of the press and radio, freedom under constitutional safeguards and freedom under Habeas Corpus. If the House of Commons agrees to the appointment of such a committee and there is every reason why it should then the scope of its inquiries into Canada's existing freedoms and how best they may be preserved, ought to be wide enough to include the use of orders-ln-council and the rights of suspected persons detained under them.

Also, in devising a written code of citizens' rights, the committee should examine into the evolution of British laws cn which Canadian conceptions of justice, equity and liberty are founded. That body of law is largely unwritten. It has grown out of a mixture of custom, tradition, public opinion, ecclesiastical and Reman law and out of the case law laid down over the centuries by eminent judges. On the whole it has worked well in the countries of the British Commonwealth, safeguarding the citizen's liberties efficiently and affording him redress when they have been infringed. Now, if that law is to be reduced to formal legal language and codified, as has been done in the new French constitution, then extraordinary care must be taken that the immemorial spirit of it is not lost.

In law, as in theology, "the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." Political Bookkeepin Considerable surprise has been occasioned by the undertaking of the Dominion Government, in its new taxation agreement with Saskatchewan, to reduce I to approximately $36,000,000 the owed in treasury bills by the prairie government to the Dominion. Commentators like the Montreal Gazette who in this a certain amount of political wooing of Saskatchewan's C.C.F. regime by Mr. Kings rather delicately-poised administration arc no doubt right to a degree. But there is another side to the picture; that of a C.C.F.

government which refus-ed to come to terms on any new taxation agreement unless Mr. Ilsley was willing to include at least partial settlement of an old Saskatchewan grievance. This was the matter of Saskatchewan's seed grain bills; debts incurred by the provincial government, then Liberal, in the 'thirties to enable Saskatchewan's drought-ridden wheat growers to buy seed. No difficulty was fcund by the provincial administration of that era to secure postponement of payment of these seed grain bills. When, however, the C.C.F.

government took office, the Dominion (for reasons most readers can guess) insisted on immediate repayment; and when this was net forthcoming held up the subsidy due Saskatchewan under the wartime financial arrangement with the provinces. After much wrangling, the subsidy was finally paid and a certain adjustment made in the debt. But the C.C.F. government stuck to its contention that the seed grain outlay resulted from a national calamity, and that Saskatchewan could not be expected to foot the entire bill. Under present circumstances the Dominion has seen the light, and Saskatchewan, helped also by the Dominion's fond hepe of securing taxation agreements with other provinces, has finally won its point.

President Truman has proposed that the United Nations draw up a code of nfTences against the peace and security of mankind to establish as international law the judgments of the Nuernberg trials. Le tiers From Citizen Readers Letters to appear in this column must be signed for pubheatien with true signatures of the writers "It's cheaper to send her to a see her room after she Palestine Immigration Facts and figures showing growth of Jewish Population. Despite the steps taken by the French and other European governments in response to the request made by the United Kingdom governemnt some months ago to check the movement of would-be Jewish immigrants from Europe to Palestine it continues to grow. The traffic is carried on by its organizers without regard for the safety or future of the would-be immigrants themselves. If they get far, they are intercepted by the Royal Navy in the "'era Iterra-iean and transposed to Cyprus for detention.

Jewish immigration has long been the chief issue in tine. The legi.1 may be summarised approximately as fo'lows. Firstly, Britain was formally given responsibility for the government of Palestine by the League of Nations Mandate in 1923 at the wish of the Zionists. Secondly, this responsibility included the supervision of immigration, which proved from the outset to be fundamental. Thirdly, the terms of the Mandate (as of the Balfour Declaration of 1917) provided for the establishment of a "national home" in Palestine for the Jewish people "without prejudice to the rights of other communities" in that country.

This directive has never been interpreted to imply unlimited Jewish immigration. The results of the immigration policy carried out by the Palestine government under the United Kingdom government are shown by statistics. Jewish immigration for the years 1920 to 1931 amounted to 114,000, for 1932 to 1936, 172,000, for 1937 to 1945, 82,000. The total for the 25 years is 368,000. The parallel increase of the Jewish as compared with the Arab population of Palestine during the same period as a result of the natural increase of the population, coupled with Jewish immigration is shown as follows: population in 1922 was Arabs 600,000, Jews 84,000.

In 1931 the Arabs were 760.000, and the Jews 174,000. In 1944 the Arabs were 1,179,000 and the Jews 554.000 The ratio of Arabs to Jews thus fell from 7 to 1 in 1922 to 2 to 1 in 1944. Toward the end of the Second World War, alter Britain had held the mandate for 22 years a notable increase in the proportion of Jewish to Arab inhabitants of Palestine had taken place. The entry of Jews had risen from modest proportions in the 'twenties to a peak figure for the years 1932 to 1936 the first five years of the Nazi persecution in Germany. This great influx of Jews gave rise to a serious wave of Arab violence during the years 1936 to 1939.

In this situation the United Kingdom government White Paper of 1939 laid down the final immigration quota of 75,000 Jews (25,000 refugees and 10,000 yearly for five years). This quota was exhausted last December, but the Palestine government has since then admitted a monthly quota of 1500 as an interim arrangement pending a settlement of the whole Palestine problem. This interim policy is condemned both by the Arabs on the ground that it is a departure from the White Paper and by the Zionists who are openly pursuing a policy of organized illegal immigration. This organized illegal traffic is accompanied by terrorism inside Palestine itself. The foregoing should illuminate some of the difficulties with which the United Kingdom Mandatory is faced ill Palestine.

Twilight When evanescent youth has gone And fleeing years their claims present Without due lenity, When deep'ning shades eclipse the dawn The spirit strong shall not resent The season's penalty. And mourners then fh vain shall grieve; A doleful thought can but awake A tearful memory. No wish so ardent can retrieve A blissful moment from the wake Of past eternity. Why forfeit thus a sprightly charm That barely felt we must remit? Faith! Life is mystery, Emboldening only to disarm Yet ever binding mortal wit To. its sagacity.

Now as the scenes of life unfold. The pulse that rules out every sense Checks its intensity, But fruitful years rich blessings hold For age can find its recompense In wise serenity. ALBERT POTVIN Ottawa. Fewer Hops Produced Livestock officials are concerned that Canada may not be able to hold the British bacon market if the present downward trend in hog production continues. Farm and Ranch Review, Calgary.

Once Over Lightly "Who can remember," a columnist asks, "when a fellow could have a lot of fun on a dollar?" A dollar, he says! Son, we used to have a bar'l of fun on 15 cents. But not lately. Sir Alex Maxwell is over in the USA, in search of tobacco for Britain. He should come up the Gatineau with us, and see how we grow our own. Radio networks are threatened with a strike of their "artists." And if some of them stay out for keeps, we'll love it.

"Most birds are silent when they travel," Toronto Star says. Excepting, of course, those birds who perch in the smoking compartment. 0 New York Herald-Tribune speaks of "apple dumplings ruined by lemon sauce." And you can spoil good baked beans with that other exotic stuff, molasses. Mind your head when putting up double windows. You could get a pane in the neck.

A western paper remarks that "too much food for thought these days is served in pre-digested form." True, perhaps, but on the other hand a lot of it comes in a form not readily digested at all. Russia is reported to have recently reduced its bread ration. We don't get it! The editor of Pravda seems to have just ns much crust as ever. The American Magazine has an article on "It's Easy to Get Rich in Canada." Isn't that rich! "When we buy parts for our machinery," grouses the Charlottetown Patriot, "we have to sign a slip from Ottawa that these parts are to be used in the process of getting out the Patriot. What do they think we are going to do with them stuff a chicken?" No, but there's always the chance that an editor might stuff a sock with them, a dangerous weapon when throwing his weight around.

Pointing out that though there is plenty of wine in bond in Britain there are no bottles to bottle it in, Manchester Guardian suggests that people who want wine should "go for it with their own bottles." But perhaps the people are just as hard up for bottles as the bottlers are. Could they not be permitted to visit the vendor's and "go for it" straight from the vat? Or would that be infra dig? But anyway, ain't we resourceful The Nanton, Alberta, News, which we never heard of before and it probably never heard of us either wonders why girls "wear their pant-legs rolled to half mast." We are just as much in the dark about that as the News is, but before changing the subject we should like to point out that it is most ungallant to liken the feminine leg to a mast. "Shank" is better. T.D.F. Little Cenn Ma was reeding her mail at breakfist, saying to pop, Oh dear, here's an answer from Jeen Nittjacker.

Isn't she the snooty person that the rest of the crowd didn't, want at the class reunion till they found out that her husband is a big holesale meat deeler? poo said, and ma said. Well yes, but you can hardly blame us. I mean if we could garantee to serve a genuine fillay steak to every one present, the attendance would break all records and it would be quite a red feather in my cap as Chairman of the Committy. But unfortunately I had already been egged on to send Jeen Nittjacker a rather chilly letter of invitation which she promptly rejected in no uncertain tones, ma said. Then how the dooce could you ask her again? pop said, and ma said.

Well, it took considerable thought and planning, but finally I sent her one of the regular engraved invitations with a special personcl poem in my own handwriting, saying, "To have you at the reunion. Is each one's dearest wish. The menu is distinctive From socp to nuts it's fish." I thought the part about the fish was very clever, because it woul.i tend to give her the idea that we were interested only in her, rather than in her husband's meat. And here's her answer, also in the form of a poem. I'll read it to yon.

ma said. Which she did, being, "To attend your reunion I have no wish, I'm sure it will be a mess, But just in case you find me there. Send my body to the following address." And then she meerly adds her home address and sines her name. Do you suppose she means to imply that we can only get her there over her own dead body? ma said, and pop said. That's what I read between the lines.

And he left for his office, ending the Australia's Defence Aid Australia Intends to make a larger contribution to the defence of the British Commonwealth in the Pacific. This has been made clear in the opening speeches of the new Australian Parliament, which has Just assembled. The Canberra correspondent of The Times of London, reports that it is felt in Australia that Great Britain sadly underestimates the Australian eagerness to devise means of consultation and planning enabling her to make such a contribution. It might in fact be claimed for Australia that in late years the initiative in proposing closer integration of the Commonwealth for defence has largely been hers. It is no secret that the lack of interest in these proposals among other Commonwealth governments has been most disappointing to Canberra.

The late Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, suggested at a meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers in May, 1944, that the conferences of Prime Ministers be supplemented by the meetings of other Dominion ministers and officials to discuss various technical matters. This proposal was taken under consideration by the other Prime Ministers, but nothing came of it. An important step was taken by Australia when the High Commissioner in London was appointed to the British War Cabinet, with the right to be heard in the formulation and direction of policy. If the Curtin proposal Is ever acted upon, then the present Australian High Commissioner, Mr.

Beasley, will be appointed, not to the War Cabinet which no longer exists, but to the new Defence Committee of the British government which is about to be set up. The present Prime Minister of Australia. Mr. Chifley, this year outlined explicit plans for the share of Commonwealth defence which his government is ready to undertake in the Pacific. Australia is ready to co-opt the High Commissioners of the United Kingdom and New Zealand to her council of defence, and the heads of the British and New Zealand service missions to her committee of service chiefs, when matters affecting those countries are discussed.

Australia also wants to have representation upon comparable councils in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. British and American statesmen recently protested to the Soviet commandant in Berlin against the deportation of German technicians to Russia. But the Soviet commandant has been able to justify his action, somewhat to their amazement, by quoting a little-known Allied Control Council proclamation of September 20, 1945. Signed by Gen. Elsenhower, Field Marshal Montgomery, General de Lattre de Tassigny, and Marshal Zhukov, it authorizes the use of German labor for repair and reconstruction "in Germany or elsewhere." A private conferclice of representatives from Socialist parties from 19 countries, including Canada, has just been held in Bournemouth, England.

Substantial progress was made towards the establishment of permanent international Socialist contacts, and the eventual admission of the German Social Democratic party was approved in principle. Thanks From Maniwaki Editor. Citizen: The following copy cf a resolution was adopted by the municipal council at its sitting of Monday, October 21. Whereas this council has taken cognizance with interest of the article published ia The Evening Citizen of Saturday, Oct. 19.

last, written by V. A. Bower. Citizen Fish, and Game Editor, and entitled "Mud and Millionaires Mix in Be it resolved that this council wishes to congratulate Mr. Bower on his magnificent outline of the situation of the village and to thank him very sincerely.

Adopted. PALMA JOANIS. Corpn. of Village cf Mniwaki, Que. Maniwaki.

P.Q., Oct. 22. 1946. Ashamed Of Ottawa Editor, Citizen: What would you say if. you, on Remembrance Day, had to force your way up to our Canadian War Memorial, to place a wreath, and no sooner was it placed than people pushed you from view of it? This is what happened to a group cf representatives from Mexico.

I was so ashamed of our Canadian people. Children were climbing all over the monument and no one was able to see the floral tributes properly. Moreover. Mexico's tribute was not even mentioned in the newspapers. Mrs.) H.

POPKIN Ottawa. Nov. 13. 1946. The man that once did sell the lion's skin While the beast lived was killed with hunting him.

Shakespeare, Henry IT Today's Bible Message mi (From the Authorized Version And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee: and went up into a mountain, and sat down there-And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed -to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel. iMatt. 15: 29-31.) And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha. that is. Be opened.

And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue uas loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, to much the more a great deal they published it: and were beyond measure astonished, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. (Mark 7: 32. 34-37.) In Defence Of IYaneo Editor, Citizen: The Dean of Canterbury may be the most sincere person on earth, but that does not prove that he is right about Communism. Sincerity is no guarantee of truth.

Concerning a publication of that naive enthusiast of Soviet Russia, a well-known author said that "one cannot but be struck by the goodness of the Dean's heart and by the strangeness of his mind." Reviewing one of the Dean's books, 'International AtTairs' March. 1943) commented on his inaccuracies "not all of which can be attributed to careless proof-reading." It is strange that those who accuse Franco, never have a disparaging word to say about Stalin, Tito and their like, besides whom Franco is but a dwarf. It seems to me that the Communist sympathizers should see the beam in their own eye, before complaining of the mote in their neighbor's eye. Such a sanctimonious and Pharisaical scandal, presumably provoked by Franco, is simply sickening. In defending the Spanish ruler.

I am not exonerating him for everything he does, but I contend that the Communists and their fellow-travellers are the last people on earth who should accuse him: Before gloating over the financial distress of Spain, it should be remembered that its gold reserve was stolen by the Communists, and that Spain is much more sinned against than sinning. You are quite right in saying that "the indictment of Franco as a danger to world peace may be difficult," and you are right also in describing the philosophy of Communists as "based upon disruption" and in pointing to their "wish to destroy," their use of "dishonest means," their "unwillingness to cooperate." their demand for "freedoms which they will not concede to others," and their attempts to "jam doctrines based on force down the throats of countries, which primarily believe in democratic institutions." I was not a little surprised and pleased to see these statements in your editorial column. HENRI SAINT-DNIS Ottawa. Nov. 9.

1946. "Fake A Child To Churcir Editor, Citizen: I believe there are many that will join me in complimenting you on the page in your Saturday edition "Take a child to church this Sunday." At such a time when many hearts will be tender in remembrance of those who gave their lives in the last three wars, and also of those who still live and suffer the consequences of war. Such a dramatic picture must be influential in drawing many to the source of all comfort and peace. It also speaks through the intellectual understanding of all people who are looking and longing for lasting peace. The broad-mindedness in the suggestion makes it inspirational to the people of all denominational beliefs.

CHARLES GOULD i Buckingham, T.Q., Nov. 10, 1946. I.