*Page 41
COMMUNISM
THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1957.
AT THE CROSS ROADS
C
of the
a
OMMUNIST polley towards religion is becoming in- admission of the standing which munist regime has drawn three Orthodox important conclusions: it has re- creasingly confused and contradictory, but on the the head
Church continues to whole, it would be true to say that there is now among the Russian people. This naitonal institution, it has aban
enjoy cognised that the Church is more hope for believers behind the Iron Curtain than recognition is an isolated cle- doned the attempts to create the there has been for a long time. Gomulka's Poland has ment of realism in an otherwise
artificial
hothouse plant of a policy. The Soviet created a precedent for a new Communist approach to unrealistic
and it has reallaed the
the failure to spread wards the Church and religion. Kadar's Hungary is full rulers show little sign yet of regime-Church,
giving genuine satisfaction to the of doubt about what to do in the religious field, as it is the aspirations of the believers, materialistic world outlook by propaganda. As the Polish well aware of the fact that the Rakosi line requires All they are prepared to do is Journal Po. Produ put
to embark on small, deceitful materialism is detented in this revision.
tactical manoeuvres; and yet duel. Faith events may force them
is triumphant. 50 Meanwhile, the Christmas Mid- further.
night Mass has been broadcast Not by bread alone Is the over the Polisty radio and the name of a much read contem stamp bearing the image of the Pollsh Post Office, hay issued a porary Soviet novel, "Not by
and words borrowed Madonna brend alone,"
Child. from the Gospels of St Luke and St Matthew,
contoin an im- portant lesson for the Kremlin.
By
Soviet Russia itself watches the Polish experiment anxiously, in particular its repercussions on the Soviet territories which have a common border with Poland --- the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Lithuania. The Russian leaders are still determined to pursue two irreconcilable policies at the same time: they still think that the con- duct of anti-religious propaganda is compatible with attempts to use the Churches for Communist purposes,
The last few days have brought fresh evidence of this Soviet duplicity. Just before Christmas the Soviet Mass Education Society produced two
anti- religious pamphlets. The first is specially designed to impress various Chris- tlan minority groups in the Soviet Union Baptists, Evangelical Christians,
по
THW
WALTER KOLARZ
to
SUMMARY: Every Communist regime falls into the same errors over the problem of religion. As the Polish journal Po Prostu, has put it, materialism has been defcated in the duel: "Faith is triumphant".
text
of u
More
on
"ologies"
over
the Christ-
All this has more than local Polish Importance. The errors of judgment and tactles which the former Polish Communist regime committed with regard
to the problem of religion are the errors of every Communist regime. Seneca said, that "fate leads the willing but drives the stubborn." Fate had jed Poland. it may still drive on the other satellites, and even Russla her- aclf,
Conditions changed re Germany, Defence,
Middle East
etc.
NEW DECK- NEW PLAYER
Professional Loungers
E
LIVERY evening was the same for the generously- muscled young man with the crew cut. He would "clock in" at the stage door of a Broadway theatre, settle himself comfortably in the wings, kick off his shoes and fall fast asleep.
Three hours later a fellow stage-hand would jog him awake and the pair of them would go home. Not by bus. By taxi.
on
World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian
NEW YORK
with Ethel Merman or Judy Holliday starring are doing. nicely. So are the grim-faced
William Foster family sages where father is an
earn big money
left the show (on February 4) to lake a month's holiday. The management wanted to replace him with Irish actor Edward Mulhare. Sald Equity, the ac- tors union: "You can't do that. Mulhare is an alien. Choose an American or we call a strike." (Yet, starring with Rex Har- rison, are two other British "ex-
Julie Andrews ports"
and Stanley Holloway).
Theatregoers who had paid the Black Market price of £30 for a pair of seats trembled, at the thought of seeing their money go down the drain. At the last minute arbitrators ruled against the union and "My Fair Lady continued on its record- breaking way.
of the
alcoholic, mother
baby.
farmer, and Jiitle brother
Is on the run Narcotics
Squad You
from the F.B.L. know
But New York gets many. 'flops,
much They money that backers panic, closo the theatres and pay off the
the sort of thing.
lose
50
casts at a fow hours' notice. British Ticket-holders turn up to find the Highla are out, the shuttors
Golden boy theatre, Terence Rattigan, has had two of his plays staged. up. "The Sleeping Prince" with
"Separate Tables" with Eric Portman and Margaret Leighton la booked out for months.
As for the Old Vic Company It was "standing room only" for night after night when they arrived in town.
A
repl
'money-spinner'
is it
Seventh Day Adventists, any new thought in this latest In the long run, it may not be effort of the Soviet anti- possible to leave the deeper and the Orthodox Old Be-
religious propaganda drive, It needs of the people unfulfiled lievers while the second le only a rehash of countless whilst satisfying the hunger for
entitled pamphlet,
which Did similar products
the bread,
and consumer goods of Millant Godless housing-space, as the Sovlet Christ Exist?, is a general League
issued before the War. Many regime atema determined to do. attack on Christianity, per- years of practice have not made Yet it is at only practical and haps the most vicious pub- Soviet propagandists any more opportunistic reasons which
It versatile. They still repeat the may, sooner or later, force lished for many years.
of the Soviet attitude revision says that the imperialistic same old comtention about re-
ligion being a class instrument, towards religion. hourgeoisle used the myth of Christ to consolidate the
The new Soviet pamphlet, Did
was' Issued rotten rule of capital and Christ Exist?,
On January that the bourgeois States December 6, 1950,
They could afford it. For the Idle Jacks of New 3. the Moscow newspaper spared
Michael Redgrave flopped. But Communism as an ideology is York's theatreland get fat pay packets for doing nothing Lo Expense
Izvediya, organ of the Soviet today in a state of crists. Com- disseminate
Gospel Government,
I've been having i the
reproduced
munist Party members in Russia very much and doing it very well, the "legends"
the full
and all among
are look just lately at the economics of play-going over here the New Year's
world masses. The imperialistic message by
not only Stalin's and I wonder how they keep the theatres open at all. Alexlus,
questioning the actions
but also various tenets camp, headed by the United Orthodox Patriarch
uf Moscow of the
Marxist-Leninist
Twitch aside creed
the gold Lame This as and All Russia, Alexius did de- States, the pamphlet
on which they are based As curtain shrouding the Broadway the official point of view far as Russia Is concerned, the stage and you find the Topsy- serta, exploited the Chris- fend
of the Kremlin with regard to Soviet Press itself
New admits the Turvydom lurking just behind tlan teaching for its aggres- Egypt and Hungary but one existence of heretical frame sive alms, for anti-Soviet could not deny that i was ต ཝ of mind by its frequent reten. Believe it or not, no scene slander and for propagating whole. It quoted St Paul's First and nihilistic views.
Christian message, it taken as a
ences to anti-Party, demagogical Way gets less ihan the
The new
of £42 equivalent
week Letter to the Corinthians, from vintage of Russian "Nihilists" nowadays. the famous 13th Chapter, which might in the end even challenge And that's more than a lot of sings the praises
all- the Leninist dogma that reli- the actors are getting. conquering power of Christian glon ant progress are mutually love. As izvestiya reproduced exclusive. The more intense the the message, the word Lord (in wish for truth and for a realistic Russian-Gospod) was
epeit with
assessment of the contemporary How does it happen? and "Divine" a capital
(In world grows in Russla,
rate it Housewives Not even big Broadway suc- the gusted play promoters, wonder-
At a time when British and Russian-Bozhi) was
"B" spelt with greater
the re
will be urge
toing anxiously if they will ever cesses are immune, from trade American politicians have scarce.
mendous adventure. Always it
fabulous for abandon # capital
Broadway over-simplified the
As before, ali profits went to is on speaking terms, unionism gone mad. "My Fair ly been once connived at such a
me the answers. New York's Lady,"
v." the musical version of British stars have been drawing our old friends, the five drones Barepath which attracts them
wings. facts and explaining religion in professional
No in the
wonder
llko
candle; loungers
round ail Shaw's "Pygmalion," looks like the crowds in New York as never
moths Imagine
of lighta a fantasia purely economie terms.
members of a trade union, the
Richardson, "Cranks" failed. Ralph making even more money than before. "Oklahoma" and "South Paci Sybil Thorndike, Lewis Casson, Even a one-woman show like squeezed into one coruscating
and
can Such a process of rethinking International Alliance of Stage-
fie" rolled into one. hands.
Ali
you seats Glynis Johns, Robert Flemyng, Joyce Grentell's must have its square-mile. out until next Wilfrid Hyde-White, Producers opening a new play have been sold
of Max back-stage brigade pam- understand why.
Well, there is no business on Broadway musi Bgree
Christmas, But lights nearly Adrian they're all numbered pered loafers. employ at least five stagehands,
stage like show business - but only went out on
constellation of "My Fair Lady**
How is the American among the
faring? Big,
when business is brisk, of when British star Rex Harrison Broadway stars.
bouncy musicals says the union. The cost
a new war.
No holidays
The pamphlet takes excep- tion to Easter and Christmas holidays in schools and paria
non-Communis! 10 the
menta of countries and
even
of the
January shifter оп The Great White on SEVEN stagehands,
B
U.S. Disgusted
at close works out £300 a week.
When
"Waiting for Godo!" opened in
York in the union insisted even though there were only four, actors, no scene changes but play and nothing to do cards. When producer Michael Meyerberg refused to subsidise any more "stage door johnnies" the union refused; to raise the curtain and the show had
Dis- close.
Christmas break of the United tion of oficial Soviet orola- metal thesis defying historical/Kct their money back, soon gave
Nations' organisations and to the holding of Christmas bazaars. All this, it says, is calculated to draw the attention of tallers to those idens "by which the ex- plollers hullly and strengthen their class rule." There is hardly
phy
50
the
that
Patriarch's verbal concessions to the regime should appear more genuine.
The fact that Izvestiya should is greatly encouraged by events devote 100 lines of its precious in Poland. In its return to truth space to а
of message the and reality, however qualified Patriarch is a significant official and incomplete, the Polish Com-
sre
to
to
But Britons Boom
sold out for months before even opens, however, Desperate New Yorkers often travel hun- dreds of miles to Boston, Chicago от Philadelphia where before And One New Yorker asked: "Why a hit snow is touring
Broadway British send their heading for
fame. It is their unly way of don't the Belors to Washington to talk to soon
understand getting in! lke? We'd
Latest craze among suburban each other then."
Only one British show apart dwellers is the "Broadway from "The Sleeping Prince" weekend." You park the chil- rocks' this dren on grandmother, lake the has gone
"Cranks," Underground to New York, put season.
It
up at a luxury hotel and me air sophisticated West End of Lon- dan revue with parts for jus. the shows you can before Mon
artists, who shifted their day dawns,
went they ROLIVOTY
four
own
along.
Mr Lennox-Boyd Labours
like
midwife to deliver
saved strifes and established
ITH the weary satisfaction of an obstetrician who the British
Parasitic skin disease, itching tegema etc"
*Mitigal*
CIL & OINTMENT
»Bayer « LEVERKUSEN
મ
GERMANY.
CE GHANA
a legal system) was a handful of forls and truding settle-
Britain's Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr Alan Lennox-Boyd, told the House of Commons that the new ments near the sea. Commonwealth state of Ghana could be born without complications.
Only a matter of hours earlier It had looked as if the granting of self-government to the West African state might be the signal for civil war between the Gold Consters and the tough traditionalist tribesmen of the Ashanti.
.
The other lands which today make up Ghana were wild and unexplored. They were the
home of tough fighting men who constantly raided into the pros- perous settled areas;
It took us nearly 75 years to subdue the warriors of Ashanti and their powerful leaders. And What passed between Mr the persuasiveræss of the it was not until 1901 that Bri- Lennox-Boyd and the Gold brawry Secretary of State and tain held full responsibility. Coast leaders is still + sinte a statesmanlike gesture by Gold secret. But it is certain that the Coast premier Dr Kwama The result was that within
of Nkrumah. The result was i
one country were gathered three proposed constitution for the highly individual territories with now stała of Ghana which basically Witle Jr common bridged the gap between the These were the Gold Const Gold Cosalers and the Ashanti. Colony, the Ashanti, and the
solution wag
compounded
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Available' st
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD.
Wyndham Street,
has
So on March 6 the bells of Northern Territories. Acera will ring out to proclaim that
A new sovereign state
And from that state of affairs joined the Commonwealth and stemmed troubles which the that a vital chapter han ended Colonial Secretary, Mr Lennox- in a story which started five Boyd has laboured to patch up. hundred years ago.
By York Henderson
'on the Wos
which might be a step towards 1051-ie was serving a sentence for inciting a
to become
greater political power for him.
general strike in order minister,
prime
There was the case of the new Ghana postage stamps. When it
As he stepped through the prison gates, was announced that these would bear not the Queen's Ilkeness thousands of his followers chanted the hymn but Dr Nkrumah's, the Ashanti "Lead, Kindly Light," and a black-nosed lamb leaders hustled off a protest was sacrificed at his feet. telegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. This,
to
they sald, was just another sign of Nkrumah's ambition to be- come a dietator. What was more, they said. It was an insult the Queen.
And this happened after the constiutional crisis had been patched up.
Yet, despite the almost Messianie hold Nkrumah has over his followers, he is no poll- Heal hot-gospeller. He has urbanity and wit, More important, he has an acute appreciation Но of the problems which face his country. recognises the danger of Ghana trying to run before it can walk. He sees the perils impllet In economy based fargely on the Inclination of the rest of the world to drink cocoa and eat chocolate. He is well aware that his young But, though Nkrumah's po- country cannot afford to tolerate communism. It begra with the mediaeval situation in Ghana really
Jitical' enemies fear and suspect And he lives with the knowledge that if Ghana merchant adventurers from lleves that from now on harmony Ghana's four and a half millions
be him, to the great majority of is not held together what could be a pro- England,
Denmark, Holland, will reign there. Germany, and Portugal risking their lives and their cockleshell tough than when they fought
The people of Ashanti-no less he is a demi-god He is Ghana duced to a gaggle of aimless but economically alipa for the prizes of gold, successive British expeditions-ne ivory and spices which the and many Northern Territories Gold Copet offered.
FROM GOLD COAST
But no ono who knows
the
personified.
TO GHANA
sperous and Influential nation would be re-
dependent states.
For all his urbanity Kwame Nkrumah is a man of two worlds. Infrequently but striking- Once leaders are suspicious of the If you would know Ghana, ly the African in him shows through,
He had gone he was "Tost" for seven, days, country's premier, Dr Kwame you must know Nkrumah. Ho in Nkrumah who, with his Con- to Ghana what Nehru. is to into the wilderness to regain his spiritual vention Peoples Parly, rules India-a man who has im- powers and, whispered, knowledgeable. Gold The local Africans wera' from Acera.
pressed his personality
to consult a native orcle,rd OTY Coasters,
a Inlendly; and willing to trade; They would have liked a whole nailon. And there is no And it is in this respect that most of all and no the European merchants strictly federal setup in the new doubt that Nkrumah is well krumah is Chann. For his country must for established trading 'posta in the Gharsa which would ive aware of his similarity to the some time live in two worlds, the modern one. Coastal arcal
severely limited Nkrumah's Indian leader.
of hard economic facts and political alliances, But by the second half of the power over them. What, in fact, Like Nehru he is very much and the traditional world which has its roots nineteenth century the British they have got is a compromise a man alone. No one shares the
In the ancient African kingdom from which were left in control of the Gold: conalituilon which provides cor limelight with him. None of his Khana takes its name. Coast. The other traders had, bain safeguards for. Their Heuterans can be automatically Whith, way will Kkrumah load Ghana in either pulled out or coded their, regional: infocenta, UNI Salt, identified as his natural International affairsy Nkrumah has hinted that rights to the Briti
But their eyes never leave the
Ghana might eventually fill the role of a Even at that late date, the om- bustling American educated Nkrumah too was imprisoned mediator between East and Weat. But if any phoads was on the "Coast part premier with his Westem ways for his political activities: In thing in certain, it is that this role will be play of Gold Coast The deerllory and go-ahead does, They are fact, he was released from Fort od by Ghana as a member of the Common controlled and administered by ready to jump on any more. James pelson in the agming of wealiti.
་
BLICKERBOK".
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