s*- < "<" f !tf .1. *> TME UBYSSEY ' '. ..->»* ^ VANCOUVER, B.C., TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1960 No. 60 Support For Student B u i Id in g To Be Asked At General Meeting Site of Old Medical Huts Proposed As New Location By DIANNE GREEN ALL Student support of the proposed Students' Union building will be called for tomorrow at the Annual General meeting of the A.M.S. IS THIS WHERE tomorrow's General Meeting will be held? Someone seems to think so. . Kind, considerate students have made extensive preparations to insure that the meeting will be a big spl er bash. Please come. Dunked Tow TruekeivFound To Be Forestry Imposter Two hundred green-sweatered Forestry students declared last Friday "B-Day" and threw a "Busters" tow truck into the totem pole pond near the Library. Two hundred green-shirted foresters tried to hoax the campus. They threw a third-year Forester, who wishes his name withheld, Tnto the pond. The Forester, who shall be called Johnny, was wearing what the Forest Club— which serves as Forestry Undergraduate Society—thought represented a "Busters" uniform. The hoax was carefully planned and organized. On Friday morning a sign appeared in front of the lily-pond— which has been empty for several days—declaring Friday "B- day" and promising excitement in front of the Library at noon. The sign was painted in green and bore the emblem of the Forest Club. At about 11:30 the Ubyssey received an anonymous telephone call informing us of the proposed wetting of a tow-truck driver,-who was said to be held in captivity. And at about 12:40, two hundred foresters, yelling and shouting cheers, came toward the Library from the direction of the Forestry and Geology Building. They stormed past the lily pond and down toward the Brock. They poured into the building and drew out, from somewhere in the depths, a scow- ling, struggling, frightened "John". Pete Meekison came running out demanding that the driver be released. Meekison had been taken in by the white coveralls with "Busters" in red block letters on the ents back. The name was pasted onto a service station attendent's uniform, a usually reliable source informed the Ubyssey. The "Buster" driver was escorted to the pond and was dunked. He convinced everybody that he was scared and mad. But after he got out of the pond he headed straight for the Forestry and Geology Building. • He was preceded, followed, and flanked by foresters who asked him what it was like now that the tables were turned. "You deserve it Buster. That'll teach you to take away our cars", came the cat-calls. And "John" glared at them. He even headed toward one fellow as if to start trouble. The greenshirt staged a strategic withdrawal. Unoticed amid the confusion, your reporter followed the crowd into their den. Once inside the Forest Club, the mob quickly changed its became gloated mood. They with success. The students believed "John" to be a "Buster's" driver and believed the Foresters to be real j submitting The new building, to be centrally located on the present site of the temporary Medical Faculty huts, will contain facilities readily accessible to all faculties and would tend to draw the students together. The proposed site also allows room for expansion and is close to parking facilities. For the "nth' time a constitutional amendment to abolish the fall general meeting will be brought up before the students. This motion is becoming as traditional a procedure at general meetings as reading of the min- bly are not being taken away. Instead, a useless ritual is discarded. Another perennial amendment to be brought up is the engineers proposal to revise the allocation of the voting powers. As usual, they propose '2 votes for each of their own faculty members, half a vote to members of faculties with an enrolment greater than 2,000, and one vote each for members of the remaining faculties. The Frosh, in their opposing capacity which is fast becoming traditional, are going to pack the utes. Is it to continue to be so? meeting in an attempt to guaran-, tee their freedom from this dictatorial clan. It's up to the students. Do you want to pay $350 dollars a year foif a meeting which almost nobody attends and at which nothing is accomplished? In the fall, so close to the beginning of the term nothing of importance has happened to warrant a regular general meeting. If anything of importance does come up students can call for a general meeting simply by a petition. So, by antagonists. abolishing this meeting the stu- The hoax had worked. I dents rights to a general assem- Another controversial issue to he presented is the question of, segregation of student residences oh campus. Also there will be a proposal that the recommendations of the Haskin's commission be set up and operated on a one year trial basis. Other matters on the agenda are the presentation of the HAA awards, reports of MAA, the Treasurer, and the President, and further constitutional revisions. "Varsity" Criticised For Gag Issue 'Death' TORONTO (CUP)—The University of Toronto student newspaper, The Varsity was censured by the council last week for poor taste in its annual gag issue, which reported the death of one of its reporters. Council also approved a motion that a member of a Toronto daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail, be asked to investigate The Varsity organization and policy and report to the publications commission with recommendations by March 8. Objections were raised about a story which reported that Varsity columnist and photographer Al Walker had been killed as a result of a student prank. Walker, the front page story- stated, had slipped and cracked been placed there by Walker and that some of the students apparently thought it was a good idea, and phoned Walker to attend. The next day the paper ran what was purported to be Walker's last colunm, on the front page as a tribute. A press wire was also sent to the national headquarters of the Canadian University Press in hopes that the story would be sent across the country. The paper carried the words "this is a gag issue" in its columns as it usually does for such few his skull while being pulled t wards a bonfire set alight in. the I an issue,* but apparently midst of a Zen Druid rally in]people saw them. Varsity Stadium. It also pointed j A mot-ion to disband the paper that the ad announcing the rally jfor the rest of the year and pub which was published in the pre- .lish a mimeographed bulletin was vious edition of the paper had; unanimously defeated 'tween classes COMMONWEALTH CLUB Commonwealth Club presents THE COMMONWEALTH SYMPOSIUM, at 12:30 Thursday, March 17, in the Brock Lounge, Speakers from ten Commonwealth nations will discuss what their countries contribute to and gain from the Commonwealth. * * * CCF Important CCF General Meeting, Wednesday, 12:30 in Bu. 218. Election and nomination of next year's executive. * * * V.O.C. Slides of the Rocky Mountains shown by Karl Ricker at general meeting, noon Wednesday. * * . * ROD & GUN CLUB No shooting Tuesday; night, but will shoot as usual Wednes- (continued on page 8) See TWEEN CLASSES AMS GENERAL MEETING Wednesday 11:30, in the Armouries All 11:30 Classes Cancelled PAGE TWO TOT UBYSSEY Published three times a week throughout the University year Ml Vancouver by the Publications Board of the Alma Mater Society, University ol B.C. Eaitertal opinions expressed are those of the TSdHidria! Board of The Ubyssey «a«t not necessarily those of the Alma Mater Society or the University of B.C. Telephones: Editorial offices, AL. 4404; Local* 42, 13 and 14; Business offices, AL. 4404; Local 15/ Authoriced-as seeoad elass mail by Post Office Department, Ottawa MEMBER 'GAMAfilAM UNIVERSITY *RESS Editor-in-Chief: R. Kerry White Associate Editor^ - - - ^ -„ Elaine * Bissett Utanagirig Editdr Del Warren News Editor John Russell C.U.P. Editor Irene Frazer Club's Editor __: . Wendy Barr Features Editor .--_ Sandra Scott Head Photographer Colin Lafidie Photography Editor Roger McAfee [ Seftior Editor: Allah Chernov - Reporters and Desk f Dianne Greenall, Farida Sewell, Fred Fletcher, r George Railton, Mary Lou Connochie, Barb Fletcher, Dereg Allen, Sandra Scott. TH* UBYSSEY Tuesda&iMifcSh 15, 1960 liFTTERS TO THE EDITOR New Student Building-^ We Need It "The purpose of a student union building is to be a center of student activity." Brock Hall does not serve m that capacity now, nor will it ever if the administration adhe'res to the building plan that it is now promulgating. At present the building is the haven for Artsmen, Commercemen and Lawyers. Its inhabitants see Engineers, Aggies, and Foresters only through the sporadic raids that these groups make on the hall in search of the tricky blue-blazer boys or the elusive frosh. They see many of the other faculties only rarely also. The Aggies take care of Home Ec and the Engineers entertain the Nurses, so they say. The Brock types rarely s£e them. 1 This situation will Worsen as the campus grows away from, the Brock Hall area. The administration plans to expand its facilities to the south and to the west. Thus, on its present site the union building would be largely a perimeter installation, and hence, would not service the majbr' area of student population. If something is hot doiie about this situation, this university will dissolve into a cluster of colleges having little or nothing to do witih each other. The university would no longer be a homogeneous whole (a condition which it at least approaches how) but rather would disintegrate into a disunified conglomeration of faculties It is possible to do something about it, though, and it will be a first-class instance of criminal negligence, if something is not done. There 4s little-question as to what the solution should be. We must build a new student union building. In this way several of the problems plaguing the students of this university will be solved in one'operation. By erecting a, new building in a centraHocation (the planning committee has selected the location of the medical huts) the line dividing the so-called "Brock types" from those who inhabit the "other side of the campus" would be eliminated. At the same time, the building could include adequate foesd services, erasing the vexing problem of finding a decent meal on this campus. Further, a new building in the suggested location would eliminate the crowding that is evident in the Brock and would provide adequate parking—a facility that the present building sadly lacks. To all this moist be added the fact that the administration plans to close East Mall to auto traffic in future development. This development would make the present building practically inaccessible. It seems evident from all these signs that a new union building is vital to the future of this university. The fact that it is impossible for the Brock to be expanded to handle the expected future student population of 20,000 must be the clinching factor. To ignore these sign,s and neglect the immediate need for a new building would be sheer folly. For this reason we ask you to go to the General Meeting tomorrow and support the resolution calling for the meeting to ehlloTse the idea of constructing a new student union building on the, central site now occupied by the medical huts. We recommend also that you consider the idea of having the present twenty-four dollar AMS fee stand. If this is done, the five dollars that has been'going to the Development Fund will be diverted to other student projects. Three dollars of this • could go into a general building fund which would give those working on a new student building something to work with. So, we say, gcrto the General Meeting and show the Council that you want something ddhe -about getting1 this campus an adequate student union building. Don't let the conservative element stop this university from making progress or we will soon be lagging b&M&'Easf rMP lingham U. in student facilities. Nuclear Petition Dear Sir: Your readers will have appreciated Professor D o r e' s comments on the petition to the Canadian' Government by members of the Faculty, and his giving the text of this document. I am writing in case it might prove equally of interest to consider the view of one of those who have not given it active support. The assurance expressed in the petition that a satisfactory inspection system could soon be devised after nuclear tests had been stopped, though perhaps justifiable, appears to be somewhat of an anticipation of events. In the present critical situation, a halt in the develop- met of nuclear weapons is to be hoped for only when a satisfactory system has been agreed upon, tested, and put into operation. Pressure should undoubtedly be brought to bear upon all governments, and particularly" that of the Soviet Union, to accept a fool-proof system of inspection as the essential preliminary to any measures of disarmament. Few would disagree with the view that disarmament is the key to any peaceful settlement. However, it should always be borne in mind that armaments are the symptom of the disease; and that insecurity is the disease itself: if the world were to get rid of some of its arms now, it would feel less, not more, secure. General disarmament there must be; but before it can come abOut, some means of preserving international seeurity must first have been brought into being—whether it be a much stronger United Nations or a new international institution. The petition does not make it clear that disarmament is less a method of creating and preserving security than a result of security having been created. Finally, success in international negotiations depends to some degree on the diplomat's ability to take a firm line and to have plenty of room for manoeuvre. From this point of view it would perhaps have been preferable if the petition had contained some expression of confidence in the continuing, efforts of the Western negotiators, to balance appeals which might tend to limit them in the conference-room. The petition expresses the universal wish of Canadians and all right-thinking nations, and there will be few indeed who do not wish its success. Its very general scope, however, has perhaps been responsible for lessening its effectiveness in the eyes of a number of members of the Faculty. Ivor Morris, Dept. of English. Mutual Profit Dear Sir: Too many seem to consider it a current vogue, indeed, a sacred duty, to press for the recognition of the Chinese People's Republic. Had these ladies and gentlemen intelligently considered the validity of their demands, they would quickly have realized how groundless their stand is, from a logical viewpoint especially. The majority of those advocating Canada's recognition of the Chinese Pebple's Republic seem to think that merely because a'" nStib'iin is'" peopled ^by some six nuridred'millions, it is an automatic moral obligation to exchange ambassadors with her: Herein lies the misconception; for there is no moral significance behind an ambas- adorial exchange. All it implies is that two countries have found it mutually profitable, politically, militarily, or economically, to have closer ties. No country is bound, therefore, to exchange ambassadors with another unless it deems the procedure beneficial". Now, would an opening of Canada-China relations be mutually profitable? China certainly gains, if only in sorely needed foodstuffs and mineral imports. But what of Canada? Even in 1948 China imported from this country thirty times as much as she exported. Since then, China's population growth alone would have considerably widened the import- export gap. To balance trade, China would have to pay cash for many of her imports, or go into debt. The former is practically impossible; the latter cannot profit Canada. Politically, recognition could serve only to embarrass Canada and her allies; for, having recognized China, this country would be obliged to support, or, at least, cease opposing China's candidature in the United Nations. And since Canada depends economically on her allies, such a policy could prove disastrous. Canada, therefore, has nothing whatever to gain by an ambassadorial exchange with the Chinese People's Republic; nor has she, in any event, an obligation to so do—except perhaps to pacify some thought* less and seemingly irate citizens. I. Grant Arts I. "Godiva Fortress . .." Dear Sir: A word of commendation is due for your article of Thursday the 10th entitled Frosh Hate Red. It correctly reported the events which led up to Thursday's clash between the Engineers and the frosh. Now a word of condemnation of Friday's "reporting" of Thursday's clash. (I use the word "reporting" very loosely.) The article Godiva's Fortress Crumbled By Awesome Frosh Attack must have been written by an irate freshman —say Frank Findenigg-^or by a typical pubster Who received his information by word Of mouth. It is a sad day when The Ubyssey becomes a frosh mouthpiece! Do they threaten you! Or are they you? The obviously slanted reporting is climaxed (in the first article) by a summary "of final results" which states that 18 Engineers and 6 frosh were dunked. All during the battle there were at least six frosh kept swimming in our big hydraulic tank for 45 minutes, while our small tank was running at capacity. I would guess that 40 (40) frosh partook of our pools while only two (2) Engineers were dragged to the mudhble. A typical example of your "reporting" in Friday's paper is contained in Fearless "Fink" Findenigg's letter to the editor (the above being unable to sound off in his usual manner, wrote a letter instead) which states that "Fire and hoses and red shirts could not keep the Frosh out?' The fire hose was never'usea7and~aside from the few frosh who managed to enter -the -building -in -disguise only to get depanted, the only other frosh entering the building were being carried to their baptism. To end this letter on a constructive note I suggest that "senior editor" Findenigg and the other "reporter" who wrote the main article come out from under their Brock lounge tables and watch. - An Engineer. Medieval Lynching Dear Sir: Mr. G. B. Livingston's letter in the Ubyssey of March 4 was a cheap piece of propaganda for VCF rather than a sensible reply to my letter. He did it well and without paying for it. First of all he did not understand the point I was trying to make. His criticism was awfully irrelevant and his language was not at all "humble". He 'implicitly branded me a fascist because 1 tried to expose the hypocrisy of men like Mr. Livingston. Secondly sermons must not be preached through The Ubyssey, which is meant for intelligent writing. In my letter I expressed my "outrage" at the way the engineers degraded Lord Budah. Would they or for that matter Mr. Livingston like to see a cartoon of Christ with slide- rule sticking out of his ears and a chain tied to his God knows what? We should com-" pare this cartoon of Budah with last year's goon edition and ask ourselves why we do not respect the religious sentiments of others as we do our own. The answer is that we do not have to beg money from the Budhists; so we do not mind offending their faith. Let me assure Mr. Livingston that personally I respect every religion and its followers. (There being no "heathens" or "pagans" for me, and I am not a Budhist.) I have a friend who prays to Budha as we pray to Christ. He was not at all happy about those carloons but he was a lot more "humble" than last year's "outraged" Christian Livingstons who did every thing short of medieval lynching. Despite Mr. Livingston's boring stone-age reasoning I still believe that only those people who are intellectually insecure or rather inferior make much ado about the so- called "outrage". They are the future wheel-barrow drivers. Others would have more exacting jobs to do. I am r,eally sorry if you, Mr. Livingston belong to the first-category. I know it is hard on ithe imagination but let us face it with "humility" and a spirit of ser vice to HIM. Medievally yours, P.M. Pretty Young Frosh Dear Sir: What-Oh and three cheers! So the engineers have finally found somebody to play with them. Gosh! It must be fun to get all wet, and to hit each other, and to use the fire-protection equipment that is supplied to their hovel . . . Gee- Willikers! Those engineers have finally found somebody their own age. . . . I guess it's because we have a pretty young Frosh class this year eh?? Chris Harker, Arts 2. Tuesday, MardSfcJoy 1960 TUB ;ISB'YSS5Y PAGE THREE m Russia's Intourist' Editor's Note: This is the first in a series on travel in the Soviet Union, written for CUP by Paul Unterberg. By PAUL UNTERBERG U has been said that in Italy there is Mafia, and in the Soviet Union, Intourist. This comparison may be somewhat incorrect, for Intourist appears to be not only less resourceful, but more expensive. The traveller to the Soviet Union, will be asked to pay from $15 to $30 a day; plus transportation, plus extras. For this he will be supplied with a comfortable room, and rather poor meals. On occasion he will' be supplied with a guide who will spout a list of figures indicating the percentage rise in Soviet flaxseed production over the base year 1913, or the per hectare yield of newly developed alfalfa crops, which neither the visitor nor the guide have seen. But as long as the visitor remains off the beaten track he will probably be subjected to only a few routine inefficiencies. % t However, when you get out of the rut and want to do something which there is no plain and clear-cut precedent, you ,may have a problem on your hands. Coming home from Burma my wife and I had decided that if possible we should go through Soviet Central Asia via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Accordingly, we went to the Soviet Embassy in Delhi and asked for a transit visa. One of the questions of the form which* we had to fill out referred to the type of transportation desired. To this we replied that we would fly to the beginning of the southern branch of the Trans-Siberian railway at Tashkett, and continue from there to Moscow by train. They said this was all right. We were pleasantly surprised by the rapidity with which they granted our visas. A few days later we landed in Tashkent. When we were finished with the simple formalities of im- had not already purchased our tickets to Moscow. We replied tha we weren't going by air, but by train, migration and customs, an airlines employee asked us if we 'Oh, but that's impossible," she said. "You have to go by air. ON HISSING "Why?" "Because the regulations don't permit foreigners to travel by train." "But the Soviet Embassy in Delhi said We could go to Moscow by train." "I'll check with the authorities if you like, but I'd suggest you buy your air tickets right away, or ypu'U miss tonight's flight." "Thanks, but we intend to go by train." Half an hour later she came back to tell us that it was too late that evening to reach any of the higher authorities. We -would have to wait until morning, unless of course we wanted [to take tonight's plane. No, we didn't. We were told we would have to stay at the airport hotel overnight. This turned out to ..be- enormously expensive and far beyond our means. We were warned, and not very politely, that if we didn't like we could leave. To their considerable and evident astonishment we picked up our bags and left, taking the local bus into town where some friendly Russians showed us the way to the railway station. As soon as we showed our faces at the wicket, the woman behind it slammed it shut and hurried out a side door, From a bystander we discovered that the next train for Moscow didn't leave until the following morning, so we decided to spend the night in the railway station waiting room. On our way we were stopped by a couple of plainclothesmen, accompanied by the tickat seller and some uniformed police.' They asked for our passports, which they looked at and returned to us. Then they asked us to come back to the airport. We_continued towards the waiting room, with the police trailing behind. The door to the room was blocked by another policeman who was told to refuse us entry. So we sat down and made ourselves as comfortable as possible in front of the station. The plainclothesman—he claimed to be an Intourist official—whose name we later discovered to be Litzky, again asked to see our passports. Instead of looking at them, he put them in his jacket pocket and said they would be returned to us at the airport. I explained, in English and Russian, that a passport is private property, and he was welcome to look at it, but had no right to put it in his pocket. This seemed to have little effect upon him, and he yelled that we MUST go back to the airport. I kept asking for my passport, in an increasingly louder,voice. All this yelling soon drew a crowd. As it gathered I noticed that Litzky was growing ill at ease. The bigger it became the more uncomfortable he looked. He apparently didn't know how to handle a situation in which someone dared to talk back to him. The crowd enjoyed this enormously. As I yelled louder he suddenly handed back the passport and walked quickly away. The next morning we were taken to the Intourist officee where the manager ordered us to buy air tickets to Moscow. We explained that the Soviet Embassy in Delhi had given us permission to go by train. But he said we should buy the air tickets or be shipped back to Kabul by force. We asked his name, and when he refused to give it I went outside and received it from one of the secretaries. "Mr. Abramov," I said when I returned, "use force to send us back to Kabul. We'll see what Moscow says when they hear of it." "No, no, don't get excited," he replied. "We'll see what we can do." He said he would go over to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry to see about obtaining special permission. It took two hours, but when he got back you wouldn't (have recognized him. He was all smiles, and the politest official I've had the, pleasure to meet in a long time. Yes, permission ihad been granted. His' own private car with chauffeur took us