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Bas had v LS 4 » a A < ° v e ' 1 4 ' . PR LJ AS / A J » * " 3 2 i i . "a » ) / 1 3 = N\ MEMBER OF CANADIAN WEEKLY «. NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION DND School Teacher, 1 Wing, RCAF, CAPO 5067, France. Dear Family: I have been putting off for so long getting down to report on the trip to points east that I'm afraid if I don't get started immediately I'll end up doing it from a Greek island this summer. Our holiday started on a Wednesday. Six of us started out from here at noon on Thursday, and with a stop at the Kaiserlautern PX, managed to arrive at the Frankfurt Flughafen an hour early. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 9, but it wasn't until 10.30 that they finally called it. I was as usual leery of the plane and felt all the way to Wars@gv that it had been a dreadful mistake, but after the second and third laps 1 had become a little more blase toward the_whole thing. I had brought a book with me for takeoffs and land- ingd but it wasn't 'miié it turned out to be about a War pilot in Burma who crashed in the jungle and had a tough time getting out. Eventually, 2 hours and 40 minutes later in truth, we arrived in Warsaw. It was quite cold and we had a slow progress through customs which were reglly not difficult in that our bag- gage was not searched, but the paper wark was very laborious, and eighty people were slow in filing By the of- ficial. Warsaw by night is about as bright as Port Perry between our house: ant the" church. .. There :is not much neon, little advertising, and al- most no traffic. During the day there were a few more cars, but not many. - Our hotel, like the rest of the * hotels we stayed at in Russia, was Deluxe according to eastern stand- ards, but it was not plush, Some facilities were given a rather lavish véneer of grandeur, for instance the lobbies of all hotels were spacious, chandeliered, and carpeted, but it was --gecond -raté 'material; 'and would fiot for a minute 'be' considered in the same clasg- as the Royal York for in- stance. This J<.more' sufprising con- sidering that these were "the "Class" hotels in.the capitals .of the countries in. question -- Hitler had planned to celebrate New Year's 1943 in the Astoria, Leningrad, where we stayed, butt never dig make it. "Poland, to judge by Warsaw, was "drab, although in fairness, I msut say that it rained all the time we were there and it was too early in the spring for there to be any foliage of spring to brighten it up. We did a sight seeing tour through the city-- ~ the" Ghetto where the uprising took place in 1943--the Polish Jews had ~-been locked up in this small sector of i, a square mile to await death, and at length the appalling conditions drove them to attack the Gestapo with _.everything they had. The whole area was levelled and now nothing remains except a few old tenement dwellings surrounded by new, fairly modern blocks of apartments, all the same, except for the mdst recent. It was explained that after 1966 (remember the trouble in Hungary) when more freedom was given, including the freedom to vary the architectual sty- ling of the buildings, new designs were used, more pleasing to the eye. The guides seemed to be very friendly and were very proud of the fact that Polish architects had designed and built the monstrosities we saw. The one building that stood out was the Palace of Culture, containing theatres, book rooms selling Western books on economic and political topics, as well as all other subjects. This building was a skyscraper by Polish standards, containing, I think, about thirty stories. Russia has built a number of skyscrapers on the same general lines, a high central part, fairly thin, but containing all the height of the edifice. The ground all around con- "tains the public parts of the buildings, rarely more than about six stories high. The -Russian foreign affairs J 5 building and our hotel in Moscow, the } 7™ Ukrainia-and the Lamonosov Univer- pity in Moscow were: of the same general design. The decoration on these buildings varied, but they were all of a heavy. appearance, and the Russians lean a lot on the old classi- el Greek columns on any old building ' Whatsoever, | without regard for taste -or appeal to the eye. We visited the sports palace and stadium of 'which the Poles seemed to be proud. It was built for a world? Youth Festival a few years ago, the gift of the government to the youth 'of Poland. - The guides geem to over F ah work that theme--everything for the' youth of the country. We stopped for a brief spell in the old quarter of the city, a part which was not dam- aged as much as the rest (something like 809% of Warsaw was destroyed by the Germans in the early days of the war). I did not like even. the old parts very much. Everything was made of brick, red brick, so that an old build- ing, even from the sixteenth century would look like a rather poorly pre- 'served Canadian building of the 1900's. Poland is a vast plain, with not much local stone, hence the brick construc- tion. A red brick Gothic cathedral was the strangest sight because of this. It didn't seem to he the same type of building at all as the big stone cathedrals of the West. We were in the cathedral on Good Friday morn- ing--there were not many -worship- pers, but a few children were there taking part in a confirmation cere- mony so that you can believe the guides when they said that there was complete freedom to worship, but when we visited a school later on the director told us that religion is dis-. couragéd in children by school and all other youth orgonization the child happens to join, so that despite the efforts of many parents, religion will die sooner of later. I knew that Po- land was a more religious country still than any other in the east block, and that the priests still were allowed a fair amount of freedom. Yet, many churches are now museums, and many were not reconstructed after the war, so I think that every day the church is losing a little more ground. There was one overall impression that I got from Warsaw--space and emptiness. I suppose you get used to the idea of a cluttered landscape in the west because of our advertis- ing, lights, and for the most part fairly narrow streets. The Poles are trying to set up a modern city with spacious boulevards and so on, but all ing of emptiness. "Even wany of the houses, lacking curtains, and lit by one bulb. hanging from a cord con- tributed to this empty feeling. I couldn't help feeling sorry for them. The Russians tried to impress us with the new morality being instilled in the Russian people--honesty, brother- hood, and hard labour. Whether the honesty part is difficult to obtain in the formerly Western city of Warsaw, 'T don't know, but many of the houses and little shops were covered with permanently barred windows. I'm maybe being a little unfair here too because I noticed the same thing in Bonn this weekend, this in the better residential area of the town. Actu- 'ally nearly all business buildings in Western Europe have collapsible steel bars to draw over the glass windows in case of-riot and, I suppose, to pre- vent smash and grab robberies. We went through a big Department Store with a fine tooth comb--the main im- pression is that there is a wide variety of high-priced, inferior quality goods available, . Certain counters would have rank after rank of people just looking, and really from what I could see, very few buying. They must buy somewhere though because they are fairly well dressed and with what they have, they look fairly good. There is a great resemblance be- tween styles in the east and those in the west. The men all have the European long haircut, and women seem to look a lot like the French-- all styles, long stringy, and short boyish occasionally, with a lot 'of pompadours, if that is the name of this piled up type of coiffure. I was not impressed with the looks I saw on the faces of the natives -- they didn't look very happy to me. I un- derstood that the main feature of life in the Eastern part of Europe is an incredible boredom. There are many things to do, but not many ways to vary life in 'small ways, Many of 'our little gimmicks, our variety of literature, our newspapers, and espe- cially your different types of enter- tainment all seemed to be lacking. No 'place to drop in for a beer or a coke if you just happen to feel like it. There were some night-spots, sort of glorified dance halls for the youth again, We heard all last winter a- bout the food shortage that was fac- ing the whole eastern block and about the failure of agriculture, The stores in_Poland,. at: first glance seemed to be very well stocked, I noticed this in the morning of our day in Warsaw. Later in the day however, long lines developed at all of these stores, and 'ones at the airport on the way out, spend them right there. was that there was little variety so 'have caught it because Al Miller with {-of hurried last-minute searches; I got was pretty evident then what was happening. The majority of the foods that we had scen were too high priced for most people. Every line seemed to be in front of the sausage counter, and in the bread shops. It seemed from this that there are only a certain few foods that are provided at low enough price for people to make a staple food of them, and those were the ones people were buying for Easter. One of the frills that people seemed willing to afford for Easter were the wooden Easter eggs painted in gay colours. I bought six myself and am sending them to you with the rest of my Easter souvenirs. I hope you will have fun unpacking them and playing with the toys from Russia. Although I suppose most of the things come under the heading of incident- als, I hope you'll find a place to store them for me. I am running out of space so I will probably send a fair number of things straight home in the future. In Poland, besides the eggs, I got a couple of wooden boxes. I had changed twenty dollars into zlotys (1 zloty--100 Groszy--.04) and when I tried to cash in the remaining they wouldn't let us change them back into dollars, so all you could do was The trouble that I really got stuck with junk. A scratched box and a letter opener, with a Warsaw crest on it, and a book in English on Polish relations with the west since the end of the war. One exciting part of the stay in Warsaw was the morning we parted. I slept in and missed the bus. I could whom I shared the room came back up to tell me to get up, but I dis- covered that I had lost-my wallet. I searched the room, and finally con. cluded that it must be in my suit- case, which had been collected and taken to the airport. After a couple Bill Brock's Letter from Poland pupils sat at long low desks on ben- There ches, about three fer bench. would probably be 2 room. The school was not in on Good Friday 25 - 30 pupils per days on holy days. we saw displayed on the ticipated the week before were ready. We were many questions, and it kids are Kids. to admit that they had certain prob- lems re homework, indulgent or non- caring parents. The Pole curriculum and so on--it be a little advanced on our thing when compared with what we later saw in Russia. 1 the teaching of philosophy and poli- ties, and I got the straight answer that is left to university level. [ am inclined to believe it. and they able to ask deseribed | a-hed about The Poles are not really very ena- mored of their subservient pysition vis-a-vis Russia, and they have not got quite the same missionary zeal behind their efforts 40 sucialize the world. Hence they are willing to wait and let the kids find out for themselves about the theoretical basis of the system under which they live. They do get history courses, and if it is liberally sprinkled with politics 1 wouldn't be too surprised, but there was a lot of evidence of the teaching of the history of Polish nobility and aristocracy, and of the decadent capi- talistic period. All in all I am in favour of the West befriending the Poles. They are still asles ally West- REPORT From PARLIAMENT down-stairs to find that everyone had taken off for the plane. 'A guide had stayed behind to look for me 80 | he plunked me in a taxi and off wae tore to catch the plane. I was really not worried because nothing had vet | happened at the advertised time on the tour and departure was no ex- ception. - The streets to the. airport were wide and empty and we were there 'in-a flash, even though it was about eight miles. The guide was a student of African language at the Warsaw University, but he seemed somewhat eager to get rid of me as soon as possible--and not particularly talkative at this stage. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and I had to wait for a couple of hours drinking coffee and looking for my luggage to see if my wallet was in it. It was! No Problem, I said to my- self as I assured the tour director that everything was-all right and that no international incident had been created. I failed to mention our visit to a Polish. school.. It was a fairly new building in reasonable state of repair. As in Yugoslavia, the construction in the northern Communist countries seems to have heen fast, but not par- ticularly: efficient. Cracks here and there, broken bits of brick and plas- ter falling off were all indications of a rather sloppy job. The rooms were simply furnished, but seemed to be looked after much better than the rooms' in our school in Marville. The ONTARIO RIDING The Estimates for the fiseal year 1963-64 were tabled hy Minister and they show a spending program by the Federal Government at a record 7.3 billion dollars, This, of course, does not present the com- plete picture, as supplementary esti- mates will be introduced as the yen goes on for additional expenditures. "It may be that the total expenditures for the fiseal year will be closer to 8 billion dollars. In his statement to the House when he tabled the Estimates the Minister said that a reappraisal would be made by the Government to see if certain programs that may have been quite justified when originally introduced should now be dropped or reduced in scope in favour of new programs. It is very doubtful if many of the pro- grams now in existence could be drop- ped without having a great reper- cussions upon those who have been benefiting from these programs. In any event the costs of operating Canada are increasing vear by year and no Government will he able to de- crease these costs. The, payroll is continually increasing, the services are being demanded, and improve- ments on public properties are con- tinually pressing. In the Estimates tabled an item of $164,000 appears for harbour improve- session -the regime «till pays enough attention to the religious sen- sibilities of the people to grant holi- I was impressed with the quality of the written work walls, al- though I am sure our visit was an- seems that The Russians tog had | seemed to . but no- | onously very attractive as a way of life as the Finances \ Thursday, June 18th, 1968 ern, and have suffered so much in al- most every war in Europe, that | think their leadership would think hard before getting themselves in- volved again. There was no indiea- tion of wiy antagonism to us as Westerners in their midst. It was no secret, either, because our clothes were a dead give-away. Their pro- gress is not as spectacular as that in western: Europe, but they have pro- gressed, and they don't know exactly how far they are behind, Likely for the average man life is better than it has ever been, but this is just a guess. There certainly are very few wealthy people, and there isn't much of uw moneyed middle class much sparkle, just dull average 30 not a kind of monot- man, and not far as | am concerned. 1 uess that I have said enough about my one -} day in Poland so I'll leave it hero. Pll send this on separately so that you won't have a whole hook to read at once when the Leningrad and Mos- cow sections are ready. [ might add that to Leningrad we flew in a chartered Adria Airways plane, a turboprop, but I don't know what kind. "I'll try to find out before the next section starts. I won't continue the line with anything in of personal news in ease others wouldn't find it so interesting, I'll just mention that I spent this last weekend with Roy and Janet MacMil- lan and their baby in Bonn, Germany, and that 1-had a letter from Stu last week. So long for now. » Till. love, ments in the City of Oshawa for the current year. There has been n great improvement in this harbour sinco the Harbour Commission wns estah- lished a few years ago and it is gra- tifying to know that the present Gov- ernment has not touched this appro- printion that was provided for by thé] previous administration. Last week Fact out two Resolutions that word on the Order Paper for discussion by Parlinment. So far there are only eight Resolutions sub- mitted by the Government. During the last Session of Parliament on the date, the tenth day of sitting, twenty-one Government Orders were listed on the Orders of the Day for consideration, (me of the eight Resolutions is for the purpose of establishing a Depart. ment of Industry and in this connec tion a new Minister of Industry will be apointed; also a Deputy Minister and certain other persons having spe- cinl knowledge of manufacturing in- dustries, to assist in the work of tho Department, The Resolution states that the pur- pose of this legislation, when it is in- troduced, will be to provide for tho establishment, under the direction of the Minister, of an Area Development Agency, and also to provide for the appointment of a Commissioner and a Deputy Commissioner for Area Devel- opment. This is an additional expense to the taxpayers of Canada as it will pro- vide for a salary for the Minister, the Deputy Minister-and a whole group of personnel who will he engaged in this Department. It is to be hoped that this expenditure will he worth- while in the development of industry in this country. If it is only for the purpose of advising industry, then it will be of no greater benefit than the present section under the Department of Trade and Commerce which has same some This is a scene of the home of miles around to gaze upon the Mr. F. A. Kent in Port Perry.|picturesque beauty of trees and|now. at special counters in these stores. It! In the 1920's people came from|flowera. It was known as Beech- » croft, and is mostly overgrown (From--"On the Shores the same objective. During the past two weeks we have had groups of students from Ontario Riding, the first group of some forty Grade 8 students arrived from Cherry- School, accompanied by their parents. Another group arrived from the West Rouge Public School and they numbered some thirty-two.stu- dents. On April 28rd a group of twenty-two students from Ajax High School visited the Parlinment Build- ings and on June 11th, the Vaughan Willard School, 7 and 8B stu- wood Grade 7 dents, will be with us here in Ottawa. This group will have some forty stu- deiits and four adults. It is always a pleasure, when pos- sible, to greet these vistors" from my Riding and they in turn derive a great deal of pleasure in visiting the Capi- tal City of Ottawa, the Parliament Buildings, and the House of Commons, especially when the House it in ses- sion. Scugog News The June meeting of the "Head" U.C.W. was held at the home of Mrs. Alan Carter on Wednesday evening, June 5th, with 17 members and 5H visitors: Mrs. Ashton, Mrs. Thos. Redman, Mrs. Tra Travell, Mrs. Clif- ford Love, and Mrs. Harry Vander huel, present. Mrs. Jim Wilson was in the chair, relieving our president for this meet- ing, and we opened with hymn #429, followed with meditation and prayer. Mrs. Marie Healey led us in the res- ponsive reading of Psalm #737. "Missions and Christinn Education' was the theme for the meeting. Mis. Jim Wilson gave us information about Rev. Walton Tong and his wife Muriel Tong re the Chinese in Asia and re- ferred to our Missions in Hong Kong and recommended the Foster Parent Mrs. Orval Heayn led us in the responsive reading from the Cates chism on salvation "What God Tas Done For Us" verses 1-30. We con- cluded. our. worship period with our offering and a short prayer. A skit was presented by Reta Wil- son, Ruth Heayn, Irene Carter, Helen Redman and Marie Healey which took place in the Mission Hospital in For- mosa. Later we divided into three and reported This play was hoth eduentional and enjoyable. It was moved by Marie Healey and seconded by Marian Carter that we donate $25.00 toward the oxygen and Port Perry plan. groups for discussion our findings. suction machine for the Beryl Pearce, Ruth Heayn and Betty Reader were appointed to a committee the Brownie and Guide Banquet on Wednesday, June 26th. The following bake sale dates were set: June 28--Helen Redman's group; July 12--Dorene Ashbridge's group; August 2---Irene Carter's group; August 16--Beryl Pearce's group; August 30 Myrtle Manns' group. Our July meeting will be held at the Head Memorial Church with Miss Millicent A. Luke as guest speaker and Grace U.C.W. invited to join us. Thanks were extended to our hostess for opening her home for our meeting. Grace Love showed moving pictures of our home-made Easter bonnets while a refreshing lunch of ice cream, fruit salad and cookies was prepared by Helen Redman's talented group. Scugog Mr. and Mrs. Lorne Hoskin, of Blackstock visited with Mr. and Mrs. Earl Innes on Sunday. Mrs. John Mawhinney, of Scar- borough spent Monday with Mrs. Cameron Aldred. Bestavishes and congratulations to the bride and groom, R. Leh- man-Empringham. Mr. G. Porter of Brooklin; Miss Lily Tremeer, of Little Britain: Miss Margaret Rodda and Miss Karen Tobin, of Greenbank visited Mr. and Mrs. H. Thomas, Friday. Mr. and Mrs. Orvan Blakely, of Pickering also~Mr. and Mrs. W. Swinson and. family of Oshawa spent Sunday with Mr. and Mus. R. Fralick. Mr. M. McLaren spent Sunday with Oshawa friends. Miss Gloria Fralick, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Houeh of Oshawa, Mr. William Oke, of Toronto and Mr. Terry Braham of West Till vis- ited at the home of Mr. and Mrs. M. Fralick on Sunday. Mr. Cecil Fralick, of Toronto home over the week-end, to hear you are improving. Rev. and Mra. Gilbert visiting in Sherbrooke, Quebec for several days. Congratulations to Mr. A. Kreig. and Mr. Carter in their anniversaries. My. James Young, of Oshawa, is to be our guest speaker on-the Circuit on Sunday. Come out. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Fralick will celebrate their 56th wedding and Mrs. and Mrs. C, recent wedding Hospital. Witl anniversary on June 12th, 1963. Gusto Added to Cooking 1 Italian Utensils Cooking, an important matter in Italy, is done with the same gusto and exuberant spirit as the eating which follows. The Italian cucina isn't intricate or ritualized but each step is carried out in a well-organized manner with ap. propriate utensils, For the Ttalian homemaker-- as for most Enropean housewives who spurn cans and can't afford frozen or other prepared foods-- it is the perfect utensil for each "chore 'that reduces the onerous. ness of cooking to a pleasurable (daily routine, Many of the kitchen tools so important to meal preparation of Scugog""). there are now available here, The Italian kitchen utensils make lighter work of cooking. Such items as an onion and garlic press eliminate some of the less pleasant kitchen chores while others add a professional touch to baking and party fixings. Corkscrews, poultry shears, nut crackers and pepper grinders perform utilitarian tasks with greater efficiency. only takes the tears out of onion squeezing, hut also purees other vegetables is among these as is its smaller counterpart, the garlic press. Extremely well designed, they're hoth a delight to look at and use. A scalescoop resembling an over-sized spoon on a scale hase is a heaven.sent answer to any. one who must measure their in. take, It measures in hoth grams and ounces, By now the handsome brass corkscrew with the two side arms that lift the cork out of the bot-. tle, eliminating the tugging of conventional types, must surely be a: part of every household equipment. If not, it's highly invaluable anion nrass that not recommended, '} to join with the Centre in planning i Pleased