ORMOSA UNDER CHINESE RULE

What progress toward freedom?

Effect of Hypnosis on Health.

Can hypnotism really cure?

Salmon Cycle Baffles Science

The mystery: From ocean depths to home streams, how?

Early Christians, Why Persecuted?

They had to face death daily

AUGUST 8, 1953 semimonthly

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital loues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish Interests. “Awake!” has no fetters, It recognizes facts, faces facts, Is free to publish facts. It Is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; ft Is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; ft is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps Itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

"Awake 1” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come io you through these ccJumna. This journalviewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

“Awake I” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened By the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the estabOshment of a righteous New World.

Get acquainted with “Awake!” Keep awake by reading “Awake 1”

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CONTENTS

Your Ambition: Wholesome or Hollow? 3 “Comfortable** Preaching

Formosa Under Chinese Rule

Jehovah's Witnesses of Taiwan

Early Christians, Why Persecuted?

Jehovah’s Witnesses Do Not

Hate Catholics

Salmon Cycle Baffles Science

Effect of Hypnosis on Health

Harm by Amateurs

Miscellaneous Crimes

Maracaibo, a Boiling pot

German Husbands May Get Last Word 23

Chile’s Religious Battle Royal

“Your Word Is Truth*'

Identifying the Human Soul

Jehovah's Witnesses Preach

In All the Earth—Turkey

Do You Know?

Watching the World

Your Ambition: Wholesome or Hollow?

TO HAVE an^ambition is desirable* To tost that ambition is also desirable.

For, indeed, ambition may be either abhorrent or admirable, hollow or wholesome. In each case It la a fervent desire for personal advancement. Yet If that elevating desire is excessive, then it may be nothing more (han selfishness masquerading us a benefactor. Therefore an intelligent appraisal of one's tanbiLiun is enlightening.

There are, however, persons in the world without ambition, but they are stagnant. Life itself becomes monotonous for such ones, and they resort to killing time. Then there orc persons who are born with silver spoons in their mouths: heirs to fortunes, possessions, titles and thrones. In a large measure their ambition is realized at birth —if mere enjoyment of such a luxurious state becomes the mainspring in their lives. Still others are born without penny or pound but with an exuberance of ambition. Ambitions abound in the world, but there arc certain favorites.

An unquestioned favorite is, of course, the ambition to make a “name” for oneself, an ambition popularized long ago by Nimrod, And it was this tantalizing ambition that shaped the plans for the building of the tower of Babel. "They said, 'Come on, lot us make a name for ourselves by building a city and n tower whose top reaches to heaven*”’ (Genesis 11:4, Moffatt) The

AUGUST 8, 1353

ambition for self-fame was not the one God desired man to posses. Jehovah himself stamped it "hollow" on the pages of history by frustrating the efforts of the aspiring builders.

Ambition for fame is idolizing oneself. It Is hollow and it can be tragic. Many are the "war heroes" who, after having returned to civilian life, fee! forlorn and dejected because? the fame associated with a brilliant uniform bedecked with sparkling medals has suddenly vanished.

Many people can enthusiastically choose a vocation after they have asked themselves the crucial question; How much prestige goes with it? Ie not the ambition, then, really fame and not the occupation itself?

Popular magazines have published charts showing the relative amount of prestige attached to each prime profession* The minister came out on top. After graduating from a seminary school, he goes to worfc with the title “Father” or Ever-end" and has prestige even before he gives his first sermon. How unlike Christ Jesus who would not even accept the title "Good Teacher"! “Why do you call me good? Nobody is good, except one, God."—Luke 18:19, New World Ttotm.

Moreover, there are many who become ministers of popular religions because it is an easy way of converting souls into cash* And so the ambition for wealth and flnan-

3

cial security has become popular too. The very prevalence of this ambition is a sure sign of the “last days”, a time when there would be no such thing as financial security,—2 Timothy 3:1, 2; James 5:1-3*

Ah, but some may not aspire to fame or wealth. Much preferred is power! Thus there is an abundance of Napoleons and Hitlers in the world today. But power still is the ambition of one whose aim is just to sit behind an impressive desk barking crisp orders to respectful subordinates. In this quest for power, as in the ones for fame and wealth, one must often push down, beat down and choke out the other man.

In speaking of ambition King Esarhad-don of ancient Assyria probably overleaped his ambitiqns. In his annals he wrote: "I am powerful, I am all powerful, I am a hero, I am gigantic, I am colossal.” He even sounds hollow, as if he were a reviewer appraising the latest gaudy Hollywood spectacle!

Man’s paramount ambitions, are they hollow? The Bible answers: “Wise men die; the fool and the brutish alike perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.” (Psalm 49:10,11, Am. Stan. Ver.) Men aspire to be rich, but the ambition is hollow, as hollow as the heart of an echo. For what comfort is it for men to leave wealth to others, sometimes to those for whom they never intended it, and who rejoice at their death? Men conquer lands and even give them their name. No profit is this, for a space six or seven feet long and three feet wide is still sufficient to hold the greatest conqueror in the old world!

No wonder wise King Solomon evaluated all man’s endeavors as “vanity and a striving after wind”. But there is one worthwhile, wholesome ambition: “The conclusion of the matter, all having been heard: Fear God and keep his commands; for this concerns all mankind.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, An Amer, Trans.) This is the wholesome ambition: to seek fame for Jehovah’s name! It is an ambition open to all mankind, not to just a select few. Life in Jehovah’s new world of righteousness will indeed be wholesome! Why be satisfied with anything hollow?

“Comfortable” Preaching

^Retiring Professor Halford E. Luccock, who taught sermon preparation and delivery (Homiletics) at Yale Divinity School, gave, in April, a series of lectures on today’s comfortable preaching. He condemned the ‘‘Rocking Horse Sermon” that "moves but does not go on, always charging but never advancing*'; the "Con-fectioner*s Sermon” that is "like a wedding cake, a great, airy structure with candy chateaux, gardens of angelica, true lovers* knots of sugar and hearts of purest whipped cream”; and the "Jericho Sermon”; "Some preachers , . . seem to have implicit faith that if they march around the outside of a subject seven times, making a loud noise, the walls will fall down. They rarely do?* He warned against the current view of religion as a "sort of glorified aspirin tablet”, and said: "Some preachers have discovered a new verb which seems to have superseded the old ones [such as] agonize . . . follow . , , sacrifice. It is the lovely verb relax.” He suggested that this type of preacher must think the Biblical admonitions say: "If any man will come after me let him relax** and "Go ye into all the world and keep down your blood pressure**. Such sermons have no major issue. They consider religion merely a drug for the mentally distressed or an aid for those in trouble, and certainly they show a lack of appreciation for the life-and-death im* portance of sound Christian truth.

Formosa ' UNDER CHINESE RULE

Will it grant constitutional freedoms to Jehovah's witnesses?

TThe Dutch called the island Formosa, meaning “beautiful island”. The natives call it Taiwan, meaning “abundance”. Lying across the Tropic of Cancer, it is indeed a garden of exotic beauty, with majestic mountains, fem-clad valleys, varicolored flowers. The two rice crops a year are supplemented by an abundance of bananas, pineapples, papayas, melons and less-known fruits. Over the years the people of Taiwan have indeed enjoyed an abundance, whether under Chinese or Japanese rule. They have basked in prosperity, well acquainted with freedom from want, if not with the other freedoms. Would they ever enjoy, in addition, freedom from fear of oppression by dictatorial overlords?

With the close of World War II there came changes. The aggressive Japanese were driven back to their home islands and the government of the Republic of China took over Taiwan. The Taiwanese people had no say in this, for it had been decided for them by the “Big Four”. They hoped for a return of prosperity and greater freedom on the island of abundance.

Soon the hordes of communism were overrunning the Chinese mainland. Chiang Kai-shek’s government was forced to flee to the last Chinese outpost, Taiwan. The Communists prepared for a mass assault on the Island. But, then, in the latter part of 1950, President Truman stepped in and told the Communists they must come no farther. And now “deneutralized” Taiwan is an island fortress, guarded by American guns, warships and planes. Its population of 6,500,000 Taiwanese has been swollen by the influx of some 1,000,000 Chinese from the mainland, and these must support a Chinese army of more than half a millionn

The island of abundance faces a complexity of problems. Not the least is the language problem. Although the seven mountain tribes have broken off from such pastimes as head-hunting, they are still divided by their tribal languages, of which there is no written form. Down on the rich coastal plains, where the majority of the people live, Taiwanese and Japanese are spoken interchangeably. The newly arrived Chinese, living mostly in the great modern city of Taipei, speak Chinese and some English. Speech may be a jumble of several languages. It is not uncommon to hear Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, English, all mixed into one sentence. No wonder the government is pushing a vigorous campaign of teaching Chinese as the national language! With it goes a campaign to eliminate Japanese customs and influences. But one still hears the lilting Japanese folk songs floating on the evening air.

What Progress Toward Freedom?

When the United States of America took Taiwan under her protective wing, it became necessary for the Chinese government to show herself fully worthy of this patronage. With wartime conditions continuing, the task is a difficult one. However,

the government has worked hard to throw over feudalists traditions, introduce democratic reforms and advance to a position of respect alongside other nations of the West. The Chinese appear to have made sincere efforts to better the lot of the people. This is to their credit, and is also a tribute to the energy with which the United States has co-operated in the program of advancement.

Feudalism has been largely eliminated, large estates having been divided up and sold to new tenants on long-range easy payments. Exorbitant farm rents have been reduced, the peasant being guaranteed approximately two thirds of his crop, over and above the portion that must be paid as rent The Chinese government has vigorously prosecuted a “land-to-tiller" program for the return of the land to the farmer who actually works it. Premier Chen Cheng claims that when this program is completed, the farmer will have to pay as taxes and other expenses only ten per cent of the main crops harvested.

An effort is also being made to raise the living standards of the quarter-million fisherfolk who toil off the shores of Taiwan. Opportunities for the education of their children are now provided, also an insurance policy (more practical than offering prayers and incense before the sea god Machu), and the government is constructing new harbors and new boats. Other classes of the people are also receiving attention. Vocational guidance is being provided in the schools. With Uncle Sam’s assistance, new industries and factories are springing up.

The Taiwanese themselves would have preferred self-rule to Chinese rule; but the Chinese government is trying to reassure them on this score by placing many native Taiwanese in responsible positions. Taxes are still heavy, due to the need for supporting and equipping the large Chinese army as it prepares to,fight its way back to the mainland. If conditions have not yet returned to the heyday of Japanese prosperity, the Taiwanese may console themselves in the knowledge that they are far better off than they would be under Communist rule, and. that the present government appears to be making a sincere effort to amend past mistakes and improve the lot of the people.

One More Mistake to Be Remedied

There was one big mistake the Japanese made during their occupancy of Taiwan, and unfortunately the Chinese government has been tardy in remedying it. This mistake is the denial of freedom of worship and assembly to the Christian group known as Jehovah’s witnesses.

This denial was to be expected under the dictatorial Japanese regime, but why the Chinese government should have continued the oppression where the Japanese left off is hard to understand. The very fine principles enunciated in the new Chinese Constitution include the following, under Chapter II, “The Rights and Duties of the People”: “The people of the Republic of China are equal according to the law, there being no distinction as to sex, race, class or party.... The individual’s bodily freedom will be protected.... Within twenty-four hours of arrest, he must be brought before court for trial.... The people have freedom of speech, lecturing, writing and publishing ... freedom of religious belief... freedom of assembly and organization.”

Jehovah’s witnesses in Taiwan have been denied these freedoms.

This continued suppression of sincere Christians hardly squares up with the principles enunciated by President Chiang Kai-shek in his Good Friday speech of 1953: “As Christians we are the soldiers to protect truth, justice, democracy and freedom. We should be able to distinguish between

right and wrong, good and evil, and should accept all hardships and ordeals.... We must copy Jesus’' revolutionary spirit to shoulder the responsibilities of reform of society. We must be truthful and uncompromising in our struggle against the evils in society. We must set ourselves as examples in the establishment of a society in which each and every one of us can enjoy freedom and equality. This is our responsibility at the moment and also our eternal sacred mission.”

Why, then, has the Chinese government of Taiwan been so slow to lift the ban on Jehovah’s witnesses in that land?

Jehovah’s Witnesses of Taiwan

In the island of abundance, Jehovah’s witnesses are the same as Jehovah’s witnesses all over the world. They love to study the Bible, they love to tell its wonderful message to others, and their faces are aglow with the living hope of God’s kingdom. They have been through persecutions, plenty. They first heard the truth from two Japanese pioneer witnesses who preached throughout the island back in 1936, were later imprisoned by the Japanese, and died, faithful to the end, from the harsh treatment in prison. But the seed they planted in Taiwan has brought forth abundantly.

At first the going was hard. Within three weeks of being baptized, the first Taiwanese witness was imprisoned by the Japanese. That was January, 1937. During the remainder of the Japanese control of Taiwan, he seems to have spent more time in prison than out of prison, but whether “in’’ or “out” he kept preaching the Christian message for which he was being persecuted. The prison tortures were constant and excruciating. Worst torture of all was the electric glove, an iron glove that was placed on the hand, and through which a series of electric shocks was administered until the victim writhed with agony. But torture would not make this faithful Christian recant his belief in Jehovah the Almighty God, and in Christ’s kingdom for the blessing of all mankind.

Integrity brings its rewards. One by one, others of the Taiwanese people listened, believed and took their stand for God’s kingdom, only to take their share of the persecutions as well. The truth prospered and increased. Soon the entire village where the original minister lives had become solid Jehovah’s witnesses. Other individuals, other entire villages accepted the message of God’s kingdom. The truth spread from the valleys into the mountains. Today there are more than 900 active ministers.

Under Chinese Rule

At last the regime of the persecuting Japanese crumbled and departed. How Jehovah’s witnesses of Taiwan rejoiced to see the arrival of the Chinese! More and more flocked to the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses, confident that freedom of worship would now be their lot. In 1948 alone, 260 new believers received baptism. Graduates of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead arrived to aid them in their organization. Steps were taken to have the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society properly registered with the Taiwan Provincial Government. But until this year of 1953, such registration has not been granted. Why?

Persecution flared up again, but this time under the Chinese. Without any satisfactory explanation being given, the two Gilead missionaries were deported. On July 24, 1949, fifteen ministers, two of them women, were arrested and they were held in concentration camps for periods ranging from one week to fifteen months. Despite the clear statement of the Chinese

Constitution that a charge must be made within twenty-four hours of a person’s arrest, no charge was ever made against these Christians, nor have they been told to this day the grounds for their arrest. All fifteen of these Christian ministers, including the women, were cruelly tortured by beatings, the electric glove or by other means in an endeavor to force a “confession”. As true Christians, all held fast to their faith.

We could cite details of these persecutions, but will not do so, as it is believed the Chinese government is now making a Sincere attempt to eliminate such cruelties, and fully measure up to the stature of a modern, enlightened state. Moreover, during the period of convalescence of the most severely injured ministers, other officials showed them great kindness, and helped them on the road to complete recovery. Some of these officials even became Jehovah’s witnesses. Even so, they could not completely mend the broken body that the circuit minister of Jehovah’s witnesses carries with him today as he performs his Christian duties in Taiwan. It is hoped these bodily persecutions against Jehovah’s witnesses are only a hangover from fast-disappearing feudalists days.

However, other persecutions have continued down until the year 1953. These are connected mainly with the denial of freedom of worship and freedom of assembly to Jehovah’s witnesses. Time and again Jehovah’s witnesses of Taiwan have applied for registration as a religion, and for the right to build proper assembly places for worship. Time and again their applications have been shelved. All the facts concerning Jehovah’s witnesses, their work, their purposes, their beliefs, have been placed before the government.

No longer has the government any. excuse for believing the false reports that

Jehovah’s witnesses are communistic, false rumors that cirdilated in Taiwan at the same time that the New York Times of June 30, 1950, was reporting the Communists’ liquidation of 10,000 Jehovah’s witnesses in Poland under the heading, “Poles Arrest Jehovah’s Witnesses as Spies Directed from Brooklyn.” Jehovah’s witnesses cannot be spies for America and for the Communists at the same time, can they? The fact is that Jehovah's witnesses are not interested in any brand of politics. In the 127 countries where they are now working they are interested only in preaching the wonderful good news of God’s kingdom of righteousness as man’s real hope for peace and happiness on earth. The humble people of good will listen.

Is it because most of Jehovah’s witnesses in Taiwan are to be found among the humbler tribespeople that the government hesitates to grant recognition? If so, they should remember that it was the common people who heard Jesus gladly, and that his first disciples were merely plain fishermen. If the humble people of Taiwan are hindered in following in Jesus’ footsteps, the government is taking on itself a great responsibility before Almighty God.

Taiwan now has a new governor. It is sincerely hoped that he will review all the facts concerning Jehovah’s witnesses that have been made available to his government, and that he will honor the constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship and assembly by granting recognition to Jehovah’s witnesses. This indeed would be a further indication of the sincerity of the Chinese government, and Awake! looks forward to reporting on this favorable action in due course.

Taiwan, will you come out openly and unequivocally on the side of freedom of assembly and freedom of worship for the Christian witnesses of Jehovah God?

EARLY CHRISTIANS

"Why Were Persecuted?"

0 UTSTANDING in

_____             the annals of Ro-i                   man history is the per

secution of Christians. They were hated and despised; they were loathed and detested. Yet, paradoxically, Rome was noted for its tolerance toward most religious sects and cults. Why, then, were Christians so hated, when even Jews were often contemptuously tolerated? Were the great majority of Christians perpetually persecuted just because of the alleged charge of Nero that they burned Rome?

To read one of the earliest pagan references to Christianity is enlightening. It was written by Tacitus, who was born during the reign of Emperor Nero and who eventually distinguished himself as a great historian. In his Annate (xv. 44) probably published after A.D, . 115, and written shortly before that date, he describes the fire of Rome A.D. 64:

“But no human resource, no imperial munificence, no propitiation of the gods, banished the slanderous belief that the fire had happened by order. To crush the rumour therefore Nero provided as culprits, and punished with every form of severity, persons who were hated for their abominations and generally known as Christians. This name had originated with one Christus, who had been put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. The pernicious superstition had been suppressed for a time; but was breaking out again, not only in Judaea, where the trouble had started, but even in the City, where everything foul and shameful from any source collects and

finds a following. Self- W II R confessed Christians         who

were arrested first;

then on their evidence vast numbers were convicted, not on charges arising from the fire, but for hatred of mankind.”¹

Tacitus, being a pagan, naturally displays a glaring contempt for Christianity. However, his account is noteworthy in that the “vast numbers” he mentions were convicted, not under the trumped-up charge of arson, but for “hatred of mankind”. It would have seemed singularly difficult to initiate criminal proceedings on such a charge, especially when Christians were commanded by Christ to love their neighbor as themselves! What, then, was the basis for the alleged "hatred of mankind” complaint?

Antisocial Kill-Joys

Because Christians did not absorb themselves in the conventional social and religious pursuits of that age, they were believed to be “haters of mankind”. In fact, history tells us that the conscientious Christian could attend no public festival and celebrate no holiday. Hardly any trade could be found that was not in some way connected with pagan religion. The popular view was that Christians were antisocial kill-joys. But perhaps the most effective agent of exasperation was the extreme forms taken by Christians against the sexual laxity of the day."

Imagine not celebrating holidays! That in itself was probably fuel enough to brand the Christians “antisocial”. But when the Christians took potent action to keep

themselves clean from the boundless immorality of the day, that was the last straw. That the Christians put the damper on all pleasure must have been the idea possessed by every gladiatorial fan. Indeed, the prime pastimes of the day were the butchery spectacles! While whole towns would swarm to the bloodcurdling games, what was the position of the Christian? The writings of Athenagoras, an Athenian and Christian (probably dated about A,D, 177), answer when he states that “Christians refuse to go to gladiatorial shows”,¹ For failing to support these games, how the Christians must have been branded as against all fun!

Imagine the Roman gladiatorial fans talking up yesterday’s big kills. An underdog upsets a veteran. At the markets, on the streets, and in the baths, the news would be discussed. Yet the Christians could not have become enthusiastic about the wicked spectacles; they undoubtedly spoke against them. How could they do otherwise? Christians would not even fight in Rome’s imperial armies. If they gave their lives for Caesar, what would they have left to give to God?

So secular history tells us: “A careful review of all the information available goes to show that, until the time of Marcus Aurelius [ruled A.D. 270-275], no Christian became a soldier; and no soldier, after becoming a Christian, remained in military service.”¹ Consequently, Christians must have been called “unpatriotic” and “cowardly" and other vicious names. So hated were the Christians that the Jews at Rome told the apostle: “As regards this sect it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.”—Acts 28:22, New World Trans.

What was the early Christian’s attitude toward Roman political life? “Their contempt for certain official appointments, their unwillingness to take part in the manifestations of the city’s public life”* also explain the charge “hatred of mankind”. Surely it is obvious that the Christian had & way of life undeniably different from his pagan neighbor in regard to politics, religion and pleasures of the day.

Moreover, when the number of Christians increased in a community, the pagan element experienced an economic crisis. Why? Because profitable temple revenue and markets in offerings for pagan sacrifices would drop to alarmingly low levels. The Christian influence upon pagan commercial life was, to say the. least, disquieting. The Ephesian silversmiths realized their economic crisis when, by the mouth of Demetrius, they declared that “the danger exists not only that this occupation of ours will come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be esteemed as nothing”.—-Acts 19:27, New World Trans.

Once when the apostle Paul expelled a demon from a girl, a lucrative fortunetelling business went on the rocks. The girl, no longer under demon control, lost her predictive powers. And her exploiters and masters, enraged because their easy income had vanished like a bursted bubble, dragged Paul and Silas before the civil magistrates, complaining: “These men are disturbing our city very much.” (Acts 16:20, New World Trans.) Thus the fortunetellers, the traffickers in prostitution, and even those who pursued the legitimate trade of image-carving could see their business on the doorstep of bankruptcy when the number of Christians increased.

Also deeply felt in a community would be the disturbance of family life when a member of a pagan family joined this "accursed sect”. But Christ had foretold this very thing: “For from now op there will be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three. They

win be divided.” (Luke 12:52, 53, New World Trans.) It is no Wonder the mobs turned with savage fury upon the Christians as “haters of mankind”, for domestic peace was disrupted.

The Charge of “Atheism”

"Finally, the common cry raised against them was that they were atheists. They had no idols; they despised the gods of ancient Rome.*’⁴ To be sure, Rome was noted for its bewildering variety of idols and deities. Yet Christians would not worship one of them; they could only despise the gods of stone and metal. Christians explained how preposterous were the popular stories of the gods. Ridiculing the metal gods, Tertullian (A.D. 1607-230) remarked: "Ask Hie spiders what they think of your gods, and their webs tell you. Today a god, tomorrow a pan; as domestic necessity melts and casts the metal.

Subjects of the Roman empire were expected to he loyal to the official state religion, which early came to mean primarily the worship of the emperor. To deny his divinity was unthinkable—except to a Christian! So Christians were soon branded as “atheists”, but not the Jews. Why? Because the Christians "were fundamentally distinct from them [the Jews! in that they were universalists and fell bound to declare openly and somewhat aggressively that the gods of the State were no gods at all, that men worshipped them in ignorance."* Therefore Christians were called not only “haters of mankind” but "atheists” as well; and though they believed in urte God, Jehovah Most High, they still were "atheists”.

Death for Christians

It is evident, then, that the vast majority of early Christians suffered persecution “not on charges arising from the Are’*, However, Nero, that bloodthirsty tyrant,

AUGUST 8 8, 1863

reportedly did attempt to throw the odium of the act, of which he himself was beginning to be accused, upon the Christians. Arrested by the imperial police, the Christians thus charged do not seem to have appeared before the tribunals at all. They were massacred without trial and with all the refinements of diabolical cruelty,

Nero-gave a garden party on the grounds of the Imperial palace. For the pleasure of his guests, Christians were wrapped in skins of wild beasts and torn to pieces by devouring dogs. Others were smeared in pitch, that, when daylight faded, they might, like flaming torches, serve to dispel the darkness of night and Illuminate the course of the chariot races. Presently Emperor Nero himself appeared, resplendent in marvelous costume, driving his own chariot through a iane of living, burning Christians, amid the thunderous applause of his guests and the shrieks of women burning to ashes, all of which supplied sweet music fur his ears.

Nero’s decree of death for the Christians seemed to have set a precedent that continued, with fluctuating intensity, till the year A.D. 313. During this time “a legal denunciation was sufficient to draw down this threatened danger, and the true Christian, who would not apostatize or even make a pretense of apostatizing, had to face continually the prospect of martyrdom”.³

From the Roman standpoint, Christians dteserweef to be thrown to the lions in the arena. '‘Christians to the lions” was the popular demand of the masses who crowded the public shows and games in the amphitheaters. Popular accusation was the chief agent of conviction.

It is strange that, with few exceptions, the Roman government did not particularly exert itself to hunt Christians out. On this point the famous rescript of Em-

12

peror Trajan is illuminating. He wrote to the governor of Bithynia: “Do not go out of your way to look for them. « indeed they should be brought before you, and the crime is proved, they must be punished [with death].”" If the government considered Christians openly dangerous, then it would have been the emperor’s bounden duty to search them out. But it was left up to the people. Hence, the pagan populace was as responsible for initiating persecution of Christians as the government.

In spite of the popular feeling, many Romans in high official positions became Christians. This is evidenced by the decree of Emperor Valerian: “Senators and prominent men and Roman knights are to lose their position and moreover, to be stripped of their property; If they still persist in being Christians after their goods have been taken from them, they are to be beheaded. But members of Caesar’s household are to have their goods confiscated and to be sent in chains ‘by appointment’ to the estates of Caesar.”⁴

Since the emperor’s edict was so carefully worded, there must have been numerous conversions of prominent citizens to Christianity. Caesar’s own household was included in the law! How it must have upset Caesar’s peace of mind when some of his household became Christians’ In truth, it happened. For the apostle wrote: “All the holy ones, but especially those of the household of Caesar, send you their greetings.” (Philippians 4:22, New World Trans.) Yes, even in the household of that diabolic wretch Nero there were Christians! Caesar’s own bodyguards were not unacquainted with Christianity. “My prison bonds have become public knowledge in association with Christ among all the praetorian guard and all the rest.” (Philippians 1:13, New World Trans.) Paul, at the hub of the Roman empire, could not have been placed in circumstances better calculated to spread Christianity!

The Real Reason

Briefly, what was the reason for Christian persecution? Christ Jesus gives us the precise answer: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, ... on this account the world hates you.” —John 15:18, 19, New World Trans.

That is the reason: Christians were "nd part of the world”. True Christians today are “no part of the world” either, for they know that Jehovah’s new world is at hand. It will be ushered in when Satan’s old world is ushered out at the impending war of Armageddon. (Revelation 16:14, 16) Then the burden of hatred and persecution of true Christians will be lifted forever.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES HEREIN CITED

i Rise of Christianity, by Ernest W. Barnes, 1947. pp. 306, 331, 333.

2 Pagan Background of Early Christianity, bv W. R. Halliday. 1925, pp. 25, 26.                       ’

3 The Church of the Early Centuries, by Professor Amann, pp. 35, 43.

* Christianity in the Roman Vi’srM, by Duncan Armytage, 1927, pp. 50, 78, 79, 92, 93.

Harvard Classics, 1909, vol. 9. p. 428.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Do Not Hate Catholics

•J? Writes one subscriber: “Yesterday I made a return visit upon a man who inquired, ‘What do you think of the Catholics’’ I asked him, ‘What do you think of them?’ He replied: ‘Well, I don’t know, but I heard that Jehovah’s witnesses hated them.’ Upon which I said: ‘I’ll tell you what we really think of them. We love t^em enough to go from house to house, hour after hour, day after day, year after year in every country on earth, to tell them of God’s kingdom and point them to the way they might take to live forever in happiness, and that in spite of anything they or anyone else may do to us because of doing so. Do you love them that much?' ’’

SALMON to the overage person i$ simply a red-fleshed fish; to a fisherman, a silver-sheened beauty nf the deep; to a scientist, an intriguing enigma, an evor-fascinating subject for study.

After many years of research, much remains to be known about the salmon: where and how it spends Its life al sea, how far It roams, what guards it from getting Jast_T what infallible timing device directs its compass course when its life cycle calls it to the spawning grounds, how It fights its way to upstream rendezvous, sometimes for hundreds of miles, through rapid and over watertall, without food. These still pose as problems that baffle the best of scientists.

Salmon are anadromous, that is to say, they spend their life in the ocean but run upstream to spawn In fresh water. The little salmon remain in the fresh water fur varying periods of time, according to species and water temperature, then start their long journey to the sea. Once they enter the ocean their whereabouts is shrouded tn an impenetrable mystery until they return to start life's story all over. Generally speaking there are only two types of salmon. The Salmo solar, of the Atlantic, is a single, distinct, red-fleshed species, and it ia always sold fresh, never conned. Its nearest relative in the Pacific is the Salmo gairdneri., which is really a trout and not a true salmon. These are called steelheads. 'Hiey are a game fish and greatly prized by fishermen. They wei^ i as much as sixty pounds, live from five to eight years, rank fifth in protein content and first in fat, and their flefih varies from dark red to pure white. This is reportedly the only Pacific salmon that spawns more than once, all others being one-cycle fishes.

Salmon, like nil fish, are covered with slime, a mucus that not only reduces (fiction and enhances speed and cose of action, but also serves as a protecting chemical coat against «?a lice and other marauding marines. If for some itason this film 19 rubbed off, injury sets in. A salmon's age is determined by its scales, which display yearly rings the same as does a tree.

A study of these elusive flnstere reveals the amazing fact that salmon travel in races and live in populations, each exhibit* ing distinctive characteristics. They cannot be mixed and traded like cattle in grading pens. They travel in populations numbering millions, and spring-spawned races will always return to become other spring-spawned races: it Is likewise with those of the fall runs. What accurate timekeepers these submarine travelers are! Back to their own home stream they go, passing hundreds of diverting channels until they reach the exact rivulet of their starting point. If, due to some accident a race cannot reach its destination, they die without spawning. A race is never found

jWGLFST P, 1953

in the wrong watershed. The three main spawning systems along the British Columbia coast are the Fraser, Skeena and Naas rivers. The Fraser watershed alone covers an area of more than ninety thousand square miles.

Widespread research has been conducted and waterways have been cleared with a view to perpetuating the salmon industry. Tagging has been done to establish where the salmon go, how far they travel, and to tap the secrets of their life at sea. It is generally considered that they follow the feeding grounds, but until more is known of the habits of other fish and marine growth upon which salmon feed, the mystery will remain unsolved. Tagging, which is done either by celluloid disk, or by the complete removal of a certain fin each year, and by rewards paid to fishermen for reporting their catch, has not conclusively established their migrations. Automatic television diving bells are now available to the biologists for further research. However, it is now known that fish can travel up to twenty sustained miles a day, and salmon have been caught in midocean, a thousand miles from shore. There was a time when commercial fish hatcheries were operated, but these have been discontinued, presumably because it is found to be most successful to develop the natural spawning grounds where the salmon may be reared in their own elements.

Why do salmon go to sea? So they may have access to the rich food supply in order to build up the required oil reserve to make the long return spawning run, for nature has furnished them with the , warning instinct that they must come home to die. Hence, in due season, each in turn is gripped by the uneasy, inescapable urge for the one supreme event in their lives, parenthood. This voiceless call brings them streaming in countless millions from the ocean depths, along the shores and unerringly into their own water system from where they came as youngsters, now to return as prime, virile salmon.

Running the Gauntlet

Predators of the sea respond to this annual roundup. Theirs, however, is not for the lofty purpose of the salmon who are by now rich in oil and ripening spawn. These come to rip, feast and gorge in gluttonous assault upon the homebound salmon. So we find seals, sea lions, gulls and sharks closing in for the kill; and last, but certainly not least, is the commercial fisherman, each one feverishly taking his toll of this rich harvest of the sea, Juli capacity being the only recognized limit.

As they congregate in the mouth of the main rivers the schooling saZmon mill around for days before making the final run. It is here they suffer their greatest casualties, while accustoming themselves to the drastic transition from ocean to fresh-water temperatures and the increased oxygen of the mountain streams.

Finally they make the plunge, and once in the rivers they automatically stop feeding; no living bacteria are found in their digestive tracts. Here again their Designer exhibited marvelous wisdom, for where would millions of fighting, leaping, diving fish find food in a river? On they go, hurdling barriers of swirling rapids, jagged rocks and waterfalls, pausing in quiet pools here and there long enough to rest, and then fighting on again until their goal is reached, or death overtakes them. Many are trapped by Indians who depend on them for winter food. Bears and eagles likewise join in this wholesale thinning of their ranks. Thus those that survive finally come to their starting point in the far-flung hinterland reaches that comprise the spawning grounds. Some have battered their way for hundreds of miles against incredible odds to come to the resting place of their

fathers. Lake Labarge in Yukon Territory is 1,1300 miles from the sea, yet it is the spawning ground for sockeye. Some travel distances up to three thousand miles.

With the arduous journey over, domestic life begins as the female selects her mate and spawning commences. First she hollows out her nest, or redd as it is called, which she does with fin and snout until each nest is over a foot in width and depth. Meantime her partner fights off enemies such as char, trout, etc., which ever wait in readiness to devour the spawn. Then she lays about 500 eggs in each redd until 4,000 to 5,000 eggs have been deposited, the male spreading his fertilizing milt over them during the same operation.

Truly, as a maternal housekeeper Mra Salmon is most industrious, but the price of success is her life. By this time bruised and beaten, their oil supply depleted, the protein from their once strong muscles gone, the males have developed beak like snouts. Some have tremendous razor-humped backs, and with their erarwhile silver-green beauty sadly deteriorated, they appear dull, ragged and emaciated. The sockeye male at this stage turns a rusty red. They bn rely muster strength for this final climactic function, and as soon ns this is performed they drift aimlessly and die, thereafter sinking to the bottom where their decaying carcasses become food for the millions of baby fry soon to emerge from their hidden nurseries. Thus, for a time each year the race is represented only by the millions of eggs tucked away in the loose gravel beds beneath a thousand flowing streams. Salmon literally give all, that others may live.

Finally, in due course, the restless, seething mass of spawn comes to life as another race springs into surging existence Id make its own demands for living space. But from the dawn of life, aa the little fry wiggle their way to the surface, they are in trouble. They have no baby-sitters, receive no parental assistance, and maintain life only at the cost of perpetual vigilance. Multitudes of enemies appear immediately In the form of birds, crabs and foraging fish; droughts expose them to death in the sun, while freshets sweep them prematurely into the sea. Actually less than five per cent of all spawn become adults, the balance falling victim to natural hazards such windfalls, log jams, birds, and other predators. The little fishes find themselves in a most unfriendly world.

Survival or Annihilation

In addition to the above hazards must be considered the commercial aspirations of men. The International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission has urgently warned that if present wasteful logging operations continue, if mine and mill operators pollute the steanw with poisonous waste materials, if hydroelectric projects keep on damming the rivers, and if over-fishing is allowed, then it will be only a mutter of time until there is not one red-fleshed fish left in the ocean.

In 1913 a tremendous rock slide tumbled into the bYaser River canyon, almost cutting the river off. This slide became the graveyard of millions of sockeye that could not force their way past the surging current and jagged boulders to their spawning grounds. However, in 1944-46 at the cost of a million dollars, the world's largest fishways were built to overcome the barriers. Doubtless as a direct result of this project the salmon industry has been able to stage a comeback, and the 1952 run has been [announced very successful.

During the summer of 1951 a similar slide in the still almost impenetrable wilderness along the Babine River, a tributary of the Skeena, almost cut this system off. This slide, in comparison with the one at Fraser River canyon, ia reportedly far

AUGUST 1,

more difficult, dangerous and expensive to repair, but the timely action of the Federal Department of Fisheries has, at least temporarily, restored the salmon run, and thereby avoided a repetition of the previous disaster.

Meanwhile, the fishing fleets comprising thousands of men and boats range the sea and scour the depths to bring to the surface the golden harvest that finally finds its way via tin-can transition to the grocery counter where the housewife has only to say: “A can of Canadian salmon, please.”

The Salmon Industry

The modern fishing industry is a thriving business that demands and utilizes every known product of the manufacturing world from shoestrings to diesel engines and radar equipment. Present modern fishing vessels are sea queens compared with the laborious hand-rigged equipment of the past. And modern processing plants are models of cleanliness and efficiency in which the fresh fish are machine-cleaned, -cut and -packed by one sweeping motion that leaves almost nothing to be done by hand. Not all salmon is canned, however, because much is also smoked and salted, and thousands of tons is put on the market fresh or frozen, and rushed by refrigerator car to become your delicious, sizzling salmon-steak dinner,

Salmon are at their best when schooling in the salty coastal waters just prior to their spawning run. Thereafter they quickly diminish in protein and fat to second-and third-grade quality. For this reason they are strictly graded and distinctly classified, and for the same reason the purchaser should carefully examine the label for identification. All export salmon is rigidly government-inspected.

Within recent years Canada has experienced

an unprecedented boom in business which has driven her dollar value beyond the reach of many countries less favored. This of necessity created an unfavorable trade balance, yet in spite of this the demand for salmon has continued, and it is reported that the 1951 crop brought the British Columbia salmon industry sixty million dollars.

Should anyone yet be inclined to disdainfully sniff at the thought of the lowly salmon, then just recall his exceptional performance and his nutritional value. As a navigator he unfailingly reaches port without chart, coinpass or barometer. As a master mariner he was an expert when scientists still "wore knee pants”, and in spite of their most modem research equipment his maneuvers still leave them baffled. As a food he ranks high.

Who so marvelously supplied the salmon with skill? Surely not evolution, for such distinctive regularity is not bred from blind chance. And so, to those who are inclined to lightly brush aside as of no consequence these questions the original question posed to Job might be reiterated: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have insight.” (Job 38:4, An Amer. Trans.) And again, as in Job's day, the wise ones are silent. Consequently, it must be conceded that the one who minutely balanced the universe is also the one who streamlined the salmon and packed him with the necessary equipment to carry on far beyond the knowledge of man. It is by this same Master Workman that the earth and its human administrator abides forever. Therefore, and despite the much-concerned Fisheries Department of the federal government, it is most likely that the salmon will survive to remain a source of pleasure to earth's permanent inhabitants.

and more hypnotherapy, while others un-equivoc illy and categorically denounce it. Let us examine the evidence and hear the testimony on both sides.

That hypnotherapy has been used with much effect cannot be denied. The New York Times, November 28, 1949, told of hypnosis piercing a nine-year mental blackout of Mrs. John N. Norton, a woman amnesiac, and helping her to recall her past. As Emily Kobalanski she disappeared from her home in 1940, but the farthest back her memory went was to a fainting spell she had in 1942, She had thereafter started out life anew, assumed a name and subsequently married. In endeavoring to pierce her past she went to a physician who placed her in a hypnotic state in which she was able to identify herself. She was restored to her family, who immediately recognized her. Other like cures have been reported.

The New York Times, August 31, 1952, reported a very unusual cure by hypnotherapy: that of a boy in England suffering from a rather rare skin ailment known as “fishskin disease”, so named because the skin becomes rough, dry and scaly. This particular cure aroused much interest and comment among British medical circles last summer. But this need not seem improbable, for many skin ailments are caused by nervous states which, in turn, may be due to mental conditions.

More and more dentists are using hypnotism and the matter is being currently less conscious and relaxed; it can be used when there is allergy to usual anesthetics; not only does it serve as an anesthesia or analgesia but, when used, there is a minimum of bleeding and pain afterward. Those opposed, however, point to the time consumed, as well as to the facts that it has limited possibilities and is still in the experimental stage..

Bernheim, Liebeault and others at Nancy, France, the world’s capital of hypnotic therapy, have made an impressive record of cures, not only of cases involving mental and nervous states but also physical conditions. For example: complete cure of chronic lead poisoning; total cure of rheumatic paralysis of forearm and right hand; a cure of a tubercular condition.

Esdaile, an English surgeon practicing in India in the 1840’s, was one of the pioneers in using hypnotism as an anesthetic. He employed it in more than 2,000 cases, 300 of which involved major operations. He himself, however, referred to it as mesmerism, the name by which hypnotism was known before Braid, an English surgeon, named it hypnotism.

Then there is the use of hypnotism in helping persons to overcome bad habits, such as sex perversions, alcohol, tobacco, etc., by means of posthypnotic suggestions whereby the subject is told that he will no longer enjoy doing such things, that, for example, every time he would drink liquor or smoke a cigarette he would get sick.

Similar to this is the use of hypnosis to cause adults and children to overcome shyness, Jack of confidence, stage fright and suchlike, aiding them in their work and studies. And the New York Times, May 4, 1952, told of tests that demonstrated that under hypnosis a person can learn three to four times as quickly as in the normal state and that five seconds can be stretched out to seem like five minutes.

Barm Done by Stage Hypnotists

But there is another side to this story. For every cure of amnesia by hypnosis the press reports, it also has a report of harm done by some stage performer. Thus the Lawrence, Massachusetts, Daily Eagle, January 17, 1953, in front-page headlines reported: "Exhibition of Hypnosis Creates Hysteria at Ipswich High School. Scores of Students in Sleeping Stupor as Result of Show. Medical Aid Called to Revive Youths Affected by Professional Demonstration.”

The London News Chronicle, December 5, 1951, had the following to report on this matter: "Hypnotized Girl Ill 4 Weeks. Hypnotized at a public demonstration in Airdrie (Lanark) Town Hall 27 days ago, 14-year-old Margaret Proctor was still in hospital last night. . . . Two other girls, hypnotized at the same time as Margaret, were affected. Elizabeth Higgins, aged 16, dropped off to sleep for short periods over several weeks when anyone sang ‘Dreamer’s Holiday’. Her friend Isa Cox, aged 14, had recurring trances.”

And the New York Times, June 18,1952, had still more serious. cases to report: “A 12-year-old British girl still suffers from the effects of being hypnotized three years ago, a House of Commons committee was told yesterday. Furthermore, said Dr. Somerville Hastings, a draftsman hypnotized in 1950 falls asleep whenever someone whistles the tune, ‘So Tired’.” Dr. Hastings, who is a member of parliament as well as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, "cited these incidents as proof of the damage of stage or vaudeville hypnotism. The Commons committee is preparing a bill to regulate stage hypnotism in Britain and to make it an offense to perform any act of hypnotism unless by special permit.”

Highlighting the same danger, stage hypnotism, a consultant writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, June 25, 1949, stated: "Neurotic symptoms can be created readily by direct suggestion in the average adult. But since children are more suggestible than adults, the potential harm is even greater.”

While only the more sensational effects are reported in the press, there are other bad effects that may result from the activities of the stage hypnotist, such as a certain kind of posthypnotic suggestion. A patient came to his doctor with the complaint that wherever he went he saw a big black dog following him. The doctor was unable to help him until he discovered that the man had been at a performance by a hypnotist who had him running around the stage, while in hypnotic trance, pursued by a phantom big black dog. While he remembered nothing of this upon coming out of the trance, yet the dog kept following him. The doctor at once put the patient in a trance to remove the posthypnotic suggestion. However, it took several more seances before the phantom dog no longer bothered him.

Harm by Amateurs

Not only can the stage performer do immeasurable harm, but so can the amateur hypnotist who would cure people, who dabbles in hypnotic therapy. Science Digest, March 1953, under the heading “Beware of Quack Hypnotists”, gave a number of warning examples. A hypnotist

cured a housewife of her insomnia; later she discovered the cause, a tumor on her breast. It had spread unnoticed because nature’s warning signal had been silenced by hypnosis.

A young trombonist developed a paralysis in his left arm. A hypnotist cured it but later his leg became paralyzed. Again he sought relief from the hypnotist and obtained it only to later discover that his voice left him. Trying it once more, the hypnotist cured his aphonia, but a month later he was totally blind. Obviously the symptom and not the cause was being treated. Yes, the Creator intended pain, insomnia and suchlike symptoms to be danger signals that something is wrong. Merely silencing the fire alarm does not put out the fire.

This aspect is even more serious in cases involving conduct aberrations. A specialist may seemingly cure a patient’s desire for whiskey, but if he does not get at the underlying cause the patient most likely will turn to drugs, and hypnotic therapy is unable to cure drug addiction, that is, not in itself alone.

Cannot Be Too Careful

The amateur does not realize what a powerful instrument he is dealing with, while the stage hypnotist does not care, he being concerned only with his profits, which depend upon his prestige and which he builds up by using ruthless and sensational methods to get dramatic results. R. H. Rhodes, one of New York’s foremost authorities on the subject, in his book Hypnosis, Theory, Practice and Application, repeatedly emphasizes the importance of renormalizing the hypnotized subject. “Failure to do so may lead to a continuing effect of the suggestion manifesting itself at a subsequent and perhaps inopportune time.” And again, “If this precaution is neglected, the suggestion may acquire posthypnotic force, with unpleasantness to the subject over a long period of time.”

Estabrooks, of Colgate University, in his Hypnotism, tells that in bringing a subject from the lightest to the deepest stage he brings him out of the trance each time before proceeding to the next deeper stage. “A much slower approach to be sure, but one which gives the operator ample opportunity to size up his subject and to adapt his attack to any peculiarities the subject may have.... On occasion subjects do curious things which can be very disconcerting to an operator.” Most operators, he observes, would consider him overcautious,

A subject may refuse to wake up, or upon waking may go into hysteria, or may insist on going to sleep whenever the operator glances in his direction. Even if the subject awakens by himself, the operator should tell him that he is wide awake and feeling fine. “This very simple precaution may appear a little silly in many cases but it is always well to be sure.”

One of the strongest of warnings regarding the dangers associated with hypnotism voiced by those who make use of it was that one given at the second annual scientific meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis^ September 29, 1951, by Dr. Harold Rosen of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After telling his listeners that many dangers were involved in the use of hypnosis, including that of precipitating suicide of the patient, he, according to the New York Times, September 30, 1951, further, observed:

“The belief is rampant that treatment under hypnosis requires less knowledge and less ability on the part of the therapist than does treatment on the conscious level. This is a dangerous presumption. Treatment under hypnosis requires, preferably, more training, greater therapeutic acumen

and at least as keen a desire to be¹ helpful in every way possible to the patient whose emotional difficulties have caused him so much trouble in his relationship with other people. There are almost infinite possibilities of actual danger to the patient, and probably irreparable harm can be done, unless the hypno-therapist is at least as careful in the use of his hypnotic techniques as the neurosurgeon must of neces-■ sity be when performing brain surgery."

Going even farther than Dr. Rosen are Dr. M. Ralph Kaufman and Colonel Oscar B. Markey, who employed hypnosis in treating soldiers in the Okinawa campaign during the last war. They consider its use merely an emergency measure and “agree with Freud that hypnosis has little place in the delicate field Of psychoanalysis, and go so far as to say that it is positively dangerous”.—Life, July 25, 1949.

And still stronger is the testimony of Dr. Wm. S. Sadler, of the Chicago Institute of Research and Diagnosis, who in his Theory and Practice in Psychiatry, pages 960, 961, states:

“Hypnotism is basically wrong, as a method of strengthening the intellect, educating the will, or unifying the personality, in that it leads its victims to depend more and more upon the operator.” “Hypnotism necessitates the surrender of the mind and will in a peculiar way to the influence of another personality. I regard these proceedings as ia the highest degree subversive of individual strength and stamina of character. The removal of disease symptoms by hypnosis is only transient, not in any sense curative ... Hypnotism has been enthusiastically tried and been found woefully wanting.”

Truly the use of hypnotherapy is debatable when its advocates use such strong terms as to the need of care, while its opponents use such strong language in condemning it. But there are still other angles to this subject of hypnotic phenomena. These will be considered in the next installment of this series. Watch for it.

<L Statistics show crime is increasing.. Daily > you read about it, but these unusual items J may have passed your notice:                 <

John Pira, called into a New York court on > the charge of stealing an automobile, re- _v proached its owner, saying: “Why, he has no \ complaint. I put a new top on his car and > four white-wall tires.”                           <

A conscientious burglar in Medicine Lodge, i Kansas, first sold the business places insur- J ance to cover their losses,                        ;

Thieves who stole a safe in St. Louis called \ the owner and tried unsuccessfully to wheedle ■ the combination out of him.                    s

Another thief in Windsor, Ontario, broke i into a house while the family was away on ] vacation, called a secondhand dealer and sold the furniture to him on the spot.          j

The police in Singapore reported that since • the advent of home air-conditioning people i sleep more soundly, and there are more l burglaries.                                          •

An explanation given by Allen Ellis for robbing a New York woman newsdealer: "The charge is true, all right, but I didn’t know the lady was blind.”

Three brothers of Burges, Belgium, were jailed for launching a fake lottery. The day for the drawing: April 31.

A youthful visitor from the country turned in a fire alarm in Richmond, Indiana, then explained that city boys had told him that if he pulled the lever in the red box a bird would pop out and forecast the weather.

When a Columbus, Ohio, woman burned up her husband’s truck in a fit of anger, the judge freed her, ruling that she had a legal right to do it.

The difference between religious slogans and Christian action was emphasized by the Syracuse, New York, thief who took $298 from Fehlman’s auto repair shop and scrawled on the cashier's window, “God is love.”

IN 1498 Christopher Columbus first laid eyes on the beautiful country of Venezuela. Almost a year later to the day

Alonso de Ojeda discovered Lake Maracaibo, or Lake Coquivacoa, as it was called by the Indians. It was the custom of the Indians to build their villages on piles right in the lake, even as they do today, and it is popularly believed that the Spaniards, seeing this, called it Little Venice or Venezuela —a name that became applied to the whole country. A port was established on the northwestern shore of this large inland lake, which is to be found only after entering a gulf merging with the Caribbean Sea and squeezing past some smaller islands into what is known today as Lake Maracaibo.

The name Maracaibo, at least according to one historian, is the product of several bloody battles with the Indians, in one of which the Indian chief Mara was killed. The Indians were defeated and the Spaniards kept repeating the news that “Mara cayo" (meaning “Mara fell”), and the name of the place became known as Maracaibo. But this did not end its turbulent and sanguinary history. Although the tiny village grew with time into a good-sized settlement, it was sacked at least four times during the seventeenth century by Dutch, English and French pirates. It also became famous for its slave market.

Maracaibo “Mushrooms”

At least in its initial growth Maracaibo could not be fittingly represented as “mushrooming”. The city edged along at a snail's pace or more on the order of a burrito through the dust, this pace being in keeping with its surroundings. A broiling sun bakes down upon the city, humidity runs high, the natives are naturally lethargic, with the siesta being one of their most popular institutions. This city happens to have the dubious honor, according, to its newspapers, of having been the hottest spot on the globe, one June day in 1941. Others perhaps more fittingly describe it as the world’s frying pan where one seems to sizzle.

But despite this natural inconvenience the city grew, spreading its population over the sun-baked cactus-covered flats until, almost as surprising as its continued existence, came the discovery of oil! From here on out the city literally “mushroomed”. People flocked in from other lands. Their lust for a taste of black gold made even the blazing sun tolerable. The city took on a new appearance—a cosmopolitan face lift. New industries began cropping up and the mule was being replaced with modern machinery. The Indians of a century ago would never have believed it if it had been told them. Just recently whole new sections have sprung up having wide shady streets and comfortable houses, modem stores, hotels, hospitals, etc., reminding one perhaps of a section in a Florida city. Its citizens, and all Venezuelans, are proud of the airport of Maracaibo, which is one of the most beautiful and modern in all of South America. It could really be said that Maracaibo had no transition period to speak of but jumped from the “burro” stage to the airplane stage practically over-

night. Despite these apparent advances, many of the old customs and ways of life are still very much a part of the people.

Vendors—Everywhere

The city’s inhabitants are known as Maracaiberos or, more popularly, Mara-cuchos. One of the things dear to the heart of the Maracucho is his coffee. He loves his coffee as the Englishman loves his tea. No matter how stifling hot the day may be, the coffee vendor never lacks customers all day long. The coffee is sewed hot. This is achieved by a special large portable pot with a built-in section underneath for live coals, which constantly heat the coffee, and it is served, usually black, in tiny paper cups. With his large portable pot in one hand and cups in the other the vendor roams through the narrow downtown streets, the shady plazas, the markets, the business sections and everywhere in search of customers. "Cafe," "cafe," whether one is steaming hot or just indifferent, he soon learns to drink café.

But for those who prefer a more cooling drink, look for the cepillado cart. This is the Maracucho version of the United States “Good Humor Man”. He pushes his cart gaily decorated with bottles of colored flavors through the streets, tinkling tiny bells or loudly calling slogans. When a cepillado or shaved-ice drink is ordered, ice is shaved from a block inside the cart, dumped into a cup, and there is a chance of its being packed with more or less clean fingers, and your favorite flavor is poured over it. That's it—cepillado.

One of the first sights a tourist or traveler sees when visiting Maracaibo by boat is the crowded boisterous docks. Here on display are fruits, vegetables, pots and pans, assorted trinkets and the ever-present vendors who shout their bargains into the passer-by’s ears. At times the mixture of odors is repelling.

The docks are lined with small sailing boats that daily ply the lake hauling their varied cargo consisting of humans, or it may be fruits and vegetables from nearby ports, or machinery for one of the hundreds of oil derricks that dot the lake. Here, too, one may see approaching an Indian woman with her round expressionless face brightly painted or streaked with colors ranging from red, green, brown, blue or yellow. Her dress is wide and billowy and covers all her body, and hangs from her shoulders to the ground and almost trips her as she walks. She wears sandals that have a huge brightly colored wool puff over the toes. And for a headdress she wears a gaily colored kerchief and earrings. This fair damsel might be a queen of one of the Indian tribes living around Maracaibo. No water-front scene would be complete without these Indian women, although they may be seen in all parts of the city. They belong to the Goajira tribe, and since they have their own dialect they often cannot speak or understand Spanish. The majority, and especially the women .Goajiras, have steadfastly resisted change and still cling to their old cOstoms, manner of dress and way of life.

The Market

Outside two large buildings covering two full blocks (the market), are spread fruits and vegetables, trinkets and necessities of all kinds. Their only protection from the sun is the long sheets of canvas that have been stretched over the sidewalks. People mill around touching everything in sight. Others loudly bargain over a purchase. The streets are crowded with taxis (modem American-made cars) and dilapidated buses nudging forward, anxiously trying to get through all the confusion to unload passengers.

Inside the large market buildings can be found the meat section—a far cry from

anything seen In the United States. Nearby are the various blocks of native cheese to add to the symphony of odors. Across the aisle there are numerous fruit and vegetable stalls, and stalls crammed with dried beans, rice, dried fish, native sugar, etc. In the midst of all this may be found a tiny restaurant with counters or perhaps tables covered with oilcloth or checked cotton where can be ordered black beans with rice and fried meat; or tajadas, strips of plantain fried in oil, and, to be sure, coffee.

Away from the market on une of the city’s highest sections, Bella Vista, can be seen a magnificent view’ of both the old city, which has changed little with the centuries, and the modern city, the busy docks and ferry boats. To the north lies the narrow neck leading out to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea. From this height the air is cooled and fresh, and the sky, as almost always, is gorgeously decorated with cloud formations formed by the upsweep of hot-air currents.

Here, too, among the crowded streets of Maracaibo can be found Jehovah’s witnesses busy at work, offering on the street comers, in market places, at the docks and from house to house the good news of God's kingdom. In surprising numbers persons are learning of this marvelous hope of the Kingdom and are communicating the same to others who will hear. These persons know full well that while they arc able to endure with some discomfort the high temperatures of the climate today, they will be unable to withstand the fiery day of Armageddon, unless they seek refuge within the strong tower of Jehovah’s organization now.—Zephaniah 3:8; 2 Peter 3; 7.

(Sermon          fftay Cast

The German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) is apparently made up of very brave men. They are working un a law to reduce the mass of Allied, zona), state and National Socialist laws on marriage and the family that now exist in Germany, and the new law has a very controversial passage. The passage starts off calmly enough, saying that marriage partners must settle ail matters about their marriage and the family in mutual understanding and with consideration of the wishes of the other, it goes on to say that where there is a difference of opinion they must try to come to an agreement, but then says that if this is impossible the man must make the decision, after taking into consideration the opinion of the wife. This giving to the husband the Iasi word has made tempers flare. Husbands, wives, trade union leaders, political parties and bishops have all sited their views. Women say it makes them subordinate. The bill's supporters say men are in a better position to make decisions. Women retort that the Basic Law of West Germany says "men and women have equal rights". Supporters come back that there is obviously variation between men and women, especially in the "natural barriers of nature”. Such a law would obviously have difficulty working among people who neither accept nor care to follow the Christian principle of the man's being the head of the house and responsible (or family decisions. (1 Cor. 11:3» However, the new law oversteps even this principle. It says that if the husband, cannot discharge his obligation to provide an adequate living, the wife must go to Work and help, and that if she is the guilty party in a divorce and her husband cannot support himself alone, she must take care of him, It appears a fairly safe prediction that the Bundestag Is realty going to have woman-trouble if they vote this bill into law!

CHILE’S RELIGIOUS BATTLE ROYAL

By "Awokil" correspondent in Chile

A STROLL through the park on a Sunday afternoon can be very relaxing, depending, of course, on what happens while at the park. In Santiago, Chile, the parks have virtually become “religious exhibition rings”, where both Protestants and Catholics launch hair-raising, ear-splitting revivals, colorful carnivals and verbal “free-for-alls”; all this being without the aid of a referee, the protection of the police or the wise counsel of a judge. In wild confusion religious proselytizing goes on at a mass production rate from early afternoon until late at night.

La Nación, a local newspaper, reported the following as to what can be seen in one of Santiago's larger parks, Quinta Normal: “The Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Quaker, Seventh-day Adventist, Catholic, Dissenter and oiher groups begin to form at three o'clock every Sunday, In spots previously agreed, without anyone’s invading the terrain of the other. As for the rest, whoever feels himself possessed by the holy spirit or by any other spirit can pitch his tent under any tree and preach the word of his god or gods, apostles or saints as he likes. Often there appear solitary figures, such as D. Demetrio And Santelices, originating from Coihueco, a village near Chillán, who in his youth was a belt-maker. One morning he felt possessed by the truth and went to shout it In the Quinta. Under a grove of myrtle trees he was talking without anyone's listening to him.'* It would be fairly safe to assume that most of the speeches go unheard, especially by the One In heaven.

'g’ Pentecostals form, perhaps, the largest group In the park. They usually gather in large or small circles and sing religious hymns to the accompaniment of guitars and mandolins. After a few selections of music, a speaker (male or female) will rise and, with all the power the anatomy can muster, “the word of the Lord” will go echoing through the park. The discourse is followed by more singing and

I then a repeat of the same. The groups begin to break up about seven o’clock at night ‘jj Another popular group known as the "Work and Diffusion of the Catholic Faith” gathers around a flag bearing a cross and the initials A.C., which stand for Catholic Action in Chile. This group also carries an image of the Virgin of Carmen, which is is topped by the flags of Chile and the papacy.

These were organized in 1944, on the national holiday of .December 8, which Is in honor of the "Immaculate Conception” and the Virgin Mary. Unlike the Pentecostals, these use sound equipment in the parks to propagandize.

In their midst are to be seen women and girls dressed in bright-red dresses of a cheap cotton material, which are trimmed with equally bright-yellow stripes. These had just made a pilgrimage to the southern shrine of / San Sebastian. As a visible sign of the manda, % or vow, they made to the “saint” in exchange \ for a physical cure or other personal benefit, J they wear these gaudy dresses day after day / for a stipulated length of time. Other women I appear in dull dark-brown dresses as the sign of their manda to the Virgin of Carmen, who is the Chilean counterpart of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of the army. The pictures of these two saints, San Sebastian and Carmen, appear most often in the buses or in the . homes of the people. The Catholic group £ come together every Sunday afternoon at 5 about three o'clock for a session and regroup again at seven o’clock in front of the museum J and Anally end the strenuous day with a procession that reaches to the chapel of the convent of the Sisters of Poor Christ.

After the people have returned to their S homes and all the excitement and emotion has J subsided, Jehovah's witnesses call on them J with a message from God's Word, the Bible, J and in a calm and intelligent manner enlighten them on the truth of God’s Word. Jj These worship God as Jesus did and, as he did, point the people to the kingdom of Almighty God as their only hope. Many are responding.

Many will say to me in that day: “Master, Master, did we not prophesy in your name ... F” And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you at all.

—Matthew 7:22, 23, New World Trans.

Identifying the Human Soul

IN A question and answer book, Radio Replies in Defence of Religion, by the Rev. Dr. Rumble, M.S.C., and Rev. C. M. Carty, the following statement is made: “He [God] made man in His own image and likeness. But our bodies are nothing like God in appearance, and are mortal. Therefore the real image of God is in our soul, and it resembles God by immortality. Both Old and New Testaments insist upon the immortality of the soul.” These priestly critics of Jehovah’s witnesses go on to say that “the account in Genesis of man’s formation proves it”.

So we turn to the Bible account of the creation of man at Genesis 2:7, and according to the Catholic Douay Version, it reads: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” This does not say God breathed or put into Adam’s lifeless form an “immortal soul”. God breathed into the man’s form the “breath of life”, and the result of combining the human body and the breath of life from God was that “man became a living soul”; “the first man Adam was made into a living soul.” (1 Corinthians 15:45, Douay) Here we have in God’s own words the simplest explanation of what a human soul actually is. It is not something invisible, like an unseen vapor, but is the living human creature himself, the live man with the five senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and tasting.

But our priestly critics refuse this simple Bible explanation and argue in behalf of Plato’s pagan teaching. They say: “That breath of life was either a definite something, or it was nothing. But you cannot tell me that nothing vitalized that body. It was a definite something, that something was a created human intelligent soul.... A body, of flesh and bone, could never become a living soul. Man was but named after the superior element of his being.”

Very well, then. If the “breath of life” that God breathed into Adam’s body of flesh and bone was itself the “human intelligent soul”, then, instead of “breath of life”, let us read “human intelligent soul” at Genesis 2:7 and see whether it makes sense: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face [the human intelligent soul]; and man became a living soul.” (Using the Catholic Douay Version) An honest person will admit that Genesis 2:7, if read with the priestly perversion of it, does not make sense; it is not reasonable. God is reasonable, because he is true. All the inspired Scriptures support the truth that “man became a living soul”.

Soul Wears Boots!

But our priestly critics rebel at this Bible truth and say: “Again, if man has not got a soul, then instead of being composed of body and soul, he is a body. And if that body is a soul, then a soul wears boots!” Exactly so. The living creature is the soul, and such a human soul can wear boots, and also can wear pants and

cuat. The Bible says the soul can do many things.

The inspired Hebrew Scriptures say that the soul can eat flesh and blood; it can dry away; it can touch unclean things; it can be tom as by a lion; it can go into a pit or grave; it can be laid in irons; it can abhor all manner of meat; it can be brought out of prison; it can suffer hunger through idleness; it can thirst and be refreshed by cold water; it has blood that can be shed; it can shed tears; it can be relieved with food. (Leviticus 17:12, 15; Numbers 11:6; 19:13-22; Psalms 7:2; 30:3; 105:18, margin; 107:18; 142:7; Proverbs 19:15; 25:25; Jeremiah 13:17; Hosea 9:4) God's Word speaks about the human soul this way because the soul is the human body with its brain and organs made alive by the breath of life that God breathed into it. It would be very enlightening to priest and Bible scholar alike to check each instance in which the word "soul” (Hebrew, neph'esh) is used in the Bible, to see all that it can do.

It is not Scripturally true, therefore, that the soul is the superior element of man’s being and that "man was but named after the superior element of his being”, Man is a human soul. Man is not a "soul incarnate”, with a separable soul living inside his flesh. Nor is the soul the breath of God or the breath of life. But when God by an invisible process like breathing infused the breath of life into the human form that he created in Eden, man became or was made into a living soul. All of us are fleshly souls, just as the lower animals are souls. The creation account reads:

"And God said—Let the waters swarm with an abundance of living soul, and birds shall fly over the earth, over the face of the expanse of the heavens. And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living soul that moveth—with which the waters swarmed after their kind and every winged bird—after its kind. And God saw that it was good.... And God said—Let the land bring forth living soul after its kind, tame-beast arid creeping thing and wild-beast of the land after its kind. And it was so.” (Genesis 1:20-24, Rotherham's Emphasised translation) Consider also Genesis 1:27-30, Rotherham; Numbers 31:28; Apocalypse 16:3, Douay; Leviticus 24:17,18 and Proverbs 12:10, Rotherham. These Scriptures show that the lower animals are souls. And since that is true, man’s being in the likeness and image of God is not because ‘man has an immortal soul*, but is because man is endowed with the godlike qualities of wisdom, justice, love and power and was given dominion over the lower animals. Man as a soul is no more immortal than the beasts.

However, squirming for a way out, our priestly critics say that the words "spirit” and "soul” mean the same thing. To quote them: "The word spirit acquired a transferred sense, becoming a substitute for the word soul.... Ilie soul, therefore, is the living principle which makes the difference between a living man and a corpse, and spirit and soul in this sense mean the same thing.... The soul is a spirit, and is called the breath of God merely because caused or created by God in its spiritual or breathlike nature.” Our priestly critics should know that God’s Word makes a plain distinction between the words "spirit”*and "soul”. In Latin spiritus is not the same as anima; in Greek pneuma is not the same as psyche in Hebrew ruahh is not the same as neph'esh. When God breathed into man’s face the breath of life, the man of flesh and bones did not become a living spirit, rather, he "became a living soul”.

So after a study of the Scriptures one finds that the earthly soul turns out to be nothing more than a living, moving, breathing creature.

Turkey

THE once backward land of Moslem Turkey has materialized into a progressive country of social and political activity peculiar Lo Western civilization. A tourist is Immediately swep! away with what he sees, the modern concept of life in an ancient city. Especially is this notice* able In the larger cities such as Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul. In Istanbul, formerly called Constantinople, one is fascinated to see ancient and modem civilization side by side. Streamlined automobiles and pagan traditions and customs are mingled together; Turkish mosques with their picturesque minarets stand alongside twentieth-century architecture. And here, too, are pooled together the world’s many languages, the modem and the ancient. One can hear Greek or Armenian, French or English, Italian and a host of other languages. It is this ever-changing fascination of old and new that makes Turkey the matchless gateway between East and West

New Turkey, even though socially bent toward the modern, is still religiously Inclined toward the nnclent. Her religious superstitions have been a major factor or contributing cause for the pTimitiveness, poverty and misery that continue in many sections till this day. Despite greater education and enlightenment, the country remains under the grip of Moslem religion. However, it is becoming more noticeable that the mosques are not as packed as they formerly were, and the people are not resorting to the hojtw and muezzins and the various other fatalist religious ministers for guidance.

Here at the crossroads between the Eastern and the Western world, the good news of God’s established kingdom is being talked to friends and neighbors by Jehovah's witnesses. To be sure, obstacles that confront them are many. One of the greatest is the language barrier, there being so many different nationalities. And, too, there are the countless religious traditions and prejudices to contend with before even reaching the people. But none of these have proved insurmountable. These “iron curtains” of superstitious tradition are laid wide open by the truth and spirit of the Word of God. In order to present the message of the Kingdom to Moslem neighbors, a great deal of theocratic tact is required.

One of Jehovah’s witnesses was lately confined to a hospital to undergo a serious operation. While at the hospital he spoke to the staff and the patients about the good news of the Kingdom. On his leaving the hospital they all expressed their appreciation and gratitude for the good news he left behind. Many called him hoja, meaning "religious teacher”, and invited him to come to their respective villages and preach there too.

A Turkish physician, who treated him during the time of his hospitalization, told the witness: “God, whom you believe in, has restored you to health. Your operation was one of the rarest/¹ The doctor came to the home of the witness at a later date and asked if he could learn more about the Bible. He obtained a Bible in the Turkish language and also look with him some

literature published by the Watchtower Society. A few days later the doctor returned with his wife, who is also a doctor, and both expressed appreciation and great joy about the marvelous purposes of Jehovah God. They were particularly interested in the growth of the theocratic organization, and how a great crowd of persons will survive this system of things and inhabit the new earth.

Another of Jehovah’s witnesses talked to a Turkish professor at the university and presented some Bible literature in French. The professor examined the literature closely for some time and, upon seeing that they were Christian publications, spoke in an angry tone: “With such books you try to change the faith of Moslems!” As he said that his eyes swept across the booklet Evolution versus The New World, and with that his expression changed. “How much is it?” When told, he became elated. He was a completely changed person, He freely gave his name and address, and requested the witness to call on him at the university.

There are really many persons of good will in Turkey, who gladly receive the preachers of good news into their homes and ask to learn more about the greatest message of all time. These people are extremely hospitable and kind. This is their natural disposition, and they display this friendship and kindness to those who call on them with the message of the Kingdom. When the witnesses leave the house the householder will usually remark, “gule-gule,” which is a common expression, meaning “may joy and happiness go your way”.

In the early centuries of gospelpreaching, Asia Minor was repeatedly traversed by Christ’s apostles, and especially by the apostle Paul. Christian congregations were then established in many cities, including cities in this land of Turkey. Now again, the words of the Kingdom are being heard and Christian congregations are being established. Pure worship is growing in this land of mosques and minarets and no doubt part of the great New World society will include a great crowd of pure worshipers from the Moslem land of Turkey. Those who have ears to hear will hear. If they seek the truth they will find it.

KNOW?

• • What is the wholesome ambition? P. 4, l|4.

• • What is a “Jericho Sermon”? P. 4, 15.

• • Where it is not unusual to hear four languages mixed into one sentence? P. 5, 14.

• • How an electric glove recently fought Christianity? P. 7, 13.

• • Who drove a chariot through a lane of living, burning Christians whose pitch-smeared bodies served as torches to light his way? P. 11, 14.

• • How to tell the age of a salmon? P. 13, 1¼.

• • Why the housewife should check the grade of salmon she buys? P. 16, 1½,

• • Why it is dangerous to be hypnotized by stage performers? P. 18, 114.

• • How hypnotism can advance disease? P. 18, 1½.

• • Of the burglar that first sold his victims insurance to cover their losses? P. 20, 17.

• • How the death of an Indian chief determined the name of one of Venezuela’s cities?

P. 21, 1½.

• • What law-making body tried to give husbands the last word P. 23, 1½.

  in quarrels with wives?

  
  

  Catholics, Pentecostals, and others assemble in

  
  

• • Why Methodists, Adventists, Quakers one Chilean park? P. 24, 1½.

• • That a soul wears boots? P. 25, 15.

• • What is meant by “gule-pule”? P. 28, 1½.

  
  
  

  * I WATCHING?

  THE WORLD

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Unrest in East Berlin

<$> For the first time since 1945, martial law was declared In East Berlin (6/17). Unrest flared up the day before when, in protest to an increase in work quotas, hundreds of workers marched down Unter den Linden. The government rescinded the increase, saying it was a "mistake”; and the workers dispersed. But the next morning violence erupted. A rioting crowd of 20,000 to 50,000 workers, peasants and boys threatened to swamp police and seize the East German government. Demonstrators ripped down the Soviet flag from atop Brandenburg Gate, where it had flown ever since the capture of Berlin, The flag of the German Republic was then hoisted. An entire Russian armored division was rushed to East Berlin to crush the rebellion. Soviet tanks lumbered up and down Berlin avenues, and Russian soldiers fired bursts from machine pistols to warn demonstrators to clear the streets. That evening Russian military courts took over. A West German pamter, Willi Goettling, was sentenced to death (6/18) and shot immediately. Thousands were arrested, Russia charging through Pravda that the riots were the "adventure of foreign hirelings in Berlin". Most observers were convinced the riots were spontaneous. The U. S. commandant in Berlin, General Timber-.man, interpreted the use of Soviet troops to mean that Russia could not trust the People's Police to put down the rioting. President Eisenhower commented that the riots were a significant exposure of the propaganda about "happiness” behind the Iron Curtain.

Czech Workers Stage Protest

The city of Pilsen in Czechoslovakia is famous for its brewing of Pilsner beer. On June 1 it became famous for something else: a startling demonstration against the Communist regime. Workers, infuriated over the recent currency reform, dragged Russian flags in the dust. Pictures of Stalin and the late President Gottwald were trampled underfoot. Partly confirmed reports spoke of destruction of machinery at the Lenin (armament) Works, of the Pilsen town hall being pillaged and an American flag being waved. After the demonstration was subdued, the Pilsen newspaper, Pravda, said (6/5) that the antistate demonstration was designed "with the Intention of restoring capitalism and making Pilsen the springboard for a counterrevolutionary putsch in Czechoslovakia”.

The Prisoners’ Flight

During the week that Russia was being jolted by a rebellion In East Berlin, the U. N. was jolted by a rebellion in South Korea: Pre a id ent Syngman Rhee, defying the U. N., liberated thousands of anticommunist North Korean prisoners who were th play a key part in the settlement of the truce negotiations. Weeks before the mass liberation, Dr. Rhee threatened to "fight on alone" if the U.N. did not work for Korean unification. But the "Rhee rebellion” was then viewed as of no great consequence. So firmly did the U. N. believe that Dr. Rhee would not try to torpedo the truce, that 16,000 South Korean guards at the prisoner of war stockades were not replaced with U. S. troops. The big jolt came at 4 a.m. (6/18). South Korean guards opened gates and turned their backs; 25,000 North Koreans fled from U. N. custody. Dr. Rhee took the responsibility: "I have ordered on my own responsibility the release of the anti-Communist Korean war prisoners.” President Eisenhower demanded that the Rhee government recapture the prisoners. This demand did not impress Dr. Rhee. The main U. N. worry was over Communist reaction to the prisoners’ flight. Surprisingly, the Soviet press published the news in a relatively restrained manner, without editorial comment. Nonetheless; the New York Times editorialized: “This goes beyond paradox into catastrophe.”

Atom Spy Case Closes

<$> The U. S. civil courts had never imposed the death penalty for espionage until Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced on April _t5, 1951. The Rosenbergs had won three stays of execution and then won a fourth (6/17) when Justice Douglas of the Supreme Court granted a stay. But it was a short-lived one, the Supreme Court upholding the legality of the death sentence (6/19) by a vote of 6*3. Seven hours later the Rosenbergs were led to the electric chair. Though the couple could have saved their lives at any moment by telling what they knew about atomic espionage, they remained tight-lipped to the end. The curtain had rung down on a case of such magnitude that it had no equal in the history of espionage against the U. S.

Book-burning Condemned

<$> A campaign to remove books by Communist authors from U. S. libraries overseas was on. It was regarded by some as a species of book*buming. A few actually had been burned. There was no doubt as to how President Eisenhower felt on the book-burning issue when he electrified -an audience of 10,000 at Dartmouth College: "Don't join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book as long as any document dbes not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship/¹ (New York Times, 6/15) These book-burning remarks by Eisenhower were appraised to be of such great value by the president of Princeton University, Dr. Harold W. Dodds, that he suggested they would come to be viewed as a great state paper.

Coronation Naval Review

In 1914, at a naval review at Spithead, there were 59 British battleships, described as the "greatest assemblage of naval power ever witnessed in the history of the world”. In June, at the Coronation Naval Review, Queen Elizabeth II saw only one representative of the disappearing species of aea giants, H. M. S. Vanguard. Britain’s navy had indeed shrunk. But the recent display was quite impressive, there being fighting ships from 18 other nations present. As the queen’s yacht began the review, the guns of 221 ships boomed out a 21-gun salute. Then as the yacht passed, each ship—British and foreign alike—played the British /national anthem, and the sailors let out loud cheers. The only battleship, the Vanguard, was scheduled to be the first with the cheers. Ironically, because of a hard-blowing wind that veered ships out of their predetermined positions, the U. S. cruiser Baltimore was the first to cheer the British queen.

Soviet Smiles for Yugoslavia

<$> The Soviet Union cast a friendly glance toward Belgrade (6/14) when she requested the resumption of normal diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. Belgrade not only agreed to exchange ambassadors, but also granted Moscow permission to send 26 Soviet warships, on their way to the Black Sea area for repairs, through the Yugoslav section of the Danube River. These will be the first naval craft to go through Yugoslavia since the break with Moscow in 1948. But Marshal Tito announced that he was not beihg blinded by Russian smiles, adding: “I personally can never believe 100 per cent in the Soviet Union. I wait for them to show their intentions in practice. I do not believe their words.”

A Republic for Egypt

<$> The land of the Nile, long famous for its pharaohs, proconsuls, caliphs, sultans, pashas, kings and Cleopatra, now has a president. A republic was proclaimed (6/18), Major General Mohammed Naguib becoming Egypt’s first president and premier, The proclamation wiped out all royal titles and meant that Ahmed Fuad II, Farouk’s infant son, is no lopg-er the nominal king of Egypt.

Amy Coup in Colombia $ For 100 years the army in Colombia had never embarked on political adventures, remaining neutral even during intense political crises. But the century-old tradition ended (6/13) when the army struck. General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, seized control of the government in a bloodless coup and installed himself as president to put an end to "unconstitutional activities” of the ousted president, Dr. Laureano Gomez, The change in government occurred on the eve of a national Constituent Assembly, which was to have reformed Colombia’s constitution by giving Dr. Gomez unlimited power and the Catholic Church greatly increased power.

World’s Worst Air Disaster

The Douglas Globemaster C-124 is a four-engine transport plane used extensively by the U. S. Air Force to ferry army personnel from Korea to Japan for a few days’ rest. Two of these planes have figured in setting gruesome air crash records. One crashed (12/20/52) near Moses Lake, Washington, killing 87 and becoming the worst air crash in aviation history. In exactly two days short of six months, another Globemaster crashed (6/18) breaking its own grim record by taking a toll of 129 lives. Shortly after the take-off from Japan's Tachikawa airport, the pilot reported an engine failure and started back for the airport. It never made it: the plane staggered and plummeted nose down into a muddy farm, 3,000 gallons of gasoline bursting into flames that incinerated the dying in a ghastly funeral pyre. All C-124 Globemasters were grounded by the Air Force after the crash.

A Week In Exile

<$> When a king who wields only limited power wants independence for his country, what should he do? Cambodia’s king,

Norodom Sihanouk, thought he had the answer (6/14): he voluntarily exiled himself in Thailand. He thus sought to dramatize his demand that France grant Cambodia the same degree of Independence that "India has with regard to Britain**. But the king's move only stalemated the independence campaign, for France refused to negotiate with the exiled king. So after a week, the exiled king decided he could press his independence demands more effectively by returning to Cambodia.

Chinese Troops for Formosa?

<§> In April the U. N. adopted a resolution calling for all Nationalist Chinese troops in Burma to leave. A procedure for their evacuation was Finally agreed upon by the U. S., Thailand, Nationalist China and Burma (6/22). The major forces in eastern Burma were scheduled to travel to Thailand from where they would be transported to Formosa. Would all the Nationalist Chinese troops be willing to leave Burma? The U. N. believed that the more disciplined units would obey the order.

Famine Spreading in China

<$> In May Awake! reported on a famine affecting 1,000,000 people in China. The famine has now worsened, and observers at Hong Kong are now convinced that the blight is one of immense magnitude, affecting people exceeding 10,000,000 in number. Five provinces—Anhwei, Kiangsu, Shantung, Shah-si, and Honan—experienced late frosts destroying 75 per cent of all crops, primarily wheat. Shantung, severely attacked by insects, had a shortage of insecticide so that peasants had to catch insects by hand. Other provinces—Szechwan, Kweichow, and Yunnan— were battered by wind, hail and floods. The number of people facing starvation is appalling. It should sober one to realize that this is the time when Jesus' prophecy concerning the end of Satan’s world is being fulfilled. But food shortages are just one feature of the sign pointing to the fact that God’s kingdom is at hand. —Matthew 24:3-7.

Bodyguard Slays Sneezing Red

Law Fatt, a Malayan terrorist chief, had a peculiar affliction: he would sneeze every few minutes. This Irked his comrades, especially when they were being pursued by security forces. One day in June, Law Fatt's sneezing ended—but so did his life. The bodyguard of Ha Yong, another Red terrorist chief, got tired of the sneezing chief as well as his own. While the two men were sleeping, the bodyguard whipped out a machine gun and fired bursts into his "comrades”. The bodyguard then gave himself up to security forces.

Report of Yankee Stadium World Assembly

THE tremendous New World Society Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at "Yankee Stadium is now history. News of it circled the world and, what is more important, its influence will be felt by Christians all over the globe. Were you able to attend? Do you know what an outstanding event it was?

<1 If not, then you will surely want a copy of the 96-page report on the assembly, complete with many pictures. It will set forth convention high lights, and many details concerning Jehovah's witnesses and their organization. It may be obtained for only 25 cents a copy. Fill out and return the coupon below at once. If your mailing address'should change before October 1, please be sure to advise us.

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If you missed attending the assembly, you will not want to miss reading these lectures in The Watchtower. Even if you did attend one or more sessions of the convention, but are not yet a Watchtower subscriber, now is the time for you to send in your subscription. Do not delay the matter, lest you forget.

❖ Fill out and return the coupon below with your remittance of $1 for a year’s subscription of 24 issues; or 50 cents for a six-month subscription of 12 issues. The Watchtower will be mailed direct to your home every two weeks. Act immediately so as not to miss any of these lectures delivered at Yankee Stadium. They will bring you comfort and hope for a better world.

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