Daily Hansan
59th Year, No.22
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Monday, October 16, 1961
Letter Causes Peace Corps Riff
LAGOS, Nigeria — (UPI) — The United States and Nigerian Governments will decide whether resignation of Peace Corps member Margery Michelmore would be "in the best interests" of the corps, the U.S. Embassy said today.
MISS MICHELMORE, a teacher from Foxboro, Mass., offered her resignation from the corps after students at University College, Ibadan, (UCI) rioted against "derogatory" remarks she made about living conditions in Nigeria. She made the remarks on a postcard home.
Miss Michelmore, whose postcard went astray and was found near the University, wrote that the living conditions were primitive and that there was poverty and squaler everywhere in the city of 600.000.
The 23-year-old teacher was taken to Lagos yesterday to await a Washington decision on her resignation offer.
She wrote a letter of apology to University officials after the postcard was found. She also offered her resignation from the Peace Corps.
Meanwhile, observers said the Ibadan student body already had rioted twice this year in other protests. They said they would not be surprised if certain elements among the students were waiting for an opportunity to attack the 40-strong Peace Corps contingent at UCI.
Demonstrators asked that the Americans, "agents of imperialism," be deported, but R. Sargent Shriver, director of the Peace Corps, said this incident would not interrupt the Corp's mission.
SHORTLY AFTER the group arrived Sept. 25, there was an incident in which the only Negro in the contingent was quoted by the local press as saying race discrimination was practiced in the corps.
The Peace Corps members at UC were to spend three months at the college before fanning out over Nigeria to teach at secondary schools
Weather
The weather bureau has announced that high pressure in Kansas is well established and the wind flow is predominantly from the west—which all add up to clear skies and moderate temperatures.
Northeast Kansas will have continued fair weather today, tonight, and tomorrow with slightly higher temperatures tomorrow.
Wescoe Asks for Housing Study
Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe made the following statement today in regard to the listing of discriminatory renters by the University housing office:
"I DID NOT appoint a committee. I requested that all of the personnel deans—Dean Taylor, Dean Alderson, Dean Woodruff and also Mr. Wilson, the director of University housing—study the off-campus housing problem in all its facets and then submit a recommendation to me.
"This is the same statement that I made at the meeting last Monday."
THE CHANCELLOR was referring to a meeting Monday with students representing several campus organizations. The students requested that the University stop listing discriminatory renters.
Dr. Wescos has declined to comment on the letter of grievances of Negro students that was given to his secretary at the end of a protest march Friday.
The Chancellor was in Boston when seventy-six Negroes marched through the campus, carrying signs in protest of the housing policy of the administration.
Faculty Forum
Reuben Frodin, American University Field Service authority on Nigeria and West Africa, will speak at the Faculty Forum at noon tomorrow in the English Room of the Kansas Union on "Pan-Africanism."
Homecoming Ball Plans Announced
All SIPpers' and dance fans get ready.
The 1961 Homecoming Dance will feature two bands this year instead of one. This promise of a "cool evening" was made by the SUA Dance Committee.
Ralph Marterie's band, rated the top college band by Cashbox and Downbeat magazines, will bring a 15 piece group here. George Wynn brings his "highly regarded" Kansas City band to the dance held Nov. 11.
THE COMMITTEE secured two bands this year to provide more room to dance and give extra musical variety to the dance.
The committee also named its sub-committee chairmen.
Admission is $2.50 and closing hours for women have been extended to 1:30 a.m.
Must Prove Readiness For War, Backus Says
By Richard Currie
The United States should begin construction of atomic fallout shelters to convince Russia we will not yield over Berlin, Oswald P. Backus, professor of history, said at the Faculty Club last night.
"The construction of shelters would be an aggressive step, demonstrating that we are willing to submit our country to nuclear war," he said.
Prof. Backus said the step was necessary because of powerful forces
Oswald P. Backus
within the Soviet Union causing a shift in Soviet foreign policy.
These forces have forced Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to abandon peaceful co-existence as a means to furthering Communism, in favor of "developing a policy of overt hostility towards the West," he said.
"They think they have more to gain by being tough and their thinking must be changed," Prof. Backus said.
"Unless we take a strong stand on Berlin we may have to ask ourselves if we are willing to fight a nuclear war or if we are to back down over Berlin." Prof. Backus said.
Prof. Backus said that, in a sense, the United States has already yielded in Berlin.
"When we didn't knock down the fences and allowed the Soviet restriction on travel of East and West Berliners to stand, we may have reinforced the Soviet desire to continue its policy of overt hostility," he explained.
For the last three months Khrushchev has not been pushing peaceful co-existence policies in Communist circles, Prof. Backus said. He has bowed to pressure which says peaceful co-existence is neither good nor useful for the Soviet Union.
These forces were at work when President Kennedy met Khrushchev in June, he continued.
"In that meeting Khrushchev appeared not to worry about the United States and was disaffained with Kennedy." Prof. Backus said.
The forces causing the shift in Soviet foreign policy have been at work since the U-2 incident in May 1960, Prof. Backus said.
"Prior to the incident Khrushchev's policy of peaceful co-existence was at its peak," he said. "The U-2 forced an evaluation of Soviet policy."
Khrushchev had to change his direction and bow to pressure from the Red Chinese, neo-Stalinists and political opportunists, Prof. Backus said. His behavior at the Paris summit proved this.
"In the telecast of his news conference from Paris he continually watched Marshal Malinovsky as if he wanted approbation," he explained. "He was scared."
Recently, a 1.2 million reduction in the armed forces was canceled. Prof. Backus said Khrushchev has also stopped criticizing Mao Tse-Tung and the Red Chinese for their hostile attitudes towards the West, he continued. This, plus constant pressure from those opposing peaceful co-existence, indicates maintenance of the Soviet tough line, Prof. Backus said.
dislike this shift, he said. "He fears the destruction nuclear war would bring.
Premier Khrushchev has reason to
But he has taken this line to placate the Red Chinese and others who disapprove of peaceful co-existence.
"It is Kennedy's job to make him think we will fight if we have to," he said.
The United States must continue to talk, but the building of the shelterers will show Khrushchev it means business, Prof. Backus said.
Seniors Excused For Class Tea
Prof. Backus said it was too early to tell whether the talks between Andre Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister, and President Kennedy have convinced the Soviet Union of the United States' willingness to fight.
Seniors will be excused from 10 and 11 o'clock classes Wednesday to attend the fall Senior Coffee. This however does not excuse students from the work which may be missed in classes, said Raymond Nichols, executive secretary of the University.
Coffee and doughnuts will be served in the Union Ballroom. Seniors must present Class of '62 identification cards at this and other senior activities during the year.
Those who have paid senior fees will receive class sweatshirts and pins at the coffee. Seniors who have not paid senior fees may do so at the coffee or at the Alumni Association or the Business Office.
The class Calendar Queen will be elected during the meeting and seniors will receive information about Senior Day, Saturday, Oct. 28, and the party scheduled for 9 a.m. that day at the Big Barn.
Icy Coffin for Tribesmen
Dekeres, the President General of the Balubakat youth movement, showed me the bodies. He said they were being preserved as "proof" the natives were killed by U.N. soldiers.
EDITOR'S NOTE: UPI correspondent Peter Lynch paid another visit today to the camp outside Elisabethville where some 35,000 Baluba tribesmen live in fear and squalor. Here is his account.
BALUBA LEADER BAUZE Dekerers charged the nine tribe members-eight men and a woman were killed by United Nations Swedish troops who opened fire on the camp with automatic weapons 11 days ago in retaliation for an attack on a Swedish sergeant.
ELISABETHVILLE. The Congo — (UPI) — A Baluba tribal leader and a gang of young toughs escorted me past a sea of black faces shouting "death to the white man." They showed me the bodies of nine Balubas preserved in ice in a shallow trench.
The "ice box" is located inside the sprawling Baluba refugee camp near Elisabethville where thousands of tribesmen hostile to Katanga President Moise Tshombe have taken refuge.
The bodies, swathed mummy-style in blankets, lay in the trench and were covered with huge ice blocks. Fresh ice is brought in every day.
Surly, tough-looking tribal officials—dressed in a uniform of Khaki shirts and pants, black boots and black berets—stood by as we inspected the trench.
Prints by two drawing and painting department faculty members and a painting by a KU student are included in the Kansas Artists' Centennial Exhibition in Wichita.
It was a mile-long walk through the center of the refugee camp crowded with shanties made of grass sod, pieces of cardboard and sacks and bags. The walk seemed much longer.
Women grabbed their children as we passed and hustled them into their shanties.
"If you didn't have the youth (guards) with you, you would be dead long ago, white man," shouted a native.
SURROUNDED BY A protective squad of youth movement guards, we marched past a sea of hostile faces. The anti-white feelings bore into your back.
KU Artists' Work in Wichita Show
Near Baluba Youth Headquarters, a gang of some 70 toughs began screaming for an attack on "the white man who has killed Balubas."
(Continued on page 10)
"A Hand for H.W." a woodcut by John Tallere, assistant professor of drawing and painting; "Bird," an intaglio by Thomas Coleman, instructor of drawing and painting, and "Landscape," an oil painting by John Brewer, Wichita junior, are among the 55 paintings, prints,
drawings and pieces of sculpture on exhibit through Oct. 25 at the Wichita Art Museum.
THE EXHIBITION OF WORK by Kansas artists is part of the state centennial observances. Judge for the show was Dean Allen S. Weller of the University of Illinois.
Prof. Talleur also has two intaglio prints in the 14th annual Boston Printmakers Exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
"GEE, ME!"—Kay Cash, Cleveland, Ohio, sophomore, shows her appreciation with a smile after being named SUA Queen Saturday. (Story on page 10)