Tuesday, July 7, 1964
Summer Session Kansan
Page 5
Political Undercurrent Is Noted by Choir on Ceylon
(Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles about the Southeast Asia tour taken recently by the KU Brass Choir).
Even with the political and economic crisis in Ceylon, choir members found the U.S. well-represented. Their host, the U.S. Information Service, worked hard to make their stay in Ceylon enjoyable. The American ambassador, one of the two top female diplomats in U.S. Foreign Service, also insured the choir members a pleasant visit.
CHOIR MEMBERS noticed, however, that the Ceylon president was a known sympathizer with Peking. The president, a woman, had inherited the presidency when her husband, the former president, died. Local governments, run often by native Indians, did not have the pink tint of the national government.
When the choir members arrived there Feb. 24, Ceylon newspaper headlines told of national strikes in the medical profession, among electrical workers and by Ceylon postal workers. Even the ports—so valuable to an island country—were closed down.
By Emery Goad and Dan Austin
In the ostensibly quiet island state of Ceylon, members of the KU Brass Choir discovered an undercurrent of political chaos.
After Ceylon, the choir took a three-day "vacation" in the comparatively uncomplicated city of Bangkok. Thailand. Since no concerts were scheduled, the KU'ers visited the tourist attractions and boasted on Thai canals.
IN CONVERSATIONS with University of Ceylon students, choir
OUTSIDE OF visiting with native students and experimenting with local foods, the choir did manage to give 15 separate concerts to more than 100,000 Ceylonese. To do this, the group traveled 500 miles over Ceylon's varying terrain. The whole tour of the island took 17 days.
The next concert stop for the choir was Vientiane, Laos, where, as any Southeast Asian diplomat will tell you, the action gets hot.
members found that students did not question American politics nor diplomacy but were most interested in our campus social life. Discussions ranged in topic from dating customs to marriage trends in the U.S.
Diarrhea and dysentery, the unwanted bedfellows of the tropics, also plagued the group. One choir member, Roger Rundle, tired of the group's diet of beer, tea and rice and attempted to eat a local delicacy called "stringhoppers." Rundle was sick for several days.
A taste of the jungle was the "motif" of the choir member's nightly accommodations. Creeping lizards and braying elephants became commonplace on Ceylon.
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KU Librarians on Duty at Fair
sisting of 10,000 square feet in the U.S. government exhibit. Known as "Library/USA," the project will be staffed at all times by six reference and two children's librarians.
They are Robert Gaylor, government documents librarian, and Mrs. Ramona Ford, assistant acquisitions librarian, Mrs. Ford is also taking a month's leave without pay so she can serve two full months.
Two KU librarians are giving their vacations and more to show New York World's Fair visitors a glimpse of the computer-equipped reference library of the future.
The two will be on duty in the reference center sponsored by the American Library Association, con-
THE INFORMATION center will offer ready reference service from more than 2,000 standard reference books supplemented by an electronic information retrieval system.
The computer will be programmed with reading lists, essays in several languages, and lists of periodical articles from current publications.
A collection of 2,500 children's books as well as a theater for storytelling and audio-visual presentations will introduce young people to the world of books.
THE UNIVERSITY of Kansas will be represented in another browsing section of the exhibit—the Presidential library of more than 1,700 titles. Among them are at least 16 books by 10 authors who are or were on the faculty of KU or are alumni.
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