dated August 6, 1951: Youth assembly for world peace

East Berlin on the 5th staged a parade of young people from many nations to launch a two weeks' festival claimed to be the biggest youth gathering in history. German boys and girls greeted Soviet youth with cries of Freundschaft (Friendship). However, Allied spokesmen in West Berlin said the festival was one of the most dangerous manifestations of Soviet mass influence on the Germans. Between three and five million Sterling was thought to have been spent for the festival. The organisers had got the bomb-pitted streets of the city concealed under forests of flags, and poster pillars. Throughout the day, special trains with peace messages colourfully crayoned on their sides in scores of languages poured in more and more youth. The entry of five hundred Soviet Kamsomol young men and women clad in white into the stadium brought forth frenetic cheering and shouts of ``Peace'', ``We greet our Socialist teachers'' and ``Long Live Stalin''. British, Chinese, and United States delegates who had lined up in the centre of the vast arena ran forward and threw their arms around the young Russians. Foreign youth who strode around the arena in the ``March of Nations'' opening ceremony bore banners blazoning the portraits of Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Dimitroff and other Communist leaders. The nations progressed in alphabetical order led by Albania. Of the promised 1,500 British delegates only 60 had come. The remainder were either en route or had been barred by authorities in Austria, France and Western Germany from going through. The British banner bore the legend: ``Peace is not a heavenly gift. It must be fought for.'' Yugoslavia was conspicuously absent.

Niagara kills daredevil challenger

Thirtyeight-year-old William `Red' Hill was swept to death on the 6th of August in the Niagara Falls, trying to ride the legendary cataract in a home-made barrel craft called `The Thing.' One hundred thousand people lining the American and the Canadian sides of Niagara watched in horror as Bill Hill, the sixth man to challenge the 165-foot roaring falls, plunged down into the maelstrom surface below and did not reappear. `Thing' broke into pieces during the fall. The battered body of the adventurer was recovered several hours later by a search launch, near the Maid of Mist landing.

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