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SE 100-1820 “The many thousands who the annual piigrimage ° to the Peace Arch spread out across the smooth green lawms, up the gentle flower-slashed slope that makes the park a natural amphitheater and over—flowed into the trees rimming the Eastern boundary. Estimates Pe ranged from fifteen to twenty thousand. However, a mo, Canadian Momted Police check of 8000 cars lends Weight to the larger figure, “Although the informality and warmth of an outdoor affair remained, ROBESON this year sang a complete, formal concert program ranging from the spirituals of + 4 his people, the folk music of many lands to the son~ , berly dramatic 'Prayer and Death' excerpt from Moussorgsky*s 'Bohis Godunov', “The artist freely admitted that he had some doubts as to the suitability of this selection for a buge, out- door audience but these soon vanished. The audience loved it and cheered when the singer expressed the hope that he would soon be able to present it on the opera stage of Europe and feven in my own country'. "Since its inception the annual border concert has been linked to the fight to force the U. S. State Department to rescind its ban on ROHESON'S passport. Tie first was held when the singer was unable to get permission to leave the % U, S. to appear in a Vancouver, B. C. concert sponsoral by i the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, If ROBESON cannot doe. come to us, the union said, we will go to him. So the great artist went to the border and the people flocked to hear him, Each year Mine-Mill has sponsored the concert. en "This year the union put out an elaborate, printed 2° program which contained greetings from many Canadian trade unions and fraternal groups, Ineluded as well were messages from personages all over the world pro- testing the passport ban. Harvey Murphy, Mine-Mill regional drector, introduced Robeson as a ‘great American who is loved throughout the world’. 2b Biget ? ‘ il. ENTIAL 77