["Page 12", "THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN WEEKLY", "Thursday, October 15, 1953.", "## India's Insuperable Problem of Caste", "This week in", "## The Listener", "What Trieste Means to Italy\nGIORGIO BORSA", "Ships of the Soviet\nCOMMANDER\nANTHONY COURTNEY", "The Critic's Tasks\nI—The Literary Critic\nD. W. HARDING", "Lord Milner and General Snuts\nLORD BRAND", "Latin America Past and Present\n(First eight talks)", "J. A. CAMACHO", "The Decline of Germany\nJAMES JOLL", "A Trio of Critics\nPHILIP CARR", "EVERY THURSDAY 3d.", "Overseas readers are invited to write for a specimen copy and subscription details to\nBBC PUBLICATIONS (1),\nLondon, W.1. England.", "Readers in the U.S. may take out an annual subscription (3.00 through British Publications Inc., 30 East 60th St., New York 22.", "ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, THE CHIEF\nMINISTER OF BHAR, Mr Sinha, led a\nprocession of Harijans into the Durga\ntemple in the holy city of Benares. The\npolice and the civil administration was\non the alert in case of trouble, but\ntrouble there was none. And the pandas\n(priests) are now busy washing and\nfumigating their temple, while the\nUntouchables who polluted it probably\nfeel ill at ease and propitiate their own\ngods in their own ways to ward off the\ndivine wrath.", "Mr Sinha has acquired neither glory\nnor followers, but he has had plenty of\npublicity. This entry of the Harijans\ninto Benares's orthodox temple was\nmade necessary because, a few days pre-\nviously, Acharya Vinoba Gandhi's\nGanesharoy heiral and the Messiah of\nthe poor, went to the temple and was\nbrought to the pandas. The consequ-\nent massاي disapproval of this act forced the\nBihar Government to show the priests\nthat it stood.", "Mr Bhave has acquired an international reputation by the peaceful way he goes about acquiring land, from rich and poor alike, for the landless. But which he came asking for gifts, or of the pandas only saw the Untouchables he had to chase after, and so tried to change his way. This was a first in the history of the cults are now in gaol, and the rest of the temple servants have had to sing moults, and the priest's curule has been thoroughly polluted, under their very noses. at the Government's instance.", "Enforcing Untouchability is an\naviation under the Constitution and it is\nnow going to be made a criminal\noffence. Temples are, in theory, open\nto all Hindus whether caste or outcast.\nBut the practice is different, and in\nmost cases Untouchables neither want\nto go to the caste temple nor take\nadvantage of the weighting of the law\nin their favour outside the main cities\nwhere caste is truly breaking down.", "Changes take time, and it is enough", "From Your Correspondent in Madras", "to make a trip to the South to see that\northodoxy has a deep hold in India\nand that the day when all men are\nequal has not yet come. On an early\nmorning in Madras, that lazy, sprawling,\nsully city where all are bare-\nfooted, irrespective of age or station in\nlife, where tattooed priests ride in\nAmerican cars while the priest drags\nheavy loads, there is religion at\nevery corner. The outcaste cobbler-\ndressed by the hereditary handling of\nleather—pretends to be a Brahmin and\nwears the sacred thread, which fools no\none at first. He soothes his ego; while the\nmost Westernised of hosts burns\nincense in the dining-room and keeps\na neat and ornate altar where the\npieces of many gods and the statutes of\na few more receive offerings of\nsweetmeats and flowers while the\nrest is left to them.", "A few miles outside Madras there is the White Eagle temple, where every morning at 11.15 in the afternoon from hundreds of miles away and have their meal of rice, then they take off. Two eagles have always come again, and they are the beginning, and they are the best. People can pray while the white creatures eat.", "The priest, a far greater than the\n“seventh marvel” of Mahabalipuram,\nwhere the faith of man in God has\nbecome so strong that his nature has\nnow lost. And farther south still are the\ngreat temples with the rolling names:\nSri Rangam, The Sri Rangam Temple,\nand Madras. They are all open to the\nout-casts, but the outcasts are little\ntempted to enter them for they are the\nfirst to fear God's anger at their intru-\nsion.", "Thus, only “political Harijans”\navail themselves of the institution.\nIndeed, a visit to Madras would make\nany social reformer realise the futility\nof legislation. Madras is southern\nIndia's largest temple; it is also a southern", "city as alive to-day as it was in the\nbeginning—as much part of the life of\nthe people as was the Temple at\nJerusalem to the children of Israel. Its\nlofty walls and other limits cast a\nmercyful shade; and people rest, argue,\ntrade in its lap.", "As crowded as Hyde Park, as\nnoisy as Market Square, as peaceful as West-\nminster. Yet God is everywhere.\nPriests pray and burn incense; devotees\npaint their foreheads and foreheads with\nsacred ash; the village bride and groom\npay their two rupees for getting married\nnear Parvati's Pond and squat humbly\nunder the sun. The children of the poor\nhuddled up under their scarves and their\nfood.", "They are poor, but they are of the\nfourth caste—they cultivate the soil, but\nthey worship the same gods in the same\nways. In two groups, before they go back to\ntheir villages and blushing Muni peeps cloy\nover to Subramanian—her man, whose\nchildren she will bear and whose foot\nshall be cut. They look like men of old\nage, with white hair and white cloth on\nthe hips, forehead painted with a white\nand red V. Sacred cows look on with\nthat air of blase boredom which only\ncows have; tailors settled on the laps of\nminor kings and warriors of social ply\nand power. The women of Madras are\na sewing-machine rests on the lap of a\nminor deity: bangles and souvenirs\ndangle by the bow of a hunter.", "The poor are the pattern of the society; but\nthere is no room for the outcastes.\nPoliticians can regulate. Ministers can\nlead processes: so long as the\nUntouchables, too, remain orthodox\nand there will be Untouchability in\nIndia.", "## The Pioneer Families of Peterlee", "PETERLEE, COUNTY DURHAM.", "The FIRST THOUSAND HOUSES are up\nand ten-thousand of the new mining town\nof Peterlee has already begun its life.", "How are they settling in, the pioneer\ncouples with their young children play-\ning round the red, yellow, and blue front\ndoors, making a new homes and a new life\namid the romance of steam-rollers\nand cement mixers?", "The story begins down the hill.", "From the grey sprawl of the\nteeding “rural district” of Easing-\nton—the largest and surely the least\nrural in the country—a wide road\nwide swerves away suddenly, like a new\nthought. Outside the aged miners'\nhouses, opened (so the inscription says)\nas a haven of rest\" by the famous\nPeter Lee himself, old men are sitting\nin the veiled autumnal sunshine. One of\nthem, eyes alight, points up the hill like\na Revivalist. \"That's all out of date,\"\nhe says. \"The haven's up there.\" It\nis the life beyond the world of the\nleek clubbers he sees. It is the future.", "Up the hill, above the young wind-\nblown trees protected by a wall of\nstone, the children with whom they are\ngrowing up, is the present. The eyes\nof the busy housewives are open to\nthose of the prophets in the valley,\nand while they talk the saucepans\nare boiling over. The brightly polsed\npeas, the brisk sociological and\nrich take at front doors, have grown less\nfashionable as the planning times\nstruggle into the beginnings of the\nRevival; perhaps you have come for\nthe rent, or have something to sell. \"Very\nhappy—very busy,\" a preoccupied voice\ncalls from the neat recesses of a\nkitchenerine. Other reactions of the\nrich.", "Several housewives are cautiously\ncontented. Some think the rents are\nhigh. One young woman regrets having\nleft the overcrowded area she came\nfrom three months ago because\n\"people are friendlier there, some-\nwhere. Can this be possible, and\nwhere is the community centre, the\nTownswomen's Guild, the dances and\ndebates, mothers' clubs, a frame\ngroup, a drama group, a Sunday\nbakehouse, and so on?\" The housewives\nin the community hall to enable\nhousewives to get to know each other\n? This young woman admits that so far\nshe has not joined in none of the\nwork of the community; it is only\nthat days is not a state of mind but\nsomething of a reaction you do.", "Almost certainly she is wrong, but it\nis easy to understand her mistake.\nThese new citizens have a way of know-\ning each other by numbers; they are\nunnamed portraits, seen in the frame-\nwork of a certain gate. \"Ah, it's Forty-\ntwo, you want,\" says a woman when I\nam seeking an official of the Tenants'", "By Norman Shrapnel", "(The second of two articles; the first\nappeared last week)", "Association. This, if a trouble, is one\nthat time will cure.", "As for the rents, a common verdict\nseems to be \"High, but worth it.\" A\nfour-bedroom house now costs 39s 7d,\na three-bedroom 34s 6d, a two-bedroom\n31s 6d. \"My sister at Thorley has a\nnew three-bedroom council house for\nonly 23s, with a cooker too,\" is one com-\nplaint. \"Definitely worth it,\" says a\nwoman with a young child who is pay-\ning 31s for a flat; all the same, she\nis moving into a house and leaving a\nold couple who \"can't manage the\nstairs.\" Strange, the persistent belief\nthat the natural state of man involves\nthe climbing of elaborate wooden hills.\nBut a garden for the children: that is\nanother matter.", "The writer should prefer a private garden\nor do you want an allotment? This was\none of the questions put to the people\nof the British public in a preliminary\nsocial survey, and eight in ten said that\nthey wanted their own garden. Here they\nfound the private garden to be a\nlot early to till it, and they may eventually\nlook; at present the favourite crop appears to be cabbages. The other two are vegetables against which the British\ninstincts blight with unaccountable\nsuspicion, bloom in shy corners—in front\nof the red, yellow, and silver\nhouse, and behind the community hall with a sort of Euclidian Technician and on the terrace in front of the houses.", "Now, however, the Peterlee infants'\nschool is ready, looking out through its\nwide windows on those rare things up\nhere.", "The junior school will follow soon,\nand so will a public-house. Eight more\nshops will probably be ready by next\nspring. Work has also started on the\nfirst factory—spinning-mill, in accor-\ndance with the plan to provide new and\nmore varied employment, particularly\nfor women. Thirty months after the\nfirst tenant was given his keys, the\ntown is taking shape.", "Who are they; the first 3,500? Nine\nout of ten are miners and their families\nbut a few professional people have\nalready moved in. There is no obvious\nway in which the number of the poor\naccording to the Reith Report, should\nfind Peterlee an attractive place to live\nand work in. These are the formative\ndays, and it is likely that their passes\never to be more attractive than now?\nBut the original idea of a balanced\ncommunity can only be realised by\na supply of professional and business\nmen of the medical and company\nunions. The medical and business\nunions are the two main elements in\na development corporation official who\nwill take leases on houses built to\nthe first of these that have\nalready signed his lease.", "SCHOOLS & CAREERS", "## STUDY AT HOME FOR A UNIVERSITY DEGREE", "NO matter what your position or prospects a University education is the surest way to get a good job in London. \"The University of London\" is going to pass three (in some cases two) exams. You can do this at the University. You can also take the University Examinations, conducted by staff of over 190 Graduates. You can also take the University of London Examinations, conducted by staff of over 190 Graduates. You can also take the University

Tablets of 1600 B.C.
Decoded by Expert

By SANKA KNOX

Special to The New York Times.

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 28
A half-century-old archaeo-
logical puzzle about the lan-
guage used in an ancient sys-
tem of Cretan writing has been
ended. The solution by Prof.
Cyrus H. Gordon of Brandeis
University here gives Akkadian,
the Babylonian language, as the
long-sought answer.

The decoded Semitic writing,
In a script that employed picto-
graphic and syllabic signs, was
in use on the island of Crete
from the seventeenth to the fif-
teenth century B. C. Scholars
call it Linear Script A.

The existence of a Semitic
language on Crete before its
fall to the Greeks about 1400
B. C. may revise "much current
thinking about the early history
of the areas involved," Dr. Gor-

Continued on Page 29, Column 3

THE NEW YORK TIMES

MINUTE WRITINGS
OF OLD DECODED

Sumerian Tablet Contains
Laments of Sun Goddess
3,500 Years Ago

By WILLIAM G. WEART
Special to The New York Times.

PHILADELPHIA, May 24—
A University of Pennsylvania
epigraphist has translated a
Sumerian tablet inscribed some
3,500 years ago in what are be-
lieved to be the most minute
cuneiform characters ever dis-
covered.

On a fragmentary clay tablet
roughly the size of a 25 cent
piece, the ancient scribe man-
aged to make two columns
totaling some thirty lines and
144 cuneiform signs. The work
was described as the Sumerian
equivalent of writing the Lord's
Prayer on the head of a pin.

The microscopic document, a
remnant of a much larger work,
contains songs and laments of
Inanna, the Sumerian goddess
of love, who wandered about
ancient Sumer bemoaning the
loss of her people, temples and
cities.

The translation was made by
Dr. Samuel Noah Kramer, Clark
Research Professor of Assyriol-
ogy and curator of the tablet
collection at University Muse-
um. He worked at the museum
from a photographic enlarge-
ment of the tablet, which is in
the Louvre in Paris. The photo-
graph enlarged the tablet fifty-
six times.

In reporting on the project in
the spring issue of Expedition,

the museum's quarterly mag-
azine, Dr. Kramer said he was
"certain that 3,500 years ago
the Sumerian scribes did not
have spectacles or magnifying
glasses, yet these inscriptions
cannot be read with the naked
eye."

"The cuneiform signs are so
minute," he noted, "that we
wonder how the ancient scribes
succeeded in writing them, and
how, once written, they could
be read without a magnifying
glass or microscope."

The Louvre has thirty-one
fragments of the original docu-
ment, some no larger than a
finger-nail paring. A French
expedition discovered them be-
fore the turn of the century in
the ancient city of Lagash in
southern Mesopotamia.

Dr. Kramer, an authority on
Sumerian literature, intends to
publish his complete findings in
the Revue d'Assyriology, a
French journal devoted to cunei-
form studies.

In the current issue of Ex-

TINY TABLET: Smallest
known example of cunei-
form writing was translated
by Dr. Samuel Noah Kram-
er, University of Pennsyl-
vania epigraphist. Tablet is
about as big as a quarter.

pedition he stated that in its
original state the Louvre docu-
ment probably "contained sev-
eral thousand lines of text, far
more than any cuneiform tablet
or prism as yet unearthed."

"To judge from its extant remains," Dr. Kramer wrote, "the Louvre document was inscribed with an entire cycle of laments revolving about the Sumerian goddess of love, a deity who sparked the imagination of men all over the ancient world: Venus to the Romans, Aphrodite to the Greeks, Ishtar to the Babylonians, she was celebrated in Sumerian song and hymn, myth and ritual, under the name, Inanna, 'Queen of Heaven'."

Typical of the phrasing and
contents of the Inanna laments,
Dr. Kramer said, is the follow-
ing broken passage:

"Oh, her heart! Oh her heart!

"Lo! Lo! Oh her heart! Oh
her heart!

"My queen, Oh her heart! Oh
her heart!

"Inanna, Oh her heart! Oh
her heart!

"The princess, her heart cries
out in tears,

"Her heart cries out in tears
and wails,

"Like stall, her destruction...

"Her heart . . .

"Her heart . . .

"For the mighty (?) one . . .

"The stall is destroyed . . ."

Loyalty Hearings Due

WASHINGTON, May 24
(UPI) — Senator Thomas C.
Hennings Jr. announced today
that the Senate Constitutional
Rights subcommittee would
hold hearings next month on
methods for guaranteeing fair
loyalty-security investigations.
The Missouri Democrat heads
the panel. He said "No sound
and sensible fair hearing pro-
visions exist in law today."