Trumpets in the Dawn

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 670, 9 May 1952, Page 6

Trumpets in the Dawn

N ambitious Australian serial production’ with the clear intention of portraying the desperate circumstances of so many uprooted families and individuals in post-war Europe, Trumpets in the Dawn begins week-day broadcast from 1ZB at 8.45 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13. A dramatic and moving story divided into four books, each of fiftytwo episodes, Trumpets in the Dawn is a work of fiction with. a factual basis and the nature of these facts gives the’ four-part serial significance beyond the limits of a mere "thriller." The four separate dramatic plots of Trumpets in the Dawn are united by the presence of the hero, Gerald Hancockthe narrator of the story, played by Douglas Kelly-and it is with him that the progress of the unified plot takes place. An Emeritus Professor of Economics and Secretary of a United Nations sub-committee, Hancock is thoroughly disillusioned by the apparent banality of all he is doing. His escape is provided by his winning a football pool. With this money he moves to Italy and there becomes, much against his will, embroiled in local problems of displacement, juvenile delinquency, and _black-

market crime. This Italian episode describes the activities of Padre Domenico -played by Clifford Cowley-and his efforts (in which Hancock eventually plays a part) to feed and rehabilitate homeless children who have been forced into becoming young bandits. The second book of the serial concerns another ‘type of D.P., the "missing" person. In Austria, Hancock begins his work as a member of Unicef and sets up a feeding centre for children, But the problem of a mother who has lost her daughter challenges his ingenuity and he accepts it as his personal contribution to the solution of some of the worst of the post-war evils. Relying on fact, rather than "happy-ending" fiction standards, the book shows how even the re-uniting of mother and daughter incurs more problems to be dealt with by the small bands of people working in Europe to patch up the damage caused by war. The impact upon a Greek village of a war that followed "the" war is dealt with in the third book of Trumpets in the Dawn. Continuing the work to which he has dedicated himself, Professor Hancock persuades the villagers of Parnitsa

to send their children away *to a hostel in Athens, though they themselves refuse to move out in the face of bitter fighting between -guerrilla and government troops. This same conflict between factions_is the theme of the fourth book, the scene for the story being Amrigar, a (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) fictional town whose possession is disputed with bitter realism by India and Pakistan. Hancock, on the staff of the United Nations Committee in the town, finds his task of settlement continually disrupted by the disputing claims of the nationalist factions, or by Hindus or Moslems, or the caste system. And it is an "untouchable" who has risen to a _ high government post and who is a Doctor of Law, who helps him ‘realise the way of slow adjustment necessary. Countries, characters or the particular form of Professor Hancock’s work at the time, are, however, factors incidental to the basic theme of disorganisation by violence in families, cities, nations and the. world. Trumpets in the Dawn is a worth-while story, based on a plot that allows for plenty of dramatic action, and commercial station listeners will find the Australian cast quite capable of the task set them. This serial will begin Monday, Wednesday and Friday broadcasts from 3ZB at 7.45 p.m. on May 19, and will be heard from 1XH on Mondays,. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7.0 p.m., beginning on May 21,