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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 30, No. 12. 1967.

'Join the party'

page 9

'Join the party'

Portrait of Mao

From The Outside it looks rather like the exterior of a run-down earlysettlers' shack. Inside, however, it HAS the appearance of the interior of a run-down early settlers' shack.

It is, in fact, a student flat in Dunedin and served as a billet for five women students from Victoria at this year's Tournament.

Its three occupants had generously volunteered their residence (rent $100 a year if anyone's interested) for the use of seven Tournament competitors but even the University's sense of humour has limits and the number was reduced to five.

In case you are at this stage wondering just what this has to do with the review page of Salient let me draw your attention to the photograph. This five feet high portrait of you-know-who beams paternally from the mantel-piece and bids all and sundry to "Join The Party." The background is blood-red, I didn't dare ask the exact substance used —for fear of being told.

The multitude of scratches and bulletholes in the Great Yellow One's face testify to many an assassination attempt. Carried out maybe by whoever left the tyre marks on the linoleum or the white foot prints on the ceiling.

This is another case of "if walls could speak they'd speak Chinese." Whether they would tell of orgies galore, maidenheads cut short or dirty schemes gone wrong, Mao isn't saying.

D.M.S.