Icebergs & Cattle

The 56,000 Roman Catholics of Vancouver Archdiocese know their Archbishop William Duke as an unyielding foe of Sunday picnics, parish hall dances, demon rum and Marxism. They call him "The Iron Duke."

Last week, at the Vancouver convention of the Canadian Federation of Convent Alumnae, strait-laced Archbishop Duke spoke his mind on still another human frailty: bathing beauty contests. Said he: "They are unbecoming and could be the occasions of sin ... They are barred to Catholic women who realize in conscience this great danger ... It lowers the dignity and esteem due to women to parade them and measure them . . . like cattle."

In a man-to-man talk later with News-Herald Reporter Hal Malone, the Archbishop got down to brass tacks. Said he: "Such demonstrations are accountable for the lust and rape that we read about almost daily . . . You would have to be an iceberg to be in the same room with a semi-nude woman and not be subject to immoral ideas."

Next day the Pacific National Exhibition held its bathing beauty contest in Vancouver. Of 14 entrants, only three were Roman Catholics. The winner: Brunette Margaret Brain, 17, a Protestant (Church of England) from Prince Rupert.

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