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From there she came to Canada through the Committee for the Placement of Intellectual Refuâ€" gees financed by the Lady Davis Foundation of Montreal. Business and Industry The Canadian economy has been strengthened and diversified by the establishment of new In- dustries by refugees. A few who escaped before the war were able to transfer funds to Canada. But most arrived almost penniless. Nevertheless with initiative. determination and pluck some founded industries which have grown from Elma” beginnings into thriving enterprises. Among the latter is Evald Torokvai. A refugee from Estonia. Torokvai began making plastic toys in his basement in Toronto. The enterprise rap- idly expanded until today Torokvai is one of the leading manufacturers of beach toys in Canada. In addition he produces plastic supplies for mines and chemical firms and has become one of the largest makers of rigid pipe in the country. Thomas Karass. who fled from Hungary in 1943, also started his business on a shoestring, After his regular day‘s work with a Montreal textile firm. he started manufacturing a weftless cotton tape on his Budapest loom in the base- ment where he lived. Out of these experiments grew the Canadian Ribbon Tape Company which manufactures linen. fiberglas. rayon. asbcstos and nylon tapes. each kind serving a particular pur- pose. The linen tape which is a specialty of the firm developed when Mr. Karass discovered that the flax-growers of the Plcssisville area in Quebec were looking for a new market to replace the one they had lost as a result of the introduction of nylon fishing nets, A plant was established at Plcssisville to process the flax and spin it into linen yarn for the tape, 0n the West Coast Leon Koerner. a refugee from Czechoslovakia where his family's large lumber business was confiscated by Hitler. found- ed a Vancouver company now known as Alaska Pine and Cellulose Limited. This plant. which gives employment to about 4.500 people. makes use of the abundant but hitherto little used hemâ€" lock in the region. It has become British Co- lumbia's biggest producer of the kind of wood pulp that now goes into textiles; it is second in the province in the production of lumber and fourth in the_production of wood pulp for paper and newsprint. Recently Mr. Koerner gave one million dollars to the establishment of the Leon and Thea Koer- ner Foundation for the promotion of art. culture and Welfare. “I: made the gift as a mark of gratitude to Canada where he found freedom. German-born Frederick Mendel]. like Koerner a refugee from the Nazis. created four hundred new jobs when he established Intercontinental Packers at Saskatoon in [940. Mr. Mendcll left behind successful meat-packing plants in Ger- many and other European countries when he found refuge in Canada just before the outbreak of war. He brought with him his secret process of curing ham and now. in their pear-shaped cans. his hams are exported to many parts of the world, 32 Czech skill in glove making was brought i.J Canada by Louis Fishl. a former glove mann~ facturer in Carlsbad. Czechoslovakia. l-le arriw in Montreal early in 1939. Soon afterwards h._ decided on Prescott. in eastern Ontario. as a svr for his small plant. In August 1939, the Fist Glove Company began operation in a factor building which had been empty for two ycm‘ His only real assets were his own skill and its skill of his wife, a glove designer, and of a f.» refugees whom he had managed to gather abm him. Yet he brought a new industry to Preset. and today his gloves are sold all over Canada. A final example of an industry started by rely gees in the Bata Shoe Company. At present it Canadian factory employs about 1.500 Work. and turns out over 60.000 pairs of footwear week. The Bata Shoe Company has been Estu‘ lished in over thirty-five countries in the wt” but now has no connection with Bata in Cm oslovakia. An outstanding business executive is Kurt Swinton. VicevPresident and Managing Directt Encyclopedia Britannica of Canada Ltd.. l’r ident of the periodical Canadian Commentut Mr. Swinton is prominent in public affairs. is chairman of the national committee. (at dian Conference on Education; chairman of ' education committee. Canadian Chamber of ('t merce; and an executive committee member the Canadian Institute on Public Affairs. Music, Literature, Handicrafts and Art A wealth of musical talent poured into t” ada with the refugees. Among them were mu experienced orchestra conductors â€"â€"â€" James b. nins, of Latvia. now conductor of Frederiw Orchestra. as well as organist and Choirmuster St. Paul's United Church; another Latvian. fred Strombergs. who founded the Halifax S} phony Orchestra; Walter Suskind. from Czc oslovakia. conductor of the Toronto Symphn Orchestra: German-born Heinz Unger. COnLlllL of CBC orchestras and orchestras at the St' ford Festival; a number of well known comt sers, some of whom are also in music educaiv â€"for example. Dr. Blume, a refugee from (t many. is Chairman of Keyboard and Vocal Mu at McGill. and Dr. Arnold Walter is Director the Faculty of Music at the University of l ronto. Refugees from Poland, Austria. Hungary n Lithuania are making a very definite contrit tion in art and handicraftsâ€"painting. leath craft. pottery. ceramics and sculpture in wood. (.‘l and stone. In New Brunswick several Estoni- have been engaged by the government to tel- weaving classes in the towns and rural areas. These examples give some illustration of iv greatly we have been enriched by those who h.~ found refuge in Canada during the past twen- five years. A Contribution _The Women‘s Institutes of Ontario have L‘t' tributed $7,270 to World Refugee Year. HOME AND couNW