CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Chronicle (Levin), 7 October 1947, Page 4

CONDITIONS IN CHINA

UNRRA's Achievements Iu Reconstruction About this time last year he had stood in a village in the Honan Province of China and witnessed sights which few .Qf the human white race had ever seen, said Mr. D. Cairns, of the ■ Department of Scientific' and Industrial Research, Wellington, who was for several months associated with UNRBA in China, speaking at the • Levin Rotary Club's. weekly luncheon yesterday. He painted an appalling picture of the food posltion there. The people were almost starving and were keeping their bodies going by eating roots 'of plants, leaves and grass mixed with red elay. These people had had very few meals for some weeks prior to his visit. About 25 per cent. had had less than three meals per week, while another 50 per cent. had averaged about one meal per day and then it had consisted mostly of the things he had mentioned previously. The first supplies of flour arranged for by UNRRA were due there that week, and the conditions he had witnessed had given ample reason for UNRRA entering China. One of UNRRA's first programmes had been that of the relief of the food shortage, said Miv Cairns. It was estimated that 3,000,000 people. in Honan Province alone faced death from starvation in a matter of weeks. Vast quantities of food were taken in to relieve this distress. Included was the first flour for severi or elght •years and tinned items which the people had nev.er seen before, and With which they did not know what to do until shown. By the end of the present year equipment worth £3,000,000 would have been taken* into China by the United Nations Organisation, through UNRRA, for the resuscitation of industry, both primary and secondary, continued Mr. Cairns. The agricultural rehabilitation programme included the provision of

seeds, manures and equipment, as well as one or two major works such as the diversion back to its old course of the Yellow River, which *annually flooded enormous areas of some of the best agricultural land in China. It had been a tremendous engineering problem, added to which were the frustrations met through the CommunistNationalist struggle and the fact that countless Chinese families had made their homes in the old coufse 'Of the river and had to be moved from it. The task of taking in modern machinery had not been an easy one. It had. been necessary to instruct the Chinese in the use of this equipment, the types of country it was suitable for and -its proper care and m'aintehanfce'." Classes had been established for this purpose and had proved most successful. Last but not least, added the speaker, the agricultural programme had included the importation of water buffalo, on which depended much of the success of Chrna's agriculture. Referring to the toll which disease and the lack of adequate medical serviees was taking of the people, Mr. Cairns mentioned that Dr. Robertson, a well-known orthopaedic surgeon, had said that many of the cases which came to his notice were hopeless before the patient reached" the operating table. Numerous pitiful sights were to be seen, largely the result of neglect -and the prevalence of disease. There were som,e ' 15,000 doctors in China but they were concentrated largely in the cities, leaving about one for every 250,000 people in the country. The number of midwives was about the same, while there were approximately 500 dentists. •Openings in the medical field were tremendous, but the pr.oblems w.ere also enormous. The illiteracy of the people was one difficulty in dealing with the people and their superstitions another. Large quantities of equipment for medical work had been taken into fche country by UNRRA, advised the speaker. These had gone mainly :o the missionary and city hospitals, which .were very good. The standard of medical practiee in the country areas was very low, the majority of the doctors having little more than a first aid kit such as many families had in -their homes in New Zealand. . "Some of the saddest sights in China are those of disease among little children," remarked Mr. Cairns. "Smallpox is undoubtedly .the worst, with cholera and typhus following a vory close second." Transport had presented a big problem when UNRRA entered China, said the speaker. Many railways had been torn "up in the waf with the Japanese, outside the towns there were no arterial high^ays as New Zealanders knew them and the waterways provided very slow transit, To get supplies to the interior of the country it became necessary to organise these methods of transport, and- this had been tied with the difficulties of the "graf.t" which was ingrained into Chinese business methods. Another importanfc programme had been the rebuilding of the junk fishing fieet, which was an economic unit employing ap.proxifnately 1,000„000 people and with another 10,000,090 dep.endent.on it, said the speaker. About 70 per cent. of the pre-war fieet of junks had rotted during hostilities with the '.Japanese. 'Firstly, some 20,000 new junks had been buiit and supplied with sail cloth and equipment, whjle another 70,00.0 had been repaired., . Today the fieet numbered about 100,000 junks. Secondly, UNRRA had given

them power vessels to go further afield . and -fish in areas formerly exploited by the Japanese, who had exported the fish 'to China. Here again it had been necessary to train the Chinese to use modern diesel pQwered vessels. Thirdly, the . people had been taught fish processing — the making of fish meal, drying and canning— ?o it could be taken into the interior. In addition vessels with refrigeration had been provided to transport fish by the waterways into the interior. " There had been some criticism, concluded the speaker, but despite all the difficulties 90 per 'cent. of the goods taken into China by UNRRA had reached the people they were intended for. Mr. Cairns was introduced by Mr. L. A. Humphrey and at the conclu-" sion of his talk,. after he' had arxswered several questions, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, proposed by Mr, A. Shaw.