More Chinese Stay In Dominion

Chronicle (Levin), 9 March 1949, Page 7

More Chinese Stay In Dominion

Press Association )

(Per

AUCKLAND, Marcii /. Civil wai-, inflation and final Communist domination of China have robbed Kew Zealand CMnese of a tradiLon of returning to their homeland. i'cw are now leaving the Dominion without an intention to r'eturn. Almost the only exceptions • are the very old men and women, who are prepared to ignore sacrifices and difficulties in the hope of dying in aneestral villages. Many Chinese are sjtill planning short visits to Hong Kong or the mainland, but hundreds of families who would normally spend their retirement in China on monev earned in New Zealand now prefer to remain in the Dominion. Thev not only believe they would be out of sympathy with a Communist Government; they also fear that their savings would be overwhelmed in the astronomh-ally inllated Chinese cur-renc-y.

New Zealand Chinese welcomed a scheme introduced last year by the Government to enable men of good standing who had lived in the eountry for 20 years to bring their wives and i ii flint children from China to New Zealand. This relaxation meant reunion for 50 families. Further appiiI rations for entrv are now being made in the hope that the policy will be repeatod this year. A promiiient member of the Auckland Chinese eommunity said that many of the older-establislxed Chinese • families weri? now in their third generation and the old eustom of returning to i hina had been furtlier unde'rmined by the prcdomnnuilly New- Zealand outh,ok of the younger men. Older people, impressed by t'lie assuranee of s i ial security, wero also increasingly reluctant to leave established homes

and interests for a highly problematical life in China.