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New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 297, 2 March 1945, Page 5

Sir-I have just read in the latest issue of The Listener the story of a mob of sheep-‘"Lyttelton to Lhasa," and was deeply moved as I’m sure many of your readers must have been, on hearing of that amazing journey. So stirred, that I feel impelled to burst into print and ask other readers whether they feel as I do, that if some organiser, or primemover would start a campaign for the raising of funds to send more stud sheep to China’s great northwest, he would have the backing of all thinking New Zealanders. Even if every subscriber to The Listener gave 2/6 each, I’m sure money enough could be raised to send another flock of sheep to Kansu, the moment it is possible to do so. Rewi Alley says it is‘a gamble. Would the sheep reach their destination? Would they stand the climate? Well, this sort of gamble should appeal to anyone with a heart and brain and a love of progress, The people of New Zealand have a marvellous opportunity of extending a helping hand to a great nation in dire need. May I quote from "One World" by the late Wendell Willkie: — "In Sanchow I visited some of China’s industrial co-operatives. I met there the quiet, sincere New Zealander Rewi Alley, who has made Indusco an international word and a symbol of what can be done by a people determined to lift itself by its own bootstraps. Alley was having difficulties when I saw him; it is my guess that he will continue to have them. But I have no doubt that he and the Chinese Industrial Co-operative Movement I saw in China’s north-western provinces are accomplishing an enormous . change in the world’s economic geography by opening up the heart of Asia. "This economic struggle in which China is now engaged has been less written about in America than China’s military struggle against the Japanese invaders. But everything I saw made me believe that it has been no less heroic. If we Americans were . blasted from our sea-coasts by a hostile force, we could retire into our great interior and find there the machines and skilled labour to fight on. "But in the vast interior of China there were no such facilities. The Chinese had to carry their factories inland with them; not on freight cars, not on trucks, not evén in carts, but on human backs, piece by heavy piece." Sir, these are the people who deserve our admiration and help. Rewi Alley is helping them build a new and greater China. Let us help him to help them, by sparing a few of our shillings and

sheep.

JAY-BEE

(Upper Hutt),