COMMUNIST CHINA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 734, 7 August 1953, Page 5

COMMUNIST CHINA

Sir-In your July. 17 issue "C.H." writes: "When freedom is taken away, as it undoubtedly is under Communist rule, then happiness in life goes too." It appears to me that "C.H." has little knowledge of Chinese history or he could not write such nonsense. Bertrand Russell wrote in Foreign Affairs in 1921; "Japan is more hated in China than any other Power; we come next, as the allies of Japan, the possessors of Wei-Hai-Wei (the latter in explicit contravention of our Treaty rights), and the aggressors in China’s first wars with modern nations." Does "C.H." know nothing of the imposition of the opium traffic upon China? I would advise him to read Black Opium, by the Rev, Eric Lewis. It may possibly be an eye-opener to "C.H." to look back over history and read reports by men like Dr. Arnold, Lord Elgin, W. E, Gladstone, J. A. Brailsford, Professor John Smith and Sir Henry Pottinger (British Representatiye in China). . Again, your correspondent makes a grave error when he states that "Happiness is a thing of the spirit." It is the common approach of the philosophical idealist to separate the spiritual from its material basis, not understanding that anything spiritual can only arise from a material basis.

W. R.

CARSON

(Huntly).

Sir.-Wrong thinking is dangerous. "C.H.’s" letter is ill-informed. Let him study and digest the work of Robert Payne on Mao, and Jack Belden’s China Shakes the World. These men know of what they speak. The Chinese national polity was disrupted by the influx of foreign profitseekers. If missionaries stayed at home and tried to teach their own people to, be decent Christians they would do more good. Chinese landlords were quick to fall into step with the Christtian Mammonists. The condition of the peasantry, owing to pitiless taxation, became pathetic in the extreme. Mao, an able and lovable peasant, is their

saviour, He has to govern 400 million people. He received help from Russia, which for selfish reasons Russia was glad to give. Therefore his Government is called Communist. But it is different from Russian Communism. We, of course, won’t have atheistic and terroristic Communism on any consideration. But we had better leave Mao to govern his 400 million as he thinks best. He is a far superior ruler to Chiang. The hard-working Chinese peasant does not bother his head about freedom: what he wants is enough food and clothing for himself, wife and children; and rescue from the vicious prace tices of heartless landlords. ; If we want to keep our country se cure, we had better help Mao in his difficult task, instead of, as hitherto, thinking chiefly of profit.

C. T.

WILD

(Timaru).

Sir,-In his letter protesting against the "championing of the Communist Government of China" in Lookout, "C.H." says that "when freedom is taken away, as it undoubtedly is under Communist rule; then happiness in life goes, too." However true this may be in the experience of "C.H.," it is not true in my experience. However, my experience of Communist rule in China is admittedly small, and I would therefore draw his attention to Rewi Alley’s book ’Yo Banta ("We Have a Way") and let that speak for me. In the 11 weeks I spent travelling in China at the end of last year I saw more "happiness in life" than in the whole of my life before. Nobody who has not moved about in China recently can, I believe, have any idea of the "cause there is for optimism at the present time," which your correspondent doubts. The remark that "there is no room for optimism while a large section of mankind is living in bondage" is utterly irrelevant to New

China,

MARGARET

GARLAND

(Wellington).