AN ENTHUSIAST IN CHINA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 793, 1 October 1954, Page 5

AN ENTHUSIAST IN CHINA

Sir.-Some months ago I refuted a definite charge made against the New Zealand press of suppressing certain news favourable to the Communists in Korea, Perhaps something of this attitude to the press is to be found in the gibe of your correspondent, H. W. Youren, contained in his criticism of your review of Mrs, Garland’s book on China. "Independent political views are, of course, not quite respectable in New Zealand, Gad, Sir, the daily papers can’t be wrong!" May I point out that papers frequently print news favourable to, or expressing the views of, the new China? This comes in cabled news or in statements made here by persons who have been to China. Some missionaries from China have expressed their admiration of improvements worked by the Communist régime, and these comments have been reported. Your correspondent is too sensitive to criticism. By this time he should surely have realised that there are many people (like myself) who are completely disillusioned about Chiang-Kai-Shek and his set, and expect nothing from them, but are unable to believe that everything in the new garden of China is lovely. We welcome the war waged on the ageold inefficiency, ignorance and corruption, and accept the reports that much progress has been made. We hold that the United States made a profound mistake in not recognising Communist China. But one can be a friend of China and a critic at the same time. We refuse to withhold judgment on such things as the dreadful trials of Catholic nuns; extorted confessions; detention of Europeans; deplorable diplomatic manners (despite her recognition, Britain at one time could not get an answer to notes); persistence in the germ-warfare lie, now so moth-eaten that it seems to have been dropped; and, of course, the over-riding policy of a police State in which all information and opinion is controlled,

JOURNALIST

(Wellington). —