HOW N.Z. CAN HELP IN RELIEF OF CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24745, 10 December 1945, Page 4

HOW N.Z. CAN HELP IN RELIEF OF CHINA

UNRRA " l

Two New Zealanders, one of them Dr. W. Sneddon Robertson, a distinguished surgeon, have arrived in China to serve with UNRRA. More will follow. UNRRA has ordered from New Zealand manufacturers thousands of ploughs and many more thous*ands of shovels for Chinese farmers. Other orders will be placed. t ' Behind these moves lies a tremendous story—the' story of the incredible sufferings of China’s millions in eight years of warfare with a powerful and savage enemy, and of the combined effort by her Allies, through UNRRA, to bring relief ■ and restore China’s economy. The task that confronts China now that the fighting has ceased is immense. So-called "occupied China ’ look in a full third of China’s territory, one-half of hA population (say, 250.000. people), 90 per cent, of her railways, and 80 per cent of her national wealth. The Chinese Government’s revenue normally came largely from customs duties and .taxes collected in the coastal .provinces, ell of which were occupied. That was not all. China’s great factories, built up for trade with foreign nations, were all in a few great ports on the coast. Of her textile industries, which, with 5.000. spindles, compared in size with those of more industrialised nations, 98 per cent, fell swiftly into Japanese ..hands. Flour mills, iron mills, cement works, the best 09a! mines, and many other vital industries went with them.

Burden on Free China Free China comprised the poorest sections of the country, and these were left to maintain the entire machinery, of war and of war-time government and administration. The development of new resources and new industries enabled China to remain in the war for eight long years, but every year increased popular hardships. As the textile industries were lost the , people could not replace clothes worn out or destroyed. As other industries were overrun other necessaries became scarce and then unobtainable. As railways were captured or cut, highways and bridges torn lip to check the enemy’s advance, and waterways blocked, goods could not have been moved even if there had been any. And goods could not be imported from abroad because every entry into the country was blocked. . . When the dykes along one of Chinas principal rivers were breached by military .action, large tracts of fertile farm land were flooded and put out of production for some years. This and other calamities resulted in a loss of 7,000,000 tons of food a year. Free China increased its food production considerably. Unfortunately, drought in some provinces and untimely rains in others produced serious famine threats for this northern winter. China therefore looks to other countries for Jarge quantities of food, chiefly rice and wheat. As the Japanese troops trampled over China they left behind utter destruction. Entire cities were burned and battered to the ground. Cattle were plundered and metal farm implements and even kitchen utensils were shipped away as .scrap iron to feed the hungry Japanese munition factories. V .

There are no accurate statistics yet of.the number of people aflected by the occupation; but I believe I am not far from the mark in saying that more than 300.000. Chinese were forced to flee from their homes at one time or another. throughout the length and breadth of the country. At least 30.000. to 40,000,000 lost their homes and were forced to migrate to safer regions in the interior. The kind of housing ■ problem that confronts postwar China can be readily appreciated. Death in the Passes One of the last thrusts by the Japanese before their surrender provided an illustration of the sufferings of the unfortunates in their path. From one town alone, 100,000 people fled before them along mountain roads and through treacherous passes. The roads and paths were so packed with refugees that there could- be''no turning round. Children became separated from their parents and were trampled to death or lost. Those who fell could not rise again. The refugees had little or no food, no shelter, no .extra clothes. They walked until their' .feet were swollen and torn and they were too exhausted to go on. Thousands died on the road; and the trickle that got through to another city, far from where they started, faced only destitution and starvation there.

This was no isolated incident. 4 This happened a thousand times. When large numbers of people migrate in that way they spread disease in ever-widening circles. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery, relapsing fever, cholera, plague, and tuberculosis follow, and these diseases threaten the health of the whole of free China, Now

The contributor of this erticle, Dr. A. C. HOU, formerly Senior Secretary of the Chinese Ministry of Economic Affairs, is now liaison officer from UNRRA’s China Office to the South-west Pacific Area Office. He is making a short visit to the Dominion.

that the war is over, the same millions, on the trek again, turning homeward, will continue to spread the dread disease all the way down to the coast. That is the picture of China to-day. The Chinese Government, naturally, jj determined to relieve the sufferings of the people and restore the economic equilibrium of the nation; but China does not possess the resources necessary to carry out this vast task unaided China has, therefore, turned for bein' to UNRRA. > *

The Chinese Government has drawn up detailed plans for relief and rehabilitation operations, which call for some 10,000,000 tons of supplies, valued at almost £800,000,000. ' Tile Chinese people! propose to • finance about twothirds of these operations themselves and have asked UNRRA to carry out the other third. The aid requested from UNRRA represents an expenditure of more than £280,000,000, or the importation of 4,000,000 tons of critically needed supplies. The China Programme was drafted by the Chinese Government and examined by UNRRA- experts. The Chinese National Relief and RehabiUtation Administration (CNRRA for short), established by the Chinese Government in February of this year, is the instrument through which plansunder the China Programme, as finally accepted by UNRRA, will be carried out. UNRRA officers and experts will continue to help in planning operations and supervising distribution of relief supplies. . , Transportation Comes First

China's relief needs have been divided up in the following broad proXiortions: A little more than one-third for* rehabilitation of. transport and communications system. Another third for food and clothing'' Twenty per cent; for rehabilitation of industry and agriculture. The remainder for health and welfare and care of displaced persons.

Transportation comes. first, because supplies will be useless unless they can be distributed from coastal ports cr producing areas to the areas in reed. Great stretches of railway' track will have to be repaired, count- ■ less bridges rebuilt, highways reconstructed, and waterways cleared and dredged. China will have to import ships, river boats, locomotives, rolling stock, and motor-trucks in very large numbers. Public works in the rehabilitation programme will employ millions of' Chinese. They will be paid in part with food; and to feed them China’ will have to Import at least 1,000,000 ■ tons of food for a start. To faelp.reclothe her people after eight years of war China needs 5,000,000,000 yards of textiles —enough to keep one-third of the whole world’s spindles busy for a year.

The scale of the, public works may be gauged from One example. To repair dykes and drain flooded areas will require earthworks equal te a solid mud wall 10 feet wide and 100 feet high from New Zealand to Australia, or 40 feet wide and 100 feet! high from Auckland to Wellington. Only those industries producing relief or rehabilitation goods are to be restored under this programme. They include food-processing mills, oil mills, cement factories, sawmills, textile factories, and .machine works. For agriculture seed, fertiliser,, draught animals, and . farm implements are needed. In the field of health China is particularly short of medicine, instruments, and hospital equipment and urgent!y needs doctors and trained workers, V Orders In New Zealand For its China Programme UNRRA requires skilled personnel -running into several hundreds, including rail, highway, automotive, power, ■ communications, and industrial engineers, medical teachers and doctors, experts in several branches of agriculture and fisheries, accountants, and administrative officers. These are being recruited all over the world, and,a small quota is bemg sought from New Zealand. In addition to the two already in China, several New Zealauders are likely to leave in’the near future and the -• applications of others are being examined at UNRRA’s South-west Pacific Area Office in. Sydney. First UNRRA relief cargoes have already been unloaded at Shanghai, and many more ships are on the way. New Zealand products will saijl in some- of these ships later. UNRRA is looking to the Dominion for certain livestock, high-grade seeds, foodstuffs, and .fishing craft among other things, as well as the agricultural implements already ordered. Supplies from New Zealand will help China to restore her economy. Incidentally, they will help New Zealand to take her products to China’s markets. They will surely help, also, in promoting better understanding and a closer relationship, between these two Pacific neighbours.