COST OF LIVING IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25554, 23 July 1948, Page 8

COST OF LIVING IN CHINA

EFFECT ON INDUSTRIAL CO-OPERATIVES

“Cost of living in Shanghai went up 108 per cent, in June alone. There are more difficult times ahead. The evening newspaper which cost 70,000 dollars a week ago is now 150,000 dollars, and a packet of cigarettes is 550,000 dollars,” writes Mr Peter Townsend, secretary of the Chinese Industrial Co-operatives, who visited Christchurch some time ago and has now returned to China.

“All this sounds ridiculous, and is, unless you happen to be unfortunate enough to be a farmer or a worker,” he continues. “In this. case you are so oppressed by taxation, requisitioning, and conscription that your only hope is to escape into the anonymity of the city. Hence the extraordinary number of rickshaw-pullers these days —one of the professions that anyone can follow without training—and the greatly t increased body of beggars. New beggars, however, have a hard time getting accepted by the tightly organised beggars’ guild. “Somehow the co-operatives manage to ride the'inflation—or some of them do,” the letter continues. “Although all over the country more and more industry is coming to a full stop, we still have many co-operatives which are able to come through and show a small profit. Under present conditions cooperation provides the members with some good and lasting education. Rewi Alley’s work prospers. The irrigation scheme, which will bring 10,000 acres under cultivation—of these 2000 are for the Sandan Baillie School—is well under way, and we hope to get the money to complete it before the summer is over. The biggest rains in Kansu for, they say, 77 years, should guarantee a good harvest this autumn.’’