CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 12

CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Mr Freer Reviews Recent Tour COMPARISON WITH NEIGHBOURS (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 11. The main Opposition speaker in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives tonight was Mr W. W. Freer (Mount Albert), who took the House along much of the tour of Communist China he had undertaken recently. Mr Freer said he found the Chinese Administration completely honest, and the people enjoyed a better standard of living than their neighbours in adjacent Asian countries he had also visited.

Great things were being done in the Colombo Plan countries, he said, but he suggested that New Zealand “ should concentrate on offering tech- a ' nical rather than financial assistance c< to them. .. Mr Freer said that when he and his wife arrived in Hong Kong they were given much information on China, but " it all-proved incorrect—and it should be remembered, he said, that world . news agencies were established in 22 Hong. Kong, from where news was sent out about China. Much of the in- . formfition cm China which could be Obtained in Hong Kong came from £ nihigees. who were mainly professional ft 'Businessmen, and ’those who had practised the traditional “squeeze” “ method of obtaining a living. The impression he formed was that there .-was r .no “squeeze” in China daw, and Administration was complefely honest. There was “terrific” cleanliness on the “show route” followed by all visitors to China, but just as overseas visitors to New Zealand were not taken to Freeman’s Bay in Auckland—though they could go there if they made the request—so were he and his wife conducted in their tour of China, even though they did visit places of squalor. There was no banditry. There were. restrictions “ on the taking of photographs, but the CTjfty limitation on the length of movie *■ ■in he exposed was that imposed by “ financial resources. In Peking. ° on May Day, he was arrested for Jtaking photographs of the celebrations, - but he was later allowed to take them He was not required to have any of “ his films developed before leaving China. j “Many Modern Factories” f Mr Freer said there were many new f modern factories, which in the main s had been designed by Russians and n whose staffs had been trained by Rus- t afan technicians. Most were now run t by the Chinese very efficiently. The r working day ranged from 6j hours to t ’ & hours, but in most factories there r were workers* schools where the staffs e learned new techniques and processes 1 working time. u -Many of the workers were from rural - areas, he said. In the past there t ■» had twen little incentive for country c V folk to move to the town, with the re- v ydfrlt that peasant villages and the land t gghad -became overcrowded. But now v trend was for those people to move c itto the cities and work in the factories, c the- tremendous boost in secondary c industry was the result. , c Mr Freer said there had been much - newspaper comment on the shortage of consumer goods, but he had found a ti wide variety inside shops. The im- v pression of a scarcity might have been t created because Chinese shops did not o have the big display windows of West- v em shops. „ v Discussing freedom of worship, Mr i. Freer said a law had -been passed t which made it illegal for. any Church b to practise religion if it owed allegi- c ance to ?ny country or group outside China,. Therefore there had been little c restriction on the rights of worship of t Protestants, but “the-very roots of the c Roman Catholic Church were struck £ at,” he said. A breach had developed , and a Catholic Church of China h formed. But he regretted to sav that t the true Roman Catholic Church was ° “mercilessly hounded.” and everything ? possible was done to make it impos- “ sible for the Church to function. Mr Freer said there was no freedom * of the individual by New Zealand standards. But he contended that the c history of the country had to be taken into account, for the Chinese had 11 never had any personal freedom c “They have lost the right to freedom, h but surely that is a very different v thing, w he said. p ■Hie Chinese were seeing things done •for them now that no-one had ever i done for them before. It would be 1 later, when their standard of living 1 was improved and they compared their s lot with that of other peoples, that . fl»y would discover that freedom didh not exist for them. “At the moment f flier are not missing something they ( never had.** he said. 1 Mr Freer said he kept verbatim resorts of all interviews he had in CMia, including those he had witn 4be representatives of various political I PMfIML Mr X. P. Adennan (Government. I New Plymouth): All Communist t Mr Freer: Nothing of the sort He said he could come only to the ’ conctasfon ttat the over-all standard 1 k fl Wtt ta China was higher than i

cernea. that in adjacent Asian countries. There was no evidence of a food shortage, though there was a scarcity of cooking oils in certain provinces. The people were well dressed, and no-one he saw was without boots or shoes of good leather. Hospitals and schools functioned well, and excellent work was being done in the care of women and children. A social security scheme in China covered 12.000.000 people of a population of 648,000.000. A workers’ compensation system was also in operation, and one man he knew was drawing 100 per cent, disability payment after being injured on the Soccer field. Age benefits came toymen at the age of 60 and to women at 50, and ranged from 50 per cent, to 70 per cent, of the wage received in their last jobs. If age beneficiaries decided to continue working, they could do so and draw a 50 per cent, benefit. The Chinese Government had a deliberate policy to rid China of foreign companies- Commercial interests that had been established for many years were not allowed to continue, and were preparing to withdraw. There had been “terrific progress in housing in the three cities where he inspected housing projects, he said. The accommodation, by New Zealand standards, was poor, but there were persons waiting here for State houses living in much worse conditions. Apart from a housing scheme in Singapore, China’s was the best he had seen in the East.