Missionary Claims Many Chinese Hate Communism

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27989, 8 June 1956, Page 13

Missionary Claims Many Chinese Hate Communism

In a population of 600,000,000, there are, only 9,000,000 Communists in China and the vast majority of the people hate the new Government, but are too afraid to criticise it, according to Mr H. G. Gould, who recently left China after living there for 16 years. “They will only tell you what’they really think of the Government if they are quite sure you are leaving the country and will not quote them to anyone,” Mr Gould said in an interview in Christchurch yesterday.. “By nature, Chinese men and women are enterprising and independent thinkers,” he said. “They like to have the opportunity of making money and saving it; even the peasant enjoys a session in the village tea shop telling his neighbour his views. But communism has stopped all this. It has taken away freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to change from one job to another. It has confiscated men’s savings, and in many cases their homes. What the worker can earn now is only just enough to buy his barest needs.” Difficulties of Revolt

Under the present system of government, it was impossible for powerful

men to rise up and lead the people in a revolt agdinst the totalitarians now controlling the country, Mr Gould said. The people must temporarily accept the regime and in so doing they looked hopeless and despairing—as if they were making the best of a really bad bargain. "When my wife and I went to Hong Kong from Shanghai, we both remarked on the distinct difference in expression on the faces of the people in Hong Kong, where they looked carefree and happy. It was quite amazing,” he said. The apparent enthusiasm expressed annually on May Day for the leaders of the People’s Republic of China did not ring true, said Mr Gould. Cheer leaders were stationed in key positions to whip up excitement; and in any case, the workers would cheer for anything when told to, if it .meant their bread and butter. The first May Day parade in Shanghai after the Communist “liberation” of 1949 lasted for almost 14 hours, said Mr Gould. Every adult in the city took part in it, including old women and many senior school children. They all shouted loudly the praises Qf Stalin and Mr Mao Tse-tung. Foreigners were forbidden to go on the streets. In the next year, the old people were left at home and all the succeeding year, the processions be?i workers and Unionists paraded. Each came smaller until in 1954 union officials had to order members to march in the procession. Now the processions were more in the nature of military parades, and last year the parade was all over in two hours. China, like any other country, would allow foreigners to see only its i- proudest achievements, such as new buildings, its ancient culture, and 1 nationalised industries, Mr Gould said. ! This would apply to the party of New 1 Zealanders who recently visited China at the invitation of the People’s AssoI ciation for Cultural Relations with 1 Foreign Countries. . Mr Gould, an Australian member of ; of the China Inland Mission, and his 1 wife were unofficially expelled from China in 1951 with other Christian

missionaries. Because Mr Gould was a chartered accountant, he took a position with a British shipping firm. “In this way I was able to stay on, as I then became a worker necessary to the

economy of China, but we were not allowed to leave Shanghai and had to re-register every six months,” he said. Shipping Firm’s Loss This British shipping firm had now been liquidated, and the Government had taken it over as an agency, Mr Gould said. The company was forced to close down in China because it had 1500 superfluous staff who could not be dismissed under union laws. This big staff had been necessary before Communist rule, when the firm worked about 14 ships a day in the port of Shanghai. The time came when only one ship a week was turned round, and it was not economic to employ so many workers. The firm lost between £3.000.000 and £4,000,000 in capital invested in China, Mr Gould said. “Though crime is never reported in the newspapers in China, there is plenty evident,” Mr Gould said. “You often see a crowd gathered outside a building, and on investigation find that a murder or burglary has been committed. The Communists deal with criminals summarily, mostly by execution. “The shining light in this dark picture is the Christian church in China. The constitution of the People’s Republic does allow freedom of religion. This is essential to win over the sympathy of hundreds of millions of Taoists and Buddists. The church in China is a living symbol of what Christianity should be,” Mr Gould said.

Mr and Mrs Gould, who have beqn on a lecture tour of New Zealand for the China Inland Mission, will leave for Australia on Saturday.