“Economic Crisis Hits U.S. Severely”—China

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29398, 28 December 1960, Page 11

“Economic Crisis Hits U.S. Severely”—China

(N.Z. Press

PEKING, Dec. 26. The Chinese Communist Party newspaper “People’s Daily” today carried reports of Christmas “suffering” among people of the United States, West Germany and Canada. The reports were the latest of a series in the Chinese newspapers on the “economic crisis” in the United States and other Western countries. They contrasted with stories of prosperity and industrial progress in Communist States.

The “People’s Daily” said: “The United States is this year passing Christmas with the wrath of heaven and the complaints of the people. The economic crisis is hitting the United States ever more severely each passing day and the country’s working people are faced with mass unemployment and poverty. “Millions of unemployed and their families depend on scanty unemployment relief funds for their daily bread and all are starving.” The “People’s Daily” said West German newspapers reported “nothing but hardships suffered by the masses of the working people;" -It cited the case of a young Munich widow who said she feared the arrival of Christmas because “it would mean even

greater sorrow, as she was unable to satisfy the wishes of her three children.”

Another report said: “Now a merry Christmas can be seen everywhere in Canada—newspapers, television and shop windows. But to unemployed Canadians, heartbroken with the problem of finding a job, Christmas is severe and hard.”

The newspaper also reported a “depressing Christmas” in South Korea, Greece and France, while a contrasting dispatch cites “old residents of Havana” as saying the prosperous market and joyful atmosphere prevailing on the eve of the New Year was “something unknown in the past.” There have been many reports recently of "Socialist prosperity” in countries such as the Soviet Union, Albania and Poland, and the Chinese newspapers have also been reporting regularly successful efforts in communes to cope with last year’s natural disasters, described as the worst in the twentieth century. The reports include paragraphs referring to deaths from starvation, lack of shelter, and cold in the same regions before the Communist Government came to power. Reports from the north-east, where floods caused heavy damage, and other areas stricken by drought, say adequate steps have been taken to ensure the supply of food grains to feed the people during the winter. In Peking, people are getting a regular diet of rice and grain but little else except vegetables grown during the big summer drive. One urban commune dining room visited recently listed six subsidiary dishes available—all cabbage. Usually reliable sources say an increasing number of cases of vitamin deficiency are being found with many people sick and off work suffering from influenza and lack of stamina.

The sources also reported some deaths, possibly as a result of these dietary deficiencies.