More Trade With China Sought

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31991, 19 May 1969, Page 14

More Trade With China Sought

The national conference of the New Zealand-China Society welcomed the Government’s attitude to trade with China, and urged business interests to seek every possible means of improving reciprocal trade with China, the president of the society (Mr R. Evans) said at the conclusion of the confer* ence in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Evans said that the society intended to furnish New Zealand business firms and trade organisations with the appropriate Chinese avenues of approach. “The Government has been asked by the society to recognise the Government of the People's Republic ot China and to establish full diplomatic relations with it as the sole representative of the Chinese people, thus following the example of Britain and of Canada,” Mr Evans said. The conference said it desi’ ' ’o invite official visitors f hina to New Zealand, I in mind cultural t such as opera com- , s, scientists, specialists in industry and agriculture, teachers and others in particular fields who would be well qualified to interpret developments in their country to New Zealanders. The society said it believed that such visits would be in the best interests of New Zealand, and it hoped that they would be facilitated by official sanction. The national executive has been instructed to endeavour to arrange for a visit to New Zealand by the well-known Chinese author. Dr Han Suyin. The conference received a message of greetings from Mr Rewi Alley and other New Zealanders at present in China. The message discussed the agricultural, industrial and commercial strength of China, emphasised that China was

free of internal and external debt, and said that consumer goods were increasing in variety and cheapness. The completion of the new bridge over the Yang-tse at Nanking well ahead of schedule was a good example of the dynamism of present day industry, the message said. It said that in the cultural and educational spheres China was breaking new ground on a vast scale, and that the Chinese people were unified in the support of their Government in the recent border dispute with Russia. Officers elected were: Presldent, Mr R. Evans; vice-presi-dents, Messrs C. R. Howell and G. J. C. MacArthur; secretary, Mr J. Ewen; committee, Mrs G. Whiting, Mrs M. Firth and Mr R. Anderson.