Rewi Alley: a life of devotion to China

Press, 28 December 1987, Page 7

Rewi Alley: a life of devotion to China

By TIM DONOGHUE NZPA Hong Kong Rewi Alley was born on December 2, 1897, at Amberley, 50km north of Christchurch, the third child of Frederick and Clara Maria Alley. He was named after the Maori warrior chief, Rewi Maniapoto. The name Rewi was suggested to Mr and Mrs Alley by the infant’s childless aunt, Amy, who had a particular admiration for the warrior of the 1860 s land war. Mr Alley, of Irish stock, was headmaster at Amberley School when Rewi was bom. His wife, also a schoolteacher, was English. In his early days Rewi gained a reputation for being something of a daydreamer and was nicknamed "Doodie” by his older brother and sister — Eric and Gwen. When Rewi was eight, Frederick Alley was appointed as first headmaster at Wharenui School in Christchurch. Rewi was educated at Wharenui School before going on to Christchurch Boys’ High School. He left high school at the end of 1915 and enlisted for war ser-

vice early in 1916. While still in New Zealand he received the news that his brother, Captain Eric Alley, a Gallipoli veteran, died while leading a trench raid in France. Rewi made the 10-week voyage to the European war theatre aboard the Ulimaroa which, in its pre-war days, was a small passenger ship on the New Zealand-Australia run. He was one of 2000 New Zealand soldiers who comprised the 28th Reinforcement. The Ulimaroa arrived in England in October, 1917, and in January, 1918, Alley joined the First Canterbury Battalion at Ypres on the Western Front. He was awarded the Military Medal for the role he played, as an acting n.c.0., during the assault on Bapaume. During this action he was shot through the hips and returned to New Zealand in November, 1918. Back in New Zealand, Alley purchased a Taranaki farm in Moeawatea Valley for £12,000 in partnership with an old school friend, Jack Stevens. He walked off the land

in November, 1926, and, aged 29, after a threemonth stint working at a fertiliser factory in Sydney, sailed for Shanghai on March 13, 1927. He arrived in China eight days later to be greeted by a watersider who spat in his face as he walked from the ship. Soon after his arrival he took a job as a fireman, learned Shanghainese, and was subsequently promoted to the position of inspection officer for the Shanghai Fire Department. An Australian author, Wilfred Burchett, who joined Alley to write a book entitled “China: The Quality of Life” quoted the New Zealander describing what launched his deep involvement in the Communist revolution. “One day in Wusih, about 40 miles north-west of Shanghai, I saw five lads being carried, naked and hanging from poles,” Alley said. “Right in front of me they were dumped to the ground and an officer got down from a horse and pumped a bullet into the heads of each of them. “Next day I read in the papers that they were

young ‘agitators’ trying to organise a trade union among the silk filature workers. That did it,” Alley said. Philosophically, Alley came quickly to the view that the champions of China’s oppressed were not the Guomintang — but the Communists. In his autobiography “At 90: Memoirs of My China Years,” Alley said that after this incident he reached the conclusion the older order in China should be pulled down. Within five years of his arrival in Shanghai he had adopted two Chinese sons, Michael (Li Xue) and Alan (Duan Simou). In latter years he was particularly close to Alan and his family who live in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province.

Alley’s house in the western suburbs of Shanghai during the 1930 s was used as an underground shelter for Communist fugitives who were often brought to his home by the activist daughter of a poor American miner, Agnes Smedley. It was during this period that he first met the man who became his “best friend” in China, a

Red Army doctor, Dr George Hatem (Ma Haide).

In 1934 an underground radio was installed in Alley’s house by which contact was established with the Red Army. Two years later he began contributing articles to the fortnightly “Voice of China.” In early 1937 he returned to New Zealand before making a world trip to inspect factory security conditions. On his return to Shanghai in October, 1937, he met again his close personal friend, the journalist, Edgar Snow. He first met Snow, the first Western journalist to interview Mao Tse Tung, in Inner Mongolia in the summer of 1929. With Edgar and Peg Snow, Alley initiated the - Gung Ho (work together) movement for industrial co-operatives in unoccupied China. In May, 1938, he resigned his position on the Shanghai Municipal Council and, after taking the advice of Chou En Lai, obtained permission from the Guomintang Government to begin Gung Ho work. He was appointed technical adviser when the Association of Chinese

Industrial Co-operatives was officially set up in Wuhan in August, 1938. At its height Gung Ho included 2000-3000 small co-operative factories which turned out items which were used in the war against the Japanese. However, the Gung Ho movement was opposed by many influential people in the then Guomintang Government because it hurt wealthy importers. In 1977 Alley wrote in a magazine article that the Gung Ho movement enabled him to learn “of the ability of the common folk to organise and conduct their own affairs... of their stubbomess, courage and resourcefulness. I learned too.”

In September, 1942, his contract as technical adviser to the Chinese Government on the Gung Ho movement was terminated.

The term “Gung Ho” is now included in most English language dictionaries where it is defined as “work together” or “foolishly enthusiastic.” “Gung Ho” also became the title of an American film concerning the attack

on the Japanese-held Pacific atoll of Makin. This film, coupled with the efforts of the Snows and Alley, helped cement the phrase “Gung Ho” into everday English usage. While still Gung Ho technical adviser, Alley met Mao Tse Tung in Yan’an in February, 1939, and again in February, 1940. During the latter meeting he talked about aid to He Long’s guerrillas in Shaanxi. He addressed meetings in Manila on Gung Ho in 1940 and the following year visited Singapore en route to Burma before returning to China via the Burma Road with a convoy of trucks. In September, 1942, after he was discharged from the post of Gung Ho technical adviser, Alley’s attention turned to Bailie School educational projects aimed at training Gung Ho cadres. At this stage of his life he worked closely with George Alywin Hogg at the Bailie School in Shuangshipu before arriving at Shandan on Christmas Day, 1945. There the two men established the original Shandan Bailie School.

The philosophy behind the school was to accentuate the practical side of life as well as the academic.

Despite Hogg’s early death in 1945, Alley often referred to his years at Shandan in Gansu province (from 1945-53) as the happiest of his life.

The death of his mother in 1952 introduced a touch of sadness to the period, but the undoubted highlight for the New Zealander was the liberation of Shandan by the People’s Liberation Army in September 1949. A preoccupation of Alley’s latter life was the reopening of the Shandan Bailie School of Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry. His dream was belatedly realised, although he was unable to travel to Shandan for the event, when the school was officially reopened on April 27, 1987. Following his earlier Shandan experience Alley turned his attention to literature. He was the author of 53 books and translated 13. Alley’s books were regarded as required reading by those seeking a better understanding of

China and resulted in his being awarded a doctorate of literature from Victoria University in 1972. Alley’s political views did not always make him a popular man in New Zealand before Wellington officially established diplomatic relations with China in 1972. When he returned to New Zealand for a visit in 1960 he was regarded as a traitor by many for his opposition to New Zealand involvement in the Korean war.

Back in China, Alley also had a difficult time during the Cultural Revolution from 1966-76 — as evidenced by the loss of his title as honorary headmaster of the Lanzhou School. He experienced the loneliness of being shunned by one-time friends who had been instructed not to associate with foreigners. He was showered with honours by the Chinese — among them the attendance by the paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, at his eightieth birthday party in the Great Hall of the People on December 2, 1977.

On December 2, 1982, he was made an honorary

citizen of Peking at an eighty-fifth birthday celebration. In November, 1983, he was appointed an honorary adviser to the Association of Chinese Industrial Co-operatives, revived after a national conference of Gung Ho workers. In January, 1984, he became the first foreign member of China’s P.E.N. Centre while in September that year he was made advisor to the Smedley-Strong-Snow Society of China.

On December 21, 1985, he was presented with the Queen’s Service Order at a ceremony held at the New Zealand Embassy in Peking. In 1985 the New Zealand Government established an agricultural scholarship in his name. In May, 1985, a bust of Alley was unveiled at the New Zealand Embassy in Peking. During the unveiling ceremony an embassy representative said the bust was to show how proud New Zealand was of Alley.

He was made an honorary citizen of Gansu Province on his eighty-eighth birthday on December 2, 1985.