discussed at various meetings. Under this system it is hoped that subjective thinking, and bureaucratic tendencies in people will be eliminated. At a National Minorities College that I visited in Lanchow, one student had written 56 clauses, and he summed them all up by saying in the final clause: “Finally, we want— 1. More Professors, 2. More pay while we are students, 3. More visits to places of interest.” This form of criticism is carried out in every factory, office, institute, and university throughout China. It is taken very seriously. I asked one professor what he did when he was criticized. He replied that he examined the criticism, and if it was of value he reformed himself, but if it was naive, he talked it over with the person who had made the criticism. Harbin Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture One of the two Chinese engineers who attended the fourth conference of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at London in 1957 was Dr. Tan, who had been educated at Delft. He is now in charge of the Harbin Research Institute Soil Mechanics Laboratories. Here there are 12 rooms packed full of every kind of apparatus. Work is being done on the basic study of loess, as this is a serious problem in China. Harbin Polytechnical University When a student graduates from a Chinese University, he or she becomes an “engineer”. The course takes five years and is composed of subjects to give a thorough basic knowledge to the student. About 20 per cent of the students are women. There are 1,500 Civil Engineering students at Harbin Polytechnical University, and the State provides lecturers at the rate of 1:10 students. The number of hours in the course is 4,000. The better equipped students do an extra year. It was just like being in Christchurch when I walked into the Soil Mechanics Laboratory at this University; 34 students were seated at tables in the centre of the room with samples of soil, rolling threads of soil for the plastic limit test. The laboratory was about twice as large as mine. To clinch the matter of comparisons, I was taken into three large rooms which housed far more equipment than my laboratory has. Yet all this has been done since 1951. There was absolutely nothing before that. After the pleasant shock of the Soils Laboratory, I was taken to see other Civil Engineering laboratories. There was the usual concrete laboratory with the same apparatus as we have, and in the water and sewerage department they have large scale models of complete sewerage treatment and water chlorination and filtration. These had been based on Soviet practice. Changchun Automotive and Tractor Engineering College This College was opened in 1955, and the first task was to gather experienced engineers from all parts of the country to train other teachers. In 1957 the number of teachers was 550 and the number of day and evening students was 3,100. Six courses in Automotive Engineering, Engine Manufacture, Agricultural Implements, Economics of the Engineering Industry, Transport and Foundry Work are given. At the College there are 55 laboratories, seven reference sections, and a library with 1,800 books. One of the most impressive laboratories was a great room filled with 50 lathes for instruction purposes. They were all made in China. Another laboratory had an ante-room with white coats and slippers, which were to wear in the microscope and gauge standards rooms. There were about 50 microscopes and other instruments for comparing teeth.