Vith French gone jorkers, peasants arry nation ahead USTRY and agriculture are eee of economy. In : ~etnam, thanks to the | oF the people and gen- a from other socialist and pecially the Soviet aa China, industry has fairly rapidly. °wever, ind i i | 5 ustry is still Compared with our needs,” trigsdent Ho Chi Minh. ners et, ON and steel, rent Ye femicals are not yet Bein oe uture and oth- feta ranches. The quali- and eactured goods is still €ir production costs the o My course of two visits to nity ae I had ample op- cs See how the people fae posing the tasks confront- Ee buia: Thowilding of furnaces at lex is pen iron and steel €ing speeded up. The complex, Vietnam’s first metal- lurgical base, built and equip- ped with Chinese assistance, will be completed at the end of the first Five-Year Plan (1961-1965). It will have a capacity of some 150,000 tons of iron and steel per year. Another new industrial centre was born at Viet Tri in March, 1962, with the help of China. It includes a power plant, paper mill, chemical factory, sugar mill and a concrete prefabricating factory. Work is completely mechaniz- ed and partly automated at the Lan Thao superphosphate plant, one of the biggest among 165 industrial and agricultural pro- jects supplied as aid to Vietnam by the Soviet Union for the period 1955-1965. I inspected the Soviet-equip- ped Hanoi engineering plant and talked to the big, bluff Russian in charge. He said the plant Crop successes in North Vietnam ~ Ke 1939 1955 1961 = hectares) 1,840,500 2,176,400 = 2,396,187 10 ction (tons) 2,407,000 3,523,000 4,646,000 A roduc estates) 3,400 9,455 14,556 TE Ction (tons) 1,000 2,610 6,029 A Prod rectares) 550 790 6,357 3 Ction (tons) 440 1,121 8,894 UNDNUTS eq < lhectares) 4,600 16,000 28,204 IGA ion (tons) 3,400 14,000 28,593 R CANE eq Bs hectares) 5,200 5,000 11,736 ion (tons) 109,000 100,000 475,777 could turn out equipment for four complete plants annually. When I asked if there were problems in training young Viet- namese workers to handle the complicated machines he replied: “Very few. The young Vietna- mese workers pick up skills quickly and show a remarkable mechanical aptitude. In fact, I would say we have less indus- trial accidents here than in simi- lar plants in the USSR.” I drove to Hong Gai, one of the world’s great open pit coal mines. Surely no miners ever worked in a lovelier setting, for almost directly below lies famed Ha Long Bay, so beautiful that according to legend even dragons came down from heaven to bathe. In the days of French imper- ialist rule the Vietnamese miners sweated their lives away for the benefit of foreign masters who lived in luxury in the town be- low. Today, Soviet and Czecho- slovak excavators have replaced hundreds of miners who have transferred to other jobs, while much of the old equipment aban- doned by the French has been renovated by the Vietnamese. Under French rule, clean coal produced in the peak year of 1939 totalled 1,600,000 tons. The figure for 1960 was 2,464,000 tons. And by 1965 it is estimated that annual production will top 5,- 000,000 tons. Cua Ong port near the mine has been dredged and made ac- cessible to ocean-going ships. The loading system has been. completely mechanized. In 1960 Vietnam exported 1,383,528 tons of good anthracite coal. And the Hong. Gai reserves are almost Soon the Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Complex will be in operation, turning ‘out some 150,000 tons annually. Photo shows the construction site of a blast furnace. inexhaustible—an estimated five million tons annually for the next century. Vietnam sells its coal to Japan, China, Britain, Denmark, Nor- way, Australia and several other countries. I climbed the steep hill to look at the open coal seams and talk to some of the miners—women as well as men. Their lives have improved greatly; they told me of the new homes, Senior High School, department store, hospi- tal, restaurants and refreshment canteens. And on holidays the minérs take pleasure cruises or go row- ing on Ha Long Bay, enjoying its beauty spots, sandy beaches and historic grottos. Trade has assisted the develop- ment of industry. Vietnam im- ports (mainly from other social- ist countries) machines and equipment for agricultural and industrial development and scien- tific research. It exports mineral, farm and forest products and large quantities of handicrafts. Agriculture in. Vietnam is both hampered and helped by the fact that the country is situated in the tropical zone. On the ad- verse side is the high incidence of drought, water-logging, floods, typhoons and insects. On the fa- vorable side is the long season, allowing two and three crops an- nually, and a network of rivers and canals all over the country. North Vietnam peasants are organized into agricultural co- operatives. Considerable suc- cesses have been achieved in raising production of rice, cot- ton, jute, groundnuts and sugar cane. Great efforts are being made to promote animal husbandry. Oth- er socialist countries have given aid: the Soviet Union has helved with scientific and technical equipment; China has given dairy cows, sheep and pigs; Mon- golia has sent horses, sheep, oxen and camels. One cannot speak of agricul- ture in a tropical rice-growing country without mentioning the role played by the water buffalo. When one thinks of the Vietnam countryside the picture that im- mediately springs to mind is that of a buffalo carrying on its back a youngster playing a bamboo flute. There are one and a half mil- lion buffaloes in North Vietnam and for every buffalo there seems to be a buffalo boy or girl. ner North advance to a better life Stepp: r Ml dutieg "Yar equal in to © State has ari alntain and develop yb Malitieg VEER the vari- west in 1955, and the Northern Autonomous Region in the north- east in 1956. tion . EN ve litie Bctona: have the right languages, »- OWN nation- ham ty of aoe are 63 ethnic a i a = live in I Contrary wc = Huyen- Ohaliti tral pecmuission \ inter- March, Hanoi, “The Cen: Showed they nt » that is, almost population. thi ttong of the Un of he Tegions have nj hai-Meo Au- M the north- The larger national minorities in North Vietnam are the Tho (or Tay) numbering 500.000; Thai, 400.000; Muong, 400.000; Nung, 270,000; Meo, 200.000; Man, 180,000; and Ngai (or Hoa), 110,- 000. Other minorities are extreme- ly small; for example. there are only 533 Pa-di. 200 Chung and less than 100 Chi-la. All these minorities were op- pressed and persecuted under French colonial rule. Illiteracy was practically universal. The Thai, Nung and Muong people live mainly in the val- leys. They farm the land, using ploughs. At the time of libera- tion they were slightly more ad- vanced than most minorities and were even divided into groups of poor peasants, middle peas- ants and landlords. The Man people traditionally dwelt half way up the mountain sides and used the ray method of farming—burning and sow- ing. * * * The Meo people and some small groups such as the Lolos are mountain-top dwellers. The Meos have always grown much opium, and_ the older people still smoke it, though the habit is being discouraged. Formerly, the French bought the opium and conducted a brisk illegal traffic in it. Today the gov- ernment buys it for medical pur- poses. Feudal and pre-feudal marriage customs prevailed until recent times among the ethnic minor- ities. The husband was the de- cisive voice in the family. The Meos kidnapped brides and when a husband died the wife married a brother. Girls wed at the ages of 13 to 16 and high officials often claim- ed the right of “first night.” Rich landlords practiced poly- gamy in some areas. Selling of wives who displeased their hus- bands was not uncommon. Great changes are taking place today. Schools have been opened; medical teams visit remote dis- tricts; song and dance ensembles from the delta visit the mount- ain dwellers and encourage the development of local cultural groups. . One problem difficult to solve is that of persuading half a mil- lion highlands people to abandon their traditional nomad life and settle in permanent villages. Some 30,000 have already moved down the slopes and become set- tled farmers, but the majority resist such a change. It is a step by step process and will take years to complete. The north-west is building its regional industry and small fac- tories are springing up every- where. Dien Bien has a sugar re- finery and there is a small hydro- electric station at Tuan Giao, while at Sui Giang (altitude 5,000 feet) there is a new tea factory. The minority areas have great potential wealth, and the govern- ment is doing everything possible to bring living standards in line with the delta level. In some places this has already been ac- complished. Certainly life is getting bet- ter for the minorities from day to day. February 21, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7