McEWEN REPORTS ON CHINA
* * *

Canada needs China’s
trade and friendship

This will be the concluding
article of my series report on
what I saw in China during my
visit there last year. The sub-
ject is by no means exhausted.
On the contrary, the seven
short years of the People’s Re-
public of Chi-
na since liber-
ation in 1949
encompasses
changes so pro-
found and so
dynamic that af
whole _ book
would scarcely
suffice to de-
pict my obser-
vations in any
one of the seventeen
Chinese cities I visited.

China is on the march to so-
cialism. Six hundred million
people of that country have
their destiny in their own
hands and are deeply conscious
of that fact. With their bare
hands almost, they are build-
ing a new industrial civiliza-
tion. In another few’ short
years, I am confident, it will
rank second to none.

Nothing on earth can stop
China’s progress. All the ene-
mies of progress and peace can
do is to retard its tempo —
and even in that they will fin-
ally fail.

We in Canada, as a people
through our government, do
not “recognize” the People’s
Republic of China. In that,
Canada and not China is the
ultimate loser. The Chinese
liberation is a continuation on
a vast scale of the great Oc-
tober Socialist revolution of
1917, that produced the Soviet
Union, and nothing that John
Foster Dulles of Prime Minis-
ter St. Laurent does alters that
historic fact. The worst they
can do is to impoverish their
own, people in their futile at-
tempts. :

During the fourteen days of
the Eighth Congress of the
Communist Party of China, I
listened _to men and women
from every corner: of China,
men and women wielding great

great

power with great humility—

debating, criticizing, planning
the progress of their multi-na-
tional country.

In these plans were great
new steel works and other in-
dustrial projects, heavy and
light, new methods of mech-
anized state and cooperative
farming; gigantic measures
for national health, social and
economic betterment; for
schools and university exten-
sion and construction on a
scale which staggers the imag-
ination. And in the planning
all the political parties in the
People’s government __,and
some of these parties are by
no means small or insignifi-
cant) joined with the Com-
munist party for the socialist
advance.

Accorded the great oppor-
tunity to travel extensively,

following the congress, I met
and saw the people themselves
clothing these plans with so-
cialist construction.

By Western standards the
vast majority of China’s peo-
ple are still very poor. But
from where they started sev-
en years ago to where they
are now, is nothing short of
miraculous. From feudal-im-
perialisfa darkness to the
bright sunshine of creative
Socialist achievement is 4
“leap forward” which just can-
not be ignored, no matter how
strong the desire to do so.
China's industrial revolution
rolls forward like a_ tidal
wave! .

Perhaps even more mirac-
ulous is the fact that in a land
of five great national groups,
(Han, Tsuang, Moslem, Uigh-
ur and Tibetian) as well as
other small national minori-
ties, where national hostility,
division and “Great Han chau-
vinism” was fostered and en-
couraged by an exploiting na-
tive caste and by foreign in-
terlopers, the national culture
and the customs of the nation-
al minorities are now safe-
guarded and respected.

(In the Peking University
of the National Minorities one
sees the diversified language
problems, the differing cus-
toms, religious devotions, even
to food preparations and din-
ing. All this is rigidly adhered
to because of mutual respect
for differing national modes
of life. But in their studies in
all branches of science, indus-

ae

al minorities, large or small
work for a common objective
—their socialist China.
it xt it

As I have stated time and
again in these articles and
repeat again with all the em-
phasis I can, there is a tre-
mendous market potential for
Canada in trade relations with
China, a _ limitless market
which can be of great mutual
benefit to both countries,

Spokesmen for the St. Lau-
rent government continue to
sing the political hit parade
tune composed in the U.S.,
“We don’t recognize China.”
Lester B. Pearson and C. D.
Howe sing it with variations
but the “no recognition” theme
remains the’same. A few nights

ago on CBC-TV, Health Min-:

ister Paul Martin recited how
many narrow escapes he had
in trying to avoid China’s
Premier Chou En-lai during his
recent Asian junket.

The cold fact remains how-
ever, that the large majority

try and agriculture, all nation- of Canadian people, trade un-

Here Tom McEwen i

Ss seen at the grave of Dr. Norman Beth-

une, the Canadian surgeon whose devotion to ‘the Chinese
people has bequeathed to the Canadian people a legacy of

friendship.

In People’s China there is a stron
tablishment of normal relation

ionis’s, farmers, large and
small industrialists, bankers
want to trade with China —
not particularly for China’s
benefit, but for their own ec-

‘ onomic survival.

Sixteen million people just
cannot continue to ignore’ the
existence of six hundred mil-
lion, no matter how prejudiced
or shortsighted St. Laurent,
Howe and Pearson may be,
or how loudly John Foster

, Dulles shouts “no!”

Other countries-of the Com-
monwealth, of Asia, and the
socialist sector of the world
are trading with China in an
ever-growing volume and find-
ing. the experience a good
bridge to friendship, under-
standing and peace. Not the
least important to capitalism,
it is also profitable. Canada
needs: a share in that market
right now and very badly. In
the days ahead (it is already
obvious) this need will be al-
most desperate.

Why delay the inevitable?
The Chinese people have sur-
vived all hardships for many
centuries long before Canada

was ever heard of. They will .

still survive, and even con-
tinue ‘to build a modern nation
with bare hands, without Can-
ada’s trade.

The burning question for

Canadians is, can we survive

without China’s trade, or shall
we stand aside and see other
countries less prejudiced than
ours “cashing in” on our im-
maculate official stupidity?

In my travels I saw a po-
tential place for Canadian sur-
plus products in every provy-
ince, city, town and farm.

China is short of heavy tim-
ber resources and there is a
market for all the lumber B.C.
can produce and export for
the next ten years. To supply
the requirements of the vast
prairie lands of Manchuria ev-
ery farm machine industry in
Canada could be working over-
time. In Central and South
China a few million roto-trac-
tors in the millions of rice
paddies would scarecly be no-
ticed. Similarly on the great
rivers and in maze of connect-
ing ‘canals and waterways the
market for power-driven
water transport is virtually
limitless.

A land where irrigation is
almost vital to life needs mod-

& feeling of friendship for Canada and a desire for the es-~
s between the two countries, as Fisheries Minister James ~
‘Sinclair (above) learned on his visit.

ern pumping machinery to rée-
place the blindfolded water
buffalo on the ancient tread-
mill, It needs threshing ma-_
chinery to replace the ancient
“threshing floor” of biblical

_times. It needs trucks to re-

place the multitude of peas’
ant carts on every road.

“But,” the opponents of rec-
ognition ask, “how will China —
pay for all that trade?” ;

Simple. By the same methods
as all other nations conduct
trade; by extended trade cred-
its, by barter exchange of
commodities, or outright cash
payment—by any one and all
three.

“But,” the opponents of rec-_
ognition argue, “these « are
strategic materials and can-
not’ be exported to’ ‘unfriend-
ly’ countries.” :

Such arguments would —
scarcely merit a polite answer,
were it not that the alterna-—
tive for Canada is closed plants
and idle workers. As for Chi- —
na’ being “unfriendly,” that
is the most threadbare of all
excuses. : ,

Experience has shown us
that those who come in friend-
ship to China need have no ~
fears of unrequited friend: ©
ship. The 600-acre memorial —
hospital, museum and _ park, —
dedicated to the memory of the ©
Canadian doctor, Norman
Bethune-at Shih Chua-Chuang
is eloquent proof of the depth
and sincerity of China’s
friendship and esteem for Can- |
ada. . :
Canadians, be they. workers
farmers, industrial tycoons or
bankers, have to get used to
the idea that the People’s Re- |
public of China is here to stay, —
that our 16-million and their
600 million people live in the ©
same world, have the same
hopes and the same aspira-
tions—to live in | mutual
friendship, respect and equal- i
ity. Having grasped that basic —
truth, the rest is easy—bridge —
the gap by mutual trade. i

When the Mayor of Peking
shook my ‘hand in farewell, he
said, “Come back in five years
and you will see some great
progress.” We in Canada can
share in that progress — and
help ourselves in the process.
One thing is as sure as tomor-
row, we cannot block it with
Ottawa’s “No_- Recognition”
stop sign.

MARCH 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 4