McEWEN REPORTS ON CHINA

After 3, 000 rose
Yangtse is bridged

In the triple cities of Han- swift to bridge. The People’s

kow, Hanyang and Wuchang,
now known ‘as: Wuhan, each
with their spreading sub-
urbs of new workers’ apart-
ments and gigantic new indus-
trial en#erprises, I spent three
memorable days. In Wuhan,
as in Anshan in
North China, a
new heavy steel
industry, the
third of -its
kind, is ‘in the
making.
In the
of these
cities,
be linked tvu-
gether by the
first great steel bridge span-
ning the Yangtse River, indus-
trial construction is on a tre-
mendous scale. Blast furnaces,
oxygen-heated and  steam-
cooled, huge rolling mills,
coking ovens, electric gener-
ating plants, prefab — steel
plants, all begun a little over
one year ago, are scheduled
to be in operation early in
1959.

areal
threele

In the Wuhan sector alone
TI motored around a five-nile
block of new four and five
flogr apartment homes. The
Streets were pretty bad but,
as my guide informed me, it
was a case of “first “things
first.” The paving and land-
scaping will folow when the
steel begins to flow.

Around many of the build-
ings of this great steel cen-
tre under construction I noted
great stacks of crated machin-
ery, some being installed but
much of it still in the boxcar-
size crates. The machinery
was from the Soviet Union,
the New Democracies of Eur-
Ope and various Asian coun-
tries.

Looking at these acres of
crates I thought, if Canada
could only get in on this, But

of course, the St. Laurent
government doesn’t “recog-

nize” one of the biggest things
in human history.

mt $0 $0

By far the most challenging
project under way by these
three-in-one industrial cities
of New China is the building
of the first steel bridge ever
to span the mighty Yangtse
River. The bridge, a two-deck
structure carrying double rail
tracks below and road traffic
above, will have its lower deck
60 feet above the high water
mark of a mile of swift-flow-
ing water,

The Kuomingtang regime
regarded the Yangtse at Han-
kow as being too deep and

government held no such view.

With the aid of Soviet en-
gineers and technicians it
proceeded with the building
of a bridge which will be of
tremendous value to China’s
economy. It is scheduled to be
opened on October 1, this
year, the eighth anniversary
of the Liberation.

Nearly four million tons of
steel will go into this bridge
and 32,000 workers are on the
job putting it there. Its over-
all length will be approxi-
mately one and three-quarte~
miles.

Unable because of the depth
and swiftness of the Yangtse
to erect the usual type of
cribbing for construction of
bridge piers, Chinese and So-
viet engineers introduced
great concrete pipes, five feet
in diameter, which are driven
down to bedrock and made
fast to the river bottom by
anchor frames driven deep
into the rock. Concrete is
then poured into these great
cement pipes, of which there
are approximately 24 to a
pier, all locked solidly tio-
gether.

On February 1, 1956 the first

pier of a total of eight emerg- -

ed from the swirling waters
built in less time than it would
have taken tio erect cribbing
by the usual method had it
been possible.

I went over a completed sec-
tion of steel girders resting
on massive piers and reach-
ing towards the other bank of
one of the world’s greatest
rivers.

Chinese workers, with their
usual kindliness, rushed over
to help me when they saw
me stumbling clumsily along
among a maze of steel girders
and- compression hose, Then
with a few of the engineers
and building directors, we
cruised around completed
piers while my Chinese guide
explained the constructiion
techniques introduced by “our
Soviet big brothers.”

High above, white-helmet-
ed steel workers waved and
cheered to us amid the din
of rivetting guns and the sh3 p
g-i'ter of welding torches, For
the first time in history they
were conquering the mighty
Yangtse, and the era of rafts,
ferries, chows, junks and
scows laboriously crossing and
recrossing at Wuhan was
nearing its end. Soon long
freight trains and an endless
stream of automotive traffic
would replace the back-break-
ing labor of Yangtse river-

For 5,000 years, the people of China have crossed their iturbulent rivers in boats. ‘i }

have been helpless against devastating floods. Now huge dams are being consi a
steel bridges are spanning the rivers and the waters are being harnessed for power. S ‘
here are workers on the new Yangtse River bride at Wuhan, visited by Tom McEwen du
his recer/f visit to China. The bridge will Have nine Spans and be 3,720 feet long.

men. The new Wuhan is so-
cialist construction in a big
way.

it at R

Just as we were taking leave
of a group of workers who
had been showing us around
Wuhan’s new steel enterprise,
three men dressed in the tra-
ditional Sun Yat-sen blue
tunie and trousers came over
to greet us.

Introductions over, they
turned out to be three com-
manding officers of the fam-
ed 8th Route People’s Lib-
eration Army, now engaged
with tens of thousands of
their army comrades in build-
ing steel plants, power sta-
tions, vast flood-control pro-
jects and similar socialist en-
terprises.

Far from looking like the
grizzled warriors one would
imagine the veterans of such
an army to be, they looked
and behaved like young and
happy students just out of
school and starting out on a
new life, as indeed they were.
Not only were they charming

¢

POINT of VIEW by
"NIGEL MORGAN.

LEGISLATURE
Ga

LABOR-PROGRESSIVE

in their attitude to us foreign-
ais, which is a characteristic
of the Chinese people as a
whole , but were extremély
anxious to tell us all about
their new job, and to know
what our impressions were of
“their work” in the sphere of
peaceful construction.

In my long but much too
speedy travels through China
I met many such men; _vet-
erans of the “Long March”
from Canton to Yenan, veter-
ans who withstood all attacks
of the Kuomingtang, the Jap-
anese and other — imperialist
aggressors; the kind of men
who held the line on many

dark days when the fate ofand happiness.

Se
the New China hung in ™
balance. |

Today, in every great ind |
trial. centre of China whe
forest of smokestacks is va
ing, or out on the farmlam |
where new methods of tt |
ernized agriculture are bei
learned, slowly but sulé |
veteran army men are gv
of their labor, their skill?
their knowledge to the pee
ful socialist building’ of i
land they have won for
people.

The horrors and hard
of long wars are behind ee
and now they build for P

_

Everyone welcome —

A DAY FOR PEACE

SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 10
B.C. PEACE CONFERENCE — 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
UPPER HALL IN PENDER AUDITORIUM

, : G
To discuss how we can work for peace in B.

SUNDAY EVENING - 5:30 P.M.
DINNER AT THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME
Sponsored by B.C. Peace Council

a

WEEKEND
REVIEW

WEEK'S DOINGS IN THE HOUSE

News of Special Interest to Labor, Farme!®)

Ratepayers. and Pensioners

EVERY SAT. — 7:10 PM — cKWX

FEBRUARY 8, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE §

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