or promise’ of peace? _ What does the fact that China’s Population now numbers 600 mil- ‘on mean for Asia and the peo- Ples of the world? These are the auestions which pty’ delegation to China seem _ 10 be asking themselves. For it _ Was only when they got to China that they seemed to have realized What a population of 600 million Means. : But China’s population is in- ‘easing at the rate of 12 millions @ year and by 1970 will have Teached a figure of about 800 Millions, “A disturbing thought,” says Clement Attlee. “I am wonder- mg where China will go from ere?” Sam Watson fearfully asks, : In the course of my visit to People’s China accompanying the Labor party delegation, J. had ex- tensive discussions with leading Members of the government on _ this “problem of population.” And my conclusion is that _ China’s problem today and in the future is not how to deal with tts large population, but how to fing enough people to carry out € vast plans for reconstruction and development and for raising the standard of living. The first thing I discovered was at China’s leaders do not re- _ Sard people as a liability, they _ tegard them as an asset. More people to feed? Yes. ut also more people to build the New China, to build the uni- -Yersities and schools, the librar- 1s, houses and hospitals which ina needs so desperately to tag her out of the pit of semi- : Colonial poverty in which cen- turies of imperialist exploitation left her. ‘ Where will the food come from? Consider the facts. The area under cultivation in China today is about 250 million acres, Members of the British Labor* * WET MMM MMT ‘China’s which are mostly cultivated in the most primitive fashion, yet which — after a minimum of re- organization — have already en- abled China in the five’ years since liberation to produce a food rplus: me much progress has been made that although this year’s. disastrous floods | i some 10 percent of the cultivated area the increased production from the rest of the area will ensure that the floods will bring - wane aysn once necyeauiere0(netceu iver 180 may RR BMRURGULT@LIRL AA CAL FEATURE have affected © —By SAM ro starvation in their wake. Preliminary surveys have shown that China has another 230 mil- lion acres of arable land avail- able for cultivation, and more precise investigation has shown that of this at least 50 million acres can be brought under culti- vation immediately without much trouble. > Here is land crying out for the plough, crying out for people in the vast parts of Northeast and Northwest China which are at _ JUST convince vourself that your _ 9F that vour landlord is really a Swell guy in spite of that rent hike and you'll have headaches licked every time. At least that’s the theory of a 8roup of McGill scientists accord- Ing to a recent article in Mac _ lean’s magaine. _ Who’s interested in a head- ache? The surgeon-general’s office of the U.S. army, which has footed “aches for the past seven years. Why? It became really interest- -. €d when medical records during ‘the Second World War. showed - eight percent of the men rejected - 0n medical grounds were chronic ' Sufferers of headaches. of the U.S. combatants removed from battle after psychological (nervous) crack-ups reported = gq iaches. Headaches are certainly a big item in our own country. Mil- clions of man-hours . are lost “through headaches. One out of every four Canadians is a head- ache sufferer. ‘More headache __.Temedies are sold than any other ‘Patent medicines. These McGill researchers set about finding who gets headaches, and the reason why. First they - ruled out the headaches associat -~infections of lining or the cov _ ring of the brain, tumors and -Seneral infections. They also rul- ed out headaches from noxious Chemicals like carbon monoxide _ and carbon dioxide. : - They concluded that 90 percent of all headaches were enfotional in origin. (This figure must be estioned as there was no men- xe A PACIFIC TRIBUNE MEDI - How to cure that headache. boss is-not a pain in the neck ~ the bill for the research on head-- ~ not because And half - - €d with real organic disturbances _ the effects of tion in the article of any studies of mechanical reasons for head- aches. No studies were apparent- ly made to check mechanical- postural defects, the effects of prolonged occupational postural positions, the effects of the speed- up in industry, the reactions’ to exposure to noise.) But if we rule out this group too, we still have a large group which they characterized “social in origin, for these headaches re- sult from assaults on the very special human social quality. This category of headache suf- ferer came under ‘special study, some three. or four thousand of them. They were classified as “psychoneurotics” and chosen headaches than normal people but "because they worry ‘more. G ae new about what causes poet ches, how to cure and pre- vent them? The mechanical lab- oratory revealed what takes place ‘in the body that causes the ache, and of this more later. The causes, cures and preven- tion suggested are an admission of the helplessness of such scien- tists, steeped as they are in an individualistic dog-eat-dog phil- Ive the problem of osophy, to so é b man’s sicknesses which arise from society. ; Every one of the case histories revealed how the individual had been injured as a result of cir- cumstances which the capitalist system creates. One example: a woman forced into marriage, who Wished her husband dead, said as much to him and when he shortly died felt a sense of guilt as though the wish had actually they have more — the reséarchers learn any- killed him. Then the headaches’ began. eae The examples revealed how capitalist society thwarts the de- 600 mil lions RUSSELLE— ra velopment of the individual. Yet. these scientists look for the an- swer in the individual as against society. : Such a philosophy. cannot. but ‘add more and more socially in- jured people when every dav it supports the increasing brutaliza- tion of human relationships by glorification of murderers by gun or A-bombs; the informer; the lurid displays of sex and accept- ence of loose moral standards, and so on. ’ e *¢ The hypoeritical advice offered _- beyond the specific suggestion of a sleep, or an aspirin, or hot or cold packs—is to relax, have a hobby, such~as painting or music, Even movies are good —if you can find one that isn’t a violent one—no catastrophies, no gang warfare, no emotionally disturbing ‘ones. The same goes for books. ye The final suggestion is, in broad terms: “Don’t try to be better than the next man and stop being afraid of tomorrow.” What do we know about head- aches that can be of help? Ivan Pavlov over 20 years ago revealed that any system of the ‘pody can be broken down if the central nervous system is expos- ed to singular strong clashes or strains, or even moderate strains maintained over a period of time. Phe strain can be chemical, phy- sical or of even greater import- ance to man—social. The McGill group did record what actually happens in the tis- present under-populated. Travelling by train in these parts of China one can go for a whole day without seeing a single village — through unturned vir- gin soil. ; Recently China’s Minister of Water Conservancy, Fu Tso-yi, returned from a tour of Sinkiang in Northwest China. Sinkiang is a province 20 times the size of Chekiang province, yet with only one-tenth the population. ; Officials who went with the * PU Gt a AO CD a ne a Rd . sues which causes the ache—they showed how the muscles in the neck contract and how this in- duces changes in circulation which then impinge on nerves carrying pain stimulations to our consciousness. What can we do about a head- ache?. First, if it is severe enough and associated with other signs that say you are ill, it is wise to see your doctor, if only to rule out the more serious causes which, as has been pointed out, are but 10 percent of the causes of head- aches. It may also be wise to check any mechanical reason, if it occurs after some special ef- fort or work. — Under our present social and , economic set-up we cannot con- trol all elements that make us ‘worry: the rent to pay with no money to pay it; trying to find a place to live which will accept children; that possible layoff; no job opportunity for your young people, etc. ¢ To help prevent these strains getting the best of us, we can assert our very humanness by joining in actions together with others to make a ioint struggle. Yes, but you might still get a headache. True, because it is not-possible to prevent the prob- lems from mounting at times— not in the present environment. Some practical measures, includ- ing those suggested by the Mc- - Gill group, apply to tackling the tissues in your neck which have responded in the way described ... a sleep, an aspirin, hot or cold packs to the neck or even a warm bath may ease the par- ticular headache. minister told me how the people in Sinkiang begged him to get more people to come to the area, and pointed out the fertility of the soil was such that all that had to be done was to sow and wait for the harvest. So China’s long-range plan is to bring more land under culti- vation — 90 percent more land than is at present being cultivat- ed. ‘The short-range vlan is to in- erease the yield of existing land under cultivation by better org- anization of the work and by mechanization, irrigation and in- ereased use of fertilizers. In the last two or three years better organization along has brought about a 30 percent in- crease in yield. z The methods used include org- anization of mutual aid teams, in which the peasants help with one _another’s land, setting up of agri- cultural producers’ cooperatives and specialization of farming. China’s agriculture has been so primitive that even the most elementary improvements are bringing enormous results. Consider, for instance, that most ploughing on China’s vast acres only goes four inches deep. By introducing the two-horse plough, the farmer can plough - seven inches deep and get a 20 - percent increase in yield, while with a tractor he can get 12 inches deep. ; eat In the past flood and famine, war and disease wiped out mil- lions of China’s population. Now floods are being brought under control, famine and disease elim- inated and peace brought to the ‘whole country. = ; - Surely no“one would want it . ‘otherwise. China’s six “hundred millions are a fact, and China’s leaders and the ‘people them- selves think it is far better to concentrate. on increasing pro- duction than svending time and © energy on ideas for mass birth control cians. cee ; . The world has no need to worry that China’s increasing popula- tion will cause a world food prob- lem. The great plans for in- creasing production are the guar- -antee that China can become a _ source of food for the world. And China’s peace policy is the guarantee that her millions will never be used for aggression, and that she will and must take — her rightful place in world af- ‘vtairs,” PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 1, 1954 — PAGE 9