China winning fight
with flood, drought

BY BERT WHYTE
Pacific Tribune Correspondent
PEKING Man’s fight
against nature has been a bit-

ter one this year in China, with}

typhoons, floods and drought
ravaging many sections of this
vast land. But natural calam-
ities which in
days would have resulted in
ruined crops, famine and mil-

lions of deaths have, in the
main, been successfully com-
batted through the _ united

struggle of millions of people
in the
munes, under the guidance of
. the Communist Party.

No war is won without cas-|

ualties. In certain areas nature
scored partial victories

man, crops were ruined, food,
became scarce and help had to}
be rushed to the people from |

others parts of the country.
* * *
Drought was the first great
enemy that had to be fought
this year.

pre-liberation |

rural and urban com-|

over}

; even smaller, it will be, never- of
j theless, a great victory for
China’s agriculture.”

any’ natural difficulties.
Since men are the masters of
nature they can use every pos-

Following the drought came| sible effort to‘resist or reduce
typhoons and floods. Some| the menace or damage caused
typical lead paragraphs from| by the crops by natural. calam-
stories in the daily press: ities.”

SHENYANG, Aug. 9 (Hsin-
Liaoning province in

* * *

| hua):

from the effects of the recent! history-ever succeeded in mo-

typhoon, the biggest in recent’ bilizing the people behind -it'7

history in the area . .. Be-| aS this government has done.
tween Aug. 1-4, the Shenyang-| With. complete confidence in
Kirin railway line was wash-| the leadership of the Commun-
ed out at 24 places, and the list Party, China’s millions of
| Shenyang-Dairen line at 40 ‘ural and urban people com-
| places. [bat the..natural- calamities of
FOOCHOW, - Aug...9..isin-| WEG egs a meant
= 4 = “pad” = year © 0 roug an
hua): A vigorous fight has been; floods: in 1959.“and pulling in
their. belts: another: notch, ‘look
forward to bumper crops: next

launched by the people in
east China,
| against a typhoon that hit the
| province yesterday ... When! ¥©8r A / z
| the sea tide, whipped by the| The battle againgt mature’ Ma
| typhoon ens Geka thie proceeding apace. Using bas-

each dyke ‘at a few places eid kets and spades as well as the

the’ latest mechanical equipment

| local people promptly tepaired | “walking: on’ two - legs’) the

| coastal Fukien,

|}the Chuagwu peninsula,

No other gvernment-in the!
northeast China is recovering| thousands of years of |Chinese|¢

ee

Photo shows Peking cotton ‘mill workers leaving for the
countryside: to. help boost agricultural production. in the -.
rural. areas and to help surrounding people’s communes. | —

Canada and |
the Olympics

It is neither poor sportsmanship nor ‘‘sour grapes” ‘to: say
that Canada’s standing ‘near the bottom inthe Olympics is. 4 ~
national. shame and disgrace. The fact is: we could have done
better — much better.

“The four major wheat grow-| the dyke and evacuated ma-| people of China have brought

ing provinces of Hopei, Honan,| yooned people to‘ saféty. As’ a! DOG Sone ae ates anger Every. time the problem seems to boil down to one ques

Shantung and Shansi did not
have adequate rainfall for 200
days at a stretch,” said an edi-
torial in the People’s Daily.
“The -:whotle process
the sowing to the harvesting
of winter wheat was a suc-
cession of fights against the
dry spell. The peasants, led by
the Communist Party and re-
lying on the powerful strength
of the people’s communes, out-
witted the elements and finally
wrested a good crop in most
places in the teeth of the most
serious dry spell in decades.”
Under such circumstances
the editorial notes, “if the
summer harvest equals that of
1959 or is a little bigger or

= results, to

A:

Above is the drying ground |

from |

egical

|} result, only 60 houses were|
destroyed and 20 hectares o

| land were inundated. |

oe ee j the. day is not too for distant

{
| Calling for initiative in the}
| battle against nature a People’s
| Daily editorial of Aug. 9 prais-
ted the successful work of Yun-
|man>~prevince .in seven dry.
| months, and noted that all over
ithe country “despite repeated
| attacks of drought, water-log-
| ging ana other difficulties,
| many areas still achieved high-
| er annual outputs than the an-
|nual average in the first five
| year plan period.”

The editorial continued, in
part:

¢| area larger than France. This

‘zens have developed plots. of

than Britain, and afforested an
program is being accelerated;

when nature will be tamed.
ee eo

Meanwhile the city workers
are doing their bit to ease the
food situation. Responding. to
a recent state directive to grow
more vegetables for autumn,
winter and next spring, citi-

marginal land in their: spare
time and organized ‘‘vegetable
growinig brigades.” Hundreds
of thousands of these little
“gardens” will produce, in the
next short period of time,
thousands of tons of vegetables

| ‘Yunnan province’s experi-
fence is an example of guiding
|the production struggle by
Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s strat-
ideas. Comrade Mao
constantly shows the ways of
taking initiative — to master
the laws of development and
; change, to give full play to
man’s ‘conscious .activity,’ to
take the worst into considera-
tion while working for the best
scorn difficulties

strategically while

ming forces to fight a war of|
| annihilation against the enemy
| and so wrest fortresses one by
one.

“The strength of the collec-
tive forces and progress aa
| science and technique have in-|
creased the possibilities of mas-|
‘tering the laws of natural |
| change. |
“Tt is absolutely correct to|

of a state farm along the) put forward the slogan of ‘man |

Yellow River. This land was
formerly a
area, now

wheat crops.

produces rich

flood-affected | cal slogan in the struggle for

conquers nature’ as a strategi-,

} agricultural production. The
‘Chinese people are not afraid

paying |
keen attention to them tactic- |
ally, to concentrate overwhel- |

from ‘‘waste” bits of land
| where nothing ever grew be-
| fore.

‘Working in groups is surely
, the genius:of the Chinese peo-
| ple, ‘“Rewi. Alley~ once wrote,
| The mass: fight against nature
| waged. -by the Chinese people
"has been a rich experience
‘which has yielded. great..ré-
| sults; the lessons -learned in
| the course of that battle are
the guarantee that.man will
|} conquer. nature, and that life
for the people of this vast. coun:
try wilt. become. better and
better in the years ahead.

|

tion: where is the money to come from

With the present highly commercialized state of sport in
our capitalist system this is not surprising. Baseball, hockey: ~
football and boxing are big business, run by big promoters wh?
aren’t interested in international competition. All the othet
branches of sport, like track and field, swimming and gy
nastics, because they don’t lend themselves to. money-making;
have to rely on public charity and the handouts of a relatively
few sports-loving philanthropists. There is no national program —
that would gather together the great potential of our young —
men and. women. é

Contrast this frustrating failure’ of our system with thé
sport. successes of the socialist countries. Take, for example;
two small countries like Roumania and Bulgaria. A little ove? —
15 years ago they were among the most backward in Europ® —
with no great sports tradition or organized sport to speak of.
Today they stand in the top half of the list, well ahead of
Canada.

The full measure of blame must be placed on our To!
government in Ottawa, which — as did its Liberal predecesso
— refuses to heed the public demand. that it..carry through oA
national physical fitness program and assist-organized sport.

Why hasn’t Ottawa done it? Not for lack of money. TH? |
fact is that the amount of money Canada spends.for armament? ;
in‘one day would be more than enough to iuiiy finance a firsh
class Canadian team to the Olympics. What Canada spends for: 3
armaments: in one week would finance-a sports and physica) Ne
fitness program for a whole year ihat would reach every OY |
and.girl. in the country. Ree

No, it’s not the lack of money. It’s our government’s policy” :
of putting warfare before welfare and our standing. with the. ?
Pentagon above our standing at the Olympics. ;

Nor is it helping matters to do what some of our irrespPO” ‘
sible newspapers are doing. Instead of putting the blame wheré i
it belongs, they are already — for the sake of sensational nead
lines —- blaming our already frustrated athletes. An example
is the way they have pilloried and vilified. Harry Jerome after 4
he failed to qualify in the semi-finals of the 100-metre sprit
because of a muscular cramp. }

The Pacific Tribune believes that the athletes we had’
Rome did the best they could under the circumstances pure

DB

!
t

“Certainly our salaries are lom
We want the kind of men bes |
can meet and overcome 90 |
staclest””

they were not given the help and training they should navé
had before they got there.

However, we believe that, given the resources Canada ca? al
provide, we could have sent a team more representative of
sport talent and ability that is in our country.

Will history repeat itself in 1964? It is not too early t@
something about it. Canadians should press the Diefenb@
government to act now.

September 23, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pat® :

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