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Red China Makes A Start
With Collective Farms
(By Frank Robertson.)
HONG KONG, Wed.
The Chinese Communists
have made a beginning on the
complex and trouble-laden
task of collectivising China's
vast expanses of agricultural
land.
First reports--highly partisan
--have been published recently
telling of the organisation of
two collective farms, one in
north-eastern Manchuria, and
the second in the remote north
western province of Sinkiang.
They are glowing reports,
painting a bright picture of
happy farmers and greatly-in
creased yields resulting from
scientific methods and the use
of modem implements.
But both farms were estab
lished on reclaimed land in
barren areas where there had
been a lot of poverty in the past.
In spite of the firmness of
Communist rule today, consid
erable opposition to collectiv
isation must be expected when
the project is carried into
densely populated agricultural
areas where the methods of
farming have been unchanged
for centuries, and where pre
judice against change is rooted
deep.
There are three stages in the
Chinese approach to collectiv
isation. The first step, already
largely completed, was re
distribution of the land; the
second, which has been in pro
gress for some time, is the
countrywide organisation of
mutual-aid teams, and produc
tion cooperatives, to be followed
eventually by collectivisation
on the Soviet pattern.
Widespread opposition to the
final step seems inevitable.
This Communist campaign
undoubtedly will be attended by
violence.
A recent editorial in the Peking
"People's Daily" said that the
programme could not succeed
until the peasants have been
shown that they will benefit from
the change, and in his most
recent speech Kao Kang, chair
man of the North-East People's
Government, branded those who
were trying to push collectiv
isation through too hastily,
without proper regard for
peasants' rights, as dangerous
leftist deviationists.
The Mancht'rian collective has
been established for more than
a year, and at present is worked
by 36 families, soon to be in
creased to 60. The farm in
Sinkiang, near Tihwa, the pro
vincial capital, is much larger,
employing 430 families. Others,
according to Communist reports,
are being organised.
The collectives should not be
confused with State farms, of
which there are more than 500
in Manchuria alone. A number
of these are highly mechanised,
using Soviet tractors, five-furrow
ploughs, 24-row seeders and
combine harvesters.
The Communists plan to estab
lish at least one State farm in
every county in China, to serve
as models for the collective
farms that will come later.
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