Sixty Years of Friendship

On December 2， 1977， the CPAFFC held a grand reception in the Great Hall of the People to celebrate the 80th birthday of Rewi Alley， an old friend from New Zealand. Comrade Deng Xiaoping attended the reception and declared： “Tens of thousands of foreign friends have devoted themselves to the cause of Chinese revolution. Even so， rare are those like Comrade Rewi Alley， who for 50 years on end has done tremendous work for the Chinese people， in our years of difficulty and hardship， in our pioneering days and after our victory. Hence the Chinese people’s respect for him is right and proper.”

Rewi Alley continued to work for the cause of China’s construction for another 10 years until his death. On April 21， 1987， the CPAFFC again held a meeting in the Great Hall of the People commemorating the 60th anniversary of his arrival in China.

The CPAFFC was founded on May 3， 1954. The year 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of its founding. In the autumn of 1953， Rewi Alley was invited to move from Shandan， Gansu Province， and settle in Beijing. After that， he lived in the compound of the CPAFFC until his death. Therefore， he was one of the important witnesses of the development of the CPAFFC.

Rewi Alley’s life in China can be roughly divided into three phases.

He stayed in Shanghai for about 16 years from April 1927 when he first arrived from New Zealand. For a time， he worked in the Shanghai Municipal Council until autumn 1943， when he went to Shandan to establish the Bailie School.

During that period， he made acquaintance of Soong Ching Ling， George Hatem （Ma Haide）， Agnes Smedley and other progressives. In 1934 together with a dozen of progressives including Agnes Smedley and Alec Camplin， he organized the first international Marxism study group in Shanghai. The Shanghai underground organization of the Communist Party of China installed a secret transceiver in his home to keep in contact with the Red Army.

After the outbreak of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937， a large number of unemployed workers in Shanghai escaped to the rear area. In order to help find jobs for these people， Rewi Alley and Edgar Snow jointly launched the Chinese Industrial Cooperative （“Gung Ho”） Movement to set up cooperatives and organize the unemployed workers and poor peasants into production. The Gung Ho， as explained by Rewi Alley， meant “get united and work together”.

In order to raise funds for the development of the Gung Ho， the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives （ICCIC） was founded in Hong Kong in the early part of 1939. Soong Ching Ling was elected as its honorary chairperson and Rewi Alley a committee member and field secretary.

Thanks to Soong Ching Ling’s high prestige and firm stand of opposing Japanese aggression， foreign donations poured in， at one time reaching tens of millions of US dollars. These donations were loaned at low interest rates to the cooperatives.

At its initial stage， Gung Ho was supported by both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. In August 1938， the Association of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives was officially established to organize cooperatives in non enemy-occupied areas. Dr. H.H. Kung （Kong Xiangxi） became chairman of the board of directors， and Rewi Alley was secretary general. He was also specially appointed by the Kuomintang government as technical advisor to the Executive Yuan （the highest administrative organ）. Zhou Enlai， later Premier， decided to send Wang Bingnan to take part in the preparations of the Gung Ho.

Before long， the Gung Ho set up more than ten cooperatives to produce much needed goods for the resistance war such as food， blankets， medicines， etc. Rewi Alley formulated a number of rules such as at least seven members being needed for setting up a cooperative； it adopts a shareholding cooperative system with each member having one share， and big bosses not allowed to have controlling shares. Major problems related to the cooperative should be discussed by all members and decided by majority vote.

The resistance war needed the Gung Ho as an organization required by the times. In a short period of three to four years， it developed into a mass organization with over 2，000 cooperatives comprising about 30，000 members. Its products not only met the needs of people’s life， but also provided a large quantity of things for the anti-Japanese armed forces.

The Kuomintang gradually realized that Gung Ho， in fact， was the largest domestic workers’ organization at that time. Most of its leading cadres were patriotic intellectuals and the vast majority supported the anti-Japanese forces under the leadership of the Communist Party. This caused nervousness and fear in the Kuomintang ruling clique.

In 1942， the Executive Yuan removed Rewi Alley from his post as its technical advisor on charges of “making secret contacts with the Communist Party”. The Kuomintang also imposed restrictions and even sabotaged the Gung Ho. But， Rewi Alley remained steadfast and focused his energy on establishing the Bailie School training cadres for the Gung Ho movement.

The second period of Rewi Alley’s life in China lasted 10 years from the autumn of 1943， when he established the Bailie School in Shandan， to the autumn of 1953， when he was elected New Zealand member of the Peace Liaison Committee of the Asian and Pacific Regions and settled in Beijing. During this period， he concentrated on running the Bailie School.

In 1942， Rewi Alley and George Hogg， a British citizen， established the “Bailie School” （homonymous with “Pei Li” which in Chinese means “train for the dawn”） in Shuangshipu， Shaanxi Province to train managers and technicians for the Gung Ho. However， the school suffered frequent depredations by Kuomintang troops and bandits. In December 1943， therefore， after a four-day arduous journey， they moved the school to Shandan County， a remote area under relatively weaker Kuomintang control. The students called this journey a “Little Long March”.

After George Hogg， former headmaster of the Bailie School， died in 1945， Rewi Alley succeeded him and took on the difficult task of running the school. His efforts won support from international progressive forces. According to statistics， a total of 27 foreign friends from various countries gave assistance to the school so that the number of students reached more than 400 at one time； most were children of poor peasants and orphans of revolutionary martyrs. Rewi Alley was both a teacher and a foster father. He not only taught them knowledge， but also looked after their lives， and even gave them bath and cut their hair. For the sake of looking after the orphans of the revolutionary martyrs， he never married.

Through running the school， Rewi Alley accumulated rich experience in education， his thinking summed up as follows： Education must serve rural economic construction and social development； Education must serve the purpose of improving material and cultural life of the broad masses of peasants； Education must follow the principle of combining theory and practice， and training of students must proceed from the actual conditions and give play to creativity for building new countryside.

Based on this， the Bailie School took “using both brain and hands， creating and analyzing” as its school motto. He later wrote a book An Adventure in Creative Education revealing his farsightedness in education.

The third period of Rewi Alley’s life in China lasted for 34 years from the autumn of 1953 when he settled in Beijing until his death on December 27， 1987.

His main activities included participation in the movement for safeguarding world peace， as well as travel and writing. Since being elected as New Zealand member of the Peace Liaison Committee of the Asian and Pacific Region in 1953， he attended many meetings such as the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Regions in Beijing， the World Peace Conference in Vienna， conferences related to the World Council of Peace in Stockholm， World Conferences Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Japan， etc.

These experiences created opportunities for the creation of much reportage. According to incomplete statistics， he published over 50 books and a dozen of translations， the contents of most of the books publicizing New China’s achievements in construction， such as Yo Banfa！ published in 1952， The People Have Strength， Human China， Travels in China， Rise of the Asian and Pacific Regions， etc. In 1987， his last book Rewi Alley， an Autobiography， was published.

As he had worked tirelessly for a long time and grew old， his health deteriorated. He was hospitalized because of heart attack for three times. The first time was in May 1980 when he fell ill in Chongqing. On learning the news， Comrade Deng Xiaoping instructed the then CPAFFC President Wang Bingnan to send some people to help him return to Beijing immediately. Wang Bingnan sent me to Chongqing and asked me to carry his personal handwritten letter. After I got to Chongqing， I read out Wang’s letter persuading him to return， and conveyed Deng Xiaoping’s regards to him.

He expressed his gratitude to Deng Xiaoping and Wang Bingnan for their care， but then he said to me emphatically： “Please don’t bother Comrade Deng Xiaoping with things about me as he is busy with a myriad of State affairs every day. When you get back to Beijing， please ask Comrade Wang Bingnan to pass on my words to Comrade Deng that I am in good health. The Sichuan Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries has arranged for me to visit some places， and I will go to these places as planned. So， I won’t be able to go back to Beijing for the time being. To let the comrades who care for me rest assured， I can have a picture taken with you. You can show the photo to them and let them see that I am as fit as before and there is nothing seriously wrong with my health.”

It was in March 1982 that he was hospitalized in Peking Union Medical College Hospital due to a second heart attack. The then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Yaobang personally went to the hospital to visit him. Comrade Wang Bingnan and I accompanied General Secretary Hu on the visit.

The private ward where Rewi Alley stayed was very small and there was only one sickbed and a two-seater settee. When Comrade Hu entered the ward， Wang and I had to stand at the door. Comrade Hu presented a bunch of flowers to Rewi Alley and inquired about his condition and thanked him for his contribution to the Chinese revolution and construction. Before departure， Hu wished Rewi Alley longevity， saying he must live to the 21st century to see with his own eyes the changes of New China.

Rewi Alley said modestly： “I have lived in China for more than 50 years， but what I have done for China is too little.”

In March 1983， he was hospitalized with a third heart attack. He was on a visit to Hainan Island at the time. As one of the comrades who accompanied him on the visit was drowned， he felt very sad and that led to a heart attack. Wang Bingnan again sent me and Dr. Wu Weiran， then Director of Beijing Hospital， to bring Rewi Alley back to Beijing.

December 2， 1987 marked his 90th birthday. On that day， Party and State leaders Zhao Ziyang and Li Peng went to his residence to celebrate the occasion. Unfortunately， only less than one month later， on December 27， Rewi Alley passed away of another heart attack.

In his will， he indicated that his funeral should be simple； “All such things that take up people’s time and money to be dispensed with”. “It is only another soldier who has died on the march.” “When somebody or my friends go to Shandan， ask them to take my ashes there and scatter them on the field of Sibatan” （Sibatan is the place where he grazed the sheep and reclaimed wasteland when he first arrived）. According to his will， half of his ashes was scattered over the field of Sibatan， and the other half was buried beside the tomb of George Hogg （now known as the Rewi Alley and George Hogg Mausoleum）. On the tablet in the mausoleum is inscribed a tribute by Deng Xiaoping： “Eternal Glory to the Great Internationalist Fighter.”

To perpetuate the memory of this “all-weather” old friend， the CPAFFC preserves his former residence in its compound for Chinese and foreign friends to pay respects to him.

The two undertakings he sponsored — the Bailie School and the ICCIC are operating as ever.

Rewi Alley has passed away； however the Chinese people will always cherish memories of his spirit and friendship.

The author is former vice president of the CPAFFC.