December 16. The China Airline formed by a group of retired officers of the Chinese Air Force started operation today. It offers charter service at present, operating on the island and irregular flights to Thailand, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, Hongkong and the United States.
Lieutenant General Pi Tsung-kan was sworn in as commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College in a ceremony presided over by General Peng Meng-chi, chief of the general staff. General Pi succeeded General Hsu Pei-ken who has been appointed dean of the National War College.
17. Lieutenant General Chen Ta-ching was appointed chief of the Security Bureau to fill the post vacated by the death of General Cheng Kai-min.
The Executive Yuan named Fang Chih, secretary general of the Chinese Committee for the World Refugee Year, and Li Ten-ping, assistant secretary general of the International Labor Bureau, as China's representatives to the World Refugee Year Conference scheduled for next January 12 to 14 at Geneva.
18. The Chinese and the Philippine governments signed an agreement ending the dispute between the two nations on the deportee issue. The agreement was signed in Manila at 3:12 p.m. by Chinese Ambassador Tuan Mau-lan on behalf of the Republic of China and Filipino Foreign Secretary Felixberto Serrano. According to the agreement, Chinese nationals in the Philippines can be deported only according to the Philippine Laws applicable to all aliens and after due process of law has been afforded them. Also, the Philippine Foreign Office will use its good offices in appropriate cases; the so-called over-staying Chinese visitors in the Philippines will be the subject of separate negotiations; upon receipt of notice from the Chinese Embassy of the departure of the 31 said deportees from the Philippines, the Philippine government will lift the ban it imposed on November 9, 1959 on issuance of visas to Chinese nationals proceeding to the Philippines.
19. Pope John XXIII accepted the resignation of Monsignor Joseph Kuo, C. D.D. as the archbishop of Taipei and has appointed Thomas Cardinal Tien Ken Hsin as the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese.
20. The International Education Research Council of the Republic of China was formally inaugurated in a ceremony at the Ministry of Education.
22. The Legislative Yuan passed the 1960 escalator income rate fixing the minimum taxable annual income at above NT$6,000 for single persons and above NT$12,000 for married persons. For business income, the minimum income taxable is set at above NT$10,000. The new tax rate is divided into 15 steps beginning from 3% for annual income below NT$50,000 to 60% for income above NT$2,000,000. For business income, the tax rate starts from 5% for income below NT$50,000 to 25% for income above NT$100,000.
The Ministry of Education announced the winners of the 1959 Academic Award. Professors Shih Chang-yu, Li Chao-yin, Yen Chang-po and Ching Cheng won the award in literature, laws, pure science and agriculture respectively; and outside the educational institutions, authors Lin Shih-chen and Wang Ping-nin and artist Lan Yin-ting won the award in literature, drama and painting. There is no winner this year in engineering, medical science and music. Each winner will be awarded NT$20,000 and a golden medal.
24. Liu Cheng, provincial education commissioner, said today that Taiwan has 23 universities and colleges, 344 middle schools, 1,713 primary schools with 2,118,496 students in total. In 23 universities and colleges, of which 10 are privately operated, there are 29,377 undergraduates. Students in the 344 middle schools amounted to 368,984. There are 1,772,135 children in the 1,712 primary schools, among which only six are private institutions.
25. President Chiang Kai-shek delivered a speech, in his capacity as a National Assemblyman, in the annual convention of the National Assemblymen's Club. In his speech, president Chiang made a thorough analysis of the mainland and world situation and also a clear explanation why the Communist totalitarian aggressors are certain to go down into defeat and why the efforts of free China at national reconstruction through a revolution that follows the Three Principles of the People will definitely succeed.
The Philippine government lifted the six-week ban against the entry of Chinese nationals immediately following the departure of 29 Chinese deportees from Manila. The deportees arrived at Taipei this evening. Their cases will be examined individually by the authorities here and most of them will be given vocational training to help their rehabilitation.
28. President Chiang Kai-shek received Shigeru Yoshida, former Japanese prime minister, at the Presidential Office for a two-hour and twenty-five minutes talk. Yoshida, who was Japanese prime minister from 1946 to 1953, expressed thanks to President Chiang for the Chinese policy of leniency to Japan after the Allied victory. Later in the evening, President and Madame Chiang Kai-shek entertained Yoshida at a dinner at the presidential residence. Guests included Mrs. Takakichi Asoo, Yoshida's daughter, Kiichi Aichi, Zentaro Kosaka, Naokichi Kitazawa, all Liberal-Democratic members of the Japanese Lower House, Tominosuke Imai, president of Hinode Chemical Industry Company, and Tomoyoshi Shirahata, official of the Japanese Foreign Office. Japanese Ambassador and Mrs. Sadao Iguchi were also invited.
Madame Chiang Kai-shek has been chosen by the American public for the second successive year as one of the 10 "most ad mired" women in the world. The poll was conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion.
31. P. Y. Hsu, board chairman of the Bank of China, was appointed by t he Executive Yuan to head a nine-man Chinese delegation to the 16th Convention of the United Nations Asia and Far East Economic Committee which will be held from February 17 to 19 at Karachi in Pakistan.
January 1. President Chiang Kai-shek officiated at a ceremony held this morning at the City Hall to usher in the 49th year of the Republic of China.
The New Public Functionaries Retirement Act formally goes into effect today. The first batch of civil service employees to be retired from active government service in the first year following the implementation of the Act will consist of 450 from the Central Government and 1,334 from local governments. The Government will pay the 1,784 retiring public functionaries pensions totalling NT$15,090,270.
2. Presidential Secretary General Dr. Chang Chun made an inspection on Kinmen to convey President Chiang Kai-shek's new year greetings to the defenders of the nation's frontlines. He took the trip in the company of Lieutenant General Lai Ming-tang, deputy chief of the general staff.
4. Governor Chow Chih- jou opened a trade fair at Tainan. The fair ground occupied a vast area with 24 exhibition booths and 413 retail stands.
7. The government announced its industrial and mining production goal for 1960, the last year of the nation's second four-year economic plan, as follows: 3,400,000 tons of coal, 9,375 taels of gold, 542,000 kilolitres of aviation gasoline, 1,225,000 kilolitres of crude oil, 850,000 metric tons of sugar, 1,070,000 metric tons of cement, 2,000,000 boxes of canned pineapple, 25,000 metric tons of pig iron, 1,000 cars, 10,000 HP of diesel engines, a 20,000-ton oil tanker, 21,800 tons of vessels, and 3,728,000,000 kwh of power.
8. Headed by Dr. 1m Yong Sim, President of the Korea's Central University, a fifteen-member Korean cultural goodwill mission to Southeast Asia arrived in Taipei for a one-week visit. The mission includes 11 educators and four newsmen.
10. President Chiang Kai-shek issued a decree convoking the third National Assembly convention scheduled to open on February 20. Notices are being sent to 1,574 delegates of the National Assembly. Among them, 152 are currently residing overseas. Registration of attendance is scheduled to begin February 10.
11. A visiting Vietnamese industrial and commercial goodwill mission, headed by Tran Van Soai, president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, made a three-point proposal in connection with the promotion of Sino-Vietnamese technical cooperation: 1) The Chinese Government send specialists to Vietnam to study specific problems; 2) The Chinese Government send a technical mission to be stationed there to help solve technical problems; 3) The Vietnamese Government send technical personnel to China on observer training missions.
12. According to an official statement issued by the Chinese Air Force a MIG-15 jet-fighter crash-landed at Nan-ao near Ilan in eastern Taiwan in an effort to defect to the Republic of China. The statement said that at 8:15 a.m., the Communist planes were sighted near the Nanchishan Island off Fukien. Eleven minutes later, one of the MIG-15s suddenly lowered its altitude, and left the formation. At 8:45 the MIG veered sharply toward the southeast and flew in the direction of Taiwan. The MIG again lowered its altitude when it approached northern Taiwan. It circled once over the waters east of the northern tip of the island, lowered its landing gear and chose a narrow cobble-covered riverbed near the village of Nan-ao for its runway. After touching the ground, the Red aircraft slided for about 700 meters, struck a protruding rock, and lost its left wheel. When it came to a stop, it exploded into flames, killing its pilot and damaging part of the cockpit.
Foreign envoys to China honored President and Madame Chiang Kai-shek at dinner at Grand Hotel in the evening. Also invited were Vice President and Madame Chen Cheng, Presidential Secretary General and Mrs. Chang Chun and the top-ranking government and military leaders and their wives. Ambassador Kim Hong II, in his capacity as doyen of the foreign diplomatic corps, proposed a toast to the health of President and Madame Chiang and to the prosperity of the Republic of China.
Free China Relief Association announced that more than 1,908,200 Chinese people sneaked out of the Bamboo Curtain for freedom during the nine years after the Chinese Communists occupied the mainland. A geographical breakdown of those Chinese freedom seekers were as follows: Hongkong, 1,457,568; Burma, 171,256; Macao, 75,181; Vietnam, 45,780; India, 17,379; Saudi Arabia, 14,211; Laos, 9,812; Korea, 4,128; Thailand, 3,663; Japan, 2,141; Pakistan, 1,658; Cambodia, 1,342; The Philippines, 1,200.
13. Tsao Sheng-fen, director of the Chung Hua Jih Pao, was appointed chief of the Fourth Section of the Kuomintang Central Committee to succeed Dr. Sampson C. Shen who has resigned from the post. Dr. Shen will devote his time fully to his duties as director of the Government Information Office.
14. Talks between China and the Philippines on the problem of overstaying Chinese in the Philippines resumed today between Chinese Ambassador Tuan Mau-lan and the Filipino Foreign Secretary Felixberto M. Serrano in Manila. A total of some 2,000 Chinese nationals in the Philippines will be involved.
14. The Government of the Kingdom of Greece re-opened its embassy in China and with the concurrence of the Chinese Government has appointed Dr. Georgios Koustas, Greek ambassador to Japan, concurrently ambassador to the Republic of China.
15. Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem arrived in Taipei at 2:00 p.m. today for a five-day state visit to the Republic of China. President Chiang Kai-shek went to the Sung-shan Airport to welcome the Vietnamese Chief of State. Later in the evening, President Ngo went to the Presidential Office to attend the state dinner given in his honor by President Chiang. President Ngo's entourage includes: Mr. Vu Van Mau, foreign minister; Mr. Tran Chanh Thanh, Minister of Information; Mr. Tran Le Quang, Minister of Communications and Construction; Mr. Tran Ngoc Lien, Director of Farm Credit and Cooperatives Bureau; Major General Tran Ngoc Tam, Aide-de-camp; Mr. Vo Van Hai, chief of the President's Particular Office; Mr. Tran Su, secretary general of the Presidential Office; Mr. Le Van Hoa, Presidential Protocol Officer; Mr. Truong Buu Dien, director p.i. of Presidential Press and Information Service; Mr. Truong Cong Cuu, dean of College of Education, University of Saigon; Rev. Cao Van Luan, president of University of Hue; Rev. J. M. Nguyen Van Thich, professor of University of Saigon and Hue; Mr. Nguyen Huy Nhu, chairman of Association of Confucianism Studies; Mr. Luong Trong Hoi, member of Parliament; Mr. Nguyen Dang Thuc, chairman of the Asian Cultural Association; Mr. Vu Van Thai, director general of National Budget and Foreign Aid; and Dr. Bui Kien Tin, personal advisor to the President.