Call for Relief
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission appealed to Chinese communities the world over last month to give aid to the hungry millions on the mainland in support of President Chiang Kai-shek's call for famine relief.
The appeal was hardly necessary. Compassion for their compatriots on the mainland was never lacking among the overseas Chinese. Funds from Chinese quarters abroad began to pour in even before the appeal was made.
Food parcels mailed to the mainland from overseas Chinese were so many in some cities that their post offices had difficulties in handling them. In Hongkong alone, the volume exceeded 3,000,000 pounds a month.
The spontaneous relief activities were further stepped up as a result of letters slipped past the Bamboo Curtain. All such letters depict a grim picture of hunger and suffering on the mainland.
One overseas Chinese who visited Kwangtung said on return that the life there was "worse than that of a rat." The rat, he told his relatives in Hongkong, used to get three or four ounces of oil a month from the kitchen. "Now our monthly ration of edible oil is only two ounces," he said.
Some overseas Chinese in Hongkong and Macao have had the heartening experience of visiting their starving relatives on the mainland. One said after returning from such a visit, "We cried our hearts out on parting. We knew the meeting might well be our last in this world. How could the people live on grass and bark while working like beasts of burden?"
Vocational Seminar
Some 600 overseas Chinese students attended a week-long seminar sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission last month to prepare for the work they will do after graduation.
They are part of 1,261 overseas students who will graduate from the universities and colleges in Taiwan. Among them, about 300 engineering majors will participate in an industrial production-and-management seminar in the coming summer.
The OCAC reported that 1,970 overseas Chinese students have graduated from Taiwan's universities and colleges in the past four years. Before returning to their overseas homes 1,128 had attended one kind of seminar or another, OCAC said.
United States
Freedom Seekers
Sixty-three overseas Chinese in Cuba began their new life of freedom in the United States last month following two years of Communist oppression under the Castro regime.
They fled Cuba because, as one of them said, life there had become impossible. Most of the Chinese merchants in Cuba were forced into bankruptcy and saw their shops stripped of goods by Cuba's nationalized economy. On top of that, most of the able-bodied men were threatened with compulsory militia duty.
In desperation, these 63 managed to obtain what they believed to be valid American visas after the United States had already closed its consulates in Cuba. With these visas, they flew to the United States.
Upon arrival at Miami in early January they were shocked to learn from American immigration officials that their visas were forgeries. As a result, they were sent to Texas for internment.
After the intervention of the Chinese Embassy in Washington and the sympathetic consideration of the American immigration authorities, they were released under parole. Ambassador George Yeh gave assurance of their "integrity and good character."
Among the exiles was Alfonso Chiong, 57, former editor of Havana's Chinese paper Man Sen Yat Po. He said only about 100 of Cuba's 20,000 Chinese are Communists whose leader is called Luis Manuel, a 40-year-old resident of Havana.
Chiong said Manuel's real name is Fot Chu, an active propagandist in Cuba, who had been an undercover Castro worker during the revolutionary period. Now he has taken over Chiong's paper and is running it as a Communist organ called Kong Waw Po.
Chiong and the rest of the group were settled in various parts of the United States with the assistance of the Chinese communities. From Taipei the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission also remitted US$2,000 to help solve their immediate financial difficulties.
Exit of a Star
Three decades ago, the name of Anna May Wong was well known among movie fans in both America and Asia. Early last month sudden death ended the illustrious career of the American-born Chinese actress.
Miss Wong, 54, was stricken on February 4 at her Santa Monica home in California. She was unmarried. Her physician said death "came suddenly and unexpectedly." She had been in good health and had completed work on her latest television show only two days before.
Miss Wong's first starring role was opposite Douglas Fairbanks in the "Thief of Baghdad" in 1924. Subsequently, she starred with such filmdom luminaries as Laurence Olivier and Marlene Dietrich and was one of Hollywood's busiest stars in the 30's.
She returned to the country of her origin in 1936 and stayed a year. When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, she retired from film and stage work and devoted all her time to the United China Relief and USO activities. Two years ago, she made a temporary comeback in the film "Portrait in Black" co-starring with Lana Turner and Sandra Dee.
Election of a Queen
Shanghai-born Miss Chu Fei-ho was acclaimed the most beautiful Chinese girl in the United States in a beauty contest held in San Francisco last month.
Representing the Chinese community of New York, Miss Chu was declared Miss Chinatown, USA, for 1961 by a panel of judges. She won their votes over 18 other contestants from other parts of the United States.
The 18-year-old beauty stands five feet five inches and weighs 110 pounds. Her vital statistics are 36-23-36.
Miss Chu, who had spent some time in Hongkong, went to the United States with her parents in 1956. She has lived in New York for four years.
Hongkong
Trail Blazers Wanted
A scheme to develop 600,000 acres of virgin land in the Amazon delta of northern Brazil with Chinese manpower from Southeast Asia has been announced in Hongkong.
Simon J. Zenn, representative of the newly-founded Amazon Development Company (Hongkong) Ltd., told newsmen last month that Chinese refugees from Hongkong, Indonesia and other parts of the area will be selected to colonize the rich area on the banks of the Maraca River, a tributary of the Amazon.
The company was looking for settlers from far-away Hongkong, he said, because Chinese are well-suited for the area.
"There is a similarity in climate and fertility of land; and Chinese crops, such as oil-bearing seeds, rubber, jute, pepper and rice are adaptable to the Amazon region," Zenn said.
He said the program would help many refugees and displaced persons in Asia who are looking for place to settle.
The Brazilian government's Department of Immigration and Colonization has promised full assistance to the immigration plan including the granting of entry visas for Chinese settlers.
The initial stage of the project would be modest in size and would be put into operation with a small amount of capital and a minimum degree of red tape, he said.
In the second stage, the development company would play the role of a holding company creating further programs for exploiting other regions and forming subsidiary, or sister companies, Zenn added.
The company representative said his firm planned to settle 100 to 150 families to start with, allotting each family of immigrants 25 acres of land plus extra space for road and communal purposes. As work progresses, the company hopes to settle 6,000 families within five years.
Banker Kidnapped
A millionaire Chinese banker in Hongkong, whose son is still missing from a kidnapping two years ago, himself became victim last February 10 in an abduction staged in broad daylight.
Wong Sik-pun, supervisor of the Overseas Trust Bank and advisor to the Bank of Tokyo, was being chauffeur-driven to his office at 8:15 a. m. when he was accosted at gunpoint by three men and taken away. The only witness to the daylight kidnapping, said to be the most daring abduction in years, was Wong's chauffeur, Tam Chi-kim.
The shaken Tam told reporters of the scene: a green vehicle "came out of nowhere" across the path of his master's car, bumped it and blocked it and the next moment "three armed men were pouncing my master."
"They roughly yanked him out of our car into theirs and drove swiftly away," the chauffeur said.
Wong Sik-pun's son has never been heard of since his abduction. There have been reports he was abducted by the Communists and spirited across the border into the mainland.
In the latest kidnapping case, a full-scale police search has so far failed to capture the three abductors.
Korea
A Promise
Korean Premier John Myun Chang recently announced that his administration is considering revision of its investment regulations to permit Chinese residents to participate in Korea's economic development.
At present, Korea opens its investment doors only to those aliens whose countries have signed commercial and navigational treaties with the country. No such agreements exist between China and Korea at the moment.
Premier Chang also said the Korean government plans to grant permanent residence to Chinese nationals who have resided in Korea for a number of years.
India
Reds Unwelcome
Even in Nehru's India the presence of foreign Communist elements is not welcome.
Last month, the Indian government ordered 70 Chinese Communist subversives to quit the country. They would be arrested unless the order is obeyed, New Dehli warned.
These Chinese Reds were ordered to leave on charges of conducting anti-Indian propaganda, inciting violence, etc. Those about to be deported include a Red bank manager, a magazine editor in Calcutta, and several school officials in Kalimpong.
The Red "embassy" in India opposed their expulsion on the ground that their presence "promotes Chinese-Indian friendship".
It seems that Nehru has had enough of this kind of "friendship".
Philippines
Blindman's Game
Advocates of diplomatic severance between the Philippines and the Republic of China are playing "a very ridiculous and extremely dangerous game of blindman's buff," said Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson in one of his broadcasts last month.
The mayor of the Philippine capital is not the only person in the Philippines to condemn the proposal of Immigration Commissioner Emilio Galang to solve the 12-year-old overstaying Chinese problem.
Editorializing on the issue, the Manila Bulletin said such a move cannot possibly accomplish any good. "Aside from causing inestimable damage to our traditional friendship with the Chinese government," it said, "outbreak with Taipei will only provide aid and comfort to our enemies and detractors, and distress among our other friends and neighbors. Maturity of judgment and sobriety dictate that we strive with Taipei for new approaches to the problem of these overstaying Chinese,"
While declining to comment on the subject officially, officials of the Philippine Foreign Ministry privately hold the opinion that severance of relations with China would be too drastic a move on the basis of a relatively small issue such as the overstaying Chinese. They pointed out that the Philippine government is rather lenient in considering the problem because of the traditional Sino-Philippine friendship.
The officials further recalled that the two governments had already reached an agreement for the solution of the problem, but the agreed solution has not been implemented because of the demand of Philippine Senate foreign relations committee of more strict safeguards for its success.
The issue involves some 2,700 Chinese in the Philippines whose visas have long expired. They went to the Philippines from the Chinese mainland before the Communist seizure of power. Naturally, they overstayed their visas to escape the Red tyranny at home.
The Philippines and China have exerted diplomatic effort in settling the issue and have actually agreed on a formula aimed at a final solution.
This formula, proposed by Foreign Secretary Felixberto Serrano, would take into consideration upholding of the majesty of the Philippine laws while at the same time taking into account humanitarian reasons and traditional Sino-Philippine friendship.