 Lasting peace built on justice and understanding among nations this is the objective of the United Nations This is another program in the United Nations series of the Pacific story One of the five special series presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations to further world unity and world peace through understanding For hundreds of years the Pacific and the lands it touches have been the scene of struggle Conflict for gain and power, people against people and the millions caught in the political and economic cross current Today with most of the world's population Concentrated around and in the Pacific the events of the Pacific are a vital world concern The Pacific story dedicates this series to the objective of the United Nations Lasting peace built on justice and understanding among nations The Chuan Sack of rice old one. Oh your bones are younger than mine The harvest is rich Example time wave. No, no, there is not enough time for all that must be done We must provide food not only for each one, but for many other provinces already. There's too much noise and bustle Even now that the war with Japan is over Long for the good old days of quiet the old days are gone old one Golden each one cannot look back. We must look ahead to the new day It is our province ours each one that will be the heart of the new China a Young man and an old man gather rice in the great Chengdu plane of each one Here in the fertile well irrigated fields people swarmed 2400 to the square mile War time added to their numbers war did many things to the once isolated each one richest and most populous province in China For the opening of the back door to Fortress China may well have opened a great new age in the 3000 year old history of China too many people have come to say Chuan way long far too many Even now with the coastal cities back in our hands most of them remain here How can we feed them all we fed them during the war old one? We are feeding them today. We will continue to feed them and those of other provinces tomorrow There are no beggars in the cities of each one too many people 50 millions in our own province alone. It is told and Babies are still being born You are young way, but you journeyed much during the war Tell me who will feed the old mouths and the new mouths which come into the land each day The good soil of Goldens each one will fill the mouths and the bellies of our people the soil is rich here Yes, and the crops great enough for our own province now, but with more to feed. What will happen then? Life was less confusing in the old days the old days of sleep are done with China has awakened we must increase the yield of our crops We must have more wheat more barley oats and millet in our winters We must raise more rice maize sugar mulberry and oranges in the summer monsoon Yes, and we must grow more hemp and tobacco and add to the number of wax trees But how will this be done? Already the yield here is great because of our superior irrigation system Did you know that this system was created? 223 centuries ago by the great engineer Lee Ping. Yes, so one I have heard the story often. It cannot be told too often For this Lee Ping was a giant with dams dykes and ditches He harnessed the waters with the torrential rivers carried down from the Tibetan plateau He distributed these waters throughout the plane that is why our earth is good and our harvest rich But how can we increase the yield from the already superior? Leaping leaping accomplished a great work for his time. It is not enough for our time These are ill words most disrespectful of a great ancestor. I I mean no disrespect old one Leaping's irrigation system is indeed a wonder, but it is not enough not enough How can you speak thus each one has six million acres of rice land? Only one tenth of this is now under irrigation Our water gen do plane is not the whole province We must build a greater irrigation system than even leave Ping dreamed up this alone will double the rice yields and Everywhere even to Chengdu we must bring modern machines and modern ways of farming But these machines these modern ways will deprive men of work They will find other work where there will be needed more in the new industries of our city With such advanced ideas we long why do you labor here in the rice field? Well today is my last day in the field you leave so soon The harvesting is not yet over. I must work for many harvest. I am employed by the government now In survey and development. I must report on what is possible You have a new bearing and speak of strange new things. You have changed we long You are not the same youth who went from us to the army No, no and each one is no longer the sleepy province of my childhood days We have both grown. We must both look ahead With its roots sunk deep into the past Each one faces the future with mingled reluctance and zest For this ancient land protected on all sides by the tibetan plateau Was plunged from the isolated existence of a Shangri-La Into a combined bread basket and arsenal for a nation at war When the japanese attacked china in 1937 They forced what the chinese government itself had been unable to accomplish the opening of zichuan Before the bullets and bombs of the enemy the chinese retreated from the industrial cities of the coast to the isolated west Up and down the land sounded the trudging of heavy feet for the refugees streaming from the coast came heavily burdened On their backs they carried the machinery vital to the defense of the land And in this greatest mass migration of history the chinese carried with them the dismantled industry the school churches and government of the land And day by day they were attacked from the air The thunderheads rolled over a third of the country cutting a wide swath of terror leveling cities breaking homes Setting 50 million lost souls wandering westward And sustaining the victims were only the words of ancient philosophers 2000 years ago mensius said When heaven is about to confer great office upon a man It first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil It exposes his body to hunger and subjects his person to poverty It confounds his undertakings By all these methods it stimulates his mind Tests his temper and increases his ability to perform the otherwise impossible They are coming over again. I must get my gun When the war reached zichuan it brought vast change to a rich stronghold which had been in china Yet not really of china for the warlords who dominated zichuan had for a generation ignored the existence of any government But their own Ah, I am honored that you should confer your reluctance presence on me Come let me show you the wonders of my palace. This is one of the warlords of zichuan It is indeed a magnificent palace. Oh, but you have not seen the best yet In this quarter are five more rooms for the bath built in the finest style of foreign land See this one is tiled in pink. The others are of amber blue Lavender and green This is indeed a marvel, but I am here for a great purpose. Oh, yes your purpose come. We will discuss it over tea Tea for our guests The enemy deals china heavy blows Han cow has fallen my grief is great But here in zichuan, we are safe. Are we not there is no safety anywhere from the planes and bombs They will strike here too unless we take many steps for defense What do you wish us to do? First you must permit us to move our government to the city of chiung king such a thing is not easily done Your tea general lissima Thank you We must use chiung king for our government headquarters Without such an organized center from which to direct the war all of china Including the province of zichuan may be lost You and your brother lords would be murdered all the impoverished slaves of the japanese This is a most grave crisis I must confer with others Then we will inform you on our decision the hour for decision runs quickly out. We will inform you with due haste Reluctantly the war lords granted permission to establish the wartime capital at chiung king The city was bombed This offered valid reason to take control of the city and of estons zichuan The war lords were obliged to send troops to the front more than three million from the province But they still controlled the right on which the cities and armies depended In the spring of 1941 You sent for me hh kum finance minister and vice premier stands before his brother-in-law Yes, I have great new work for you The landlords of zichuan collect their rents in rice as you know But they pay their land taxes in inflated money. How well I know this They also hoard the rice which causes prices to rise even higher While men lack food. We must nationalize the land tax The owners of land will pay their taxes not to the provincial governments But directly to us they will not pay in paper money But in rice wheat and hard grain Thus our government will be able to feed our armies and civilian employees I leave this great task to you. I am pleased with your confidence in me The wheelbarrow's rolled in that fall piled high with bulging sacks of rice Bringing vital food and china's greatest reform of centuries From zichuan alone came almost a million tons of grain And chung king became the war capital of free china Dynamite blasted shelters out of the cliffs of chung king Government was housed scores of arsenals and great industries built 400,000 men working almost with bare hands built great airfields for american super ports Zichuan supplied most of the nation's coal most of the alcohol used in place of gasoline 62 million bushels of rice in 1944 to help feed free china But bringing the 30 centuries old province up to date was not without trials In the city of chung king in the summer of 1944 I have oranges, rosaries, fresh and sweet, chocolate for those power mouth-buddies Who will buy pork skin, pig's bristles I could stand the noise if it wasn't for this infernal heat, doc Got me plum meledon to bone and crisp Well, the taxes should be used to heat, Thomas In front of american army headquarters, the technical sergeant of engineers and the major in the medics Strive without success to fan themselves cool in the withering heat So this is the town they call the Pittsburgh of Asia And I'll take El Paso any day of the week I don't doubt it They also call chung king the hotspot of the ante valley And in summer it's easy to see why Yeah And I think I'll move out and buy me a mess of mulberries and that peddler might be cool No, be an idiot You know the orders No food except the rations served at mess But I'm plum pot You'll be plum full of cholera if you aren't careful Haven't you seen how those peddlers sprinkle their fruit with water from the open street corner wells Why any sewage can flow into those wells? By tomorrow the city will borrow all fruits And all the restaurants are out of bounds now It's sure monotonous Monotony's easier on the system than cholera Well say, aren't the Chinese taking any measures against the cholera? Yes, they're inoculating all those who will submit to shots And also banning the sale of peeled fruits That looks like a bad epinepict this year How many so far? More than a thousand cases Oh say, here comes Charlie with another load of Chinese Yeah, more inoculations Well, I'll have to get busy The breather's over The cholera plague broke out Chungking's worst epidemic in years 600 died Coupled with it was the economic plague of inflation A thousand pounds What is the price now? Uh, $60,000 For a fountain pen set? No, thank you Oh, very fine set No one sell it cheaper I'll do without it If the heat ain't making me see things It's way lung Good ol' numbers lung Bill! Bill Thomas! Oh, am I glad to see you, my friend It's been two years Yep, in London Still figuring out things? Oh, a little But I can't figure out how I can pay $60,000 for a fountain pen set Boy, that's what I call robbery It is fortunate I'm not a civilian Do you know the price of a tailor-made suit here today? $110,000 Can't they do anything about it? No effective remedy is possible until the Japanese are cleared away from the coast And ports open to bring goods to the interior Prices here are 1,500 times as high as in 1937 Yeah, they're even charging for water now Yes, since the water works shut down Every drop has to be carried by coolies throughout the city At $700 a bucket Not fit to drink unless you boil or chlorinate it or both One can always turn to Yunnan rum Only $12,000 a bottle Numbers? If you ask me, yours each one smells Oh, do not say that, my friend This vast green province is bountiful Rich with food and minerals of every kind Have you seen our great green fields? Have you seen the miracles of production from our factories? The good black smoke of industry rising into the sky? You can see that again If the sun ever gets through the smoke and mist over Chongqing, it's a miracle, all right? Oh, there are discomforts But they should not make you see Chongqing in the wrong light A city on a cliff Shut in by a stone wall a hundred feet high Narrow streets winding all over the place Collarer inflation The evils will pass The good things will remain Once the war has been won And reconstruction has been completed Chongqing and all of each one will become the center of the new China Numbers? All I want is to get back to Texas That is what your mouth speaks, my friend It is not what your heart believes Great things will take place here in Golden Siegewan This is the Japanese surrender brought happy celebration to Siegewan The victory firecrackers popped incessantly on August 15th And the joyous crowds of Chongqing Yanked Americans from their streets and chiefs Hey, what is this? Where are you on place taking me? Oh, don't worry, Bill, you're among friends Numbers, you with his mob, where are we going? The war is over, my friend We've won We are taking our American brothers to the wine shop Would you prefer a shot of Qing Pao juice or some fine vodka? Well, you coax me into it I'll try them both, my friend In victory, Chongqing, like all Siegewan Dreams upon its hour of wartime greatness And ponders over its future The leader of the nation, as he makes ready for departure Pauses to tell the Chongqing officials Chongqing will continue to be the auxiliary capital of China The necessary organization will remain here To carry on the path of the city's reconstruction I have great interest in this rebuilding At least once a year, I will come back here An American reporter questions a city official about Chongqing's future They've been telling me you have a number of ambitious projects for the city What are some of your plans? We have many undertakings in store Here, have you seen these? Engineers drawings, bridges, eh? Yes, two great bridges to span the Yangtzee and Cheeling rivers which flank the city Say, this one looks like quite a project You may well say so This bridge to be named after the generalissimo will cross the Yangtzee Ooh, reminds me of the George Washington Bridge in the United States The other bridge is to be smaller, I see Yes, this one is to be known as the Victory Bridge It will span the Cheeling Just how long will it be before these bridges are up? I am not certain, but I hope they can be completed within a few years Sounds a little speedy to me, but I hope you're right There isn't any way of linking the bridges, is there? Yes, eventually the two will be joined by a tunnel cut to the rock of Chongqing But these things are only a portion of the ten-year plan for Chongqing Already, we are widening streets, clearing up slums on the riverfront Planning a great suede system for the two-thirds of the city which now has none I've seen one of the streets being widened I guess you really mean business about bringing Chongqing up to date We do indeed, but this will become a most modern city Oh, a thousand pardons, I thought you were alone Oh, come in, Wei This gentleman is seeking information for the American press about the future of Chongqing and Sichuan Oh, of what things can I inform you, sir? Well, I've heard conflicting reports on the actual extent of the industrial development launched in this province during the war Oh, I know, the new industries were often kept secret for security reasons while the war was on, but there's no reason for secrecy today, is there? No, no, we can now speak freely of many things which were hidden before As to the extent of development, it may interest you that more than $500 million was invested in industrial and mining enterprises of our province Hmm, that much That was by 1943, the figures have risen since Our first iron and steel plant has been completed in the spring of 1940 You seem to have plenty of batuminous coal mines along the Yangtze Valley Yes, and other coal and iron producing centers are in the Min and Qilin valleys Of course, you know that the name Sichuan signifies four rivers The Yangtzeqiang is composed of the Min, To, Fu, and Qilin rivers What about your alcohol distilleries, which produced so much substitute fuel in place of gasoline? These distilleries were built along the Tu River in order to use the sugarcane The blast furnaces and machine industries were conveniently established near the mines Isn't salt one of your big industries too? Yes, yes, we have much salt extraction by brine pumping In fact, we have many mining activities of which your countrymen may be unaware West of the Min River, we mine copper, gold, silver, lead, and antimony Hmm, how much petroleum do you have in Sichuan? It has been estimated at almost 400 million barrels I understand you've discovered several new reserves That Qingyu deposit near Chengdu Your experts and ours have decided it is a good source of petroleum The richest deposit in all China An isolated province of ancient China is coming of age today The wheels of its industry set in motion by war continue to harm in peace Now awakened, it cannot return to its slumbers Its 50 million people can never slip back to the hermitage existence of the past The old commerce will continue Out of Chongqing, there still flows the silk, jade, tea, semi-precious stones, and rare brocades from the rich surrounding province The shops of the city still display the tapestries and precious jewels from the mountain regions of Tibet But the ribbons of transportation and the lines of communication keep advancing And Sichuan is no longer remote from the outside world Hey, Numbers No, no, I don't believe it It really is you, Bill I thought you'd gone back to the United States I did Got my discharge, went back to work for my old firm, Engineering Thought I was parked back home for good Well, before I knew what was happening, they had me roped, hog-tired, and shipped right back out here again Oh, and you were the one who swore you'd never return to Chongqing once you were back in Texas I'm plum-surprised at the way things shaped up myself My firm's kind of interested in developments here Knowing I was stationed here during the war, they decided to send me back to help out on a little survey job Our survey job? Uh, tell me, have you been near Ichang lately? Yeah, I've been having me a look at the possible site for the largest dam and hydroelectric plant in the world I know the site. It could prove several times greater than your famous TVA Ah, you're plenty right about that, partner It'd work wonders for your agriculture and industry Give you all the power you could need We will have it, someday I'd like to check with you in detail on what you found out there, Bill Well, what's up, Phil? Well, I'm making a report to a government commission soon on methods of expanding and implementing a program for greater development of each one You may be able to give me much valuable information, some ammunition for my little attack on the status quo Well, sure, I'll be glad to help You come over to my hotel So you're in civvies too and working for the government? Well, I'm sure Tickle to know that numbers Well, I'm happy at the way our paths have been crossing, Bill It indicates we're not so far from the outside world By the way, what do you think of Chungking now? Well, it could still use little sunlight, but I see some changes all right Now take this street, they're really going ahead and widening it Yes, Chung'e Lu is but one of our modernizing projects Where the houses get in the way, you just slice off hunks of them like you slice cheese What happens to the people who lose their homes by this street widening? Well, they're being housed in buildings vacated by the government Have you been uptown lately? Yeah, just this morning No more climbing up all those stone steps, I find The vernacular railway zips you up to the top like a breeze The city has plans for several of these railways to travel up the steep sides of the city A small improvement, perhaps But only one of a very long series To the planners of the new and greater Zichuan, the road ahead is clear Continuation of the modernization begun during the war And even greater investments for agriculture and industry In a conference hall, the planners, the old men and the young men, like Wei Long Gather to compare their findings Now, illustrious elders of this body, I give you the gendu plain as a model Here, to these 400,000 acres, Li Ping's ancient irrigation system means a rich yield More than 90 bushels of rice per acre This is twice that of unirrigated fields In addition, there is another crop of beans or wheat And sometimes a third crop If the whole province were brought to the level of gendu, what would the total output be? 600 million bushels And by improved methods, the rice crop can increase 20 to 40 percent Cotton 20 to 50 percent Weep by introducing new strains up to 20 percent You roll these figures out glibly Are you a farmer? No, no, but I have worked on farms and consulted experts of many lands You have already been told that local sugar can yield 1,500 pounds per acre While a strain from India gives 3,600 pounds It is such improvements we seek for each one But the starting point is irrigation Through the great hydroelectric plant possible, nirichang But the cost would be enormous The results would be enormous too We must dream no little dreams Our agriculture would be greatly benefited by this project So too would our industry Cheap power would aid small plants in rural regions As well as large ones in our cities It would make possible great improvements in transportation and communication But will not fewer workers be needed on the land? Will not men be idle? There will be new jobs in industry We must create a foundation To help raise the living standard of the 450 million people of China This is the promise of our tomorrow Each one must lead in bringing it to fulfillment Expansion waits on international loans and national unity But men of vision seek to shake off the past And to grasp a greater future In the next decade, China may rise to become a great nation And each one may prove the guiding force You have been listening to The Pacific Story Presented by the national broadcasting company On a affiliated independent station As a public service to clarify events in the Pacific And to make understandable the cross currents of life in the Pacific Basin For a reprint of this Pacific Story program Send 10 cents in stamps or coin To University of California Press Berkeley, California Tonight's Pacific Story was produced and directed by Arnold Marquess The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso Your narrator, Gain Whitman Programs in this series of particular interests of servicemen and women Are broadcast overseas to the worldwide facilities In the United States and the United States And the United States And the United States And the United States And the United States Broadcast overseas to the worldwide facilities Of the Armed Forces radio service This program comes to you from Hollywood This is NBC, the national broadcasting company