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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25. No. 12. 1962

Pure Communist

Pure Communist

"it is because of this Commune system that Mao-Tse-Tung has labelled himself the only pure Communist," said the professor. Mao says that Marx and Krushchev are not pure, because they permit the family system, and some private property.

He spoke of the food problem in China. "Eighty per cent, of all agricultural produce is commandeered by the State, but it is not used to feed the people."

Mainland China had no foreign exchange, and thus had to use her produce for trade, and to pay foreign debts. "Two-thirds of the wheat, and three-quarters of the barley given by Australia, went to Russia and Albania for this purpose." At the same time, twenty million people in one province alone starved.

However, Professor Goddard felt that the greatness of countries could not be measured in terms of economics. "Communism is not a political or economic creed. It relates to the mind and the human spirit." A basic civilised demand 'was the freedom to think and express one's thoughts, he said.

These freedoms did not exist in China, but neither did the freedom of silence, and this was taken for assent. "So you haven't even got the freedom of keeping your mouth shut," he commented.

Professor Goddard feels that Mao's plan of building a new nation could be thwarted if the non Communists would put all the money they spend on armaments into producing cheap propaganda. Radio stations and public houses in Asia, he feels, could do this most effectively.