OCR
X.A.9.00t. 526 - page three To back the huge military effort, foreign trade is not enough. A large effort is demanded on the domestiv line as well. And in this it should be edmitted, the regime so far has been guite successfull. Without going to mich into details, it should be first pointed outy that the financial situation is improved a lote The budget is balanced, which makes the currency sounder and the black market less attractive. In the economy in general, very sharp measures are forecast. Economic controls are bound te be tightened. Since August the control of the over-ail domestie economy has been entirely renewed. In this new plan, supposed to heve been worked out in detail by Finance Minister Po-I-po three men should be mentioned ! Wang~Hao-shu, former economie organizer of Mandchuriayi, appointed as “Minister for Heavy Industy, Li-Seu-kuang as Minister of Geology and finally Chang-Nai-chi as Minister of the newly organized Ministry of Food, which supersedes largely the competence of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry of Ggology has as its main duty the research and discovery of new resources, and is headed by China's outstanding technician in the field. It is noteworthy that Li-su-kuang was last year senior member of the joint Soviet-Chinese Geological “M4ssion to Tibet, which made the large-scale surveys for Uranium. The first moves by the new set-up was the full re-obganisation of Steel, Cotton and Machine Plants, which passed into Public-Private Companies, the new Chinese Formula of industrial production. At the same time, in various parts of the country, the farm-collectivization on the Mutual-Cooperative plan has But probably the farthest reaching step of internationa importance is the establishment of a comprehensive survey and exact recistration of all available labour force in the country and the organization of the est’tmated 5,000,000 alleged unemthority under Ching’s new manpower boss, Li-Wei~han. It is in the competence of this authority, to dispose of any worker or unemployed according to the needs of the national economp, 4neluding intellectuals and technicians, The decisions of the authority are without appeal. It is this authority which hence~forth will handle all manpower questions, including the furnishig pf manpower to other countries, that is to say the USSR, With the pool estim ated at three million people, this should be sufficient for the next eighteen months both to furnish the expamding industry of the country and the demands of the USSR. This demand, by the way, at gresent is not so much for miners, as in the past, but for railroad and road construction workers. These are mostly shipped to the Stalinsk and Alma Ata area.