Shall Communists Be Left This Founder To Exploit British Planned

Order Rule In Hongkong By a Staff Reporter "I am leaving to join the Communist Army. Do not make any effort to contact me. I will not be back until we have succeeded in establishing Communism . in China."
This was the message which a Chinese Catholic father and mother in China found awaiting them in their home one day recently. The writer of the letter, so filled with poignant meaning, was Chow Shiu Chee, their 18-year-old son, a nephew of a Catholic priest.
Fr, Nicholas Maestrini, General Secretary of the Catholic Truth Society of Hongkong, now passing through Europe, told me this story in London last week. He told me, too, a story of opportunities being missed as the Red " iron curtain " moves on and on across China shutting off increasing numbers of Christians from the outside world and removing vast populations from all Christian influences.
"Thanks to the British rule and the excellent Hongkong Government," he said, " Hongkong to-day is really a corner of Paradise in the turmoil and chaos of the Far East. We Catholics shall be responsible before God if we fail to avail ourselves of this opportunity to enlighten China.
FORTUNES OR TRUTH?
" Shalt we leave only the Communists to exploit the good conditions of Hongkong for their own end?" he asked, " or shall we leave the business people to make fortunes while we who possess the Truth complacently took on?"
But it was clear from what he told me that even there in Hongkong Catholics are missing opportunities.
"Take a walk round the bookshops there and you will find Chinese translations of Marx, Engels, Hegel and Kant in plenty. But you will find no Catholic books. The only life of Christ is by the French apostate Rosen, who denies even His divinity.
" Several of the bookshops are Communist-owned and in the remainder at least half of the material on sale is Communist.
" And this situation applies in far more extreme form throughout China. The Protestants and, still more, the Communists, are flooding China with their own literature, whilst we Catholics," says Fr. Marstrini, "have practically been compelled lb stop publishing."
FOR WANT OF MONEY
There are no lay Catholic publishers in the whole of China, and the few religious congregations who have done publishing work in the past have now stopped because of the extremely difficult conditions.
In Hongkong, where things are easier, the Catholic Truth Society has produced many new books and pamphlets, and has distributed nearly 300,000 since the war. But it. too, has now come to a stop because of lack of funds.
The position with regard to newspapers and periodicals is almost ai bad. In Hongkong there are three large daily papers in English—nonCatholic, of course—and one Catholic fortnightly. Fr. Adaestrini's own Sunday Examiner. In Chinese there are six large dailies, 15 tabloids (known as mosquito papers) concerned mainly with sex, sport and social scandals, and only one Catholic weekly Kung Kao Po.
These two papers and the monthly Far East Messenger of the Sacred Heart are all the Church can boast in the whole of South China, with its 100,000,000 people, roughly one million of whom are Catholics. None of the three papers is a going concern. financially, and with large sections of the population in the interior unable to read, are bought mainly by the clergy.
RIVALS SUBSIDISED
Yet the Communists and Protestants, who heavily subsidise their press, are proving that there is a colossal demand for literature of any sort. "Catholics," says Fr. Maestrini, " are just not aware of this urgent problem."
Communist propaganda especially among students in high schools and colleges is extremely effective. Even in Hongkong many, like 18-yearsold Chow Shin Chee, leave their families to loin the guerrillas. Only last month the paper; reported that another twelve had left.
"We Catholics," Fr. Maestrini told me, " have no publication suitable for Chinese students to counteract this Communist propaganda. And this is tragic because these youths are the small educated minority who will lead to-morrow the large mass of 450,000,000 people." Fr. Maestrini is appealing to Catholics here in Britain and elsewhere to support their own press in China. "We' the C.T.S. of China," he says, " have scores of manuscripts which are only waiting for financial assistance to be published, and which if distributed among students, professors, and educated people, could do a tremendous amount of good.
" British Catholics might sponsor the publication of these books—a book like Karl Adam's, The Spirit of Catholicism, will cost about 5s. per copy or less—or even donate a small sum of money to be used for free distribution of such books. Inquiries can he sent to 20 Tooting Bee Gardens, S.W.16, or to the C.T.S., King's Buildings, Hongkong."
Spanish Catholics Help Polish Youth
laity-three young Poles are studylog in the Madrid University, thanks to the generosity of Obra Catholica Espaniola, which covers all their expenses.
Cardinal Play y Daniel, Primate of Spain, has stated that Obra will be able to increase their help for Polish youth.