[Previous entry: "MINISTRY of FOREIGN AFFAIRS ....... V.I.P. guest speaker"] [Next entry: "TAIWAN DEMOCRACY MEMORIAL MUSEUM ...... Notes:1946"]
28/10/2007: "Chiang Kai-shek ...... Giant statue for scrap?"
The former dictator's statue is no longer on display for the public in the Memorial Hall.
It's an interesting story how Taiwan was once a Japanese territory 'given' to this defeated Chinese military leader known as CKS who was later 'double-crossed' or betrayed by his supporters.
(During a secret 1971 bargaining chip to help them end their war in South Vietnam).
It has not been 'smooth sailing' since. The present situation is tense and not being taken seriously by enough others apart from the players themselves.
A former US diplomat has described this situation in the looming 12 months as a Prefect Storm scenario.
Elections in Taiwan, USA and Olympics in Beijing all close together.
United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation Administration, Taiwan weekly report. 1 July 1946
The big news of the week, that which has been given the greatest amount of attention both in press and in private, is the government scheme for eliminating prostitution.
According to the official count, there are 8000 prostitutes in Taipei city alone plus an additional 4000 ‘waitresses’. The government has ordered all dance halls to close (some are already being converted into ‘private clubs’), and that all houses of prostitution should be closed by the end of August.
The measures which the government has planned for preventing mass unemployment of these girls is to marry them off (no specific plan for male recruitment has been announced).
Continued criticism of the corruption of the government and general situation in Taiwan is adequately summarized in an editorial in Min Baothe largest of the privately owned papers on the island.
It says that "Taiwan is the rice bowl of China. It produces abundant agricultural products and has many factories". When Governor Chen came to the island he explicitly warned his officials against squeezing.
However with the establishment of the government HQ the officers who were assigned with the job of taking over the administration enthusiastically went to work. There were some cases where one official took over 20 factories while there were also instances where three or four officials took over only one factory.
Besides these officers attention was concentrated on gold bars, cars, homes. Everything they could not take over for their personal use they smuggled out of the island for sale elsewhere.
Under such circumstances how can we expect these factories to resume operation? Is there no wonder that the cost of living here is rising by leaps and bounds.
By Ed Paine. Reports Officer
Page 73 Collected Documents of UNRRA in Taiwan
(courtesy Taipei 228 Memorial Museum)
