Voyage to Freedom

The fishermen of the China coast are a rugged and self-reliant lot. Inured to the vagaries of wind, weather and their fellow man, they have been able to endure better than those ashore the demands of their new Communist masters. Proud and individualistic, they were often forced to attend mass meetings in the name of the new order, and some even saw their daughters commandeered by the Red masters for marriage to the "progressive" younger members of their group. All these things the fishermen of Kwangtung suffered in silence. But last summer, when the Communists began to impose the cooperative system on the machinery of their trade--their boats, their carefully tended nets and their daily catches--the fishermen could tolerate no more. In September a fleet of 200 fishing junks, manned by some 1,600 refugee fisherfolk, set out from Kwangtung to find a freer life in the waters around Hong Kong.

Wise Fish. Ever since then, sometimes in fleets of three or four, sometimes in a single junk, sometimes trusting their lives to a flimsy sampan across 30 or 40 miles of open sea, other Chinese fishermen have followed the original 1,600 to Hong Kong. Some were caught on the way and either executed or sent to Red labor camps. For all of the estimated 4,000, the hoped-for joys of freedom proved elusive. Those who had managed to smuggle out their own fishing gear found it antiquated and almost useless in waters where the local fishermen use up-to-date nylon nets and power their junks with gasoline engines. "The fish in Hong Kong are wise," explained one; "as soon as they see our string nets, they swim away.''

Unable to make a living in strange waters from the only trade they knew, the fishermen pulled their belts tighter. Some were forced to sell their junks and hire themselves out as deckhands. When all else was gone, they even sold their children. Meanwhile, their leaders and their friends sought help for them from the sprawling network of international organizations designed to ease the way for just such refugees as themselves. The first 2,000 fishermen to arrive got $3.50 each, plus some cast-off clothing, from the government of Nationalist China. A few boxes of food from CARE went to about 527 who arrived last April. For the others there was nothing.

By the Rules. Why? Well, these things take time. In the bureaucratic administration of government relief and private charities, there are rules to be followed, conditions to be filled, investigations to be made. It was not his fault, one CARE official pointed out, that some 3,500 fishermen failed to qualify for a certain consignment of food packages. "These fishermen," said a priest working for a Roman Catholic charity, "waited six years before deciding things weren't so good in Red China. We have a lot of refugees who decided much earlier. Naturally they deserve consideration first." As these organizations pondered, the Reds peppered the fishermen with. letters: "Since you went away, the government has reviewed the case and discovered numerous shortcomings and errors. We are determined to correct these errors, and earnestly wait for your early return." They even urged those "suspicious of our policy" to return in separate groups and send representatives back to check up.

One by one, believing or not believing these promises, certain only that there was no help to be had in Hong Kong, more than 1,000 of the fishermen have set their sails and headed home. To have kept the entire fleet in Hong Kong, to have provided them with new nets and loans to get started again in the free world, would have cost approximately $15,000--about the price of eight hours of broadcasting on the Voice of America.

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