About this time, John Alexander reappeared on the scene, the most indispensable link. Somewhat embarrassed and humble, Helen asked him in the corridor of Medhurst Apartments if he could think up any way to get cooperative industries going in China. He grinned at her, remembering her opposition at his dinner party. He did not hesitate a minute to say that he would do all he could, only it would to be strictly incognito because of his diplomatic position.
John Alexander immediately had one idea- he said the project wouldn’t be worth working for unless Rewi Alley could be got to manage it.
Ed accompanied John Alexander to the British Embassy in Shanghai to show the co-op prospectus to the British Ambassador, Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr. After listening patiently to Ed’s presentation on cooperative industry, the Ambassador bluntly asked what the Snows’ stake in the matter was. ”Work, and maybe a story,” Edgar Snow replied, ”My wife and I are prepared to spend as much time as it takes to put this idea across not just in China, but wherever there’s any sympathy for China. Give us the money and the tools and we will do the job.”⑤ The ambassador agreed to see what he could do. Within a week, he had succeeded in relieving Rewi Alley of his duties with the Municipal Council and was accompanying him to Hankou.
In 1968, Rewi Alley sent Ida Pruitt a copy of a 20-page typewritten plan entitled “Village Industrial Co-operatives”- a brief statement on their present necessity. Alley’s cover letter to Ida Pruitt calls this “the very first draft I made, before the very first Yellow Pamphlet was produced,” and a one-page note attached to this plan, dated October 9,1968, explains, “it was from this document that the Snows helped to draw up the first promotion pamphlet which they, through their connections, arranged for Clark-Kerr (British Ambassador to China) to take to Hankou, and which resulted in my being invited to set up Gung Ho.”
Helen remembers that gaining the support of Dr. Kung was somewhat difficult:
“Sir Archie took the plan to Madam Chiang Kai-shek who presented to Dr. Kung. When he refused to consider the idea, she burst into tears. She then talked it over with Madam Kung who converted her husband to supporting it. Dr. Kung was reported to have said that he hoped it would save the virtue of the village girls and keep them out of the wicked cities.”⑥
With this, Dr. Kung agreed to a government loan of five million dollars for Indusco, and Rewi Alley, as a traveling field secretary for the project, began gathering his staff.
To Helen, it was no less than “a miracle” that the co-ops were actually begun, but “in a time of desperation,” she reasoned, “miracles are necessary and they do therefore appear on the horizon.”⑦
February 26, 1987
Xi’an, China
(This was prepared for the International Symposium on Smedley, Strong, Snow and others held in Shanghai during March 4- 6, 1987)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FOOTNOTES:
① “India can learn from China” by Jawaharlal Nehru as an introduction to the Indian edition of “China Builds for Democracy” by Nym Wales, see Asia & the America, January 1943, P. 25.
② Forward by Edgar Snow for the Hong Kong edition of China Builds for Democracy by Nym Wales, 1940.
③ Notes on the Beginnings of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives by Helen Snow.
④ Helen Snow, Notes on the Beginnings of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, P.28
⑤ Journey to the Beginning by Edgar Snow, PP. 198-202
⑥ Helen Snow, Notes on the Beginnings of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, P. 28
⑦ Helen Snow, Notes on the Beginnings of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, P. 28