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Final gathering of Rewi Alley's friends set for Beijing

Xinhua, May 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

The spirit of New Zealander Rewi Alley, who helped to pioneer China's Gung Ho movement during the war against the Japanese, will be remembered by those who knew him for possibly the last time this week.

A meeting of Alley's old acquaintances -- including centenarian Isabel Crook, the China-born Canadian woman who helped build the New China from its founding in 1949 -- would be held in Beijing, New Zealand China Friendship Society (NZCFS) president Dave Bromwich said Monday.

The meeting at Song Qingling Mansion on Tuesday would also serve to honor Professor Bill Willmott, who was born to Canadian missionaries in Chengdu in 1932 and went on to become vice-chair of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives (ICCIC), the successor to the Gung Ho movement.

Willmott, who has lived for much of his life in New Zealand, was president of the NZCFS for a decade and was named Honorary Principal of the Shandan Bailie School, which was established by Rewi Alley, in west China's Gansu Province.

Willmott had been involved in "several excellent projects" run with the Canadian Cooperative Association during the early 2000s, Bromwich told Xinhua in a phone interview.

"Bill's clarity of vision always brings focus to meetings and direction in an organization, and, with his respected standing, he is held in high esteem by all who have been privileged to work with him," said Bromwich, who succeeded Willmott as ICCIC vice chairman in 2010.

The meeting of Willmott with Isabel Crook and her son, Michael, and former ICCIC official and assistant to Rewi Alley's biography Lu Wanru was "an opportunity for these significant people in the history of Gung Ho and Rewi Alley's legacy, stretching back to the 1930s, to come together for the last time."

"That it will be held in the grounds of Song Qingling mansion is very fitting, given her firm support both to Gung Ho and Rewi Alley," said Bromwich.

"We take the lead from their efforts and hope that those who follow can continue the work effectively into the modern era." Endi