Amidst the cataclysmic events that have buffeted Korea during the past decade, CHANG CHUN-HA has devoted himself to enriching the “universe of discourse” that is fundamental to democratic progress. His vehicle has been Sasangge, or The World of Thought, a magazine born in the refugee-glutted seaport of Pusan in April 1953. Its purpose was not profit nor political power, but the enlightenment of the new generation of Koreans so that they might “discover the way” to building a freer society in harmony with their national traditions. 

Sasangge has focused upon providing creative and stimulating reading for students and their professors; they held the promise of future leadership and afforded the opportunity for new competence in exploring national problems in the Korean language after 35 years of Japanese occupation and education. 

A monthly publication of 400 or more pages, Sasangge is planned by an editorial board of 17 leading professors, lawyers and writers. The 21 staff members, most of whom are young Koreans educated after World War II, do extensive research in preparation of each issue. Novelists and poets who have been introduced through the pages of the magazine have contributed significantly to the new Korean literacy movement that marks a national awakening. 

Although Sasangge is the product of effort by many talented Koreans, CHANG CHUN-HA’s role as publisher has been crucial. During times of political uncertainty and pressure for official conformity he has unobtrusively and steadfastly worked to insure for the magazine an independence of expression and tolerance of competing views. In the process the magazine has repeatedly sacrificed prosperity and easy popularity. While admitting that he is not always practical in a business sense, CHANG sets an example of simplicity in his personal life that is the price of an easy conscience in an unsettled time. 

The advancement of a people is measured more in the ideas that move them than by their material accomplishments. In emphasizing in Korean life a concern for the individual and his nourishment of mind, Sasangge and its publisher have made a singular contribution, indicative of the potential in journalism and literature to become a power for the public good. 

In electing CHANG CHUN-HA to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature, the Board of Trustees recognizes his editorial integrity in publication of a nonpartisan forum to encourage dynamic participation by intellectuals in national reconstruction.

A man of unbending will, a man of independence, a man whose life was dedicated to the spirit of liberty was the man Ramon Magsaysay. Not only was he a great leader but a great man whom Asia is proud to claim. 

An award named after such a man, an award to honor and to perpetuate his greatness of spirit, integrity and dedication to liberty, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is most valued and prized not only by the people of Asia but by all people who love freedom. 

Although I am the recipient of such an award, I am unable to look upon it simply as honoring me as an individual. The award, in fact, honors the Korean people. 

I should like to take this occasion to make three important points. 

First, I would rather not think of this 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature as granted only to me, alone. It is because of the existence of the magazine, Sasangge that I meet with this honor today. And Sasangge, in turn, has been able to continue and grow only through the wholehearted cooperation and devotion of the intellectuals of my country. 

During the past 10 years since Sasangge started publication, Korea has seen several political upheavals, bringing instability and uncertainty to our economic and social life. Business, big and small, has seen many ups and downs. Publishing, in particular, has seen the greatest change as some 170 magazines have come and gone during the 10 years of Sasangge’s existence. Sasangge has been able to continue as if it were an exception — but only because of the unstinting support of Korea’s intellectuals. 

In other words, Sasangge has been able to continue because Korean society felt a need for the magazine. Therefore, I am here merely as the representative of our contributors, the businessmen affiliated with us and the teachers, students, soldiers, public servants and many others who form our readership. 

Such is the spirit in which I accept this award, and so express my sincere gratitude to the Magsaysay Foundation as a representative of Korea’s intellectuals. 

Secondly, I look upon receiving this award here today as being charged, in fact, with the responsibility of propagating the spirit of Ramon Magsaysay among my countrymen. Moreover, as I am sure we all realize, the establishment of this award has created a medium through which the freedom-loving people of Asia have become more closely tied. 

On the 20th of August, when it became known that I was to receive this award, the Korean press was unstinting in its report of the news. Our metropolitan and provincial newspapers, as one, were generous in their praise for the aspirations and spirit of Ramon Magsaysay. 

Without doubt, this moment constitutes a new turning-point in the hearts of all Koreans who respond to the spiritual greatness of Ramon Magsaysay. The seed has been sown. And now it is abundantly clear that the heavy responsibility of fostering its growth and bringing it to fruition has fallen upon my two shoulders — no, upon the shoulders of every Korean intellectual. I realize the gravity of the trust and vow to do my best as long as I live to prevent discredit from befalling this award. 

Thirdly, as a man responsible for maintaining the integrity and propagating the spirit of this award, I wish to make known the following decision through which I hope to magnify more fully its significance. 

I shall devote all the money I am receiving to the establishment of an award for the advancement of Korean journalism. I have repeatedly announced this through our Korean newspapers and wish to make formal declaration of the fact here today. The details of this plan will be settled upon my return and after full consultation with my staff and others concerned. I believe this is the only way I can properly enhance the value of the Ramon Magsaysay Award which, as I have already mentioned, has been presented to the intellectuals of Korea. 

Finally, as a representative of the Korean intellectual community, I would like to express our profound gratitude to the Philippine leaders who have been instrumental in the establishment of this award, to those organizations which have cooperated to make this award a symbol of the world’s free societies, to the trustees of this Foundation who have labored to select the awardees and to the bearers of a proud history, the people of the Philippines. 

As a student assistant in physical education at the University of the Philippines in 1921, FRANCISCA REYES began her pioneer work of recording the native songs and dances handed down through generations by the numerous ethnic groups that today compose the citizenry of the Philippine Republic. It was a time when these forms of ritual and entertainment were threatened with extinction by the introduction of mass communications. 

Pursuing graduate studies in her chosen field, she traveled to remote mountain barrios and outlying islands, befriending the people and learning their unrecorded lore. Her meticulous research was published first in a thesis on Philippine folk dances and games for use in schools. With encouragement from the University this work was expanded after 1927 when President Jorge Bocobo gave his official support. 

After serving 18 years on the faculty of the University and rising to become Physical Director for Women, she transferred to the Department of Education. There, since 1955, she has been Superintendent of Physical Education. As work permitted, she also has taught in several private colleges and universities and shared her knowledge of traditional Filipino performing arts with others at numerous international conferences.

Her sustained and enthusiastic efforts of 40 years have encouraged others to seek inspiration at home and facilitated a creative national expression of Filipino culture. Founder of the Philippine Folk Dance Society and author of widely circulated books and articles, her research has been drawn upon by physical education and dance instructors throughout the Republic. Legions of children and adults have known the joy of benefiting from her works. The several Filipino dance troupes that are winning critical and popular acclaim abroad have built upon a foundation to which she made an initial and vital contribution. 

Now 63 and a grandmother, Mrs. FRANCISCA AQUINO continues active in her professional specialty to the fullest of her time and energy. Working to give her people a sense of confidence, pleasure and pride in the artistic expression that is uniquely theirs, she has shown what one person can do who is moved by a patient, determined concern for discovering the value in much that lies unused, yet readily at hand. 

In electing FRANCISCA REYES AQUINO to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes her original research on Filipino folk dance and music, preserving this rich heritage for future generations.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Rockefeller Brothers and to the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for this signal honor they have bestowed upon the Philippines and me. 

I would be remiss if I do not mention here that the revival of our folk dances and music which we now enjoy and are proud to present, was largely due to the initiative and interest of Dr. Jorge Bocobo, then President of the University of the Philippines. 

May our youth to whom Rizal referred as the “hope of our fatherland” nurture in their hearts a dedication to propagate and preserve this rich heritage. May they, too, in the example set by our beloved late President Ramon Magsaysay seek, like him, the welfare of our people. 

The Lord willing, I hope to continue sharing this little knowledge with all peoples and keep on serving my country. It is with deep humility that I say to all of you — thank you.

GONXHA AGNES BOJAXHIU, born in Yugoslavia of Albanian parents, became SISTER TERESA when at the age of 18 she took her vows in the Institute of the Virgin Mary in Ireland. The following year, in 1929, she was sent to the Loreto Community in Calcutta where for 20 years she fulfilled her obligations as a teacher. 

Called by the misery of bruising poverty in the surrounding slums, her petition to help in a more direct way was granted in 1948. With the permission of Pope Pius XII, she founded a new Indian congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, devoted entirely to the poor. Assuming Indian citizenship, she chose for the fledgling community a habit suited to its mission and locale — a simple, white cotton sari edged with blue.

 MOTHER TERESA and the small group of Indian nuns she had trained started their work with clinics and feeding centers. Soon police and others began to bring to her doorstep children and adults left to die in the streets. Determined that these unwanted must have a place to spend their last days in peace, she founded, in 1952, in an ancient, teeming quarter of Calcutta, the Nirmal Hriday, or Pure Heart — a unique hospital for dying destitutes. 

For abandoned lame, blind and tubercular children, the Missionaries of Charity run a second home, Sishu Bhavan. Six dispensaries are now operated with the assistance of volunteer doctors and at 52 relief centers, food, milk and clothing collected by the Missionaries are given to the needy. In the poorest districts of the city, under trees or a matting roof, the Missionaries conduct regular day schools, teaching children to read and write in Hindi and do simple sums. 

Leprosy being prevalent and facilities for treatment overburdened, a mobile clinic manned by nuns trained in the Leprosy Department of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases administers especially to lepers. On a more modest scale this work is repeated in Delhi and six other cities. The Missionaries also maintain a home in Delhi for orphans and retarded children. 

MOTHER TERESA’s community now numbers 169. Most are Indians, excepting 10 from Pakistan, Nepal, Malta, Albania, Yugoslavia, Germany, England and the United States. Living as austerely as their slum neighbors, the Missionaries of Charity depend upon donations and on a special Flag Day the public is invited to assist the work among the lepers. Moving chiefly among Hindus and Moslems, they make no attempts at conversion, but treat alike men of all castes, creeds and colors, concerned solely with injecting dignity into the lives of the unfortunate. 

In electing MOTHER TERESA to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes her merciful cognizance of the abject poor of a foreign land, in whose service she has led a new congregation.

I am very happy to be here today, to join with you in thanking God to have given to the world, torn with suffering, a man like Ramon Magsaysay, who loved and served his people so well. This award which is given to me and through me to the young Congregation, to the countless benefactors and to our poor in India, will be a new source of encouragement for us to love and serve the poor as Ramon Magsaysay did with our whole heart and soul. 

Our Congregation is totally dedicated to the Service of the Poor, to serve Christ in His distressing disguise. Therefore our home for the dying, the home for the crippled and unwanted children, our care of lepers, our slum schools, our clinics, all come from that Source and aim at the same idea, to give wholehearted free Service to the Poor for the Love of God.

Seeking refuge in the Colony of Hong Kong following political change on the China mainland in 1949 were many farmers, farm laborers and older folk unable to compete in urban work. For them LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE were the initiators and benefactors of an effective scheme of rehabilitation. These refugees were a special problem. They urgently needed capital or loan money to acquire land or stock which would enable them to make a living in the only way they knew, and the Colony needed more food. 

The KADOORIE brothers consulted with Government and a venture in agricultural extension was decided upon for which they would provide financing and official agencies the technical knowledge and facilities. To this end, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association was established in September 1951. 

Since then, the KADOORIE brothers have contributed the equivalent of more than two million eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars to this experiment plus their own time and quiet encouragement. This provided the means for making productive some 75,000 rural families in the New Territories of the Colony of Hong Kong. 

Assistance is distinctive in being practical, prompt and flexible, and in sufficient amounts to be effective. The Association began by giving new settlements of refugees enough stock to establish them as pig or chicken raisers and interest-free loans enabling them to erect their own simple sties and buy feed. Later loans permitted construction of small irrigation systems for growing vegetables. A second livestock plan was built around poor widows in the New Territories. Villagers have been helped to use modern agricultural aids. Cement and other construction materials were distributed for building access roads and other local public works. Almost every phase of farming in the Colony has benefited.

Jointly with Government, the brothers established, in August 1955, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid (Loan) Fund, each party contributing an equal amount and Government later quadrupling its share. Interest-free loans are made for all productive farm purposes. With few exceptions borrowers have repaid on time and in full. 

This cooperation has enabled government specialists to achieve an exceptional effectiveness in helping refugees and poor farmers in the Colony become self-supporting producers. The results are evident in a marked increase in food for the burgeoning population. Equally vital is the new sense of self-reliance among those rural families given the opportunity to stand on their own in the community. 

In electing LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their practical philanthropy working in partnership with Government and struggling cultivators to promote rural welfare in the Colony of Hong Kong.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award “in recognition of greatness of spirit shown in service to the people” will continue to be an inspiration to all those who have the well-being of their fellowmen at heart. To have been designated as men with this ideal is indeed a privilege for which I would express the profound appreciation and gratitude of both my brother and myself. 

Ramon Magsaysay exemplified the highest type of democratic leadership — the need to improve the people’s living standards in order to prove the correctness of the ideals of free enterprise both in agricultural development and in any industrial program. What we have tried to do is to better the lot of the farmer — the man who produces the staple necessities of life, and who so often is ignored in the rush of everyday existence. 

Your recognition today gives us the satisfaction of knowing that we have succeeded, and encourages us to strive further for the advancement of those less fortunate than ourselves. 

The philosophy behind this effort lies in the universal concept of the brotherhood of man. This thought should ever be before us, since its ideals range through the cooperation of individuals to the friendship of nations, and the peace of the world. 

I pray we may be given understanding and a broad vision, so that we may be worthy of the ideals set by your late revered President Magsaysay.

Seeking refuge in the Colony of Hong Kong following political change on the China mainland in 1949 were many farmers, farm laborers and older folk unable to compete in urban work. For them LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE were the initiators and benefactors of an effective scheme of rehabilitation. These refugees were a special problem. They urgently needed capital or loan money to acquire land or stock which would enable them to make a living in the only way they knew, and the Colony needed more food. 

The KADOORIE brothers consulted with Government and a venture in agricultural extension was decided upon for which they would provide financing and official agencies the technical knowledge and facilities. To this end, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association was established in September 1951. 

Since then, the KADOORIE brothers have contributed the equivalent of more than two million eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars to this experiment plus their own time and quiet encouragement. This provided the means for making productive some 75,000 rural families in the New Territories of the Colony of Hong Kong. 

Assistance is distinctive in being practical, prompt and flexible, and in sufficient amounts to be effective. The Association began by giving new settlements of refugees enough stock to establish them as pig or chicken raisers and interest-free loans enabling them to erect their own simple sties and buy feed. Later loans permitted construction of small irrigation systems for growing vegetables. A second livestock plan was built around poor widows in the New Territories. Villagers have been helped to use modern agricultural aids. Cement and other construction materials were distributed for building access roads and other local public works. Almost every phase of farming in the Colony has benefited.

Jointly with Government, the brothers established, in August 1955, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid (Loan) Fund, each party contributing an equal amount and Government later quadrupling its share. Interest-free loans are made for all productive farm purposes. With few exceptions borrowers have repaid on time and in full. 

This cooperation has enabled government specialists to achieve an exceptional effectiveness in helping refugees and poor farmers in the Colony become self-supporting producers. The results are evident in a marked increase in food for the burgeoning population. Equally vital is the new sense of self-reliance among those rural families given the opportunity to stand on their own in the community. 

In electing LAWRENCE and HORACE KADOORIE to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their practical philanthropy working in partnership with Government and struggling cultivators to promote rural welfare in the Colony of Hong Kong.

The high honor you have done my brother and myself in choosing us as awardees for the Ramon Magsaysay Award 1962 is very sincerely appreciated. It gives us the great satisfaction of knowing that the work it has been our privilege to do has achieved a significance beyond our borders. It strengthens our belief in the universality of human appreciation in dealing with problems involving the suffering of individuals and masses. 

These problems are not confined to one country alone. They apply to suffering humanity everywhere and can only be put right by concerted action and goodwill transcending the bounds of nationality, race, or creed. 

To some of us is given this understanding, and the duty and ability to help. A preeminent example was set by the late President Magsaysay — a man of action, a man of the highest integrity. It is fitting to quote the four main objectives of his “State of the Nation” message, delivered on the 28th January 1957: 

(1) To safeguard the security of the nation. 

(2) To promote the moral and material well-being of the masses. 

(3) To develop and stabilize the national economy. 

(4) To improve the standards of public service. 

From his good deeds we are benefiting today, and in honoring his name we are being honored. Let us remember with humility that we but follow, and let us strive — as he did — to achieve a happier and better world. Like many of you present today, we have lived through troubled times, when the future appeared black and when we experienced trials and tribulations which beset our lives. To us this has given the knowledge that all men are of one community, which will live or perish through its weakest members. 

All have a basic and fundamental need, which can only be satisfied by doing as we would wish to be done by. Self preservation demands that we should regard each other as partners and that, as with partners, each must strive for the betterment of the other, since only in this way can we survive.

In their respective countries, HARLEY KOESNA POERADIREDJA and PALAYIL PATHAZAPURAYIL NARAYANAN have guided labor organizations which have contributed significantly to community living. 

In May, 13 years ago, Mr. KOESNA accepted the challenge of leading Indonesian railway workers who came to seek his help in developing a free trade union that would deal with vocational problems. Their concern was alliances between labor and political parties forged during the struggle for independence which were thwarting emergence of unions as instruments of effective economic action. 

In building the Persatuan Buruh Kerata Api (PBKA), or Railways Workers’ Union of Indonesia, KOESNA adapted to Indonesian needs some methods used successfully by genuine trade unions elsewhere. The progressive and well-administered PBKA is solidly founded on monthly membership dues. Members now benefit from such joint enterprises as an accident insurance program, a savings and loan bank, a housing loan fund and a hospital. 

Most notable have been the Union’s efforts to protect members in a prolonged period of more rapid increase in prices than wages. Through operation of rice mills, a clothing and shoe factory and a soap plant, prime need commodities are provided at low cost and workers’ incomes augmented by employing other family members. 

Strict management of union funds permitted savings that financed construction of a modern four-story headquarters in Bandung and the purchase of a printing press for union publications. Insistent, well-substantiated representations on behalf of members to the Government-run Railway Administration have resulted in such improvements as safeguards to minimize unemployment, a pension fund which protects widows and orphans as well as retired railway personnel, and a Moslem New Year bonus. 

Convinced that society should see to the welfare of the common man, KOESNA nevertheless insists that people must work to better themselves. Through the years he had remained humble but resolute; giving the workers what they want, not only what he thinks is best for them, he insists the PBKA must have no political domination. 

Similar goals were being sought in Malaya by P. P. NARAYANAN, an immigrant from South India at the age of 14. Inspired by Malaya as a land of opportunity, hard labor in a tin mine and on a rubber plantation as an impressionable 19-year-old nurtured in him an intense desire to help workers share in the promising future. 

Starting with a group of 10 men at Seremban in 1946, he formed the nucleus that ultimately became the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) of Malaya. With a strength of 180,000 dues paying members, it is today one of the largest, richest, and best organized in Southeast Asia. 

P. P. NARAYANAN began his undertaking in a period of insurgency when both managers and many estate workers held the common belief that trade unionists were professional troublemakers and union membership meant sympathizing with the terrorists. He had not only to win with the employers the case for labor’s legitimate aspirations but also prove to labor the benefits of organization. 

Plantation workers measure the consequences of this effort today in a wage scale that is four times higher than before they were organized. Medical care for workers and their families, improved housing to meet new government standards, education for children and a respect for labor as an essential part of the community have become common features on Malayan plantations. The Union does not exist only to get more from management but concerns itself with education of workers on their responsibilities as trade unionists and citizens. 

The NUPW today is esteemed both by men who sit across the bargaining table and abroad for its forthright conduct of workers’ interests. “Negotiate first” is the rule, and compromise is usually reached without stoppage of work. The Union discourages communal discrimination and maintains political affiliation is an individual matter for each member. It publishes the only labor paper in Malaya, in Tamil, Chinese and Malay editions. With strength in depth through second and third level officers trained in union management, NUPW leaders have traveled to share their experience with similar groups in other developing countries. 

In electing HARLEY KOESNA POERADIREDJA and PALAYIL PATHAZAPURAYIL NARAYANAN as the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes their championship of the workers’ cause through vigorous advancement of responsible and free trade unionism.

I would like to begin my response with an enunciation of Newton’s second law of motion which states: “The rate of change of momentum is proportional to the impressed force and takes place in the direction in which the force acts.” 

With your kind permission I would like to stretch this law in its application to human endeavor by stating that it is not only proportional but in this process of its interaction it becomes cumulative. And I believe that the Award should set in motion a chain reaction that would release an enormous force for positive action. This is what the Magsaysay Award means to me. It is my privilege and honor to announce here and now that I dedicate myself to spread the spirit of Magsaysay in my own country by setting apart half the amount of the award for a Workers’ Education Foundation. Sages of Asia have told us that any positive idea is like the tiny seed that produces the great banyan tree that provides shade and shelter to a multitude of people. This award you have bestowed on me today I believe is the first stone that would cause the ever-widening ripples of philanthropy in my country and, I venture to say, would soon find equal response in other parts of Asia. 

I would like to recall now the words of wisdom by the great American, Harry Emerson Fosdick, who said: “Democracy is a conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people and if the doors of opportunities are opened surprising consequences will flow from unlikely sources.” I believe that the key to those doors is education, and we all know that democracy itself hinges on education, and it is towards that goal that this Workers’ Education Foundation will completely devote itself in the days to come. 

Let me assure you that this Foundation I hope to create will to a great degree reincarnate the spirit, the faith and the philosophy of Ramon Magsaysay, who lived and toiled for the small man so that no person would be denied the opportunity for a full life contributing to the enrichment of the society whatever his station in life. 

Now let me pause and look back on the events that pulled me into the vortex of the trade union movement that has thrust me before you. It was 16 years ago. That was the time when the Communist Party of Malaya decided to snatch the government by force. The first move in their operation was to subvert the trade unions. Things moved fast. Every trade unionist was suspect; we did not know where to look for guidance. Subversion was the order of the day. There was massacre and arson. The game was loaded against us. There were the workers insulated by the feudalistic employers on one side and on the other the threat of the terrorists, who were determined to wreck any democratic trade unions. Under the shadow of this threat 11 good and true men met. It was on January 27th, 1946, that they met in dismal surroundings, and it was at that meeting that the idea of a union germinated. 

Today, this union, the National Union of Plantation Workers, embraces a membership of over 180,000. But this was achieved only after years of hard work and series of meetings to convince the sectarian unions before they could realize the benefits of national integrated unions. We have now gone far from the days of our beginning. We have achieved something, but there is a lot more to be done. This recognition of what little we have achieved will spur us on to greater efforts to promote the welfare and well-being of the workers. 

Now I stand here in all humility as a representative of Malayan workers to accept this great honor. To me the greatest significance of this moment is that for the first time in the history of Asia the worker has been elevated to a position that his humble representative has been chosen to receive this Award.

In their respective countries, HARLEY KOESNA POERADIREDJA and PALAYIL PATHAZAPURAYIL NARAYANAN have guided labor organizations which have contributed significantly to community living. 

In May, 13 years ago, Mr. KOESNA accepted the challenge of leading Indonesian railway workers who came to seek his help in developing a free trade union that would deal with vocational problems. Their concern was alliances between labor and political parties forged during the struggle for independence which were thwarting emergence of unions as instruments of effective economic action. 

In building the Persatuan Buruh Kerata Api (PBKA), or Railways Workers’ Union of Indonesia, KOESNA adapted to Indonesian needs some methods used successfully by genuine trade unions elsewhere. The progressive and well-administered PBKA is solidly founded on monthly membership dues. Members now benefit from such joint enterprises as an accident insurance program, a savings and loan bank, a housing loan fund and a hospital. 

Most notable have been the Union’s efforts to protect members in a prolonged period of more rapid increase in prices than wages. Through operation of rice mills, a clothing and shoe factory and a soap plant, prime need commodities are provided at low cost and workers? incomes augmented by employing other family members. 

Strict management of union funds permitted savings that financed construction of a modern four-story headquarters in Bandung and the purchase of a printing press for union publications. Insistent, well-substantiated representations on behalf of members to the Government-run Railway Administration have resulted in such improvements as safeguards to minimize unemployment, a pension fund which protects widows and orphans as well as retired railway personnel, and a Moslem New Year bonus. 

Convinced that society should see to the welfare of the common man, KOESNA nevertheless insists that people must work to better themselves. Through the years he had remained humble but resolute; giving the workers what they want, not only what he thinks is best for them, he insists the PBKA must have no political domination. 

Similar goals were being sought in Malaya by P. P. NARAYANAN, an immigrant from South India at the age of 14. Inspired by Malaya as a land of opportunity, hard labor in a tin mine and on a rubber plantation as an impressionable 19-year-old nurtured in him an intense desire to help workers share in the promising future. 

Starting with a group of 10 men at Seremban in 1946, he formed the nucleus that ultimately became the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) of Malaya. With a strength of 180,000 dues paying members, it is today one of the largest, richest, and best organized in Southeast Asia. 

P. P. NARAYANAN began his undertaking in a period of insurgency when both managers and many estate workers held the common belief that trade unionists were professional troublemakers and union membership meant sympathizing with the terrorists. He had not only to win with the employers the case for labor’s legitimate aspirations but also prove to labor the benefits of organization. 

Plantation workers measure the consequences of this effort today in a wage scale that is four times higher than before they were organized. Medical care for workers and their families, improved housing to meet new government standards, education for children and a respect for labor as an essential part of the community have become common features on Malayan plantations. The Union does not exist only to get more from management but concerns itself with education of workers on their responsibilities as trade unionists and citizens. 

The NUPW today is esteemed both by men who sit across the bargaining table and abroad for its forthright conduct of workers’ interests. “Negotiate first” is the rule, and compromise is usually reached without stoppage of work. The Union discourages communal discrimination and maintains political affiliation is an individual matter for each member. It publishes the only labor paper in Malaya, in Tamil, Chinese and Malay editions. With strength in depth through second and third level officers trained in union management, NUPW leaders have traveled to share their experience with similar groups in other developing countries. 

In electing HARLEY KOESNA POERADIREDJA and PALAYIL PATHAZAPURAYIL NARAYANAN as the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes their championship of the workers’ cause through vigorous advancement of responsible and free trade unionism.

The Award is a complete surprise to me because my feeling is that my contribution to my community is too humble in comparison to the huge and difficult problems which my country has to solve. For this reason, it seems to me that the Award given to me is too early. Another reason is that I am not yet ready with my plans for labor and I may never be ready with them. But the most important thing for me today is the fact that the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation imposes a moral obligation to do more than what I have so far achieved. This means that Ramon Magsaysay, the late President, is applying moral pressure for me to do better than in the past for the poor. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to give my formal contribution to a better understanding between the people of the Philippines and Indonesia. This humble contribution will be to give a small amount of money to the Philippine-Indonesia Association, if they will honor me with their acceptance. Secondly, to sponsor two Filipinos, one of whom shall be a top-rank railway union leader, to enable them to visit Indonesia and to be the guests of the Indonesian Railway Workers Union (PBKA) for which all the expenditures shall be paid by our organization. This will be carried out through the Indonesian Embassy in Manila in cooperation with one or more institutions here. This is only the first step to promote better relationship between the people of the Philippines and the people of Indonesia, and I do sincerely hope that in the near future the governments of both countries will try to achieve the objective which I have initiated.