Peter Franks passed away at Vincentian Home in Wellington during the night of May 4th. As a young man Peter had been deeply attracted to the Chinese revolution and its promise for the world and, in the late 1970s, he had served as President of the Wellington Branch of our Society.
Peter was Co-editor of Salient in 1973 and 1974, with Wellington publishing identity Roger Steele. During this time, Peter went on a New Zealand University Students’ Association (NZUSA) tour to China, during the Cultural Revolution period. Like others on the tour, Peter was impressed with what he saw and Salient carried many articles reflecting this.
He joined the New Zealand China Friendship Society and became Wellington President, just as longtime leaders and university colleagues James Bertram and Freddie Page stepped into the background following their retirement. Bertram was thrust forward again in 1976 when the Society and much of the world mourned the passing of Bertram’s acquaintances Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Mao Zedong, which Peter told me recently was done respectfully and gracefully.
Like many young people at the time who supported Vietnamese liberation from US occupation, Peter was drawn to the Society because of the support China gave to that struggle. After university, Peter worked as a researcher for NZUSA and then for the trade unions. He went to China again in 1980 and wrote a short publication supporting China’s position on the border conflict the year earlier with Vietnam, based on interviews with Chinese officials. This military conflict between two former allies had confused many of his contemporaries, and Peter wanted to put the record straight as he saw it.
Peter’s formal interest in NZ China friendship then drifted away, replaced by other political interests, but he emphasised in his recent conversation with me that he retained a keen curiosity in news and events coming from the country containing a quarter of the world’s people.
Peter had made a well-deserved name for himself as a Labour historian and as a highly regarded employment mediator. His most recent publication, with Jim McAloon of Victoria University, was a history of the first century of the New Zealand Labour Party.
