DEVASTATED CHINA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1938, Page 8

DEVASTATED CHINA

DESTRUCTION OF LIVES AND PROPERTY > APPALLING CONDITIONS AMONY POPULACE. MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK’S APPEAL. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Generalissimo of the Chinese forces, has written to the Hon W. E. Barnard (Speaker of the House of Representatives)- in his capacity as chairman of the New Zealand Council for the “adoption” of Chinese refugee children, a vivid account of the conditions which justify the appeal now. being made to the generosity of the people of the Dominion. The letter is dated July 18, from the headquarters of the Generalissimo at Wuchang, and has been handed to the Press by Mr Barnard for the reason, he states, that it discloses an even more appalling condition of affairs in China than had previously been indicated. “It gives the people of New Zealand,” added Mr Barnard, “an authoritative picture of the terrible miseries which are now being suffered by the people of China. The executive of the New Zealand Council is deeply grateful for the fine response to its appeal from every part of the Dominion, from both Chinese and New Zealand citizens, and the urgency and magnitude of the need of the children, will be better appreciated after reading Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s letter. “I sincerely trust that all who are able to contribute to this effort to succour the Chinese childen will do so without delay. If we believe in the truth of the scriptural statement: ‘God has made of one blood all nations of men,’ now is the time for us all to give practical evidence of our acceptance of this truth.”

In the course of her letter Madame Chiang Kai-shek states: “By bombs, by fire, by bullets and shells, the Japanese are destroying lives and property -over hundreds of thousands of square miles. There, seems to be no end to the brutality. They are continuing over increasingly large areas. Wherever war planes can range, death is being spread. Ninety-nine per cent of the victims are innocent non-com-batants, many of them women and children....

“Right through the regions penetrated by the Japanese, waifs and strays abound. We are collecting them as quickly as possible. The Japanese are also collecting them with the sinister object of taking them to Japan .. to bring them up and teach them to be traitors to their country. , This is merely one of the sinister means by which the Japanese hope to subjugate China. “Primarily they set out.with weapons of war to destroy what they can in the way of means of livelihood for those who may survive death by explosives. In addition they are spreading opium and narcotics among the survivors to demoralise them and render them unfit to resist any actions taken by the Japanese. However, our people are now on the defensive all over China.

“Whenever there are Japanese troops there ark Chinese to fight them, either as regular troops or as guerillas. The Japanese claim that they have occupied large regions of China. The truth is that they have penetrated these regions with their mechanised units but they occupy nothing but the ground on which the units stand, not being able to control any country outside of a mile of the highways, or. cities, where they may happen to be, Japanese cannot travel except in bodies of 100 or more, accompanied by armoured cars or tanks. At night-time they dare not move at all. Guerillas are everywhere throughout the country, and they are increasing with every village or city that is burned. The Japanese, as you no doubt know, are perpetrating brutalities that would shame the barbarians of old. They are violating women everywhere and it is that fact which has brought the women of China to take up arms in their own defence.

“The infamies of the Japanese have produced a new situation in China. They have caused the youth of our country to spring to arms to resist the invaders, and, in time, to drive them into the sea.... “We are confronted with very serious problems. The greatest displacement of human beings that,the world has ever seen is taking place in China. As a result, little children are in a desperate plight. The orphans, and those who have lost they: parents in the great flight from Japanese persecution, have run wild in a desperate effort t 6 find the parents who have been lost to them, or food to live upon. We send representatives to the battlefronts, and to the lines along which the refugees are fleeing, to collect these forlorn little children. We bring them to central stations, clean them, clothe them, and distribute them among existing missionary orphanages, or send them to the Western Provinces to be cared for in institutions which the Government. is creating. We are trying to collect money to take care of 20,000 children to begin with. We estimate that £2 5s will take care of the housing, feeding, clothing, and education of one child for one year. They are being given vocational training to fit them to sustain themselves when they are old enough to work. So far we have collected many thousands of children.”