Chinese Colleges

At the outset of the Japanese invasion of China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek saw that he had millions of men who might line up the sights of a rifle but only thousands who could read a newspaper. Realizing that China would be in graver need of bright men after than brave men during the war, he requested students to stay in school and college. Consequently, in China's 13 U. S.-aided colleges,* enrollment remained within 1,800 of normal capacity. In the U. S. last week, the National Emergency Committee for Christian Colleges in China announced that an emergency fund of $300,000 had been raised which would guarantee that the 13 could carry on.

Japan, no less than Chiang, early realized that China's leaders were China's intellectuals; and that the only way to invade China culturally as well as physically was to cripple, or at least regulate, Chinese colleges. Year ago this week, squads of Japanese planes lazily droned across Tientsin, dropping their load on Nankai University. That was the beginning of a concerted campaign.

Naturally the Japanese were cautious about the colleges owned or supported by foreigners. But it is not easy for aviators to be sure where their bombs will land. No more easy, therefore, was continuance of sessions at such universities as Nanking and Ginling, in the heart of bomb-riddled Nanking. Nanking University's compound began to be rocked with dugouts and shell holes. Five of the 13 colleges were obliged to move kit & boodle inland, at great expense. Yet all 13 completed the year's work. Moreover, they carried on two extraordinary extracurricular activities:

1) American-supported colleges, as the nearest thing to neutral territory in fighting areas, were the only refuge for Chinese women from slaughter and rapine. Teacher Minne Vautrin of Ginling reported the admission of 10,000 young women to Ginling grounds: "Never shall I forget the faces of the young girls as they streamed in. ... They had disguised themselves in every possible way --many had cut their hair, most of them had blackened their faces, many were wearing men's or boys' clothes or those of old women. . . ."

2) Many of the colleges set up emergency first-aid units for treatment of wounded, not all of whom were soldiers mangled in action. Excerpt from a letter written by Dr. Robert Wilson at University Hospital, Nanking: "We are getting a large number of women from 16 to 30, most of them nice looking girls, who are ridden with venereal disease from frequent raping."

With U. S. sympathy for China running as high as it has, it is remarkable, wrote Mme Chiang in a recent letter, that so little money has been subscribed for China's relief. Ten million dollars was raised for Japanese earthquake sufferers within a month after the disaster in 1923, $7,750,000 for Chinese famine sufferers in 1920-21. But that was back in good times. This year, two Red Cross campaigns for China have fizzled like dead Chinese firecrackers. Nine months ago was set up the National Emergency Committee, under the chairmanship of Lawyer Paul Drennan Cravath (Cravath, deGersdorff, Swaine & Wood), with the aim of raising enough money so that the 13 colleges might continue. Last week, as the aim became a reality and plans for a second drive ($330,000) were announced, Chinese Ambassador C. T. Wang wired the Committee: THIS IS A CLEAR DEMONSTRATION OF THE INTEREST OF OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS . . . AND ALSO OF THEIR AFFECTION FOR THE CHINESE PEOPLE.

*Yenching University in Peiping, Lingnan University in Canton, Hua Chung College in Wu-chang. West China Union University in Chengtu, Hwa Nan College and Fukien Christian University in Foochow, Cheeloo University in Tsinan, University of Nanking and Ginling College in Nanking, and St. John's University, University of Shanghai, Soochow University and Hangchow Christian College in the Shanghai area. This does not include Rockefeller Foundation's Peiping Union Medical College, various Catholic institutions (European as well as U. S.-supported).

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