THEY FIGHT ON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 31, 7 February 1944, Page 5

THEY FIGHT ON

10,000 VOLUNTEERS

WOMEN IN CHINESE ARMY

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 31

The Pacific Coast Bureau of the Chinese News Service, with headquarters in San Francisco, in a special release to the Auckland Star, gave some very interesting details of a comparison made by Chinese women in military service with their sisters in other United Nations countries.

"Women in the Chinese Army would regard the life of an American W.A.C. as one of ease and comfort," said the comment radioed from Chungking to San Francisco. "Unlike their American sisters, they carry no handbags, for they have no rouge, no lipstick, no powder, no fingernail polish and no perfume. They wear simple uniforms, the grass-green colour of which makes them blend nicely with the Chinese countryside. No one knows how many women there are in the Chinese Army, which is fast rounding out its six and a half years of continuous warfare against a brutal foe. A conservative estimate would place them around 10,000 rendering various services in the armed forces.

"In doing so, these Chinese women, many of whom are really girls in their teens, are not blazing any new trail. Instead they are merely following the footsteps of their illustrious sisters centuries ago. No Organised Auxiliaries "China has no formally organised women auxiliaries like those in the United States and England, but a number of generals have agreed to accept women as volunteers and have formed groups of them into companies and battalions. They wear the same clothes and get the same pay as men—a private gets the equivalent of approximately one American dollar a month. Most of them do non-combatant work such as nursing. Not a few, however, have seen actual fighting, among these being the Dare-To-Die Corps organised by the women of Shanghai at the beginning of the war and the girl units of the Kwangsi Army who fought in the battles of Hsuchow and Kunlunkwan, both Chinese victories.

"Others have fought because they unexpectedly found themselves in the midst of fighting like Miss Huang Chun-chu. Miss Huang, college graduate and niece of a high official of Hunan province, was doing publicity work for the Army near the Taiheng mountains in Shansi when she found herself trapped in a Japanese encircling operation. She tried to sneak through the Japanese cordon and failed, so she took to the mountains with a handful of men and women companions. They set up a radio station and began reporting on Japanese troop movements. The Japs, learned of what they were doing, peppered the mountains with bombs and sent troops to wipe out the group. In a day's fighting Miss Huang's group killed many Japs., but was overwhelmed by numbers, and by midnight the leader was the only one left alive. She took refuge in a cave at the top of a cliff. The Japs, managed to drop burning logs into the cave and Miss Huang, forced from her shelter by smoke and flames, leaped to her death down the precipice. Old Women Enlisted "The women who have fought against the Japs, range all the way from youthful, well-educated and well-to-do Miss Huang to illiterate old peasant women. Two thousand old women from Loyang, in Honan province, enlisted together in the Army during one campaign and gave useful service as stretcher-bearers and in other occupations. Two-Gun Sister Wang, a 40-year-old woman, short and stout, is the heroine of a hundred battles, large and small, against the Japs. "She is a guerilla leader in the mountains of Chekiang province. In her most daring feat she killed the puppet police commissioner of Shaohing one night in his bedroom and made off with his head. Next morning the police found the head with those of six other puppet officials tied to the branches of a tree outside the city gate. Because of her appearance it is easy for Two-Gun Sister Wang to collect information in Japanese strongholds. She merely picks up a basket of vegetables to peddle and walks into town with no other disguise, for she looks precisely as anyone of the hundreds of peasant women who sell vegetables on market days. The ease with which she can enter towns helped her in setting a fire which cost the Japs, a loss of 10,000,000 yen near Hangchow, south of Shanghai.

GIRLS' LIFE BRIGADE

An inspiring service was held on Saturday evening in the lecture hall of Auckland Sunday School Union Building, when 60 officers gathered. The meeting was conducted by the divisional chaplain, the Rev. E. T. Olds, whose message greatly helped in the dedication of the officers to their new year's work. This was followed by Holy Communion.