CHINA AT WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 77, 27 September 1941, Page 12

CHINA AT WAR

MME. FENG WANG DESCRIBES

WOMEN'S WORK

"Two hundred and thirty million women in China are fighting for the, same democratic principles as the women of the English-speaking world," Madame Feng Wang, wife of the Cori-sul-General for China, told women members of the English-speaking Union yesterday afternoon. The ideas and spirit of the peoples were one, she said, and for that reason the women should be drawn closer together so that they should know each other better. • Madame Wang outlined the way in which the many women's organisations in China had been linked to form one framework for economy of effort. She described Madame Chiang Kai-shek's conference in 1938 when fifty of China's most prominent women leaders, representing the nation's most important women's bodies, decided to form a directive committee for war work and the work of national reconstruction, and she ' told of its success in moulding mil- ' lions of women into a cohesive organi- '■ sation. Among the many spheres of activity undertaken were the care of China's : thousands of war orphans and women refugees, the establishment of medical : units near the fronts, the supervision of soldiers' food and health, and the supply of medicines, surgical equip- ■ ment, and bandages, etc.; the organisation of relief groups to work in bombed areas, the establishment of first-aid '. classes in the provinces, from which graduates could be sent to work in medical units at the front, the transfer < of women factory workers from central to west China, and the foundation < of factories in which their work could be continued. In addition, Mme. Wang continued, the Women's Advisory Committee was < doing historic work in training women ". and girls in social and political work in preparation for activity as agents , in the rural areas. They were shown how to care for the sick and wounded < and learned, as well, methods of politi- . cal propaganda. The committee also aimed at bringing into full use the productive force that the , women in ' China represented and in this respect * was organising thousands to spin and weave silk and wool and cotton, and '. thousands of others to take the place 1 on the farms of men who had gone to ' the war. The women were solidly ; cemented into a national movement. ; They had given, she -said, and still : were giving, liberally of all they had 1 to the war effort. They were fighting : hand in hand with the women of the English-speaking world for the com- i mon principle of democracy. Mrs. E. D. Good, who was in the : chair, thanked Madame Feng Wang - for her address, and voiced the gather- . ing's appreciation of the large part \ Chinese women were playing in China's fight for freedom. Before tea ; songs were given by Mrs. W. Duncan.