DEBT TO MOTHERS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3154, 7 August 1942, Page 2

DEBT TO MOTHERS

WHAT WAR LEADERS OWE MARSHAL CHIANG KAI-SHEK (By Allan Powell in the Melbourne “Sun”) IV I shall let Chiang Kai-shek tell you of his mother himself. In an autobiographical Ipassage he pays this beautiful tribute: “I was born in a little village where my ancestors tilled their fields and pursued their studies. Through sheer diligence and frugality they acquired a little wealth. My father died when I was nine years of age. “It must 'be remembered that the Manchu regime was then in its most corrupt state. . . . My family, solitary an.d without influence, became at once the target of their maltreatment. Illegal taxes and unjust public service were thrust upon us.

“It is entirely due to my mother’s kindness and perseverence that the family was saved from utter destruction. My mother loved me dearly, but her love was more than the love of an average mother. She was as strict a teacher as a loving mother. When I returned -from school she would question me on the lessons of the day. 'She taught me how to 'behave myself as well as other valuable things. “I am always mindful of two things—that, so long as the people are still in distress I have not fulfilled my mother’s wish, and that so long as the task of national salvation is not yet accomplished I shall be responsible for the distress and suffering of the people.” His mother was a devout Buddhist.