CHINA'S STRUGGLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22955, 5 February 1938, Page 27

CHINA'S STRUGGLE

NO THOUGHT OF PEACE WOMEN LEADERS' STATEMENT FARMERS ASSIST RESISTANCE "There will be no peace in China until every Japaneso soldier has left Chinese soil. Any talk of peace is Japanese propaganda, and no Chinese leader would dare to think of peace while a single Japanese remains in our country." With these words, Mrs. Fabian Chow, a former chairman of the preparation committee of the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference, and Mrs. Elsie Lee Soong, declared th'eir belief in the ultimate freedom of their country, when they arrived in Sydney to represent China at the International Women's Conference. Farmers the Backbone Both women have seen the havoc which fighting has made in their country, but thoy do not want peace until China is freed. "The suffering and misery could not be worse. We have not had time to think about it all. We only knew that suddenly this terrible thing happened and wb had to do our duty without thinking why," said Mrs. Chow. "It is the farmers who have helped to keep the spirit of China going, and they have been the backbone of her resistance. With their wives carrying the baskets they would struggle through tho lines with supplies and be waiting outside the city gates in the mornings. "It is also the farmers who will suffer, for they cannot go back to the land which has been devastated by war. Even their implements have been destroyed," she. said. " The Lone Battalion " Mrs. Lee Soong has been taking part in emergency relief since the outbreak of hostilities, and she was" with the "Lone Battalion" 24 hours before the Chinese retreated from Chapei. She was one of the few Chinese wcimen to go behind the Chinese lines to distribute trucks of medical supplies, clothing and bedding, and she made three visits. One of these hazardous trips involved a night journey' of 50 miles to Soochow in darkness over roads broken up by sholl-fire. "When we arrived we had to take shelter in tho fields because of the continual bombing raids," said Mrs. Lee Soong, calmly describing this trip. "I made a rapid survey of the needs of the hospitals so that regular supplies could be sent from the Chinese Medical Association and the Chinese Women's Club.. The united women have been wonderful in/ preparing the badlyneeded supplies for the soldiers at the front." When asked whether she would find any difficulty in meeting Japanese women at the International Conference, Mrs. Chow replied '* that she thought women meeting together could accomplish a good deal more than men. "It will be women who will finally bring about peace," she declared.