IN WAR-RIDDEN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23514, 31 May 1938, Page 9

IN WAR-RIDDEN CHINA

Y.W.C.A. SECRETARY’S ADVENTURES ADDRESS TO DOMINION CONVENTION MISS MONCRIEFF’S HEROIC WORK An insight into the stirring adventures of a Y.W.C.A. secretary in China was given yesterday by Miss E. Watson, of Wellington, who is chairman of the World Fellowship Committee of the National Young Women’s Christian Temperance Association, to a well-attended session of the Dominion Convention of the association, which is at present being held in Dunedin. Miss Watson spoke of the work of Miss Nessie Moncriefl, who is the Y.W.C.A. secretary sent by the New Zealand association to assist in the organisation’s work in China. When hostilities broke out between China and Japan, Miss Watson said, Miss Moncrieff was spending a brief holiday from her work in Shanghai and was staying in the mountains of Kiangsi. She was unable to return to Shanghai and was isolated for several weeks in a little Chinese town without money and supplies and with only her holiday clothes. Despite the fact that Shanghai was a centre of considerable danger, Miss Moncrieff made repeated attempts to return to her work at the national headquarters of the Y.W.C.A. This she was not allowed to do, but was advised to go inland and so accepted the position of secretary at Hankow. Air Raids and Looting Soldiers At Hankow, Miss Moncrieff’s life was an adventurous one. She had to supervise the care of the refugees, carry on Red Cross work and perform her duties as Y.W.C.A. secretary. As soon as the Red Cross work was in operation, she was appointed to take control of the drug, food, and clothing store, and of the dispensary. This in itself, Miss Watson said, was an adventurous step as Miss Moncrieff knew little about medicines. Moreover, she had the continual worry of not being able to obtain sufficient drugs for the sick and wounded. The Chinese convalescent soldiers constituted a great danger to her as they did not receive any pay while wounded or ill and yet were allowed to keep their arms. This meant that they roamed the town taking what they wanted by force. Miss Moncrieff never knew when she might be threatened by these solders, and so a garrison was kept to guard the headquarters. One day she saw a party of convalescent soldiers coming up the path to her dispensary, and she was in a state of great alarm until she knew that they were not out for mischief and looting. • . Hankow was not without its share of air raids, continued Miss Watson, and Miss Monchiefl had many anxious moments when the Japanese planes were circling over the town. One day she was in’ the dispensary getting ready supplies of ether when she heard the planes and the boom of exploding bombs. What was she io do? She was surrounded by large jars and bottles of ether and an explosion even near the dispensary would cause the jars to burst. But. fortunately, no bombs fell near the dispensary that day. Chinese Courage and Foresight The calm philosophy and the amazing courage and foresight of the Chinese people were to be seen in the sphere of social work, said Miss Watson. While Shanghai, Peking, Canton and other coastal cities were being wrecked by the inyaders, the Chinese were still thinking of expanding their social services. This was particularly noticeable, Miss Watson said, in the Y.W.C.A. work. The national association was doing all in its power to open up the interior of the country for Y.W.C.A. work, yet to do thi? it had. to .send its Chinese secretaries from Shanghai, through Hongkong and Canton to Hankow, and thence to the cities of the interior. From Hankow they were sent out to various districts by Miss Moncrieff, and their courageous work was exemplified by the action of one 20-year-old Chinese secretary, who was ordered to leave her town by the Japanese from the north. Although only new to Y.W.C.A. work, she grudgingly left the town and started up a station herself in a city several miles further south. The Y.W.C.A. was already doing a wonderful work in the inland districts to which thousands of refugees were fleeing from the invading Japanese. Destructive Air Raid Miss Watson mentioned that the last letter that had been received from Miss Moncrieff was written from Changshi, where she had gone for a week-end’s rest. The letter was commenced in the morning, and the writer was filled with enthusiasm for the peace of her surroundings. She had been over the ancient and picturesque University of Changshi, one of the oldest seats of learning in the East. The letter was concluded in the evening, by which time the wonderful old university, with its art treasures and priceless manuscripts, was a mass of ruins. This was typical of the results of the enemy air raids. At present, Miss Watson concluded, Miss Moncrieff was very gerturbedl as she feared that the ritish Consul might order all Britons to leave the country, There was so much to be done, and she wanted to help in doing it. The presence of a European was always welcomed by the Chinese, and Miss Moncrieff felt that she could help protect the Chinese girl secretaries from the invading Japanese. Certainly, her last wish was to leave them to the dangers and difficulties of the future and to escape to her peaceful homeland. This was why she had refused repeatedlly a free passage to New Zealand. She wished to carry on the work of the Y.W.C.A. in war-stricken China.