ASSISTANCE FOR RED CROSS

Southland Times, Issue 23444, 26 February 1938, Page 8

ASSISTANCE FOR RED CROSS

ELOQUENT LETTER OF APPEAL CHINESE BOY WRITES TO DUNEDIN SCOUTS (Special to The Times) DUNEDIN, February 25. Written in almost faultless copperplate and couched in excellent English, there has come to the Dunedin Boy Scouts an eloquent letter of appeal for assistance for Red Cross work in Central China. The writer of the letter is Wang Kang Ling, a 15-year-old Chinese boy scout, who is a pupil of the first municipal school at Hankow, and the appeal was addressed to C. H. Wing, Commissioner of the Boy Scouts for Otago. In his letter Wang Kang Ling states: “I am sending you this letter because we are all boy scouts wearing the same Baden Powell uniform, saluting with three fingers and having exactly the same heart, and serving mankind. I am 15 years old and a member of No. 3 patrol of No. 2 group of No. 328 troop of Chinese boy scouts. These are times of adventure and danger for boy scouts. Air raids have caused the killing and wounding of many thousands of poor helpless people. After these raids, our older comrades go to the scene of bombing with stretchers and first aid kits and have good chances to carry out the second oath of our promise: to help other people at all times. All of us help in one way or another—visiting hospitals with comforts for the wounded and writing letters for them. “I am trying to do my duty by helping the suffering and homeless and I am also trying to serve the Red Cross by sending this letter to you, asking you to do a good turn by sending money or medicines to Central China. My Chinese brother scouts and I have together written this letter. We all should be happy to have a reply from you and to know about scouts’ work in your district. Please help the Red Cross if you can. They need much money.”