SUFFERINGS IN CHINA.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18952, 23 May 1933, Page 8

SUFFERINGS IN CHINA.

PLIGHT OF REFUGEES.

SAID TO BE DESPERATE.

Y.W.C.A. OFFICER’S LETTER.

The lack of an efficient organisation to deal "with; refugees from hostilities in China is referred to in a letter received by Miss Jean Stevenson, national secretary for the Y.W.C.A., from Miss A. M. Moncrieff, a Y.W.C.A. secretary at Peiping (says the Wellington Dominion). Miss Moncrieff was formerly on the teaching staff of the Feilding High School. “There are several thousand wounded soldiers in temporary hospitals in Peiping,” says Miss Moncrieff, writing on April 4. “These hospitals are organised by the Red Cross Sooiety and the Red Swastika Society. Some of the cases are very serious, but the most serious cases never come as far as this. They are looked after nearer the fighting line. The big Imperial temple in front of our student centre, which used to house, the Kindergarten Normal School, in which we had our most prominent student club, has been taken over by the Swastika Society as a hospital for a thousand seriously wounded. While the buildings were being prepared some of them were used as refugee camps for about 200 of the many men and women and children who have been driven off their holdings in Johol and Heilungkiang by Japanese occupation or by bandits.

“A Great Problem.”

“Most of these people originally came from Honan and Shantung, and were among the thousands who have migrated north in the past few decades. The Swastika Society is. bent on returning them to their original homes in Honan and Shantung, but the refugees are most reluctant to go because thev have no homes and no people left there, and they would be as completely without resources there as they are here. It is a great problem, because attention is taken, up with caring for the wounded soldiers, and the refugees are not getting much thought or care. I went over the temple camp not long ago, and although conditions were passable, there was much distress that could have been avoided with a little more organisation. “These refugees were later moved out into a big covered market in the south city. There conditions are very much worse. The camp is very dirty, crowded and unsuitable. The group on the ground floor are peasant farmers without money, and sick and weary after their long trek to Peiping. They are herded together without privacy for either births or deaths, and no care beyond the somewhat dilapidated roof over their heads and the dry millet cakes that are served out every day.

Indifferent Hygiene.

“Ups Fairs there is a very different group. They are nearly all formerly well-to-do Chinese, who are the families 9f ! lle offlcers 01 and Su> two volunteer generals 111 Maiichui'ih who retreated across the Russian border. Several of the women are Russians who have married Chinese. Some of them have a little money to go on with, and they are better clothed. They are. being drafted into smaller camps as places can be found for them, and are interested in keeping themselves and their clothes moderately clean and tidy. With these groups the Y.W.C.A. is preparing to work. Our social serrice has made several visits of investiga j tion and has roused the interest of the Peiping Union Medical College social service department in their conditions. . _ “The members of the Swastika Society have very little imagination, and do not see beyond a roof and food. We are interested in looking after sanitary conditions and health precautions. As may be expected, infectious diseases have already broken out. Baths and wash-basins and changes of clothes will probably fall to ttic Y.W.C.A. to provide, and the Peiping Union Medical College social service department will provide medical and nursing care if the Swastika Society caro sufficiently to send in a formal invitation. “The Chinese army has no wellorganised medical corps, and various societies such as the Peiping Union Medical College, the Red Cross Society and a union of women’s organisations had to take charge. In ?ome of the temporary hospitals there were not even any bed boards for the wounded to He on, and they were on the floor without a covering of any sort, and not even a change of clothes. Material was quickly brought and the Y.W.C.A. undertook the preparation of 500 beds. These included straw mattress, quilt, pillow, and hospital suit, These already well under way."