I found the people generally contributing toward the winning of the wer and providing wadded garments and other comforts for the soldiers. In every city I visited there were numerous organizations canvassing the shops and the homes for cent butions. Most shop keepers and people of means were induced repeatedly to contribute to the war chest and especially assist in buying material and the making of warm garthents for their soldiers, The people look upon this war of defence as their own and not merely the concern of the war lords or their Government.
Generally ami—comparatively speaking, the war refugee does not create such a massive problem elsewhere os it has in Shanghai. This is due to the policy of the provincial governments. They do not permit the refugees to become congested in the large cities, but ere scattering them throughout the provinces. There were approximately only 30,000 refugees in all Shantung—the largest number in any one place being no more than 3,000. that Shanghai, (apart from the transient wounded who passed through Shanghai en route for interior hospitals) provided only 5,000 beds, it will be readily seen how great a problem it is for interior cities like Sian, Nanchang, Changsha and others to receive and minister to 10,000 or more wounded soldiers at one time.
Wounded in Pitiful Plight l return to Shanghai from my journey with the wounded soldier as my most poignant memory. I can't get him out of my thoughts. He is the most pitiable person in China today, The chances all are that he must eat all the bitterness of the refugee: inadequate clothing, insufficient nourishment, no protection from the rain and the biting north wind, his wounds festering through lack of surgical care, I am referring to the life of the wounded soldier for the period between the time he is wounded until he is received as a patient in the hospital in one of the large medical centres set up by the Government for the care of the wounded soldiers, as at Nanchang, Sian, Wuhan, Changsha.
While in Nanking, 1,200 wounded soldiers were lying on the river bank waiting to be put on board an improvised hospital ship for transportation to Wuhan. Their clothing was drenched after days of fighting in the rain. They were exposed to the biting chill of drizzle combined with a strong north wind, They were hungry and thirsty and their wounds unattended to.
A call came to the relief committee for dry wadded garments for these 1,200 men, There were only 400 suits available. Since this request was not an unusual one and their resources were insufficient to cope with the demands, they were afraid to distribute the 400 among the 1,200 for fear that the other 800 in their misery would fight for possession of this dry warm clothing. It was only by segregating the 400 most needy that they were able to distribute their limited supply of warm clothing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.