Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
After three meetings, it was decided to set up a Student Welfare Committee, chaired
by Professor Sailer who was very popular with the students, to facilitate tackling the
Japanese if they would come to the university to stir up trouble. I was vice chairman
of this committee and acted as a contact with the students. Another committee mem-
ber was chosen among the young and enthusiastic professors of the Colleges of
Arts, Natural Sciences and Public Affairs, and the Dean was invited to be secretary
of the Committee, to make it easier to communicate with the whole school's various
administrative organisations and the university president. On 21 June 1940 President
Stuart signed a memo and sent it to everybody appointed. I have kept my personal
copy until today, and added it to this paper. Therefore, before I even entered a class-
room, I walked into the offi ce of the Student Welfare Committee inside the large
offi ce building.
The fact that I had accepted this task had to do with the education I was given by
Yenching University as well. The Yenching University motto “Freedom Through
Truth for Service” was known by heart by all university students. The understanding
of this motto by the students might have been profound or superfi cial, but there was
one thing the students themselves could all feel in a minor or major degree: the spirit
of helping others, to be found everywhere on the campus. This spirit of helping was
most concrete in the relationship between students and staff, and also most obvious
there. The establishing of a Student Welfare Committee by the president of the uni-
versity is a very concrete example of this spirit. Honouring this university motto
became my unshakable duty.
Student life at Yenching University had, apart from compulsory studying, its spe-
cial characteristics. Especially when the nation's crisis deepened daily and the stu-
dents' activities outside the classroom became gradually more and more restricted,
one characteristic became obvious, and that was the existence of an organisation
called Small Christian Fellowship. As a Christian university, Yenching University
had established Colleges of Arts, Natural Sciences and Public Affairs, which were
offi cially registered at the central government in Nanking of that time, but there
existed also a College of Religion, which didn't enroll students publicly but attracted
students majoring in religion. The College of Religion had its own building, in which
was built a small worship hall, where believing and non-believing staff and students
could freely attend the Sunday service, although not many people did. There was yet
another organisation, called the Christian Fellowship of Yenching University, whose
offi ce was inside the building of the College of Religion also. The Fellowship was
divided into a number of small fellowships, which were led mainly by student believ-
ers. Non-believers could join freely, and some fellowships invited Christian profes-
sors to join as advisor. Every fellowship had its own name, some names had to do
with religion, like “Friends of Jesus”, or “Shining Salt Group”, but not all names
were like that. For example, there was a fellowship which from the start was organ-
ised by six people, and was therefore called the “Group of Six”. These fellowships
were full of vigour, because they did not only study the Bible and discuss religious
doctrine, but touched upon the problems in daily life, most importantly the discus-
sion about current affairs. If it hadn't been under the name of a fellowship meeting,
discussions about current affairs wouldn't have been possible, because it was forbid-
