Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
den explicitly by the puppet regime of that time. Later, the fellowship organisations
developed into some small groups specialising in discussions about vocational study.
I helped organising a small group on vocational study, whereby everybody came
together once every weekend to exchange what one had learned when studying
vocationally, called the “Saturday Symposium”. Actually these student organisa-
tions, given the objective situation at that time, really set off the students' self-edu-
cation, and brought about the spreading of patriotic ideals. Because the same thing
had happened to me when I was a student, I was perfectly happy to share some work
in caring for the students through an organisation at school.
At the offi ce of the Student Welfare Committee Dr. Sailer and me took shifts, and
started our “spare-time” work for the students. I hadn't attended his classes when I was
a student, even though his class on “Mental Hygiene” was universally appraised and
received enthusiastically by the students. Now I could see with my own eyes how he
gave himself totally for his work, and couldn't help thinking about the Yenching motto
about “service”, a motto which had clearly been manifested in him. He arranged mainly
“Self-Help Work” for the students with urgent fi nancial needs, all kinds of odd jobs
being paid for by the hour. Because of the war, the amount of students applying for Self-
Help Work increased daily. Sailer's work load increased accordingly, but his attitude
towards the students and his work spirit were so admirable that I will never forget.
My main work had to do with the students' problems of quite another nature,
problems which were linked with the day-by-day development of the War of
Resistance Against Japan. The Japanese invaders were getting crazier every day in
“mopping up” the occupied area, so there were a minority of students then who
insisted on giving up their personal opportunity to study, and plunge into the strug-
gle to defeat the enemy and save the country. Students whom I was familiar with
came directly to me, and there were also students who went straightaway to univer-
sity president Leighton Stuart to discuss their plans. The president wanted me to be
in charge of these matters, but he also established one principle, being that as soon
as the students dropped out to join the work for “the United Front Against Japan”,
no matter if they wanted to go to the hinterland (being the land under Kuomintang
rule) or the liberated area (being the area of the Eighth Route Army of the Communist
Party), they would have to receive equal treatment: to be given support, including
making contacts for their route and helping out with travel costs. If they asked to
change their subject of study or asked to leave to go to work, that was a different
matter. I started to help the students to leave school on this principle, but as it was
best to go unnoticed, I could only operate under the strictest secrecy. At that time,
there was an international friend of China, Rewi Alley, who set up an organisation
in Sichuan called “Chinese Industrial Cooperation”, which got together mainly
scattered labour groups in the inner provinces to expand production and support
resistance against Japan. A very good friend of his, the English lecturer at Yenching,
E. Ralph Lapwood, had as early as 1939 left Yenching, and travelled through moun-
tains in the west and the liberated area of the Eighth Route Army towards Sichuan,
where he worked for this Industrial Cooperation. There were several students of the
school who, infl uenced by him, wanted to leave and support the same Cooperation.
There were also students who actively sought to join the direct struggle against
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