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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 6, No. 3 March 31th, 1943

China:

China:

"Our college students are peculiar war victims. How they have been suffering to continue their studies is known to the world. They constitute one ten-thousandth of our population: one college student out of every 10,000 Chinese. The Chinese nation is poor, and many of the Chinese college students are of the poor families. For obvious reasons the Government did not draft them into military service and not many of them insisted on entering the service when their Government advised them to continue studying. Their colleges moved on as the war spread. They followed. In the midst of suffering that is acute and world-wide, theirs has touched our heart and mind and spirit deeply. Amidst great hardships they have travelled over hundreds of miles to find places for study. They might have lost contact with their families which, in turn, might have suffered untold misfortunes. Their colleges, moved into new locations, might have been bombed again; their meager possessions might have been all lost and they themselves might have remain ed alive only by chance. Yet again, land or aerial bombardments actually have forced them to move, with less remaining of goods and family and more only of suffering.

"The universities are now somewhat settled down. At the very beginning there was a tendency to congregate in the big cities in West China. Because of the continuous bombings from the air, most of the universities have now moved into the country. At present there have sprung into being about a dozen of what might be called isolated university centres,' in small 'hsien' cities or even villages. Many of these universities are quartered in temples or clam halls. The equipment is plain and simple. Students have to use double decked beds in crowded rooms. Mud-bricks are piled up to serve as desks and dinner tables. Mat-sheds are put up as temporary lecture halls. Oil lamps are generally used for night study. These universities need books and laboratory equipment very badly.

"Unless we give students enough to eat they will sooner or later come back to us for medical aid. In fact, medical aid has become increasingly frequent in our relief work among students. For the moment the most common diseases among the students are colds, malaria, cholera, skin diseases and tuberculosis. Quinine is not only expensive but also in some places unpurchasable."