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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 11, No. 7. June 23rd, 1948

I.S.S

page 3

I.S.S.

Geneva, April 20, 1948.—From a letter recently received from Dr. Slamet Iman Santoso, Chairman of the Provisional Committee in Indonesia:

. . . The Republican University has been partially disorganized for many months. Following the Renville agreement it will be possible to demobilise the students so that they may return to the university, and I hope that this will take place next month. Then the university can begin again. In Djakarta only the medical faculty is organised. . . . I have been able to secure a monthly (£185 N.Z. approx.) a month for the total student community of 170 men. The other faculties are far from being organised, because the students must earn their own living. Only a few of them can attend lectures.

Nevertheless, despite political and economic difficulties the medical faculty has submitted 20 students to examinations in the month of January and the beginning of February. The results were not so favourable as they might have been. This must be ascribed to the lack of student materials, especially books and instruments. About clothes, food and other materials we don't care. Though our clothes and food are not perfect, we can bear these difficulties easily, because we are living in a tropical climate. So please send our students your help, as far as the allocation to Indonesia permits, in the form of books and instruments. That will be the most useful."

A recent report depicts the conditions existing in Mukden:

"The big needs in the Shenyang (Mukden) Student Centre have been coal, water, and electricity, the lack of which has prevented them from doing more efficient work. Because of the shortage of coal, they have had no heat in their Secretaries dormitory. The secretaries have had to endure the cold. In the readme room, recreation room and tea room there is not enough heat. They have had to heat their ink-bottles before they could use them!

"Everybody in the office has to wear a fur-coat and fur-hat when working. This year they have had an especially cold winter. "They find the same difficulties in the shortage of light and water. Students can only study during the daytime. Recently for half a month, they have had no electricity at all. They use the gasoline lamps occasionally, but it is very expensive.

"Due to these difficulties, their work was not as efficient as they would have liked it to have been. Although the environment seemed cold, their hearts were warm. They hope their colleagues will given them good advice and suggestions and pray for them."