The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-12-21
AN INTERNATIONAL
CHRISTMAS GIFT
BrattlebOro Asked TO Raise S400 to Aid
Union Colleges and Medical Schools
for Women i'm Orient

The raising of an international Christ
mas gift of 81 100000 by the men and
women of this country is being earnestly
striycn for this week all over the land.
This gift will go to five colleges for the
Christian education of the women of the
Orient situated in the following cities:
Tokyo. Japan; Marking and Peking,
China; Lucknow and Madras, India.
These institutions are supported jointly
by mission boards in this country and
Canada. Besides the five colleges there
are two medical schools for women sit
juated in Vellore, India, and Peking.
These institutions were to have re-
ceived S3.000.000 from the Interchurch
movement but received only part of that
amount While they can manage by hard
work to meet the running expenses. there
| is no money for buildings or equipment,
both of which are sorely needed by all
these institutions
4 The only hope for the Christian educa-
ton of women lies in these Institutions.
The tragedy of the East today is that
there are SO few women who are in any
way prepared to lead the mass of their sex
and so stabilize and direct conditions
j through the period of transition. The
problem in Asia is how most quickly TO
produce native women leaders to meet the
situation which threatens. In India. for
example, are more than twenty million
girls of school age of whom less than a
million are i'm schools of any kind; only
1S,0O0 are in high schools and only 500
in institutions of higher learning. Only
one per cent of the entire population of
women is literate.
( In China the need is as equally urgent
The leader of 4 recent commission to
Japan. sent by the chambers of commerce
of the Public coast, made the following
statement to the board of this college:
The only mission work | saw in Japan
was this college of women. You ought to
invest a million dollars and might well in
vest twenty millions in the interest of in
ternational relations alone. Japan can
not enter the family Of nations on an
equality until she revises her ideals of
womanhood. This Woman'S Christian
college in Tokyo will help her to do that
/ Support it generously for it viii be a
greater force for world friendship than all
our chambers of commerce"
This Is a significant appeal, not from
mission board, but from the leader Of the
San Francisco chamber of commerce.
! The physical needs of the women and
girls of the Orient make tremendous ap-
peal for medical training for women.
There are two hundred million women in
/ China. Many cannot be reached by men
even il there We're men to help. There are
just - women doctors in China. The aD-
peal for nurses is pitifuI since 60 per cent
of the hospitals of China have no nurses
Plenty of Chinese Christian girls with
high school training are ready to study.
but there is no room in China's few medi-
/ cal schools for women. One. person in
three in China is tuberculOus In India
women are born, live and die with no medi-
cal aid. Last year 125 Indian girls ap-
piled for entrance to the Vellore school.
One hundred were turned away for lack
of room.
Brattleboro's quota Of this million dol
lars is S40O to be raised preferably in
shares of SO each. Several people may
club together to make up a share if $40
seems too large an amount. The Interna-
ticnal Committee asks that the pledges be
in so that the news can be cabled i'm the
code word Rejoice" to these institutions
SO timed as TO reach them on Christmas
morning. Gifts large and small are asked
from this community and may be sent be-
fore Thursday night to Mrs 7. s.
Knight. Mrs. r. \. Num- Miss Florence
IL. Wells, Mrs. j. L. Martin While a
good start has been made on tho local
quota it is believed that many more men
and women viii desire to have a part in
sending this most needed Christmas Gift
to those schools which must look to Ameri-
cans for the larger share of their support.