The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1939-10-26
Paints erribIe
Picture of Wur
Blasted Chino

~
Luchow. a city of 100000. wa
without a single set of surgica
instruments when twentv-sevei
Japanese planes dropped bomb
killing or lnluring a thousand per
sons there, declares Col. Theodor,
+ Roosevelt, Jf., in statement de
scribing China's desperate need foI
help for her civilian refugees.
There is no let-up in the Japan
csc campaign in China" said Col
Roosevelt, who issued his Statement
from the offices of the United Coun
ell for Civilian Relief in China. o.
which he is national chairman
Only recently, q planes laie
waste LuehoW, fourth largest city
in Szechuan province. A thousand
persons were killed or. injured by
the bombs, and there was not a sin.
gle set of surgical instruments avail.
able IN this city of 100000 souls.
There, IN a nutshell, is the pres
ent plight of China. She is acutely
in need of the barest necessities
TO care for the civilians struck down
by the terror from the sky More
than fifty million of her civilians
are homeless.
That is the reason why the Unit
ed Council for Civilian Relief in
China is calling upon the American
people TO give even greater support
to our Bowl of Rice parties this
year. The response last year was
magnificent. but it is no exaggera-
ton to say that China's need has
doubled since that time.
/ am greatly encouraged by the
cooperation that has already been
pledged for this years parties,
scheduled for the week of Octo-
Der 30, but | hope within the next
two weeks that we shall be able to
announce that the number of par
ties 10 be held will double last years
record.
Col. Roosevelt quoted letter
from Naomi Lane Babson, author
Of the new novel about China. "All
The TomorroWs, : describing condi-
tons as she saw them when she was
IN China getting material for her
book
I have just seen the announce
ment Of the Bowl of Rice parties
being held next month. and | am so
glad that this is being DONE wrote
Miss Babson. They are so hungry,
over there in China. There is a
phrase eternally repeated-'S enai,
mo-faan-si six (Lady. no rice to eat J
1t comes from young and old alike.
but il is the children | remember
most Of all Some Of those who
roam the streets in search of food
cannot be more than three or four
years old, tiny and dirty and rag
ged, incredibly patient. If you have
nothing for them they are neither
angry nor surprised They let you
60 on, in your ricksha or your mo-
tor car, back to the big hotel or
the ocean liner, back to five meals
day. They 60 on. TOTO the
next rubbish heap, and scratch for
food like little animals,
The women of China, those who
have anything left at all give un.
stinted time and energy to relief
work. But there isn't enough mon
ev or food or medicine. There isn't
enough of anything. I visited one
of the war orphanages in Hongkong
Territory. II used to be Bud
dhlst temple, but there are double
decker hunks instead of affairs now,
two children to bunk.
These are the lucky ones, these
children. They have lost home and
family, some cannot even tell their
names or where they came from,
some do not speak the dialect of
that province. But they have clothes
and beds and food to eat-they
even have soap | watched class
Of five-year-olds solemnly learning
to wash their clothes. Their eyes
went indlfferently past the foreign
visitors; they were all looking at a
box Of American apples someone
had sent in-California, u. S. A., it
said.
4 remember a hospital corridor
N Canton, where | stood in the
half-dark waiting out an air raid
- Was plleu win crates OF medl-
ene and first-aid supplies, ready for
chanse to be sent inland, toward
the fighting. And the Chinese
nurse beside me said, Without
these we should have nothing at all
70 send this month. No dressings
% use here, either, for our casual
lies And she added, after a mo-
nent,a You have everything, it
seems We have nothing.
We cannot stop the war nor the
it brings Miss Babson
But we can keep a few
children from knowing what hun
ger IS, bandage some wounds, save
some Of those who otherwise would
lie for lack Of medicine or serum.
AND these lives are worth saving.
MI