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Mr Whelan
Radio

United China Relief
1790 Broadway, New York City

Date: Sunday, June 14
Station: W N E W
Time: 7:15 to 7:30
Speaker: Mme. Wellington Koo
Subject: "Chinese Women at War"

Mme. Wellington Koo:

In this universal conflict the nations have had to call upon every source of strength that they possess, and this has meant that women - for the first time - are being almost universally employed for the grim business of war.

All of us have heard how the women of Russia have shouldered arms, piloted the fighting airplanes, turned out munitions in the factories, and fought for their country in the greatest guerrilla resistance to the German invader. Now we see English and American girls doing many war jobs for their country. But I wish to tell you about the women of my native land - China - and how they have joined the great sisterhood of women everywhere in fighting for freedom and for human decency.

Altho Chinese women were beginning to emerge from the home as important economic and social factors even before the war began, the war hastened their emancipation, and today Chinese women are doing scores of jobs not usually filled by women in warring nations.

China's most picturesque army is its secret army back of the fighting lines - its army of women. It consists of thousands of peasant women, young and old, brightly garbed and chattering like magpies, who make up road gangs. These women are opening new paths to the western provinces - hewing roads out of the mountains with spades, a xes [[axes]], picks and even cooking utensils.

Fighting alongside the peasents [[peasants]] are aged Chinese women, with the bound feet of the ancient custom, serving on sentry duty; and doctors' wives, running secret kitchens to feed guerrilla troops. Besides serving as sentries, one of their commonest tasks is shoe-making. Shoes are constantly needed by the mountain-trotting guerilla [[guerrilla]] soldiers, for their efficiency and bravery as soldiers often is judged by the number of shoes they can wear out in a limited period of time.

The old ladies also cook for wounded soldiers and guerillas [[guerrillas]]. And working and cooking, they act as entertainers. Whenever wounded men pass thru a village en route to base hospitals, they are greeted by women who tell them stories or sing.

Japanese are paying heavily for the folly of having overlooked the sturdy resistance of Chinese women. When in several provinces the Japanese military molested women, the mothers and mothers-in-law of the villagers used axes and meat choppers on the Japanese, surprising them in their sleep.