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The Dayton Chinese Girl Flyer Here [[image]] MISS LEE YA-CHING China's Spirit Unbroken Despite Atrocities, Girl Flyer Tells Daytonians As calmly as the ordinary person would walk down the street in a nation at peace with the world, Miss Lee Ya-ching (in this country it would be Miss Ya-ching Lee), pretty Chinese girl, told Monday at the home of Mrs. Anthony Haswell in Maysfield road how she expects to engage in ambulance airplane service in China within a few months. In this country in the interests of United China Relief, Miss Ya-ching declared that her country never will be conquered and that the spirit of her people is most remarkable in the face of the terrorism inflicted on them by the invading Japanese. Describes Violence In Nanking and Canton when the Japanese forces came in she said the stores and homes were all lotted, Chinese men were shot without provocation and women raped, those who could escape fleeing to the inland. Sixty million refugees have moved from Japanese-invaded centers in this fashion, she said, but still they carry on and are firm int he idea that China never will surrender. Women of China have been very brave in the face of the dangers brought about by the invasion she says, relating how regiments of women soldiers fight at the front alongside men and how 1,000 girl students marched into the interior, carrying with them their books and establishing new centers of learning. Improved Education "Educationally, China has improved since the Japanese have come in," said Miss Ya-ching. College students have increased in number and 90,000,000 now can read and write the basic vocabulary of 1,000 words. This permits them to read newspapers as that is the extent to which they use the Chinese language. All this has happened since the war started. She told about how [Conclude on Next Page, Column 5] MONDAY, May 26, 1941 China's-- Concluded from page One the co-operative movement has made it possible to move some 3,000 factories and plants from the invaded areas into the interior, where they have started up again. These are engaged mainly in manufacturing daily necessities. Women are taking care of orphanage camps and assisting in every way possible, and a great leader in the movement has been Madame Chiang Kai-shek, whom everyone respects and who has done a great deal in relief organization work. Belongs to Caterpillars Miss Ya-Ching has the distinction of being the only Chinese girl flyer to belong to the Caterpillar club, composed of flyers who bail out and save themselves. That happened in 1935 while she was flying with her instructor over Oakland, Calif. She was thrown out of the plane when her belt broke at a height of 2,000 feet but though she couldn't swim she kept herself afloat in San Francisco bay after a parachute landing until she was picked up. She has been in this country two and one-half years, making several cross-country tours. Her parents reside in Hong Kong, where she expects to join them this summer and enter the ambulance airplane service. Monday, efforts were being made to secure her admittance to Wright field, a process which entailed calling the Chinese embassy in Washington for credentials.
