Viewing page 92 of 131

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

SPEECH OF LEE YA-CHING

I want to thank you for the welcome you have given me. When I was a little girl I heard of the friendliness and the hospitality of the American people and, after I have lived here among you, I found that all I heard about you [[strikethrough]] was not just propaganda. [[/strikethrough]] have been demonstrated in full force. We Chinese like the American people. We have been friends for many years. [[strikethrough]] We have carried on friendly trade relations with you for almost a century -- the China Trade, as you all know, played a big part in the development of your country in the last century. [[/strikethrough]] As one of the youngest Repulics in the world -- China's democracy was thirty years old last month -- we have looked to America, the oldest Republic, as a political model. Sun Yat-sen, who founded the Chinese Republic, took his inspiration from the writings of Abraham Lincoln and other great American statesmen.

[[circled]] Today, meeting you for the first time, I would like to talk to you about the pleasant things in America, the beauty and culture of your nation, or the life and the love of the Chinese people -- but I am afraid my heart is too heavy to talk of these things for a reason you well know. My country is at war. [[/circled]]

For almost five years now China has been fighting one of the worst aggressions in history. Today she is one of the three remaining fighters who have successfully resisted totalitarian attack. The Chinese spirit is undiminished and the Chinese morale is unbroken, although we have lost important territories and suffered tremendous casualties. [[circled]] China fights on although Japan is still in control of most of the transportation routes, and most of our large cities have either been completed demolished or occupied by the invader. In [[/circled]]