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SPEECH OF LEE YA-CHING


for itself. In this modern world we are neighbors as close to each other as you and I standing here in this room.
That is why I am appealing to you now for help -- to each one of you to help my people and by so doing help yourself. You can help by contributing to United China Relief, the organization which I have come here to represent. In United China Relief the eight agencies which have done most of the relief work in China have joined forces, so as to give the American people the most effective way of turning their sympathy for China into concrete assistance.
United China Relief is asking for $5,000,000. This sum may seem very small by comparison with the vast amounts being spent in your defense effort and indeed it is, but its purchasing power in China, where most of this money will be spent, is at least ten-fold. [[strikethrough]] I know that Americans, like the Chinese, like a bargain for their money. [[/strikethrough]] I know that you will agree with me that a relief dollar will go farther in relieving suffering in China than almost anywhere in the world.
You can be assured that the trifle of one-half cent will provide a balanced meal for a Chinese youngster, while five cents will supply enough chloroform to anaesthetize two persons. $1.00 will furnish food, shelter and medical care for an adult for one month; $5.00 will save 15 persons from lockjaw or disinfect the wounds of 250 or purchase 350 doses of the new sulfa drug to combat pneumonia or blood poisoning. For $25.00 drinking water will be sterilized for 25,000 people or it will purchase 54 dozen of assorted surgical needles. $100.00 will buy ten thousand vitamin capsules for undernourished and ricket-ridden Chinese children, or provide emergency treatment for 100 air-raid victims. Five medical microscopes may be purchased at $500.00; $5,000.00 will balance the budget of one of the larger colleges for a year.