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Miss Lee Ya Ching 5 Dec. 4, 1942

In the imperial days of the Manchu regime, Chengtu silk was world famous. In recent years, due to diseased cocoons, the quality of silk deteriorated to such an extent that foreign exporters no longer bought it. Last year, using methods started by the women, the crops produced were seventy percent better than those of the previous year. The silk cooperatives started by the women give work to 12,000 families.

Two years ago, the out of the way district of Sungchi was filled with ghost towns empty of industry. Some women established an experimental station in cotton production there, and today all the old stores have opened, over 1,500 cooperatives have been set up, and the whole district is booming.

One American-trained Chinese woman scientist has perfected a new formula for degumming and softening ramie fiber, which will prove of great value in western provinces, which lack cotton.

In new China, the traditional duties of women; to give aid to the the wounded and aged; form only a small part of Chinese women's war work. Hundreds of our women are working as doctors, pharmacists, army orderlies, as village chiefs,[[strike through]] as scythe gangs [[/strike through]], as stretcher bearers, and, in one province, as soldiers. More than 25,000 homeless waifs have been given homes in orphanages which Madame Chiang Kai-shek personally has set up near Chungking, the nation's captial. Help to thousands of other orphans is being supervised by her, with the funds supplied by American donations through United China Relief.

I wonder if you have ever heard of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Movement? Well, to my mind, it is one of the most amazing developments to come out of this entire world conflict. And the women of China