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Miss Lee Ya Ching             6         Dec. 4, 1942
are largely responsible for it. You see, the industrial cities of China, near the coast, were lost to the Chinese early in the war. That meant starvation in the vital things of warfare- munitions, uniforms, guns, shoes, bullets and so on... needed by millions of China's defenders. The country had lost nearly all its factories and mills. The people themselves had lost their homes, [paper torn] and been forced to flee into the interior. The situation was as simple - and as bad - as that. They had two alternatives: to quit the fight, and embrace slavery; or to carry on, and build a brand new industrial system amid the storm of war. The Chinese choice began an epic of heroic enterprise. They started the Industrial Cooperative Movement. First, they established little factories, employing five or six or ten people - huddled in caves, in camouflaged huts, even under trees, where the bombers couldn't see them. If the bombers did find them, or the land war moved dangerously near, they packed their factory machinery on their backs and walked fifty, a hundred, or five hundred miles .. and set up shop again.
I have tried to give you a picture of how my sisters.. the women [paper torn] ..China have rallied to the defense of their country through these terrible five years of unprovoked and ghastly war. You can imagine how they have suffered. And you can imagine how inspiring it is to them to see help coming from across the seas..from America ..through this great American organization of yours called United China Relief. Your government can help us put weapons into the hands of our soldiers. But it is to you, the people of America, that China must look for the supply of those human needs that mean the difference between life and death, between hope and despair. I know that China will not fail you. I know that you will not fail China.