RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CHINA'S ECONOMIC PLANNING & CHANGING GEOGRAPHY 45

the present regime is making efforts to convey water from the Yangtze River in the south to the Yellow River in the north. Since 1958, several survey parties in western Szechuan and southern Kansu have studied the possibility of transferring superfluous water to the Yellow River from the Gold Sand River, the Taito River, and other tributaries of the Yangtze.

There are, of course, many difficulties to be encountered in carrying out this plan. For example, the northwestern region is so sparsely settled that a tremendous number of workers must be brought in to construct the necessary canals and locks. The area has a serious problem of seepage and evaporation, and it experiences violent earthquakes.

If the plan is successful, however, it will provide ample compensation for the effort required. It will lessen the threat of flood in the southeast part of China, and will prevent drought in the northwest. It will improve the use of the region for pasture land, and increase its agricultural production. It can also develop electric power, which will make up for the shortage of coal in the region. It will modify the dry climate to some extent; this in turn will encourage forest growth. It will form a system of waterways that will facilitate navigation throughout the country.

The building of Railroads—For the sake of political coherence and the furtherance of economic development, the present government has paid great attention to the building of railroad systems. The length of the main line built since 1949 was 16,000 miles. Of the many completed systems of railroads, three have geopolitical significance. They reflect the determination of the present regime to unify the state and to open up the frontier border by connecting it with the inner areas.

1. Along the east coast, five ports—Yentai, Ningpo, Foochow, Amoy, and Chiankiang—have been linked to the interior by short lines. The military intention of the railroads built in the areas around Foochow and Amoy apparently is that of “liberating” Taiwan.

2. Two long railroads have been built for the purpose of connecting China with the Soviet Union. One, which was built in 1954, runs from Tsining to Ulan Bator in Outer Mongolia, and then to the Soviet Union. With the completion of this railroad, China was joined to the Mongolian People's Republic. The other, which is
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG

237

days in selected cases but without improving the condition of their patients.

In addition to beautifying our cemeteries further by means of tiles removed from walls in the hospital, a wooden Memorial Cross was completed and erected in the front cemetery to those of 27 Company R.A.M.C. who had been killed. The names of the men had been skilfully carved by a patient, Private Medhurst. The ideas for beautifying the cemeteries and for the memorial cross as well as for many of the improvements made in the hospital came from many sources and I was able to give all encouragement to men with ideas and to provide materials when available.

The year 1944 was a bad one for the supply of our Japanese rations and fuel. In February we had our last baking of bread using flour, and by that time the flour was very stale and weevily. In compensation the ration of rice allowed by the Japanese was raised from 384 grammes first to 570 grammes and later to 600 grammes daily. We were never able to issue rice on these scales because of the short weight sacks to which I have referred before. A typical disappointment came in March when the ration was cut back to 480 grammes, the cut being made retrospective to 1 March. March also brought news through Watanabe who told me that Red Cross bulk supplies would be delivered twice a month and I prepared lists of items we considered desirable, again keeping my suggestions within the bounds of what I guessed to be practicable in Hong Kong. Saito told me on 8 March that supplies I had asked for on 29 February after one of his searches could not be provided. This was an advance for me because so often in the past I never heard what the decision was on any request. In our first receipt of Red Cross supplies in March we received cod liver oil which I allocated to the medical officers for use as they judged proper. We had also received some shark liver oil from visitors and I used this by adding it to any stews we had in proportion of 5 minims for each person in the hospital. At this time we began to issue to all in hospital soy bean powder as such, instead of making what turned out to be rather repulsive milk from it. We continued to make soy milk for certain patients on the assumption that it might be more readily absorbed. Our meals were often late, mainly because of difficulty of getting good fires in the kitchen. Deliveries of rations were often irregular and we were generally uneasy about the system. Our guards seemed to share this anxiety. The quality of rations
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x
152

FOUND IN A PENNSYLVANIA ATTIC –

Letters from China 1903-1906*

WEI PEH T'I

While cleaning out his mother's attic in Bala Cynwyd, Harry V. Ryder Jr.' found a bunch of letters that had been sent from Taiho. Bala Cynwyd is an affluent suburb of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; Taiho a river town in the northwestern corner of the interior province of Anhui in China.

2

The letters were dated between January 1903 and April 1906. They were written to Harry's maternal grandmother, Louese Hedges Strawbridge, by Edith Rowe, who was a classmate at a "finishing school” in Philadelphia. Both Louese and Edith were Baptists. Edith's letters reflected the high standard of private school education in eastern United States at that time. Her command of written English was more than respectable. Scenes and events were vividly described; ideas eloquently expressed; and grammar and spelling impeccable. Except for one or two words, her handwriting can be read without any difficulty. Two of the letters contain charming line-drawings, an old-fashioned practice still favoured by young students in American schools today.

Louese Strawbridge was the only child of Samuel and Ann Hedges, who had come originally from Ohio. Samuel Hedges had served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war he brought his wife to Philadelphia where he became a successful horse trader.3 Bala Cynwyd is near Devon, in the heart of the Pennsylvania horse country. After graduating from the Friends School, Louese went to a “finishing school", then was married to George Strawbridge, scion of a family that had founded and operated the prestigious department store, Strawbridge and Clothier. Louese and George had four children. Catherine was born in 1896, Helen in 1900, Janet in 1903 and Benjamin in 1907. Except for Benjamin who died in

* Lecture delivered to the Society on 6 October 1986. The author is grateful to Harry and Phyllis Ryder for making available the letters and for information on Harry's grandmother and her family.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x
155

loyal Chinese chroniclers did not claim any distinction for the town. A geography book published in Shanghai in 1931 found very little to recommend the town to its readers. The author devoted one brief paragraph to Taiho.

Even the most bustling part of Taiho is unpleasant. Dust is flying everywhere. The climate is bad; with frequent and heavy rains. Local products consist mainly of silk cocoons, common sorghum, and some hemp. Transportation is dependent on the Ying River, which is silted. At the deepest point there is no more than a six or seven foot draft, barely adequate for local craft, 10

The China Inland Mission was unusual in several respects. The workers were not limited to any particular denomination or nationality. As long as one was Protestant and was comfortable with Taylor's fairly basic theology, one was eligible to be considered as a missionary with the China Inland Mission. Thus, workers came from such countries as England, Germany, Sweden and the United States. Dr. M. Searle Bates, a Rhodes scholar who had taught at the University of Nanking, found that the Mission did not publish lists of its field workers lest they showed the comparative strength of each nationality. The Mission organized no formal church or school, but sent missionaries to live among the people in interior China. From the beginning, there were women missionaries. The axiom of “letting women do women's work" suited the social system of China. Women missionaries were to proselytize to women and children. By 1900, sixty percent of Protestant missionaries in China were women. Single women, including those unmarried and widowed, were to work alongside married missionaries.

The United States in 1900 was ready to expand in Asia. Victorious in the Spanish-American War and bulging with the Philippines, the Americans were looking to China. The value of American exports in 1870 was about $392 million. By 1900, it had increased to almost $1.4 billion. American producers, therefore, were looking for foreign markets. By then, European interests were already carving China into spheres of influence. After the Open Door Policy and the Boxer Protocol were
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