Counteroffensive Fund
The Overseas Chinese National Salvation Association voted to create a special fund to help finance a counterattack on the mainland at an early date.
The delegates pledged their support to the government in fulfilling the sacred mission of delivering mainland compatriots from the Communist yoke. Part of the support will be in the form of money to be raised in Chinese communities abroad.
In addition, the association adopted a resolution calling for establishment of a Counter Invasion Award Foundation which will honor those who make special contributions in the return to the mainland.
Awards will go to:
—The first wave of amphibious units to land on the mainland coast.
—Personnel whose combat performances are above and beyond the call of duty.
—The best military strategist in planning the counteroffensive.
—Soldiers who save the lives of their comrades and friendly forces at the risk of their own.
—Communist soldiers who defect during the counterattack.
—Mainlanders who supply vital intelligence or carry out successful sabotage against the Communist forces.
Sun Yat-sen University
The proposal to establish an overseas Chinese university in Taiwan is materializing.
After initial consultations between overseas Chinese representatives and interested government agencies, the following points have been agreed upon:
—The projected university will be named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China.
—NT$100,000,000 (US$2,500,000) will be raised by the overseas Chinese to finance the project.
—The university will have a college of medicine, a college of science and engineering, and a college of law and commerce.
—At least half of the student quota will be reserved for overseas Chinese.
—Arrangement will be made with Japanese universities for an exchange of students for the promotion of Sino-Japanese cultural cooperation.
Shilin in suburban Taipei has been tentatively chosen as the site. The town council there has voted to lease a large tract of public land to the university.
Kuo-chiang Goes to School
Taipei's overseas Chinese student community acquired its latest and youngest member this fall. He is Li Kuo-chiang, 11, from Mexico.
Kuo-chiang and his brother Kuo-nan, 19, arrived in Taipei October 7 with overseas Chinese visitors from Mexico. They had never seen their own country and it was their first separation from their parents.
Kuo-chiang has had four years of schooling in Maxico and can speak only Spanish and a few broken sentences of his native Cantonese. He was assigned to the Mandarin Experimental School as a second grader.
Miss Chao Hui-teh, Kuo-chiang's special tutor, said the boy encountered great language difficulty, as expected. "In the first few days he could not even understand his own name because he pronounced it in Cantonese. But he is learning fast."
Miss Chao said she and other pupils have been helping him by sychronizing their speech to gestures. "The method appears to be very effective," she said.
Kuo-nan has studied Chinese for some time. Although he cannot speak Mandarin, he is fluent in Cantonese. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission has made arrangements with the Provincial Chienkuo Middle School to enroll him. Schools of the brothers adjoin.
United States
Couple Reunited
A wedding picture, a former newsman's hunch and oriental patience brought about a happy reunion of a Chinese couple in Oklahoma City in early November after a separation of 23 years.
Jew Yick How, 48, cook in a Chinese restaurant, embraced his wife tenderly as she stepped off a jet plane. He gave her a kiss on the cheek for the benefit of photographers.
It was the first time Tam Mee Chun had seen her husband since he left Hongkong in 1938 to go to the United States.
Jew Yick was born in Canton. His father was a naturalized American citizen. He went to the United States in 1930, then to Hongkong in 1935 to visit his parents. It was then he met his bride.
When he returned to America three years after their marriage, Jew Yick had to leave his wife and son behind. The only evidence of their marriage was a wedding picture, and that did not meet the requirements of immigration officials.
When war came to Hongkong, Tam Mee fled into the interior of China. Jew Yick's efforts to get her to the United States met with repeated failures.
Irvin Hurst, an insurance man in Oklahoma and a former newspaper reporter, learned of the couple's plight from Charles J. Gin, the cook's employer. Mr. Hurst wrote Senator Robert S. Kerr, who in turn contacted the U. S. consul general in Hongkong.
"Back came a letter, which the senator forwarded me, signed by Sam I. Gilstrap of all people," Mr. Hurst said.
Mr. Gilstrap, the American consul general, had attended college with Mr. Hurst. He granted the cook's wife an interview on October 19. Satisfied with her story, he issued her a visa. She obtained a British passport and left Hongkong by plane for the long-waited reunion with her husband.
Pursuit of Knowledge
Chinese students enrolled in American universities and colleges during the last academic year totaled 5,673, an increase of more than 460 compared with the preceding year, according to a survey conducted by the Office of the Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
Cultural Counselor Dr. Tsao Wen-yen said that the four surveys made since establishment of the office in 1957 showed the number of Chinese students has been increasing steadily.
The recent survey showed the largest number, totaling 1,547 or 27.25 per cent, were engineering majors. The second largest group, numbering 1,461, majored in physical and natural sciences. Then came humanities, 901; social sciences, 612; medical science 419; business administration, 297; education, 186; and agriculture, 86.
Chinese students, second to Canadians as the largest foreign group in the United States, were found in all the states except Alaska. Men totaled 3,964; women 1,709.
Eight universities have more than 100 Chinese students each: California, 295; Illinois, 198; New York, 197; Minnesota, 154; Washington, 119; Columbia, 117; Michigan, 117; and Wisconsin, 108.
Thailand
Cutting Down Remittances
The Chinese population in Thailand is cutting down on remittances to friends and relatives on the Chinese mainland.
A study in the Bank of Thailand's monthly report for September says that since 1957, when the total sent behind the Bamboo Curtain came to almost 10 million U. S. dollars, remittances have fallen to an all-time low of US$35,000. The downward trend is expected to continue, the study says.
The report suggests three causes:
1. Money did not reach the intended beneficiaries owing to the internal situation on Chinese mainland.
2. Restrictive regulations of the Thai government.
3. Slowdown in Thai business activity, especially affecting low-level income brackets.
Why has the Thai government, firmly committed to the West and bitterly opposed to the Peiping regime, not stopped the flow completely?
The bank report says that from 77 to 90 per cent of the remittances made in recent years consist of no more than US$25, and concludes that "the remittances made during this period (from 1957 to 1960) were quite reasonable and justifiable if the purpose was for supporting families and relatives."
"This being the case," the report adds, "the government has not deemed it advisable to impose more restrictive measures. In fact the government has been aware of the contributions made by the Chinese community toward the economic well being of Thailand, especially in the field of commerce, manpower, and even technical knowhow. It is for this reason that the government has never prohibited such remittances."
England
World Beauty No. 2
Not since C. K. Yang won the silver medal for the decathlon at the Rome Olympiad last year have the Chinese people been so thrilled.
Grace Li, already well known to the free Chinese of Taiwan, became an international celebrity overnight as she was proclaimed the world's second most beautiful girl in London's Miss World pageant.
Jubilation over Miss Li's victory was especially great among the overseas Chinese communities, because the 19-year-old beauty is an overseas Chinese herself.
Eldest of the five children of a Chinese couple at Inchon, Korea, Miss Li came to Taiwan for study several years ago. Now a music student in the National Academy of Arts, she has an attractive personality and a winning smile.
In the 1960 Miss China contest, Miss Li finished fifth. This year she became one of three Misses China.
When her two sister beauties became semi-finalists in Long Beach and Miami, Grace became nervous, afraid she might not be able to do as well.
Her fears were not unfounded. She was to go to England, which has no diplomatic relations with the Republic of China. The Chinese community in England is comparatively small and might not give her moral encouragement.
However, everything turned out all right. The Chinese community gave her every possible support. Some even shed tears of happiness when the judges announced the results.
Miss Li toured Paris as honor guest of the Chinese residents there and still has a long list of places to visit. She has received invitations from the Chinese communities in nearly all the major cities of the world.
Canada
Wild-goose Chase
Investigations of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police into alleged illegal Chinese immigration have been going on for months. So far there is little evidence to substantiate the charges but lots of harassment of Chinese residents.
Recently, three Chinese associations at Winnipeg petitioned Immigration Minister Fairclough to protest "persecution" by the investigators. The Chinese said the investigations should be concluded or stopped.
Minister Fairclough said she would like "to see the whole thing wound up as quickly as possible."
Korea
Detainees Freed
All seven Chinese residents arrested by the Korean military junta last June for alleged espionage or smuggling activities have been released from jail. But they still may face trials.
Three of them, including Li Tsai-ching, Korea manager of the U. S. registered Summit Corporation, probably will be tried by an army court-martial, according to investigation sources. The Seoul District Prosecutor's Office listed the other four for possible trial before the Seoul District Court, the sources added.
Li and two others, drugstore owner Sun Sheng-tsan and former merchant Chang Keh-cheung, were bailed out for reasons of health in early October. They had been charged with contacting a Chinese Communist agent in Hongkong and providing him with secret information on South Korea. They were also charged with smuggling a large amount of commodities from Hongkong and illegally sending money to the British Colony.
Li was arrested for allegedly assisting Sun and Chang in espionage and illegally sending dollars out of Korea to foreign banks.
The remaining four Chinese, including Tsai Chi-fu, an employee of the Summit Corporation, were charged with illegal transactions in foreign exchange. Although released in July, they are still awaiting possible trial.
The Overseas Chinese Association in Seoul said the Chinese Embassy had strongly appealed to the Korean government for the releases.