Student Seminar
Four hundred overseas Chinese students who will be graduated from colleges and universities in Taiwan this year attended a government-sponsored seminar February 18-22.It was designed to provide a better understanding of free China—its policies and achievements and its relations with Chinese abroad—before students return to their countries of residence.
Overseas Chinese youths heard government leaders, experts, and scholars, and were warned of the activities of Chinese Communist subversionists in Southeast Asia.
Premier C. K. Yen addressed the seminar's opening session. He said the support of 16 million Chinese abroad is indispensable in recovery of the Chinese mainland.
The five-day event also included recreational and sports activities.
Fire Relief Donations
The huge fire in Manila's Chinatown February 21 has brought quick and sympathetic response from free China.
An initial sum of NT$1.8 million (US$45,000) was sent to the Chinese Embassy in Manila for emergency relief. The government contributed NT$1.5 million and the Free China Relief Association the rest.
A drive for further funds is in progress under the direction of a committee established by national industrial and commercial organizations and the Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations.
President Chiang Kai-shek, Vice President Chen Cheng, Premier C. K. Yen, and other government leaders sent messages of sympathy and support.
Vice Chairman Ho Yi-wu of the Overseas Affairs Commission visited Manila for 12 days after the fire, and helped community leaders in relief activities.
Philippines
Chinatown Fire
A six-hour fire burned down a large part of Manila's Chinatown the evening of February 21. Hundreds of commercial and residential buildings were destroyed and thousands of people left homeless. Property losses were between US$30 to US$40 million.
Caused by a short circuit, the fire was Manila's worst since World War II.
Led by the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce, a committee was established to handle relief and rehabilitation. A drive for funds began immediately after the fire.
Chinese in the Philippines quickly contributed 500,000 pesos and 180,000 pesos were received from free China. Some 4,000 persons were registered for relief.
Community spirit was outstanding. Two daily newspapers, Great China Press and Kong Li Po, whose buildings were gutted, used the plant of the competing daily Fookien Times to publish a joint edition. Students of burned-out schools used the classrooms of other Chinese schools.
Plans are under way to rebuild and to establish a volunteer fire brigade for the new community.
Extortion Probe
There were charges that Manila firemen demanded money before turning their hoses on the fire.
President Macapagal ordered an investigation.Manila Mayor Antonio Villegas conducted his own probe.
Consul-General Chang Shih-chieh of the Chinese Embassy produced two witnesses and photographic evidence.
One witness, Young Ping, told Mayor Villegas that he saw four firemen demanding 5,000 pesos. The firemen refused to fight the fire because the Chinese could only pay 4,000 pesos, Young Ping said.
Mayor Villegas promised round-the-clock protection of witnesses so they would testify.
Japan
Atonement Payment
Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira has said Japan's cash settlement for wartime atrocities against Chinese in Singapore will be in the form of an "atonement payment."
The Chinese Chambers of Commerce of Singapore and Malaya last year demanded US$53.7 million from Japan as a "blood debt" payment for 40,000 Chinese killed in Singapore. The issue is being negotiated by the Japanese and Malaysian governments.
Answering interpellations in the Diet March 2, Ohira said an "atonement payment" would be different from war reparations. He said the Singapore government had never made a claim for reparations.
Vietnam
Protection in Cholon
Mayor of Saigon Col. Duong Ngot Lam has assured Chinese leaders that the Cholon community will be protected against kidnapping and blackmail.
He gave the assurances February 28 to the chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and others. He praised Chinese residents as law-abiding.
Col. Duong said the new Vietnamese government is studying return of Chinese properties confiscated by the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. The return was promised by the military junta that overthrew Diem and then was ousted by the present government.
The Saigon mayor said it was unnecessary for local Chinese organizations to disband or reorganize, and asked Chinese leaders to continue their community service.
Malaysia
Kidnapping Case
Shaw Vee Ming, 31-year-old son of Hongkong cinema tycoon Run Run Shaw, was released unharmed by kidnapers February 16. His father denied having paid ransom. A demand for 500 million Malaysian dollars had been reported.
Young Shaw said he had been kept blindfolded in a wooden shack for 12 days, He was fed porridge twice daily and lost 17 pounds.
India
1,654 Deported
A total of 1,654 Chinese has been deported from India since the Peiping-New Delhi frontier clash of 1962, the Indian Parliament has been told.
Still in jail are 556 Chinese, most of whom refuse to go to the Chinese mainland. About 600 others left India without waiting to be deported.
Of roughly 20,000 Chinese who lived in India two years ago, about 17,000 remain at liberty.
France
Loyalty Demonstration
Chinese residents in Paris demonstrated their loyalty to the Republic of China by honoring the entire staff of the Chinese Embassy at an elaborate farewell dinner February 16.
Organizers of the party said they intended to show the French and the Communists that overseas Chinese support free China despite the French recognition of Peiping.
Held at the Cafe Du Pont, the party originally was planned for 70 persons. More than 150 turned up. Participants agreed it was the biggest banquet given by Chinese in Paris since World War II.
Most of those attending were low-paid workers. Yet each paid nearly US$30, and some said they would have paid any amount to show their patriotic sentiments. All participants pledged not to attend performances of a Chinese Communist opera troupe in Paris.
Toasts were given to President Chiang Kai-shek, the Republic of China, and the counterattack on the mainland.
Departing Charge d'Affaires Kao Shih-ming was asked to report to President Chiang that overseas Chinese in France will remain loyal to the Republic of China.
England
Divorce Declaration
Lee Wah-fu, 35, a restaurateur of Hull, was granted a declaration in Divorce Court that his divorce by consent in Hongkong four years ago validly dissolved his marriage by Chinese customary law when he was 14 years old.
The judge said Lee was entitled to the declaration without determining whether his marriage to Lee Tin-Tai, 36, was itself valid.
Lee had asked for the ruling because he wished to marry a Chinese resident of England.
Funeral of A Doyen
The funeral of Young Chong-mong, Chinese restaurant owner, held up traffic in central London as his coffin was carried past his home and restaurants. He was considered the doyen of Chinese restaurateurs in Europe.
Six hundred mourners, many of them Europeans, filed past his glass-topped coffin as it lay in a Chinese restaurant he opened 18 months ago.
Mr. Young, known as Charlie, was born in China 55 years ago. He made a living selling hot rice in Hongkong, then went to London in the early 1920s. His chain of restaurants was located in the heart of London.
United States
Scientific Genius
Two Chinese-born scientists who won the Nobel prize for physics are described by the science editor of the New York Herald Tribune as possessing the "special ability" to make "daring leaps of imagination which characterized the late scientific genius, Albert Einstein."
Dr. Lee Tsung-dao and Dr. Yang Chen-ning were listed by Earl Ubell as among seven physicists upon whom "Einstein's mantle" may fall.
Ubell commented that their continuing attachment to Chinese culture may have contributed to their "special vision."
Dr. Lee, 38, is a professor at Columbia University in New York. Dr. Yang is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Ubell said that "despite his excellent English and Wall Street habiliment, he still has the view of the outsider looking in."
New President
Chung Chiao-cheng has been elected president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New York.
Chung succeeded Thomas Mei. He pledged that the Chinese of New York will stand with the Republic of China in the cause of freedom.
Venezuela
60 Immigrants
The Venezuelan immigration office permitted the entry of 60 Chinese immigrants in 1963.
Most of them are relatives of Chinese residents. They applied for immigration through the Chinese residents' association in Caracas.