Bugle Call
Gen. Chang Fa-kuei, former army commander known as "Old Ironsides", called for a "grand unity" among Chinese communities the world over to help the government recapture the mainland.
Speaking to more than 1,000 Chinatown residents in San Francisco last month, the general reiterated his conviction that the Peiping regime will soon collapse. The concerted efforts of the overseas Chinese in support of their home government will undoubtedly hasten the downfall of the Communist tyrants, he emphasized.
In a 30-minute speech on "China and the Overseas Chinese", Gen. Chang said Chinese people abroad have no cause for pessimism regarding the future of their motherland. During the republic's 50-year history, China has successfully weathered many a grave crisis, he reminded his audience.
He said he was convinced the Communists will never be able to win the support of the people because they have been ruling the country by brutality and treachery. Such a regime, he declared, is bound to be toppled by the people. He believed the day would arrive sooner than some people expect.
Praising the overseas Chinese contributions to their mother country in the past, Gen. Chang said they can help the home government overthrow the Peiping regime as they helped found the Republic, unite the country and defeat the Japanese. His speech was greeted with a standing ovation.
The general's speech was the more remarkable because he has lived in Hongkong since 1949, and is considered a leader of the "third force" movement.
Proud Marchers
During the American presidential inauguration on January 20, President John F. Kennedy watched from the reviewing stand some of the finest bands and military units in the United States parade.
None marched more proudly or carried their banners higher than 40 Chinese girls from San Francisco. Dressed in red and gold satin, with peacocks embroidered on their uniforms, the members of the famous St. Mary's Chinese Girls Drum Corps, stole the show in the magnificent inaugural parade.
The corps is a 20-year old organization founded on St. Patrick's Day in 1941 by John Yehall Chin, director of the Chinese Language School in San Francisco.
"This is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to us," said Louise Ow Ling attractive drum majorette and leader of the group, who spoke for all the members.
"Unprecedented" Wedding
Two days after Christmas, Miss Lucy Wei-O Kung was married to Maj. Lester M. Conger of the United States Army. Ambassador George Yeh honored the couple by presiding over the wedding ceremony held in the Church of Pilgrims in Washington.
Many other Chinese girls have married foreigners before this event. What made Miss Kung's wedding different was the fact that she is a 78th lineal descendant of the great Chinese sage, Confucius (Kung Fu-tze.) And she is the first of the sage's lineal descendants ever to marry a foreigner.
Miss Kung, 20-year-old daughter of Prof. Kung Teh-cheng, is a graduate of the Shih Chien Home Economics College at Taipei. She met her future husband in Taipei over two years ago when he was a Chinese language student in Taiwan. They went to the United States last year.
"I am delighted," Prof. Kung said in receiving congratulations on his daughter's marriage. "The major is a very courteous person and knows a lot about China. I have been consulted beforehand and I gave my full consent to the marriage," he said happily.
Taipei
Homing Dollars
Overseas Chinese have invested a total of NT$698,422,000 in Taiwan in the form of over 100 industrial plants which give employment to a total of 11,661 persons.
Statistics compiled by the Overseas Chinese Enterprise Association showed export sales by these plants during the first 10 months of 1960 amounted to US$3,045,884, in addition to home sales totaling NT $838,282,000.
While the investment dollars are helping promote the economic development of their home country, overseas Chinese communities have also made generous contributions to many worthy causes in Taiwan.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission reported these contributions totaled US$3, 341,900 in the past 10 years. The money was spent for airdropping of relief supplies to the people on the mainland, relief for victims of natural disasters in Taiwan and troop comforting activities.
Overseas Education
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission has activated a new section in charge of overseas Chinese education. Heading the section is Li Poo-seng, vice chairman of OCAC.
This section is responsible for formulation of overseas Chinese educational policy, study of overseas school system, training of teachers for overseas Chinese schools, preparation of their curricula and matters concerning overseas Chinese students in Taiwan.
OCAC reported there are a total of 4,866 overseas Chinese schools all over the world. These include 23 colleges and universities, 543 secondary schools and 4,300 grade schools.
In geographical distribution, these schools are scattered in Asia (4,751), the Americas (57), Oceania (12), Europe (2) and Africa (45).
In addition to these schools, a great number of overseas Chinese are receiving education through the Overseas Chinese Correspondence School in Taipei. For the current semester, no less than 1,580 students have been enrolled by the school.
This large student body includes people from every walk of life and every age group in 35 overseas localities.
Superb Designer
One of the largest cartridge case plants in the Pacific area was inaugurated near Taipei late December. It was designed and built under the supervision of a team from the Kennedy Van Saun Manufacturing and Engineering Corporation of the United States.
Heading the team is 31-year old Gilbert B. Mar, who is chief engineer of the US$ 4,000,000 project. A native of Fukien, he went to the United States in 1948 to study in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After his graduation he worked as production engineer for a number of large firms in the United States. In 1957 he joined the U.S. Naval Atomic Facility as industrial engineer in manufacturing of fire control and missile guidance system. He joined KVS only last year.
He is not only a topnotch engineer. During his MIT days he was the captain of the MIT tennis team and member of the varsity basketball and diving team.
Mar is a son of Vice Admiral Pillian T. Mar (retired), also a MIT graduate. The old man who was China's leading shipbuilding expert, died in January, 1561. Happily, he lived long enough to see his son complete the cartridge case plant.
Indonesia
Sukarno's Folly
Before December 15, 1962, Indonesia's three million Chinese residents will have to become citizens either of the "people's republic of China" or of Indonesia. That is the essence of the nationality agreement concerning the overseas Chinese signed between the Jakarta government and the Peiping regime last December.
For the anti-Communist Chinese community in Indonesia, the treaty is a big blow. If they choose to be subjects of the Communist regime, they will be inviting a tyrant as their master. Their properties and even their very lives would be at Peiping's mercy.
If, on the other hand, the Chinese elect to be Indonesian citizens, their prospects would be scarcely brighter. As alien residents, they have already been subjected to all sorts of discriminations and persecution. To whom can they make appeal for help when, as naturalized Indonesians, they are oppressed by that government?
But the overseas Chinese are not the only victims of the nationality treaty. By signing the accord with the Chinese Communists, Sukarno has thrown Indonesia's doors wide open to their infiltration and interference in the country's domestic affairs.
According to the agreement, the Chinese Communists will increase their "embassy" staff and set up temporary organizations to handle the registration of those Chinese who want to be Red subjects, and these personnel are entitled to diplomatic immunity.
It requires little or no imagination to guess what sort of personnel the Peiping regime will send to Indonesia in the next two years. Armed with diplomatic immunity, these fifth columnists will penetrate into every nook and corner of Indonesia. And their work will certainly be facilitated with the help of the new "Chinese citizens."
Furthermore, these new citizens of the "people's republic" will give the Communists a legal excuse to poke their nose into Sukarno's home affairs. By calling their meddling acts "protecting" the interests of their own people, the Reds can be counted on to give Indonesia no end of trouble.
Canada
Naturalization Completed
Montreal-born Sammy Wing of Chinese parentage had wanted to be a sailor as far back as he could remember. A few days after his 18th birthday he presented himself at a recruiting office of the Royal Canadian Navy.
He passed the preliminaries with flying colors-good physique, and alert mind - but farther along the line a young personnel officer had his doubts.
"These are troubled times," the officer said to Sammy, "and in the event of war you might be called upon to fight against your own people. Would you be prepared to do that?"
Sammy's eyes rounded with astonishment.
"You mean," he asked, "there may be a civil war in Canada?"
The next day Sammy was on his way to the naval training depot. He had satisfied the skeptical officer that he is as Canadian as a naturalized alien could possibly be.
Singapore
Decline of Migration
A sharp decline in the migration of Chinese students from Singapore to the Chinese mainland was noted in the annual report of the Immigration Department.
The report attributed the decline to reports from behind the Bamboo Curtain of hardships being encountered there.
According to the report, only 152 Chinese students went back to the mainland in 1959 as compared with 212 in 1958 and 893 in 1957. "Nearly all these people left Singapore without obtaining travel documents from the department," the report said.
The report further indicated the number of Chinese returning to the mainland for visits also continued to drop. The Immigration Department issued only 543 re-entry permits in 1959 as compared with 1,056 in 1958 and 7, 646 in 1957.
This, the report continued, is attributed to the "currently less generous attitude of the Chinese people's government towards overseas Chinese returning for visits, and the withdrawal of the liberal tax exemptions for personal effects which had previously been allowed by that government."
Hongkong
Telltale Parcels
No matter how hard the Chinese Communists try to conceal the dire food shortage on the mainland, the fact was laid bare by a recent postal report in Hongkong.
The Hongkong post office reported that it handled an "abnormal" and "unprecedented" increase of food parcels, posted to the mainland in the last three months of 1960. The report did not give statistics on the increase. The commission was interpreted as caution of the local authorities not to embarrass the Reds who not so long ago clamped down on the flow by limiting each family to two pounds of foodstuffs a month.
Unusually reliable sources said many overseas Chinese with relatives on the mainland have substantially increased remittances to friends in Hongkong who are helping them send food parcels to their relatives.
There is no telling when the Communists will again decide to clamp down on the flow of these much-needed parcels. They are not expected to do so soon, judging by the serious situation on the mainland. Yet one can never tell with the capricious Communists. That is probably one reason why there is such a current mad rush of food parcels.
Fire Disaster
The worst fire to hit Hongkong in years raced through a Kowloon squatter settlement at dawn on January 16, killing six persons and rendering some 8,000 poor Chinese residents homeless.
The conflagration destroyed some 1,000 wooden huts and four small factories in the squatter settlement measuring 18 acres in area. The blaze kept Hongkong's whole fire department busy for four hours.
The last holocaust of similar proportions broke out eight years ago on Christmas night, a disastrous blaze which made 10,000 Chinese refugees homeless.
Korea
Restaurateur's Scholarship
A Chinese restaurant owner in Pusan has won the hearts of his neighbors for supporting a young Korean refugee from North Korea for eight years.
Li Heng-lien, 52, owner of the New World Restaurant who went to Korea at the age of 18 from his native Shantung Province, had always wanted to do something to promote Sino-Korean friendship.
His chance came when he opened the restaurant in Pusan eight years ago. He met Song Doo Ho, then a 26-year-old refugee from the north, who was working as a poor laborer to earn a meager living.
Li first gave Song living quarters at his restaurant and then sent him to college, despite the fact that he himself had six children to care for.
"I could help Chinese boys instead of a Korean," the restaurateur told his protege, "but I chose you because I want you to work for Sino-Korean friendship after you rise in the world."
After graduating from Hanyang Engineering College, Song obtained employment with the Sampoong Paper factory in 1958. He got married last year with Li's help.
Having put Song on his own feet, Li is helping an 18-year-old Korean boy attending a technical high school in Pusan.