Double Tenth Gathering
Festive October saw overseas Chinese gatherings throughout the world to celebrate Double Tenth. The largest gathering of all took place in Taipei.
Some 83 delegations with more than 1,800 individual members came from 44 countries and areas of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and North and South America. Some Chinese communities in such lands as Luxembourg, Holland, and Uruguay sent delegates for the first time.
Represented were community associations, family clans, chambers of commerce, labor unions, and cultural and religious groups. There were four representatives of the 1,000 Kalmyk Mongolian refugees in the United States.
The most beautiful were Sabah Queen Miss Ho Yu-pai from North Borneo and Miss Chinatown Ruth Elaine Lee from San Francisco. A 43-member Cantonese opera troupe from Hongkong provided entertainment for the armed forces of free China.
Overseas Chinese saw the mammoth military parade and attended many ceremonial functions. Overseas Chinese Day was marked October 21 and Taiwan Retrocession Day on the 25th.
Leaders attended two important conferences: the Overseas Chinese forum and the annual convention of the Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations, which has headquarters in Taipei.
Training of Youth
Two hundred overseas Chinese youths are receiving year-long training under the agricultural and industrial techniques program sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission.
Speaking at a ceremony marking start of the program, OCAC Chairman Kao Hsin declared that the overseas Chinese "can benefit themselves as well as their host countries by acquiring the knowledge and skills of modern technology." He said the aim of the program was to guide overseas youths along a new path in choosing careers.
Classes are conducted at provincial vocational schools in Taichung, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, and Taoyuan. Courses include agriculture, farm machinery, agricultural processing, animal husbandary and veterinary medicine, radio repair, electric appliance repair, auto maintenance, and applied chemistry.
Trainees come from Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Timor, Malaysia, and Mauritius Island.
Protest to Japan
Japanese sale of a U8$20,000,000 vinylon plant to Peiping on credit has touched off a flurry of protests from Chinese communities all over the world. Hundreds of messages have poured into Taipei urging the government to take strong measures.
On behalf of the overseas Chinese, the Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations cabled Japanese Premier Hayato Ikeda: "The sale on credit is tantamount to giving economic aid to an evil force of aggression at a time when it is on the verge of economic collapse."
The overseas Chinese also expressed indignation when Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda said he doubted free China's ability to recover the mainland. The overseas Chinese press in Manila, Bangkok, Hongkong, San Francisco, and other cities published more than a hundred editorials denouncing Japan.
In Australia, the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and other community groups filed a protest with the Japanese Embassy as Ikeda arrived for an official visit.
Chinese communities in Korea warned the Japanese government to slow down its trade with Peiping or face a boycott of Japanese goods. Similar warnings were sounded by the overseas Chinese in Vietnam, the Philippines, Mexico, and the United States.
The Philippines
Last Advice to Ikeda
The Chinese-language daily Great China Press of Manila told Premier Ikeda, who arrived in the Philippines September 26, not to "underestimate the strength of the Chinese people, nor the anti-Communist feelings of the Chinese overseas, while trying to develop trade relations with the Peiping regime."
In an editorial entitled "Last Advice to Ikeda," the paper said the Chinese Communist regime is a public enemy of all Chinese and "will not last long." "Therefore, it is unwise for the Japanese to trade with the Communists and ignore the indignation of the Chinese people."
During his four-day sojourn in the Philippines, Ikeda was bombarded with messages of protest from 200 Chinese organizations of that country. Five Chinese delegates delivered a memorandum to the Japanese Embassy criticizing Ikeda's remarks about mainland return and the proposed trade with Peiping.
Seed Members
A campaign to recruit "seed members" to support the government counterattack on the mainland has entered its second phase. Some 3,000 patriotic Chinese have pledged assistance for the counteroffensive.
The campaign was initiated by the Filipino Chinese Anti-Communist League six months ago and seeks to mobilize resources of overseas Chinese. Seed members donate part of their monthly income to a public fund for mainland liberation.
The League hopes overseas Chinese in other parts of the world will follow its example.
Malaysia
The Blood Debt Issue
Overseas Chinese of Singapore and Malaya say there is a special account to square with the Japanese. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in both places have demanded payment of US$53,300,000 as compensation for wartime Japanese atrocities.
The issue first was raised by the Chinese business community in Singapore last year when it undertook to exhume and reinter the remains of wartime victims. It is estimated some 40,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese in Singapore during World War II.
The Singapore Chinese filed a "blood debt" claim against Japan for US$16.7 million. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Malaya followed suit with demands for US$36.6 million.
The Japanese government balked at first on grounds such wartime claims should have been settled under terms of the San Francisco peace: treaty. It softened its position only after Singapore Chinese began a boycott of Japanese goods and refused to service Japanese ships and aircraft.
With the inauguration of Malaysia, the issue was taken up by Prime Minister Tengu Abdul Rahman, who arranged negotiations with Japanese Ambassador Wataru Okuma. Rahman said he expected equitable settlement.
Y. T. Lee, spokesman for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, quoted Premier Rahman as saying Chinese representatives would be invited to take part in the negotiations.
Pro-Communist Students
The Malaysian government has arrested 20 students of Chinese descent at Nanyang University and some Chinese middle school in Singapore.
A statement in Kuala Lumpur said "a great deal of incentive and drive in the Communist campaign has been provided by a small group of pro-Communist Nanyang University and Chinese middle school students to exploit and intimidate the rest of the student population into actively supporting the Communist front in Singapore."
Among the arrested were six Nanyang graduates, including left-wing socialist Ong Hock Siang, who ran against Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the recent elections. His party was accused of attempting to subvert democratic government processes after its election failure.
Following the arrest of pro-Communist students, the Singapore government entered into negotiations with the Nanyang University Council for reorganization of the university. The students union of the school staged a three-day boycott of lectures in early October in protest against the negotiations.
<b>United States</b>
American Tributes
Double Tenth celebrations in many U.S. cities have become occasions' for many Americans to join Chinese residents in expressions of friendship toward the Republic of China.
The second week of October was proclaimed Republic of China Week in San Francisco, home of the largest Chinese community in the United States. San Antonio, Texas, also had a Republic of China Week. In New York, Mayor Robert F. Wagner proclaimed October Free China Month.
In Washington, a rally of 300 Chinese and their American friends was held October 6. Presentation of Mayor Wagner's proclamation highlighted the Chinese national day banquet organized by the Sino-American Amity Fund Inc. in New York.
Lion and dragon dances featured celebrations in San Francisco, New York, and other cities.
Assistant U. S. Attorney
Zeppelin W. Wong, 34, made legal history when he was appointed assistant U.S. attorney for North Carolina, the first Chinese-American to hold the post.
Wong was sworn in by Judge George B. Harris October 2. Present at the oath-taking ceremony were his grandfather, Yudo Wong, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. K. Wong.
He got his first name when a German zeppelin flew overhead the day he was born in San Francisco.
Largest Refugee Family
The largest single family group of Chinese refugees from the Communist-held mainland, 29 in all, was flown to San Francisco September 26.
Included were the four brothers of Mrs. Leu Shee Doo, 62, and their families. With her husband, supermarket owner H. P. Doo, she paid the US$11,000 fares for their flight from Hongkong.
After clearing immigration, the Doo’s boarded a chartered bus for Turlock, Calif., where the brothers will work in one of Doo's three supermarkets.
The refugee family group was admitted to the United States under President Kennedy's special Hongkong refugee program. According to Gordon Davidson, assistant director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Francisco, the program has enabled some 8,000 Chinese refugees to enter the United States.
Voice of Chinatown
The Voice of Chinatown in New York, a radio station inaugurated September 4, beams community news, commentaries on Chinese events, Cantonese music, Chinese drama, and other special programs to listeners in the biggest American city.
The Chinese-language station, WHB-FM, was established by public-spirited community leaders Lee Chueh-chi, Lei Tsai-hung, Lee Hua-kwang, and others.
Great Britain
No Chinese Brides
For security reasons, the British Air Ministry has banned its radio operators from marrying Chinese girls with relatives on the Communist-held mainland.
The ban was imposed after a year-long dispute regarding four Royal Air Force radio operators' who married Chinese girls in Hongkong. They were transferred to England. After a screening, three were barred from sensitive duties.
If strictly enforced, the ban will mean no more such marriages. Few Chinese in Southeast Asia are without relations on the mainland.
Mainland
Compulsory Labor
More than 3,000 overseas Chinese students graduated from mainland colleges this year have been sent to work in villages and mines in Yunnan, Sinkiang, and other border provinces.
They were forced to accept hard work in the remote, arid regions because of the Communist "centralized service of job assignments." Many tried to escape on the way to their posts. Others were said to have taken a "negative attitude" after reaching the destinations.
As revealed in an article in the Chinese Youth Journal, "these college graduates are not content to live with the oxen and horses in the fields. Pessimistic feelings are prevalent among the overseas youths."