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Show Chungking, City of Gaves, Is Western Z ' ' :n Stronghold of Courageous ch ma 1 6 mu i i ii i i i i " - " On this spiralinf , treacherous, narrow road, connecting- Chunfkinr with Burma, war supplies arc brought into China through western "back door." ' ' ; Capital Digs In for Long Holdout This I tbo second of two articles arti-cles taking you backstage In tbo Chinese war. The author: George A. Fitch, who organised the War Arm Service Corp for China's government and served as "mayor" "may-or" of Nanking's safety sons during dur-ing ths siege of that city. By GEORGE A. FITCH ! CHUNGKING, West China (By Mail) Driven far Inland before the advance of Japan's strong armies, i China la finding a new foothold in " the west. Key of this location is Chungking, ths new capital. This is sn amaslng city. It is located lo-cated at ths head of the mighty Ysngtse gorges and on ths threshold thresh-old of China's richest, most populous popu-lous snd farthest western province, prov-ince, Ssschwan. It Is protected by a continual hass which hangs liks a pall over ths city. It Is further protected by ; msny deep caves which hsvs been "-Waited out of ths sells aosfc on : which ths city stands. There are not enough yet for the population, i but the government Is spending at ( least 180,000 In American money on ) a subway, which will ultimately provide room for alL Thus the Chinese carry on with a spirit which even the destruction of cities cannot kill More constructive construc-tive changes hsvs been msds in a year here than would have been made In a generation before. Consider Con-sider ths picture: Refugees Head West , Together with Tunnsn snd Kwei-chow Kwei-chow In ths southwest, Szechwan was until recently considered by the Chinees too remote and unapproachable unap-proachable to be bothered with. To reach Chungking, for instance, it was necessary to bravs ths dangers of ths trip up ths gorges, where lie the wrecks of msny powerful steamships especially built for the hsrdships of this voyage, as well as ' of thousands of junks shattered on the rocks or sucked under by the great whirlpools. Then the new Yunnan-Burma road was constructed and extension exten-sion begun to Chungking. At the asms time other mountain roads were built, air service launched. West China was opened In a way never dreamed of five years ago. Over these roads hsvs corns tens of thousands of refugees from the Japanese occupied sreas to the east thousands on foot, thousands by truck or bus or motor car, some by sedsn chair. With them have come not only government officials, but leaders of industry, technical experts, ex-perts, scientists, skilled artisans, educators, students. Ths results of all this hsvs been startling, this Impact of ths trained, tresdls which released' a shower from a kerosene can of water suspended sus-pended overhesd, for Kweiyang has no waterworks as yet and only very inadequate electric supply. The sams hardships and handicaps handi-caps are being surmounted here by the medical school of Ysle-in-China and ths National Medical college where students have to reproduce some of their texts by mimeograph and work on packing boxes for tables. Likewise, mustard-seed oil is burned in their incubators because be-cause kerosens is too expensive. . But a new day is coming. .Ths East is putting new life Into the west snd ths west is using every resource, not ths lesst of which is the chemicsliy purs salt which Chinese doctors manufactured from ths dirty Ssechwsn stuff to stem the tide of cholera last summer. sum-mer. , - ' r .' . modern, progressive mass from the Esst on ths . conservative, . undeveloped unde-veloped west. In-these three western provinces alons there is sn area more than twice that of all Germany and a population of something like S3,-000.000 S3,-000.000 people, a people industrious, hardy, inured to hardship, loyal. Keen business men are starting all kinds of enterprises today in Yunnan and Sxechwan. There Is a large cotton mill for one thing. Silk experts have transported 100,000 mulberry seedlings from Chekiang in anticipation of producing the best grade of silk within two years, to capture the very important Burma Bur-ma and Indian trade. Nowhere Is this work better demonstrated than in ths activities of ths, health administration. ad-ministration. It is laying plans to conquer the scourge of malaria, carrying on its program under insuperable in-superable difficulties. Endure Hardships for New Day The Central hospital, now in Kweiyang with Dr. James Shen as superintendent. Is a great contrast to what It was in Nanking. It was then one of the finest snd best-equipped best-equipped hospital in the For East. It has had to move three times, but there Is now the asms splendid spirit snd perfect organisation. The doctors sleep in crude double-deck double-deck bunks, less comfortable quarters quar-ters than the factory girls hsd in Kunming. They washed their hands over a trough by stepping on a |