Page 267 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 267
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
CHEFOO NEWS AT LAST
It was sometime after our term had started that at long last we heard some news about Chefoo and
the children. It didn’t come direct nor was it from Raymond, but one of the school staff had written to a
friend in the occupied territories and she had managed to get word to us parents in West China. We
all devoured every scrap of news that filtered through and shared anything we heard with everybody
else. None of us had heard from our children since the beginning of December after Pearl Harbour.
Here is what she wrote:
“Perhaps you can imagine the stacks of forms we had to fill in for
ourselves and the children after England declared war on Japan. We
had to detail all our possessions and the value and the minutest detail
of the buildings and their contents and the cost, our names and
addresses, ages and nationalities. Then we were given an arm band
to wear when we go out to show our nationality, a huge B for British
and A for American. We did not get our usual quarterly envelopes
from Shanghai, so a committee was set up to plan a rationing
scheme. We have cut down our meat and milk bills by half and
dismissed half of our servants. The boys and girls in the Upper
School set the tables and clean rooms. In the Prep School the staff
do their chores and spread bread. It is quite a business to clean
one’s room before breakfast every morning. We are also limited in
the number of slices of bread we eat. We are having the most
interesting meals, soya bean curd in big quantities and peanuts in a
number of dishes, one of the most popular being peanut loaf instead
of meat loaf for dinner. Of course we see no fruit, but we have lots of
vegetables and often have raw cabbage and carrots for salad. We
spend no money outside the compound more than is absolutely
necessary.
We are ripping up war knitting - scarves etc. - and remaking them into
cardigans for the children. The staff are knitting stockings and other
necessities. I wish I could tell you of the wonderful ways God led
certain people to prepare for this contingency. Those at the head of
affairs in the compound laid in a stock of coal for the winter and it was
wonderfully sent in when there seemed none to be had. At Christmas
our puddings were made weeks beforehand when supplies were not
short and Mr. Oleson nobly killed one of his goats to supply most of
the compound with meat for Christmas. As for presents, we could
almost write a book on the way the Preps were able to have about
four or five parcels each. Just a day or two before things closed up, a
large parcel arrived in the post from Shanghai bringing quite a store
of children’s presents from parents down there. An evacuating mother
left a veritable storehouse of toys with Miss Carr and the toys were all
as good as new. There were two large parcels for a little boy in
Gansu which had been lying here for a year or two, so we took the
liberty of opening those. Another evacuating mother left us with ten
tins of jam and another parcel of books from America came too late
for last Christmas but was in time for this. It was marvellous. Guards
were left on the compound for several weeks, changing every few
267
Amy Moore
CHEFOO NEWS AT LAST
It was sometime after our term had started that at long last we heard some news about Chefoo and
the children. It didn’t come direct nor was it from Raymond, but one of the school staff had written to a
friend in the occupied territories and she had managed to get word to us parents in West China. We
all devoured every scrap of news that filtered through and shared anything we heard with everybody
else. None of us had heard from our children since the beginning of December after Pearl Harbour.
Here is what she wrote:
“Perhaps you can imagine the stacks of forms we had to fill in for
ourselves and the children after England declared war on Japan. We
had to detail all our possessions and the value and the minutest detail
of the buildings and their contents and the cost, our names and
addresses, ages and nationalities. Then we were given an arm band
to wear when we go out to show our nationality, a huge B for British
and A for American. We did not get our usual quarterly envelopes
from Shanghai, so a committee was set up to plan a rationing
scheme. We have cut down our meat and milk bills by half and
dismissed half of our servants. The boys and girls in the Upper
School set the tables and clean rooms. In the Prep School the staff
do their chores and spread bread. It is quite a business to clean
one’s room before breakfast every morning. We are also limited in
the number of slices of bread we eat. We are having the most
interesting meals, soya bean curd in big quantities and peanuts in a
number of dishes, one of the most popular being peanut loaf instead
of meat loaf for dinner. Of course we see no fruit, but we have lots of
vegetables and often have raw cabbage and carrots for salad. We
spend no money outside the compound more than is absolutely
necessary.
We are ripping up war knitting - scarves etc. - and remaking them into
cardigans for the children. The staff are knitting stockings and other
necessities. I wish I could tell you of the wonderful ways God led
certain people to prepare for this contingency. Those at the head of
affairs in the compound laid in a stock of coal for the winter and it was
wonderfully sent in when there seemed none to be had. At Christmas
our puddings were made weeks beforehand when supplies were not
short and Mr. Oleson nobly killed one of his goats to supply most of
the compound with meat for Christmas. As for presents, we could
almost write a book on the way the Preps were able to have about
four or five parcels each. Just a day or two before things closed up, a
large parcel arrived in the post from Shanghai bringing quite a store
of children’s presents from parents down there. An evacuating mother
left a veritable storehouse of toys with Miss Carr and the toys were all
as good as new. There were two large parcels for a little boy in
Gansu which had been lying here for a year or two, so we took the
liberty of opening those. Another evacuating mother left us with ten
tins of jam and another parcel of books from America came too late
for last Christmas but was in time for this. It was marvellous. Guards
were left on the compound for several weeks, changing every few
267
