1937
It seems hard to realize that spring is upon us, and the weeks are rushing by, bringing us so rapidly to Commencement time in Hanover, and then reunion. Bill Coe advises that all plans are now complete for a stupendous affair, that all is in readiness for us. So get in your reservation cards, gas up the car, and point it toward Hanover for our "Silver Jubilee." When you realize that Bill is taking on the responsibilities of president of the Board of Education in his hometown of Westfield, N. J., as well as his regular job, you wonder how he manages to devote any time to the task of Reunion Chairman.
One of our "brain boys" who will be unable to attend Reunion is Tony Turkevich who is spending this year in Geneva on a fellowship at CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research. Tony normally hangs out at the University of Chicago where he holds the post of professor of chemistry at the Enrico Fermi Institute for nuclear studies. Before leaving for Geneva he proposed to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a tiny, harmless "atom gun" designed to determine if the moon's surface contains substances from which oxygen and other life-sustaining elements can be extracted. If Tony's suggestion proves feasible, the device would be aboard space vehicles used in early exploration of the moon's surface.
One of the joys of being secretary is the receiving of long Christmas notes. One of the best of these just reached me a few weeks ago, this one from Bob and Meg Aylward in Hong Kong. I would like to share part of it with you:
It's been a fascinating year in this colonial toehold of 400 square miles on the China coast. The building boom continues unabated to satisfy the demands of business, industry and housing. Last spring's census counted a population just under 3.2 million with 40% under 15. In 1960 there was a net increase of 91,000 births over deaths plus another 50,000 refugees from Communist China. The Hong Kong Government pushes ahead with its building program which already has housed nearly 450,000 in stone cottages and multi-story resettlement blocks. It estimates still another 500,000 in squatter shacks on the hillsides with thousands more in slum tenements where a bed space six feet long, three feet wide, and three feet high is often a family's only home.
In August we had a cholera scare when an epidemic broke out in the villages south of Canton. The Communists never alerted either Hong Kong or Macau, and only when cases began to turn up in the Colony, was the full extent of it apparent. In short order the health authorities inoculated two-thirds of the population, and by careful controls there were only fifteen fatalities - a remarkable record.
Yet despite its problems of housing, employment, education, and health Hong Kong still is a conspicuous contrast of abundance and freedom to life 25 miles away. Reliable reports point to a rough winter ahead after the third year of reduced harvests, due in part to natural disasters but also to bad management. The communes have been a serious failure and the regime is not only permitting but encouraging individual initiative in pig and poultry raising, small vegetable gardens, and cottage industries. Food rations have been tightened again and the annual cloth ration is now down to 1½ feet per person - barely enough for patching. There appears to be no real famine but in recent months the Hong Kong Post Office has been flooded with thousands of food parcels sent to relatives on the mainland. Nevertheless the regime still seems firmly in the saddle with its control of the party, the military, and the security police.
The Hong Kong Government is doing a firstrate job in dealing with its swollen population. More than 30% of this year's budget is devoted to the solution of problems arising directly or indirectly from the presence of more than a million refugees. A hundred-odd local and foreign voluntary agencies supplement these efforts with a multitude of different activities. It is through these that the U. S. Government's Far East Refugee Program operates. Bob and his staff spend their days (and more than one evening) working and worrying about how best to translate taxpayer's money into tangible and effective expression of the American People's concern. Most of the large American voluntary agencies are represented here and Bob works closely with them. These include the Friends Service Committee, CARE, American Foundation for Overseas Blind, Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, Lutheran World Federation, International Rescue Committee, and International Social Service. With so many who need help and with the resources always insufficient, what refugee shall have priority? Our assistance is aimed mainly at children, college students, the handicapped, and the new arrivals. Those of us who work with these problems take courage from how much has already been accomplished and have faith that somehow the problems ahead have a solution. Bob has never had a more rewarding assignment — nor one with a greater challenge. However, some days the obstacles look insurmountable with too many statistics of need, too much paper and red tape, too many visitors - and then there are days that bring the realization that through the program, flesh and blood individuals are being helped to start a new life - like the young man last October who succeeded on his fifth attempt to escape, swimming four miles across Mirs Bay to Hong Kong with two basketball bladders for water wings.
The new job has not eliminated our partial involvement in Bob's former responsibility for American prisoners in China. We took care of Mrs. Robert McCann last spring while she was in the Colony to bring out her husband of whom the Pilates of Peiping wished to wash their hands when they discovered he was fatally ill with cancer after ten years in a Tientsin jail. We salute one of the most gallant and courageous women we have ever known.
By the way, Bob. in his capacity of chief of the refugee and migration unit at the American Consulate General, served as guide to Atty. General Robert Kennedy and his party during part of their visit to Hong Kong earlier this year.
We have word about two of our Army members. Col. Daniel Minahan has been appointed chief of staff of the Eleventh U.S. Army Corps with headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. Dan's last assignment was in Teheran, Iran, where he was chief of staff, U.S. Army Mission and Military Assistance Advisory Group with the Iranian Armed Forces. Lt. Col. Dana Prescott continues on his assignment as a member of the staff and faculty at The Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Word has it that Dana went back to school himself, taking a nuclear arms employment refresher course at the college.
One final news item concerns Bob Crabb, who was recently elected a director of the First Southdale National Bank in Edina, Minn. Bob's full time occupation is that of executive vice-president of Southdale Management Co., operators of a huge shopping complex just outside Minneapolis.
Alumni Fund Time is in full swing. As a former head class agent I cannot pass up this opportunity to urge you to support the fund thoughtfully and generously in this our twenty-fifth year out of Hanover. With the wholehearted support of us all, we can achieve that challenging goal as set before us by Frail Fenn and Boz Bosworth. Let's make that $525,000 objective.
Secretary, 25 Old Stamford Rd. New Canaan, Conn.
Class Agent, 4285 N. Port Washington Rd. Milwaukee 12, Wis.
