Welcome Speech at the Meeting Welcoming the Delegation of the World Students’ Association at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University

(July 3, 1938)

Today, the entire faculty, staff, and students of our university hold this welcome meeting to welcome the delegation of the World Students’ Association. The delegation of the World Students’ Association has crossed vast oceans and braved all hardships to come to China. They come out of sympathy for and to aid China’s War of Resistance, to oppose fascism, and to safeguard world peace. Their open and upright attitude is worthy of our welcome, and we should extend to them our boundless respect. On behalf of the entire faculty, staff, and students of the university, I extend a revolutionary salute to the representatives of the World Students’ Association!

All the gentlemen of the delegation are leaders of the world’s students, struggling for the interests of the world’s students and for the interests of world peace. That the World Students’ Association could send such an excellent delegation to China deserves our respect. At the same time, we can also see the sympathy and warm assistance of the masses of students and youth throughout the world for our country. For this, too, we should express our boundless respect.

In welcoming the delegation of the World Students’ Association, we should express our admiration for their great spirit of fearing no hardships in aiding China. They have rendered much help to China: propaganda, fundraising, boycotting Japanese goods, refusing to sell goods to Japan, and urging their governments to assist China in resisting Japan. For such sentiments, we should be greatly thankful!

They have struggled for world peace and have gained much experience. This experience can be applied to China’s war of national liberation. In welcoming them, we should accept their experience.

During this visit of the delegation to China, you can clearly see with your own eyes how barbarously cruel and how utterly inhuman the Japanese bandits’ actions in China are. The delegation can clearly see with their own eyes how the innocent Chinese people are suffering unprecedented calamities, and can see the unprecedented unity of China and the heroic struggle for national survival and world peace.

Since the Japanese bandits forcibly occupied our Northeast on “September 18,” they have encouraged Italy to destroy Abyssinia, aided the Franco bandit gang in running amok in Spain, and encouraged the German fascists to annex Austria and attempt to once again stretch their demonic claws toward Czechoslovakia, thereby creating an imminent crisis of war. Thus, the Japanese bandits are the chief culprits in undermining world peace!

In China, the Japanese bandits not only wantonly slaughter the Chinese people but also massacre foreign nationals (for example, many foreign missionaries were bombed to death in Shanxi). From this, it can be seen that the Japanese bandits are the public enemy of the people of the whole world!

The aid given to our country by the World Students’ Association has made the Chinese people clearly see that our struggle is not a struggle fought in isolation. It has further encouraged the Chinese people and strengthened the Chinese people’s confidence in victory in the War of Resistance. At the same time, the visit of the delegation to China proves their activism and efforts in aiding China and safeguarding world peace. Therefore, our welcome to them is of very great significance.

How should we welcome them?

First, they have very rich experience in the struggle against fascism and aggression. Today, we are engaged in a war against the Japanese bandits, and we should learn from them.

Second, the delegation is sent by the World Students’ Association. The World Students’ Association is a worldwide organization that upholds peace, opposes war, and opposes fascism. The Second Congress of the World Students’ Association will soon be held. We believe that at the congress, resolutions and calls for practical aid to China and world peace will certainly be passed, and we should prepare to implement them.

Third, we should contribute our experience in opposing Japanese imperialism to the World Students’ Association and to the youth of the whole world.

Our students are all the finest youth of the Chinese nation. All have made a resolution, in a spirit of selflessness and impartiality, not to struggle for personal livelihood but for the interests of the nation and the country, not only for their own freedom and liberation but also for world peace! That our students have such a resolution shows that China has new strength, shows our country’s progress, and at the same time smashes the shameless rumors and deceptions spread by Japanese imperialism in the world. We are even more convinced that in the protracted war, China will certainly achieve final victory!

We have great hopes for the delegation. We hope that after completing their inspection tour, they will report in detail to the people of the world on the brutal, barbarous, and various bestial acts of Japanese imperialism and on the heroic resistance of the Chinese people, and call upon all justice-upholding and peace-loving peoples not only to extend their sympathy to China in spirit and morality but also to give China greater aid in material and military terms, to boycott Japanese goods, to refuse to sell munitions and raw materials to Japan, to urge their governments to fulfill their treaty obligations, to pass strong resolutions at the Second Congress of the World Students’ Association, and to turn these resolutions into practical action, thus aiding China and safeguarding world peace!

Finally, we hope that the World Students’ Association can give us assistance, because our Anti-Japanese Military and Political University is carrying out the work of training anti-Japanese cadres amidst arduous struggle. To assist the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University is to assist China’s War of Resistance, and is also a great cause in the struggle for world peace.