News Release (China Information Committee, Chungking, China) nr. 389, 13 April 1939, pp. 2509-2510
The China Information Committee was an organization within the Ministry of Information of the Guomindang. It published government propaganda, both within China and abroad. The CIC employed several Western writers and journalists, and had branch offices a.o. in New York and London.
Inserted into the text, between square brackets [], are modern pinyin transcriptions of names of people and places.
Of all the organizations for the promotion of cultural relations between China and foreign countries, perhaps none has suffered more heavily from the war than the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association whose costly clubhouse and library were destroyed by the Japanese upon their entry into the Chinese Capital in December, 1937.
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Although deprived of its beautifully-located headquarters, the Association is carrying on important activities in Chungking [Chongqing] and in other cities with renewed enthusiasm. The war has not disrupted its peacetime work of studying and promoting the cultural relations between China and Soviet Russia and of furthering better friendship between the people of the two nations; it has even added another function to the Association:- that of making the man-on-the-street in Moscow share the feelings of his friends in China in their struggle for freedom and reconstruction.
The realization of this latter activity has already met with initial success among the people of the U.S.S.R. A number of Russian public bodies in Moscow are going to sponsor a Chinese Enemy-Resistance Art Exhibit in the Soviet Capital in May. The contents of the Exhibit which will include books, magazines, literary writings, wood-cuts, cartoons, and motion pictures, all of which are related to the Chinese resistance campaign, were collected by the Association and are now on their way to Moscow. One of the most valuable sections in the exhibit will be a set of pictures taken by leading Chinese cameramen depicting every phase of the war and reconstruction from the firing lines to the remote interior.
Inaugurated in October, 1935, the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association which has Dr. Sun Fo, son of the Founder of the Chinese Republic, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and President of the Legislative Yuan, as its chairman, has a wide programme of activities. These include the exchange of professors and lecturers, sponsoring cultural talks and exhibits, organizing tours and establishing fellowships in Chinese and Russian universities, opening libraries and collecting books, magazines and documents that help in furthering the cultural relations between the two countries. The Association is fortunate in having the Russian Ambassador to China, Mr. Louganetz-Orelsky, as one of its directors, and Mr. Chen Li-fu, Minister of Education and Mr. Shao Li-tze, Secretary-general of the War-Area Party and Political Affairs Commission of the National Military Council, as its vice-chairmen. With its present headquarters in Chungking, the Association has six branches in Shanghai, Changsha, Chengtu [Chengdu], Lanchow [Lanzhou], Kweiyang [Guiyang] and Sian [Xi'an]. Its pre-war membership was 800.
The Association is divided into two main departments, the research and publicity. Divided into the five sections of political, economic, educational, artistic and social studies, the research department is entrusted with every phase of activity that will bring better understanding and cultivate a genuine spirit of co-operation and goodwill between the peoples of the Chinese Republic and the Soviet Union. The publicity department which is subdivided into magazine, editorial and reference sections is responsible for making contacts in all cultural matters and for providing an inter-flow of cultural publications and objects between China and Russia.
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