[Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.]
Peiyang Women's Hospital
Tientsin, China.Dear Miss Turner;
I want to thank you for "The Journal of Pediatrics". It is a better journal than "American Journal of Diseases of Children". The former deals more to problems and diseases of children while the latter deals more to results of recent researches. For the gneral [sic] practitioner the former is of more value than the latter. Members of these two editorial boards are equally well known thru out the medical world. Schloss, Marriott and Talbot are some members of the editorial board of "American Journal Diseases of Childrnen [sic]" while Blackfen, Cooley and Faber are men of high quality for this board. I do appreciate your gift to me for here in China we have almost everything material except good books and journals.
The China Medical Association has two journals now. They are good considering the infant stage of our medical situation. Most [of] our scientific journals are bilingual (Chinese and English) for terms are very newly coined words. Since my return I have tried to learn these terms and they are actually more Greek to me than English new terms. However I like to learn these terms as we teach our nurses in Chinese. We do teach some English to our nurses as thier [sic] Journal of Nursing is also bilingual. Progress is slow. When I was a student in high school there was no journal of scientific value. There are quite a number of journals today of science. In fact all secondary schools and colleges are giving more attention toward fundamental science than any other subject.
For the month of January we have again lived in fear and anxiety because of Shanhaikwan attack by Japanese. So far nothing [h]as happened to us and we continued our work as usual. Patients are fewer this month for our hospital is very near Police Station. In case of war we are in midst of war area. People do not dare to be at hospital in fear of any emergency attack. We have used our time to make material ready for soldiers. Our nurses have taught classes to lay people. We have used this month for part vacation also. We expect to carry our classes thru summer months. Although we have not been so busy with actual hospital work we have kept ourselves busy in doing many odd things.
It is gratifying that my children are getting along so well in their physical and mental developments. Their Chinese is good for their age. They speak English naturally. They speak English to each other for fun. Both are learning to read. Abby has just finished her story of "Red Riding Hood" in English[.] Abby is backward in her muscular control but she is gaining it gradually. Her writing has improved some recently. Mary Jean is naturally an all round girl and she takes care of herself well. Both these girls are going to be much taller than thier [sic] sister and their aunt. They have milk once daily that gives them more calories for growth.
P. U. M. C. is so near Tientsin. We are utilizing our near distance. Six of our student nurses have just finished their six months' affiliation in that hospital and six more are going this coming Monday. Our six students have done good work and thier [sic] reports from P. U. M. C. are excellent on the whole. I feel quite happy for I have always miantain [sic] that quality is more important than quantity. Our students have expressed thier [sic] gratitude for the intensive training we have been trying to instill into them. When condition is better we like to send some graduate nurses for post_graduate studies at P. U. M. C. Our American friends have helped us much in maintaining high standard for the medical profession. Both our medical school and nursing school are gradually coming to the standard of your best schools in America.
We still read in papers that America is experiencing business depression. We understand that America is suffering from over production. Poor China is suffering from under production. We are buying food from America and Canada. This proves that we cannot even produce enough food for our usage. Just now givernment [sic] is encouraing [sic] scientific farming. Everybody is talking about popular education. As the people of China are too large numerically and probably decades will pass before we can get popular education to everybody. America is indeed a wonderful country where education is not denied of any child. We indeed wish your country the return to prosperity.
This letter brings you much love from my children and myseef. [sic]
[Letter tentatively dated due to mention of conflict in Shan-hai-kwan; a battle did occur there in January of 1932.]