Wartime Letters from an APS Member in China

While processing the papers of American Physical Society Treasurer George B. Pegram, I came across an interesting piece of correspondence:

What first caught my eye was the fact that this letter was written on paper clearly meant for writing in Chinese, judging by the paper material and the red vertical lines (Chinese was, and often still is, written vertically from right to left).

After reading the letter however, it became clear that this may have been the only kind of paper that the letter’s writer, National Wuhan University Professor Chi-Ting Kwei (桂質廷) may have had access to in wartime.

A longtime member of the American Physical Society, Professor Kwei found himself in dire straits when the Japanese invaded China, forcing him (indeed the entirety of National Wuhan University) from the city of Wuhan in 1939 to the town of Jiating (Kiating as it was called then), Sichuan province.

In this letter, written on May 20, 1939, Professor Kwei explains that he can no longer afford his dues and journal subscription fees due to wartime inflation, reduced salaries, and “contributions to the war chest,” yet he is determined to keep “the torch of civilization burning” through scientific enquiry, and so asks Pegram for a grace period on his membership until he can afford to pay and to keep sending the APS publications.

Pegram responded:

Pegram explained that on principle, “the Treasurer has no authority to have the publications sent to any member who has not paid his dues in advance.”

In a surprising display of generosity, however, Pegram recognized Kwei’s extenuating circumstances and instead offers to simply pay Kwei’s membership dues and subscription fees himself.

Kwei responded by expressing his overwhelming gratitude, and his desire to continue his next year’s membership in the Society by sending his dues through a friend, Professor S.C. Lee of the University of Hawaii, even though such dues add up to nearly a month’s worth of Kwei’s salary.

Stumbling across stories like this is one of my favorite parts of my job as the Manuscript Archivist at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives, and we greatly admire Kwei and Pegram’s shared philosophy of collegiality and cooperation in times of adversity.