Roberts - The Life and Times of Charles A. Roberts

captured all the major cities in the north. and the horror stories of the "rape of Nanking" had begun. The British Colony seemed a safe place for children, and schooling was possible. On December 29. 1937. just before Charles' 43rd birthday, a long train with U.S., British. German. and French flags covering the train. departed from Changsha for Hong Kong filled with women and children from all parts of north and central China. The Japanese had warned all foreigners, women and children, to leave China and permitted 3 sets of international trains to go from Beijing to Hong Kong unharmed! The family along with Aunt Bessie (from her nearby station of Changdeh) boarded the last train out. Another momentous year began in 1938 for Charles. It would be the beginning of 4 and 5 years of separation from his Hong Kong family and 6 years from Faith and Miriam at Wheaton. He had to supervise and be responsible for the H.B.I. (Hunan Bible Institute). Dr. and Mrs. Keller. founders of H.B.I.. realized it was time to retire and so returned to the U.S. Charles was the only foreigner left alone with a loyal Chinese staff and faculty in Changsha, protecting property during the difficult war years that lay ahead. The Yale medical School and many foreign organizations were reduced to skeleton staffs. The summer of 1938 Charles took a one month holiday to fly down to Hong Kong to visit his wife and children. War was spreading. and the future looked bleak. He and Grace decided that 12 year old son Dede needed a proper education. It was a difficult decision to send him alone across the Pacific -* Ocean by ship. to take a train from Los Angeles to Long Island. New York, and to enroll in Stony Brook School for Boys on Long Island. Broken hearts waved the lad off on a President ship in the "so-called" care of two men sharing his cabin. Charles returned to Changsha to start another school year, while in Hong Kong his three young daughters enrolled in the Central British School. With the threat of the Japanese invasion reaching Changsha in October 1938, the governor of the province. the mayor of the city . invited other leading Chinese and foreign dignitaries to a dinner to plan how they would resist the Japanese and defend the city of 250,000 people plus refugees crowding in daily. The plan was to move the German Mission Hospital in the center of the city with their many wounded soldiers, doctors. nurses and staff, to the large campus of H.B.I. which was outside the western gate of the city. However. a few

16

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs