Former item number 3050.

Note on verso: "136. 'Little red devils', or 'Shao kueis', is the affectionate pet name given to these boy-soldiers of the Chinese Red Army by their elders in the army (whose average age is only 19). These boys whose ages average from eight to fifteen (when they can join the ranks as regulars), are escaped apprentices from farm, workshop and factory, or they are orphans whose parents have been killed in the civil war, or they are little brothers of the older Red fighters. They attach themselves to the People's Liberation Army wherever it goes and travel with it in all its campaigns, sharing all its hardships and dangers with more cheerfulness even than the regulars themselves, for the 'little devils' are proud of their nickname and dare not admit defeat. There are with the First Front Red Army, under P'eng Teh-huai, alone about five or six hundred of these boy-soldiers. Peng is their idol, and in turn he adores and makes axquaintance with every one of them if possible. They carry messages, act as spies for the military intelligence service, chop wood, build fires, clean and sweep headquarters, act as a sanitation squad, tend horses and males, polish guns, and are organized into revolutionary disciplined units like the army itself by the Communist Youth League. They usually wear cast-off uniforms and create a somewhat bedraggled appearance, but their salute is the snappiest in the army. They receive compulsory education daily in reading, writing and political training. Athletics and marksmanship are part of their training, too. About fifty 'little devils' survived the Long March from Kiangsi, of some 7,000 miles, along with about fifty women--though about half the original column died from hardship or in battle during this trek. Many 'little devils' engage in battle, and have been killed or executed as 'spies.' They carry secret massages in the hearts of vegetables, for instance, and wander around gathering information unobstrusively, and are an organized part of the intelligene service. For instance, forty of these children were released from the military prison in Sianfu, Shaanxi, by the Northwest authorities in December, after the Northwest Revolt on December 12. They were imprisoned as 'Red spies.' These forty are now incorporated into the Northwest forces. Many of the best young commanders and soldiers of the Red Army were risen from the 'shao kuei' ranks, and the Army takes their training very seriously as future comrades-in-arms."