Former item number 3073.

Note on verso: "135. A veteran of many wars is this stern-faced child soldier of the Red Army, who marched for seven thousand miles with the troops on the famous Long March from Kiangsi to the Northwest. Encountered by the photographer at Hung Teh Cheng (Red Virtue City), Kansu, he described his experiences on the way, telling of the critical period when the Red Army had nothing to eat to speak of when, for ten days, they crossed the deserted Grasslands (on the Tibetan border) where there were no houses. About fifty of these little 'Shao kueis' or 'little devils' survived the Long March, along with fifty women-- though nearly half the original column died on the way from either hardship or in battle by the time they had reached their new home in the Northwest. The Red Army is exceedingly proud of their women and children. When the photographer asked this boy if the long March was 'bitter', he promptly answered: 'Certainly not! Nothing is bitter when you march with your own comrades.' He now holds a very respomsible position as secretary of two hundred Young Vanguards who act as nurses on the Kansu front in the midst of the fighting. Photo by Edgar Snow."