Ongoing investigations of the National Women’s League assets by the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee have found that more than NT$94.5 million (US$3.07 million) in “donations to the military” made to the league went to the Hua Hsing Children’s Home.
The donations were actually a form of tax collected by banks on foreign exchange deals they handled involving the import and export of non-basic need items and was also included in the cost of movie tickets, the investigators found.
One-third of the tax was given to the league for the purpose of entertaining troops, they found.
The children’s home was founded by Soong Mayling (宋美齡), the wife of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), in January 1955, primarily to house the surviving family of soldiers who died defending Dachen Island (大陳島) and the Yijiangshan Islands (一江山島).
After combing through the minutes of 74 league meetings on the distribution of the “donations,” the committee discovered that the home received money from 1969 to June 1988.
The documents were classified and only circulated within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said a source in the committee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Among the organizations represented at the meetings were the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Bureau, the now-defunct Taiwan Garrison Command, the Friends of Armed Forces Association and the KMT Taiwan Province Chapter, the source said.
The league — represented by either then-executive secretary Pi Yi-shu (皮以書) or Women’s Affairs Committee member Wang Ya-chuan (王亞權) — was able to obtain at most NT$8 million for the home, the source said.
At the 22nd meeting in 1969, the home received NT$2 million, and another NT$2 million the following year, the source said, citing the meeting minutes.
The home obtained a further NT$3.5 million in 1972, NT$5 million in 1973 and NT6 million from the following eight meetings, the source said, adding that the home received NT$16 million in 1982 and 1983.
Even after the “donations” were canceled in 1984, the home still received NT$4 million in annual subsidies, the source said, citing the meeting minutes.
The home currently houses less than 36 children, the source said.
According to former leauge member Chien Yung-he’s (錢用合) memoir, the home was registered under the league, and all official documents regarding the home were sent directly to Soong.
The public should support the committee’s efforts to clarify details of the league’s accounts, as it is evident that donations aided certain political causes or benefited those associated with the Koo family (辜), the source said.
The Koo family refers to the family of former league chairwoman Cecilia Koo (辜嚴綽雲).
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