2016台灣富德夏季拍賣會 夏輝揚藝

胡
適
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【 書 信 原 文 】
Two months and a half have passed since you honored me by giving me that most charming
dinner party at the Union Club. I feel already ashamed of myself to write this much, much belated
but very warm & sincere note of thanks! The real trouble has been that the longer I delayed writing,
the more difficult it becomes for me to write.
At your Aug. 3 party, I said that the basic difficulty of Free China is that she has become
unimportant and insignificant in the power world today. I am very sorry that during these past
weeks, our friends in Taiwan have done things that have made the Republic of China - already
unimportant and insignificant - appear actually lawless and contemptible in the free and
democratic world.
The entire case of my friend Lei Chen and his associates has greatly pained me. I have from the
very beginning urged the government to transfer the case from the military to the civil court.
I have told them that the world will never believe a word of what a military court may find and
pronounce. I have pointed out to them that public opinion in the free world is made by “newspaper
men”, by the reporters, editors, & publishers who are always jealously guarding the freedom of
the press, and who can never forgive any attempt to fabricate a case of Communist subversion in
addition to the just charges based on a mass of published articles offensive to the authorities.
All my words seem to have had no effect to save the government of Republic of China from the
grave penalty of losing much of the sympathy & support in the free world, from the penalty of
looking ridiculous, uncivilized, & contemptible. The article in Time on Oct. 17 is exactly the kind of
condemnation from which I had tried to spare the government of Free China.
I am now returning to Taiwan, after a little over 3 months in the States. I must confess that I
return with a heavy heart. I cannot leave the States without writing you this tardy & inadequate
note, not only to thank you for the August 3 party, but in particular for what you have stood for in
the Lei Chen case.
Hu Shih