HORRORS OF WAR IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 18

HORRORS OF WAR IN CHINA

FATE OF HELPLESS PEASANTRY It is difficult to realise what war and brigandage mean to the Chinese people (writes the Peking correspondent of ‘ Tho Times’). Nearly all accounts of the tragedies enacted in the interior of this country have reached ' o outside world from foreigners, mostly missionaries, whoso knowledge of their ground and intimacy with tho population have enabled them to describe no less accurately than vividly what has been happening around them. From their educated pens we have had connected stories, and their grim narratives tell nearly all that there is to be told. There has recently been shown to me, however, a collection of letters dealing with tho same subject from another angle; all written by Chinese business men employed in the interior mainly distributing foreign goods. They all cc cern themselves with the local troubles, how stocks were saved from confiscation or looted or burned, and how they themselves were treated and sometimes escaped barely with their lives. Some of the letters are written in stilled English, some are translations very quaintly worded, and nearly all are bald, unimaginative statements nf bare facts related for tho information of their employers at the sea ports. They are the more convincing and instructive because they are entirely unadorned. At a town in Shensi last December, when defeated soldiers were retiring and and a victorious army coming in, •'the ‘ tufei ’ (bandits) started to loot, and looted all the shops. They walked into our office with rifles, and toe!; all they wanted. Many other groups came in succession and took what was ffitt. O-ir staff was beaten very badly. The tears come out of our eyes as we hear the terrible and pitiful outcry of the suiferers. We cannot save our stocks, oven if we sacrifice our lives.” \t Sianfu, besieged for seven months iii 1920, “ tens of thousands of people died through starvation. Mr Lo is among the dead. Although we are losing our properties and risking our lives, with God’s help we, are Jiving in tho world.” At another town in Shensi, where troops were unexpectedly defeated, the soldiers looted 256 shops, with the families living in them, and tho Chamber of Commerce estimated the losses ■at 593,000d0l (£54,000). When the soldiers began to rob it was midnight, and they continued for tour days, all the people running away to the villages. The condition was terrible, for they took all tho property and adulterated (sic) the women and girls. Some of those innocents were iniquitously beaten by the inhuman soldiers. Cheiiliu, in Honan, was last year invaded by tufei, “who attacked the city wall where the magistrate’s soldiers wore fighting. But the tufei in the city lit torches and opened the gates. When the magistrate tried to escape he jumped from the wall into a water pit and was drowned. They looted and ravished all tho night, and in tho morning took 3,000 people away with them, with our agent and his accountant. The agent’s father was taken, -and Was ransomed for 10,000dol (nearly £1,000), and 100 catties (1.‘33)b) of opium and fifty overcoats.” VALUELESS MONEY. When Lin Tsing-hwa was Tucliun of Shensi (ho fell when tho siege of Sianfu was raised) ho issued 20,000,000d0l (about £.1,818,000) of paper money, and forced tho notes on the people' of tho province. When he was defeated the notes became worthless, _as there was not a cent of reserve behind them. When Feng Yu-hsiang arrived on the scene lie issued another 3,000,000d0l (£272,000) of the same notes, but with a red seal, and commanded that they should ho accepted at par. The order was enforced by severe punishment. Shensi at best is a poor province, and has been mercilessly ravaged by officials, troops, and bandits for several j on rs. In April tho Mukden forces were across the Yellow River in Honan, with consequences disastrous to the people. Tho Chinese dread billeting, for not only are they eaten out of house and homo, but they have to serve the soldiers, sec their property taken or spoiled, while their women arc wantonly abused. One household paid a Mukden officer lOOdol lo abstain from bringing in soldiers, but the respite was only temporary, as later comers would not be denied. Writing from Kaifeug in April, a correspondent says that the victorious troops (of Feng Yu-hsiang) “ behaved like wolves and leopards.” When the Mukden forces arrived outside they bombarded the city with riiles, machine guns, and cannon, destroying houses and killing people, whereupon, after mediation, Feng’s troops agreed to retire, but before leaving looted everything valuable. Then, when the other side came in, under pretext of search ing for the enemy, “ they took what they liked, squeezing money from merchants- and citizens with irregular gnd cruel ways, so that all tho people lied into the fields, where they stayed several days, leaving shops and' houses empty, so that the soldiers sold all the movable goods to local bad chara*ters.” Fighting lasted lor nearly two months early this spring in the neighborhood of Chengchow, and some town* repeatedly changed hands, each time suffering additional damage, mid their inhabitants added cruelties from the soldiers of both sides. Chihli troops had the worst reputation, because they had no commissariat even on tho battlefield, and the officers had to let the men do as they liked to supply themselves. “It made you sick to seo the pitiful condition of the place—houses ruined, floors dug out by searching for money, all woodwork torn out for firewood, and nothing left but broken walls. . . . The soldiers took and loaded what they wanted and destroyed what was left . . . barbarous ways were used to extort money from the people.” ” ROASTED LIKE PIGS.” “Kerosene and peanuts (stolen) were loaded on trains and sent to Chengchow for sale by the soldiers. Farmers were roasted like pigs to make them give up their money, and if they had none to give the roasting went on until they were dead. The roasting work was carried on by the victorious troops, because the others had taken all the money they could, and this new way had to be used to get more. . . . The Chihli troops were not prepared for war, so the commanders did not co-operate, but spent their time harrying the people. . . . Eighteen villages were burned in one battle.” Near Loyang the soldiers are described as “ burning all the villages and looting and ravishing as they liked. The four suburbs of Loyang were looted empty, and many of the people of old age were put into fire and burned, and the children pulled into pieces.” One travelling inspector with an unnsually graphic pen had very lively adventures at Hantan, in South Chihli. One night in June, when all was quiet, ho went to bed, and woke up in the morning with a tremendous battle raging around him. He cursed his subordinates for having disappeared, and stayed close in the office premises near the station until the savage Red Spears completely defeated the Fengtien troops. Then the Red people came tosearch for soldiers, but behaved well, and. the inspector, hoping trouble was over, was the first to go to bed that night.

A SHATTERED DREAM. “Everybody was in the dream, hut unfortunately a batch of ammunition trucks wro lined up at the siding, and when the office smashed into pieces the writer tried but no place to get out. The writer at tho tiino was unable to shout for help, as bis mouth was full up of sand. • The agent neglected the stranger and ran away to an egg factory, where there was a digout. . . . Without the mercy of Heaven 1 should be killed. . . , When I gob out of tho window all tho scene was changed. . . . • There was a dead body and many pieces of iron and an iron plate half through a wall. . . . The Red Spears came and heard me speak another dialect, and I found unwise to stay. . . . We were arrsted, and the two companions ordered to be executed. The writer was allowed two days to get a guarantee or the same punishment.” That writer was lucky and got away. During fighting which started again while ho was asleep the ammunition trucks had exploded, creating devastation all around. “The jerk of the explosion made the iron door and frames of the wagons flew a mile away, plenty iron coming to our agency. All tlie houses near were down. ... A majority of farmers near tho station were killed. . . . Three villages with thirty-eight l.unilio.s were burned. . . . The agent lias a (lour mill, but tho soldiers looted the mill and burned the buildings, only leaving the big chimney. The losses of that flour will cost 5(i,00Cklol.” Yiyang, in Honan, is described as suffering very badly. Twenty villages in tho neighborhood were burned, and about 400 people killed by the troops because native volunteers had attempted to protect themselves. fa the northernmost corner of Honan, near Chaiigteho, Red Spears, White Spears, and the Heavenly Gates Socity added their terrors to tho confusion of warring armies and marauding brigands. Tho Heavenly Gatos, possessed of field and machine guns captured from the Fengtien forces, a brigade of whom they destroyed, were especially ruthless, “looting, burning, and ravishing wherever they went, and Capturing people for ransom. A pitiful thing is that for revenge they tear the children into two pieces by pulling of two men.” In a fight between Red Spears and tbs Heavenly Gates 200 were killed on each side, besides many peaceable inhabitants. LOOTING BY FENG’S MEN. In August Tungchowfu (Shensi) was looto dby Feng Yu-hsiang’s Ist Kuominclian “for thro whole days. Now six days have passed, and the soldiers continue their looting secretly. About 100 men were killed during t.Vr looting. All your stocks, money, and the staffs’ clothes were taken by the soldiers. Fortunately none of our staff has been wounded. Wo have now escaped to (Jhaoyi, and will go back when conditions a little bettor. . . . This is terrible. Wo have never seen such looting before, 5 or G per cent, of the people are wounded.” Chenliu, Honan, was again attacked by bandits this October. “ A thousand stormed the gate and commenced burning before looting. They took away ISU carts loaded with booty and 1,500 men and women for ransom. About 180 people were killed and arrested. Two of the writer’s stall wore taken by the bandits and two were missing. Two thousand tluee hundred dollars buried in the ground was discovered, and all stock, household goods, and personal belongings wore taken. Most shops were burned, and many merchants escaped. There is no hope to reopen our business.” In August tho Finance Department of Honan announced the issue of 4.000. loan obnds for Honan and 3.000. 000dol for Shensi, npparen/iy to redeem currency notes previously issued. Redemption is to begin in 1928, and to be completed in 1931. It is instructive that this financial expedient of tho “ Christian General ” is stated to have for security in Shensi the tax on opium, and in Honan the Fn Chung mine, the property of a private Chinese company financially associated with the Peking Syndicate (British). TORTURING PRISONERS. A letter from Taming, in South Chihli, dated The middle of November, describes a new method by which the “tufei ” ensure that prisoners captured for ransom shall not escape. The Unfortunate victims are made to put their feet in boiling water, after which tho blistering makes movement impossible. Another plan is to bang 200 copper cash on a string through the nose—a devilish device which effectively prevents a bound man from moving. One ghastly case is reported where robbers, not being content with some 800dol extracted from a business agency, poured kerosene over the manager’s head and then set fire to him. The unfortunate man is stated to be still alive, but with head ami hands covered witlx an unsightly cancerous growth. The above, and a great deal more to tho same effect, _ from a pathetic record of savage crime committed against inoffensive and unprotected peasants and shopkeepers, tho backbone of the country. Tho area dealt with is comparatively small, but has its counterpart many times over in China, where equal ruthlessness and disrgeard of human lives and property are characteristic of the times. The sum of human misery is incalculably all, be it noted, inflicted on Chinese by Chinese, by tho vicious elements nn the decent. Yet there is a so-called Nationalist movement which attributes the troubles of the country to foreigners and aims at ejecting them, though it is incontrovertibly established that only where foreigners have some power is there a semblance of law and order and any recognition that the inarticulate masses have any rights at all.