MOUNTAINS OF DEAD

Grey River Argus, 26 April 1911, Page 2

MOUNTAINS OF DEAD

PLAGUE VICTIMS IN CHINA

WHOLESALE CREMATION

Uiina has never had anyhing *o equal the scourge that is now sweeping over Manchuria and endeavouring to ma-ke its way down south. -'I he plague is highly infectious l.om man to man, but not contagious through the medium of rats, as is the bubonic form of the disease. The breath is the principal channel of infection in this epidemic. Rats appear to be immune.

The Russians instituted an elaborate system of precautions at Harbin as soon as the disease became epidemic, and they did their best to assist the Chinese at Fuchiatien, but the Chinese authorities were indifferent, and the disease < spread with alarming . rapidity. Ultimately, however, a number of doctors, Chinese and foreign, proceeded to the infected districts, where many of them fell victims to the scourge.

As the disease began to claim its thousands, the dead were brought out into the open fields and stacked in layers. The intense cold froze die bodies and prevented, it is said, infection from that source. But the number of dead increased until there were at Fuchiatien over 3000, and 1500 at Hulan, a" little further up the line. At the latter place the BODIES WERE LAID ON THE

FROZEN RIVER. *m the hope that they would be car•ried away when a thaw set in. The 'Russians became alarmed at this, for the river would carry the bodies into the Amur regions, which have not yet been visited by the plague.

The matter of disposing- of the mountains of bodies in Manchuria was overcome by Dr Wu in a manner tnat has caused the profoundest surprise among , the great mass of the ■Chinese people, as well as among foreigners, who are familiar with the Chinese Hereditary veneration for 1 the dead. Dr Wu, tne leading -Chinese physician, issued a proclamation calling upon the relatives of the deceased to take away their dead and bury them. There was no response. He, issued another proclamation stating that all bodies not claimed would be cremated. No protest was made, so he issued a third proclamation calling upon anyone who had any objection to the burning of the foodies to lodge a petition at once. Again there was no response. Accordingly large quantities of coal and firewood were collected and in piles of one hundred 3800 bodies were cremated. Crowds of people stood watching" . sorrowfully the colossal "desecration of the dead," but no murmur of protest was heard.

>The versatility and adaptability of the New Zealand bushm an is great. The sayij with which Volzke Bros, won the double-handed ; sawing- match at the Recreation 'Grounds yesterday was made.Jjy ..'Mr. C. F. A, Volzke. hims.elf out' of "a plate of steel. The. teeth . are .a design of his own — evidently a 'gfood one,' too, judging from the way in' whiqn the saw cut through the timber -yesterday. :It /is stated, that this saw has never yet ' failed' to iget first place