CHINESE WAR HORRORS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3659, 30 June 1927, Page 4

CHINESE WAR HORRORS

“THE RIVER OF SORROW.” HIDEOUS SCENES OF HUTCH FRY SHANGHAI, Jim.' J:S. Stories from both sides now avail able indicate the horrors of rcecn weeks of fighting in Honan and Nortl Kiangsu. Originally the appeal for hel] from thousands of wounded National ist soldiers arriving at Hankow aronsei only foreign scepticism. but tlii changed, with fuller information, t. horrified sympathy. Belated news shows that 90(H) wound od persons have arrived at Hankow This is far in excess of hospital accorn modation. Five days’ travel over Chinn's apol ogy for a railway resulted in n'tei wounded in the arms and legs arriving wilh terrible gangrenous wounds. It i now indisputable that the Sou then military medical section left those sol dices 1 who were wounded in the heat and chest lo die on the field of battle as not worth the trouble of saying. It is estimated that there were 20,(XK casualties. The circumstances hav< moved even the callous Chinese to stiel an extent that foreign money is lit longer needed. An even more ghastly story is oat which emanates from foreign sources h the north and which explains the debacle leading to the retirement of the Northern forces - to the north bank ol the Yellow River. Despite former treachery. Tien Weichun had so ingratiated himself with the Fengtien command that he wae «»»- trusted to lead the right wing of th« army at Yenehang. He Jiad, however, already sold his side, and upon the commencement of the Southern attack his officers ordered their soldiers to “throw away their arms.” Fraternisation followed, and in the ensuing confusion the Northern centre retired on Chengchow, where Feng Yulisiang had already percolated, owing to the treachery of Chang Chi-kung, who opened his lines to the enemy. The loyal Fengtien leaders entered the evacuation of Chengchow, fell hack, and sucessfully crossed the Yellow River, leaving behind squads ot executioners, with instructions to decapitate any soldiers found without rillee'. Literally thousands of soldiers who had obyed their treacherous officers fell beneath the headmen’s sv,uids. Headless trunks and trunkless beads made the river, known as "( hina's sorrow," into a thing of horror. The “Red Spears.” a body of men belonging to (lie independent Wu Ivi-fu, gleefully assisted in tho hideout -e«not of butchery. It was a fittingly terrible epilogue to the drama of the devastation of ibis rich province. The province has been drained of economic life, the fields have become wilderness, farmers have turned marauders, while the entire countryside is in such a state of fury that it haw become an important but imponderable factor in the present- deplorable situation.