TROOPS DEVASTATE CHINA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 175, 14 October 1927, Page 1

TROOPS DEVASTATE CHINA

FAMINE MENACES NATIVE POPULATION armies seize all available food . Jb'Li. ... By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. Received 9.5 a.m. SHANGHAI, Thursday. RELIABLE reports of devastation carried out by Fenu-Yu-Hsiang’s troops in North Honan, following a massacre of Hengte troops, are to hand. They burned all villages in a radius of ten miles, and destroyed the crops, leaving the countryside bare.

T ATER, they proceeded to the out- '*** skirts of Weihaiwei, burned 12 mission buildings, and looted the residence of the missionaries. Conditions in the war zones at Shantung are reported to be unprecedented, owing to the continued military activities, denuding the entire southern province. The native population is starving and facing famine throughout the winter. Already many are eating the bark and roots of trees. The troops have seized all the available food. Reports from the southern port of Swatow state that the position there is still disquieting. A British naval

party board€:d a British steamer and drove off 300 Chinese sol diet s who were seeking to secure a iorc id passage to Canton. The situation is critical. Li Chaisun, a moderate, has been ousted oy Chang Fat-kwai, who is well krown to be a Red Labourite allied to ti e Hankow clique. Therei has been much faction fighting in the streets. A Chinese steamer, the Shingon, trading between Hong-Kong and Wuchow, was seized by pirates on the West . River. . Sixty Chinese passengers were kidnapped. The ship was ransacked and much booty was stolen. —A. and N.Z.