Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-13 | Page 23 | China Province Beaten down by Invaders

mu PROVINCE BEATEN DOWN er INVADERS Unccntrolled Soldiers Take Homes and Shops, City . in Dire Straits HANKOW, China, Feb. 12. Appalling Ap-palling stories of a populuce wppressed to rhe point or Extermination by an uncontrolled soldiery have been coming com-ing to )' mkoW Uv weeks and from the upper reaches of the Yantsze i-Ker. The reporLs aro principally from missionary sources: The people in the western part of Hupeh prov-Inco. prov-Inco. these advices s-jy. have been reduced re-duced to the direst straits by troops who demand iribute, levy taxes, seize and occupy homes and shops and live on the land without restraint and those under the yoke have no possible channel open to thorn to voice their i grievances. !WU(. DISASTER, Shihrian and adjoining districts ln the western part of the province nre said to bp wholly under domination cf the soldiers. The area Ik notifar distant from the YancN;, trans-shipment port of Ichang Which was seized and looted by mutinous troops in De-I r ember. Jn ordinary times it is bo-cluded bo-cluded from the test of China with little or no communication with the I of routes of transportation over the rugged heights. (i vas in tn early months of 1918 a t development In the strife between north and south that the soldiers appeared ap-peared here under the name of the ratifying Nation Troops" of Hupeh. Those troopg brought disaster. TK W. DY IN 1 . Recently by reason of oMfferences these fr.rces have had with the Bse-chueu Bse-chueu troops the source ot kiIi sup-ph sup-ph for the district has been cut. Kor Weeks, say the reports. It was ImppS-slble ImppS-slble to obtain salt at any price with the result that the plapue appeared among soldiers and people alike. Here is a quotation from one letter to the American Church mission at Hankow " In one home the soldiers became enraged at the family's lack of rc-gpect rc-gpect for them. One day the soldiers. Who board without paying, threw the food of the household to their horass. The needy family could not smother its protests, for starvation was then upon th ni. The solder then promptly prompt-ly called out the eldest son and hanged hang-ed birn His wife immediately commuted com-muted suicide and the old mother then Killed herself." oo