CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21050, 29 December 1933, Page 10

CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Men and women are kidnapped, their possessions plundered, their homes and villages burnt, and no redress is forthcoming from the government. Such is the state of affairs in some parts of China, according to Mr E. S. Little, who has resided in China for 50 years, and who has arrived in Auckland to visit his property at Kerikeri. Mr Little says the communists, who are very strong, have caused considerable disaffection, but the government troops, numbering about 250,000, under General Chiang Kai-shek, are giving the communists attention, but little progress has so far been jpade. On the borders of the Fukien and Kiangsi provinces fighting has been going on for a year. "Banditry is rife all over the country," said Mr Little. ''We spent the last few months of the summer at Peitaiho, and we had the protection of a British warship which was anchored off the beach. After 1 J?.e ship left the bandits operated freely, Durning nearby villages. It was a pitiful sight 1o see long streams of refugees fleeing with their babes in arms, and the few household goods they could manage to carry in order to escape the bloodthirsty bandits, who show no mercy."