BESIEGED CITIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1936, Page 10

BESIEGED CITIES

LIFE IN CENTRAL ASIA

SYDNEY, June 4

A story of besieged cities, attacked by hordes of rebels, and reminiscent ci the Middle Ages, was told by'Air A. p, .Parsons, a missionary with the china Inland Mission, who returned to Sydney by the Taiping yesterday, en route for Melbourne.

For one month he was besieged in an inland city, while bullets screamed overhead and cannon blew houses to pieces. Mr Parsons was stationed at Uruir.sti, in Chinese Turkistan, in 1932, a year after he left Australia to join the China Inland Mission as a missionary. Trouble commenced at Ilami between Moslems and Chinese. The Moslems rebelled against the Chinese because the Chinese authorities had been confiscating their land, and in audition because they had been degrading their princes. “There was a wall all round the city,” said Mr Parsons, “and, although we were 54 days’ journey by cart from the nearest large white settlement, that wall offered some protection against ordinary attacks. In the autumn of 1932 the city was attacked by hordes of Tu,rki-Moslems, and suburbs of the city were entered and literally blown to pieces. Cannon were used by the attadkers, and they blazed away, smashing the houses built of bricks baked hard in the sun, and killing hundreds of people. Losses were heavy on both sides, but the Moslems lost. by 'far the greater number.

“Most of the lighting took place at night, because the attackers could steal {heir way to thfe foot of the wall under cover pf darkness. In April pi that year, inUlh’e". midst. of unsettled conditions, tire Moslems eventually sent in word to the authorities that they would submit on condition that the head of the Governor and the heads of other officials were sent to them. To this gruesome request there was no reply, but the White Russians, who formed the real mainstay of the Government forces suddenly executed a coup d’etat, attacked the Yamen (official residence of the Governor and administrative offices), which were fortified, drove the Governor out, and enabled the Chinese to place a new man in charge. In May, Ma Chung Yin, a young Moslem leader from Kansu, a strong resolute man, 23 years of age, started the trouble all over again. Amassing some troops, he gradually advanced and captured the city of Kucheng. in which w'as about one-third oi the province’s stores of arms and ammunition. Turning towards Urumsti. with a larger force, he began a slow advance. Fortunately a mail ’plane, flying between Shanghai and Urumsti slotted them, warned the city, and troops were sent to intercept them. "Yin, temporarily checked, then took a south road, occupied a very important pass in the mountains about 40 miles from the city, and commenced to strengthen his army. After a great deal of confusion and rumours, Urumtsi found its city walls surrounded by M. Chung Yin in the beginning of 1934. FIERCE FIGHTING. “He besieged the city for a month, in the very depth Of winter,’’ said Mr Parsons. “Snow' lay .thick on the

ground, the cold was extreme, and frequently the temperature fell to as much as 10 degrees below zero. Fortunately, as the ground there is frozen over for four months of the year, large supplies were usually bought, and that saved the city from starvation.

“Outside the city were large coal mines, which the attackers occupied, and fuel supplies ran very short in the city. Several people froze to death, others in the military hospital, suffering fever from war wounds, had their feet frozen off through lack of heating material and lack of attention.

“All'day long the rebels, dressed in furs, could be seen toiling up the mountain sides to the coal mines.

“Fierce lighting was the order of the day at first. Bullets hummed over the city, and people at times imagined that the tioops had entered the city. Hundreds of rebels were killed, others froze to death in the snow, where they had fallen from paltry wounds.

"Cannon were again used by the attacking foices, but proved ineffective. Bullets screamed over the city day night at first, and as ammunition began to grow short, the fighting was more subdued. At last the rebels tan short of ammunition, but they are demons. There is no stopping them when they commence to fight. So they tinned and njade bullets from wood, and used them. Realising, however, that they could not. take the city they turned to hinder Russian troops, which had been sent on an appeal by the city.

“More than six bombing ’planesand several regiments from Russia came to the aid of the city, and the rebels wcie virtually routed, and, one night, disappeared from the vicinity of the town.’’ .

In August, 1934, Mr Parsons was transferred to Linfen. He travelled by motor ’bus from Ilami to Kweihwa in Suiyuan province, across the Gobi desert, a distance of 1300 miles, which was covered in eight days. Passengers rested from 9 o'clock at night to 1 a.m., and (lien recommenced the journey. In all. 11 ’buses travelled in a detachment on the journey.

ATTACK BY COMMUNISTS. "Communists from Shensi in February this year crossed the Hwang-Ho (Yellow River) into Shansi Province, and disturbed a great deal of country around Linfen,” added Mr Parsons. “Rumours were rife, but nobody knew what was happening. One afternoon, the train failed to arrive—the lines had been cut—and next afternoon the Chinese “Reds" were around the city. They had come 50 miles in one day. The wall around the city is eight miles long and 5o feet high, and, although the city was surrounded, it was not attacked. Instead, the city cf Hungtun, 20 miles away, with a smaller wall, was attacked. Communists cut down telegraph poles for scaling ladders, as wood is very scarce, and tried to get over the walls There weie only civilians in the city, and they' placed railway sleepers on the top of the wall, and dropped them on the" attackers as they climbed up. “They were repulsed, and, through the influence of the British Consul, who urged the protection of the 26 Britons in the city, troops were sent and relieved both cities.” Mr Parsons then left for Australia. He is proceeding to Tasmania to settle the affairs of his parents who, with his sister, were drowned in the Nairana tragedy in Port Phillip in April.