WINTER QUARTERS IN MANCHURIA. HOW THE JAPANESE FARE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 25

WINTER QUARTERS IN MANCHURIA. HOW THE JAPANESE FARE.

A Times correspondent gives the following details about the winter quarters o£ the Japanese soldiers in Manchuria.: — , In the frequent, north-easterly or , northwesterly blizzards no human being can live under canvas. Some may be quartered in, native houses, but where, even supposing, that the owners should be ruthlessly turned out, will accommodation be foundi for half a million of men? The answer is simple. The soil of Manchuria, excepting in certaia places, is dry'afc this season, especially in the districts between Mukden and Liao-yang, where it is largely loess and sand. The Japanese, who hold the low hills with gentle slopes, are in the better position. The method is to dig a trench 10ft to 12ft deep and varying in width, but generally about 9ft wide. A narrow stairway is cut leading down to the south end. At the base it ia widened and a door frame set up with a .native, door, turning" en wooden pivots. -^The upper half of the door is open work, which, 'being ooverod with the opaque native window paper, admits light. Inside is a primitive camp oven,. Along tlie length of x the trench is a, platform some 2£fit high, and 6ft wide, made of hammered earth and rougl* unburned bricks^ Beneath this are several "simple flues, up and down which the smoke and heat 'from the cooking' place find their way, issuing at the end, .remote from the entrance, by a small chimney, cut in the solid ground. On this platform, which resembles the old style of greenhouse flue, and is called by the Chinese a. kang, many men can sleep in warmth and comfort on a. rough mat or dried grass. This' mode of heating is not only economical, but the. flues, coastline •• arid'_ : carfy off the earth' damp -or carbonic acid gas which always^ generates in * underground dwellings.. ' Across the top of the trench rough pieces of timber or poles\are laid, ~ and on these' kaoliang stalks en straw, \ipon which' is heaped: the earth excavated from the 'trench. This- cove-ring keeps out> the ooid, and is practi,calLyJ"shellproof. No_ rain- ialLs, .and but little snow, and the -latter can, if, desired.' be 6wept off the roofs or mounds over -the dwelling. -The Japanese have access to a large number of the native ' surface ' coal mines, where a. coarse dust coal is readily excavated, and oan be", when mixed with a little wet loose earth, burned in the roug.li cooking place? referred to, in which .grass, • rubbish, and almost anything can also be consumed as fuel."