“BUTCHERY”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16378, 28 June 1927, Page 5

“BUTCHERY”

AFTERMATH AT HANKOW LEFT TO DIE SHANGHAI., June 14. . Stories from both sides now available indicate the horrors of lerent weeks oi fighting in Honan and North Kiangsu. Originally the appeal for help from thou sands of wounded Nationalist soldiers arriving at Hankow aroused only foreign scepticism, but this changed, with # fullev information, to horrified sympathy. Related news shows that 9000 wounded have arrived at Hankow. This is far in excess of hospital accommodation. Five days’ travel over China's apologj for a railway resulted in men wounded in the arms and legs arriving with gan grenous wounds, in which maggots had already bred. It is now indisputabh that the Southern military medical sec tion left those soldiers who were wounded in the head and chest to die on the iielc of battle as riot worth the trouble of sav ing. It is estimated that there were 20.C0C casualties. The circumstances have moved even the callous Chinese to such an extent that foreign money is no longer needed.

An even more ghastly story emanates from foreign "sources in the north, ex plaining the debacle leading to the retirement of the Northern forces to the north bank of the Yellow River.

Despite former treachery, Tien ’W'eiCluin lias so ingratiated himself with the Fenst-ien 'command that he was entrusted to lead the right wing of the army at Yenchang. He had, however already sold his side, and upon the commencement of the Southern attack h; officers ordered their soldiers to “throw away your arms.” Fraternisation followed, and in the ensuing confusion the Northern centre retired on Chengchow, where Feng Yu Hsiang had already percolated, owing to the treachery of Chang Chi-Kung, who opened his lines to the enemy. The loyal Fengtien leaders ordered the evacuation of Chengchow, fell bark, and successfully crossed the Yellow River, leaving behind squads of execul’oners. with instructions to decapitate any soldiers found without rifles. Literally thousands of soldiers who had obeyed their treacherous officers fell beneath the headmen’s swords. “RIVER OF SORROW,”

Headless trunks and trunk less heads made the river, known ns “China’s sor vor,” into a thing of horror. The “Red Spears,” a body of men be longing to the independent Wu Pei-fu. gleefully assisted in the huleous scenes o butchery. It was a fittingly terrible epilogue tr tile drama of devastation of this rich province. , It has been drained of economic life the fields have become wildernesses, farmers have turned marauders, while (he entire -countryside is in such a state oi fury that, it has become an important but imponderable factor in the present do plorablo situation. JAPANESE IN MANCHURIA REQUEST TO GOVERNMENT TOKIV), June 14. A conference at Dairen (Manchuria) of delegates from the Japanese communities throughout Maucliuria resolved to ask the Japanese Government to take steps to prevent the civil war extending to the north of the Great Wall.

The conference demanded also that the Government secure for the Japanese equal rights with Chinese to settle anywhere in Manchuria or Mongolia, and engage in railroad work, agriculture, mining, and the lumber trade.