WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13491, 10 June 1914, Page 7

WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER.

"WHITE WOLF'S" BUTCHERY

The sacking of Kuangcho, in SouthEastern Honan, took place at the end of February (writes "The Times's" China correspondent), but it has only now become possible to get an authentic account of what happened, and for appalling ferocity the story could hardly be equalled. No such scourge as "White Wolf" and his brigands has been let loose on China since the days of the Taipangs. Kuangchow consists of two walled cities on either side of a river, and its population was about 100,000. When "White Wolf" was reported coming some of the townspeople manned the walls, but "White Wolf" sent confederates into the town in disguise, and the attack thus began simultaneously within and without. Practically all the people on the walls were butchered. The attackers, let into the city by their confederates, came running through the streets, shooting as they advanced. Their rules were to fire at all who ran away; to fire at all who carried as much as a stick; at all who tried to hide; at all who locked their doors; at all who wore furred clothes; at all who looked like soldiers ; and, of course, at all who resisted— but of these there were few.

At one house a boy was shot dead simply for saying when questioned that a Government soldier had just left the place. In another house a girl was shot because she would not stop crying. This house contained none but women. When the brigands had done with it' they burned the house down out of pure devilry. Old women who were believed to have money which they would not show were tortured in the most horrible manner. One man escaping from the wall which he had been trying to defend was first shot down and then pounded—to death as the brigands thought—with bricks. Marvellous to relate, he is actually recovering. Not the least villainous of the brigands as a boy of 14, who shot down all and sundry for the mere lust of killing. When the brigands looted a tax office or exchange shop they took for themselves nothing but silver. They made the crowd scramble for the copper coins and notes, shooting anyone who appeared to be getting more than his fair share. Curiously enough, they seemed to have spared Christians. Tn one house they found a young mother and her new-born child. "Are you of the foreigners' religion?" they asked. "Yes, we can see by the size of your feet" (i.e., unbound), and they lot her alone. There were other such cases. Altogether over 1,000 people were slaughtered in one day, including the magistrate, who was hacked to pieces, his remains being soaked in kerosene and burnt. All the wealthy famalies were practically wiped out and their houses burnt. Tn an adjoining market town,, where the people were so imprudent as to fire a couple of rusty old cannons at the brigands, the whole population, men, women, and children, were killed, except two boys who escaped to tell the tale. Kuangchow is by no means the worst item in the list of bandit atrocities in Honan and Anhui. Can it be wondered at that trade is stopped, that widespread anxiety prevails, even far beyond "White Wolf's" range, and that men complain bitterly of the Government's failure to crush those monsters?