The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1930. COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 May 1930, Page 8

The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1930. COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES.

'The danger of all subversive movements is that they are carried on mostly in secret and by methods which. are all the more subtle by reason of the unscrupulous means adopted. In no country of the world have conditions been so favourable for the propagation of Communism as in China, and it is there that the age-long bane of brigandage and the more recent terror of Communism, which the Government has vainly tried to suppress, are now exhibiting their worst features of rapacity, devastation and cruelty. In a recent article by a Press correspondent it was stated that the connection between cause ’and effect has been seldom more clearly indicated than in Hupeh, a province with a terrible history during the last few years. The ravages of troops and bandits and the savagery of the Communists have brought poverty, misery and terror upon the people, with the result that between January, 1926, and the close of 1929 there ivas a loss of three million of the population. As the areas affected are purely agricultural, and there is no reason to suppose that emigration to any extent is responsible for such a large decline, neither has the birth-rate been lower than normal, nor has there been a famine,' flood or epidemic, it has to be assumed that the toll of deaths in excess of the normal is accounted for by privation and homicide. Similar records in other parts of China show corresponding facts and figures indicating the effects of banditry and Communism. It is only right that all the world should be informed of the methods adopted by these two forces of evil, which appear to increase their terrorism in the same ratio as they expand their organising tactics; According to a correspondent of the North China Daily News, tffe military authorities at Hankow have received a mass of petitions from officials and citizens of important towns urging deliverance from brigands and Communists. Ostensibly the Communists are intent upon the suppression of all forms of vice and forbid gambling, opium and even tobacco smoking. Indiscriminate looting is also forbidden, as is oppression of those who have made submission to the Communist regime. Religion of all kinds is persecuted, idols are destroyed, idolatrous rites' and Christian services prohibited. Each band of Communists selects a valley between high mountains and fortifies the passes, storing arms and munitions in the centre. Some bands have machine-guns. Entry to a town is usually effected by treachery, after which the yamen is attacked and a few principal shops looted as a hint to tho population. Where magistrates with small bodies of soldiers try to escape they are generally ambushed and cut up. Those of the people who flee are robbed, and some shot. Those who stay quietly at home are subjected to heavy levies, but are not usually endangered, nor are the women molested deliberately. All deeds of property, account books, and records, especially official documents, are destroyed. Lists of those who are claimed to have oppressed the people are made, and those judged guilty are likely to be shot at once. In one town 200 were killed. When a town is first occupied by the Communists life goes on very much as usual save for the general dread of denunciation by an enemy and the inevitable consequences. Trade is ordered to continue, and the country people are directed to bring in produce for sale. Trouble begins as soon as the magistrate returns with an escort of soldiers, and the Communist leaders withdraw their men. A tactful magistrate does not attempt to punish the people who have been compelled to help the Communists, but all magistrates are not tactful. The gates are generally shut, and there is a constant dread of spies. Although the real attitude of the people cannot readily be defined, indications are that they prefer to be let alone, an attitude that is in keeping with the traditional eharactei’ of the Chinese. That Communist principles arc at the present time making rapid headway appears to be beyond question, but it is the conjunction of that evil with brigandage and looting that is causing the Chinese people to despair of a peaceful existence. They are suffering greatly from the rapacity of the soldiery, the devastation by brigands, and the sinister activities of the Communists, and there exists no Government sufficiently strong to protect the mass of the people. Well may they beg for speedy deliverance.