HORRORS IN WUCHANG

Wairarapa Age, 8 October 1926, Page 5

HORRORS IN WUCHANG

A BRIEF RESPITE. NON-COMBATANTS RELEASED. MANY TRODDEN TO DEATH. PEKIN, October 6. After being shut up within the walls of Wuchang for thirty-six days, witfi thousands dying of starvation, disease, and wounds, the gates of the city were opened to permit two thousand civilians to leave for Hankow by agreement between the contending parties. All firing ceased for a short time. There was a mad stampede at the gates. Frenzied men, women and children fought for escape, and numbers of women and children were trodden down and trampled to death. An eyewitness reports that thousands were unable to leave, and fought madly until forced back by bayonets from the gates. The refugees, in a wretched condition, report a pitiful state of affairs in the city, the dead and dying everywhere. Unless the blockade is lifted speedily, all will perish, excepting the soldiers, who are on the point of mutiny. The bandits who recently looted Chow Kaikow looted the cities of Tungsu and Chenliu. Half of them afterwards proceeded to Rihsienhow and the other half to Taipingkan, near Kaifeng, the capital of the Honan Province. It is reported that they are five thousand strong, and armed with rifles, machine guns and small cannon. The gates of Kaifeng swarmed with refugees, fleeing . through the night from the afflicted districts. The captives taken by the bandits include a British missionary named Biding. Many hundreds wore killed and wounded. Chungking, the farthest up-river trading station, and headquarters of the anti-foreignisni “Red Lamp” Society, is again the scene of trouble. Two British gunboats have been detached to protect the few remaining foreign merchants. Several attempts were .made on the lives of employees of the Britishers. A monster anti-British demonstration was held at Hankow yesterday. Attempts to enter the Foreign Concessions were prevented by British marines with difficulty. There was no bloodshed, but much hostility was displayed. The war situation is virtually unchanged. The Reds are closing Kiukiang, the nearest important river port to Shanghai, indicating a repulse of the anti-Reds.—(A. and N.Z.)