CHINA FROM WITHIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 280, 25 November 1937, Page 6

CHINA FROM WITHIN

NO PLACE IS SAFE I A LETTER FROM HANKOW I Y.W.C.A. WORKER'S EXPERIENCE THE TERROR OF AIR RAIDS New Zealand is a fortunate coun-1 try. In the tranquility of this peace*! ful Dominion it is hard to picture thel frightfulness unleashed when two! countries are at war. A letter from! Miss Agnes M. Moncrieff, a national! secretary of the Y.W.C.A., written! from Hankow on October 10 to al friend in Wanganui, vividly descrfheal the tense, foreboding atmospn.kj which surrounds China to-day. Ihe I Chinese have no need for propaganda! to stress the frightfulness she has! been subjected to, Miss Moncrieftl asserts, describing the uncanny terror! which can be inflicted upon a com-l munity by air raids. Miss Moncrieff I is a New Zealander and was educated! at Victoria College, Wellington. “No place in China is safe these I days out Hankow is comparatively I sate, and so far we have had only one I what I might call ‘successful’ aic air raid,” she writes. J “I am not in the least resigned to being in Hankow. My job is in Shanghai. I am needed there. My commit*' tee (the International Branch Com* mittee) wants me back, but the National Committee and staff see the wisdom of keeping some national secretaries out on the held, so 1 am held here. It is becoming more and' more difficult to return, especially since the attacks on the railway near Canton. One train got through from Hankow to Canton in 84 hours—the I normal time is 44. A special ‘guaranteed’ train taking 250 officers and men from H.M.S. Capetown, which isf stranded up-river for the duration the war, has not been able to get.through in spite of the fact that the British authorities advised the Japanese and the Chinese that it was going through. Several intrepid Swedish! missionaries from the wilds of Kansu, who are going out on furlough left this morning by train in spite of news. They may be days on the wayj but I imagine that every effort will] be made to convey passengers jHidJ goods by boat across the rivers. | “The Chinese have shown the utJ most resource in carrying on with-’ makeshifts where communication* have been seriously damaged. Th«| journey from Canton to Hongkong i* problematical. Trains and boats havw noth been held up and no one know# from day to day whether it will ba possible to get through. You can, ol course, fly from Hankow to Hong-n kong but fares are soaring. From Hongkong to Shanghai there are occasional boats, but no women are encouraged to go back and women travel on French and Italian, liners because British ships make such a fuss about taking them. Life Is Not Easy

“I have to admit that life is not easy even here in Hankow. What it is like in Shanghai I fail to imagine. There is a certain nervous tension, a sense of something awful hanging over one and sometimes an insane desire that what is going to happen, whatever it may be, will happen quickly. The newspapers are a daily reminder of the appalling things that are happening alt over the country. It is impossible to speculate what th© outcome of the war will be and no one would care to bet on when it will end. I suppose it takes time to get accustomed to living with uncertainty and insecurity. “I find I do not like air raids. It is difficult to believe that humans are deliberately bringing death to other, humans. A doctor asked the other; day what 1 thought bombers thought about as they approached a defenceless city to bomb it. The planes which bombed Hankow and Hanyang were over the cities at most 15 minutes and in that time there were over a hundred casualties all civilian—and a of those between three and four hundred were killed or died of their wounds. The objective of the attack was presumably the arsenal at Hanyang, but the most congested area of Hanyang and of the native city in Hankow suffered terribly. There is a fairly large river, the Han, flowing jn to the Yang Tzu between these two cities, so it does not say much for the shooting of the Japanese. Whole blocks of buildings were destroyed and most of the victims were women and children as the men were in other parts working. “China Has No Need lor Propaganda” “I mention these facts because I read in the ‘Central China Post’ the other day that the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Sydney had cabled the Chamber of Commerce in Wellington stating that reports of Japanese bombing in China were ‘false propaganda of the Chinese Government.’ That is not so. The Chinese Government has no need to indulge in any campaign of propaganda. The facts themselves are hideous enough to beg- / gar description. I know from my own 'V

experience here that newspaper accounts do not do justice tp the terrible scenes that follow an air raid, in many cases there has been no object o£ military importance in the neighbourhood where the bombs have fallen. Hospitals, refugee trains and camps, congested residential areas and educational institutions have suifered most heavily. I cannot see how a train of lighters crowded with refugees being towed up Soochow Creek away from Shanghai could be mistaken for anything else. It is hard to believe that the bombing of non-com-batants is deliberate and yet all the evidence points that way. The only reason one can see behind such action is a desire on the part of the Japanese to terrorise the Chinese and break their morale. The bombings are having the opposite effect. The more ghastly the outrages the more determined are the Chinese to resist tu the limit, even though ‘the land is stained with the blood of our people.’ And believe me that is no empty phrase. The land is already deeply stained.”