Large church premises at Saniianp'u, erected recently and consisting of 30 chien of property, were burned down. The church at Tashat'an, consisting of about a dozen chien, was also burned, but not completely destroyed. It is being more and more suspected that the expedition of the Japanese troops was more or less in the nature of a religious persecution, directed definitely against the Korean Christian Church and especially against the leading men in that Church.
Two significant incidents are recorded by Chinese witnesses. A young Korean of superior education was being driven off to execution in a Chinese cart, guarded by three Japanese soldiers. All the way the Korean kept up_a lively earnest conversation in Japanese with his guards. They answered him and were manifestly affected by his words, and one of them was even moved to tears. The fifth member of the party was the Chinese carter who tells the story.
A Japanese officer, billeted in the compound of a Chinese merchant at T'unghwahsien, was examining a Korean prisoner who was asked if he belonged to the independents, and if he were a Christian. Chinese bystanders urged him to deny both points and save his life. "No," he exclaimed in his broken Chinese. Independence is best; and I am a Christian."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.