Pillage and Vandalism at Jung-hsien: Schools Back to Normal: Money Shortage aes Ovr Own Connesronoext Tunghsien, Oct. 21.
The fighting which has resulted in the ousting of Yang Sen gave the people of this neighbourhood a taste of warfare which was somewhat more bitter than what they had previously had, though they have passed through a number of out-Breaks. The number of troops passing through or stopping in the city has been larger than on previous campaigns, Some days the streets were literally packed full of troops, and our charch, school and hospital properties have beer used as billets.
in the towns have suffered much as any other places, All available wood work being used for firewood, pictures have been torn off the walls to wipe tables with, and the places put into disgraceful conditions. Rice, food, bedding, chickens and pigs have been taken without aski: g permission and more often that. not without any remuneration. The lack. of sanitation and the presence of many horses have brought " plague of Miesswhich is largely: responsible for the epidemic of dysentery which is now taking off so many. Malar! and dysentery have never been 99 prevalent as this autumn, 'The soldiers have also, extorted various sums from people of means or reputation on various pretexts. One man of my acquaintance was takea from place to. place while $10,000) squeeze'! out of his Others had to disappear for a time.
The lot of the soldier of the present day is a miserable one, for money is not nearly' so plentiful as used to be in the ranks, Most of them are poorly fed and if they separated from their command they can find few friends, On a recent journey T saw a number ut bodies of dead soldiers by the roadside and no one way paying any attention to them, The Students Quiescent The student agitation seems to have come to a practical standstill, though there are one or two individuals who continue to put out! posters written with white on bla paper, telling of the woes of their fellow-patriots in schools are running as usual. The mission schools have all the stadcnts they desire and have had a number of applications from boys who have hitherto not been in mission schools.. In our own boys school the treasure of the government school inspector's office has sent three of his boys to the mission school. The discipline' of the in schools make an appeal to the Chinese parent.
It is reported that a number government school boys have gone! from this city to the Whampao Military Academy at Canton so that ite evident that the Bolshevik proity has for many years had 4 very efficient government middle! school, which has generally managed to keep away from political entanglements. Last year, a former teacher in the school anda member of the literary family of the city' made a visit to Chengtu and, while there, managed to - capture the principalship of the middle school. He kept the appointment to himself principal had en; teachers and ment. The out-going principal lost much face and many of us ventured Bhat there would be a come-back, We have. ust hourd that the turn over {polities has. recuted: inane cee being appointed. The biter been badly bitten as he had just sent away a large sum of money, to buy school supplies, which his Successor may nek chose te. tee The other day a destitute Russian, who had been thrown out of employment by the closing down of the Arsenal in Cheng, appeared here, He was on his way down river and was glad of a little financial assistance for the. journey.
'Money 'Proubles As one moves about the' country one is impressed by the diffeulties the shortage of small denominations of money. Nearly every town and village has its own issue of, Paper notes or pewter tokens for such small amounts as five, ten and 20 cash. The dollar has" reach ed 4200 cash, outside province 50 cent pieces are received at a slight discount and 20 cent pieces are at about ten per cent. discount. Locally, cheques on Shanghai bring ten to 12 per cent. premium. The post office charges 15. large Ly because the local post office doos not wish to take in too much money. Rice is about 9,000 cash per bushel of 40 catties. Owing to the fighting, many places along the main roads did not have much of t. Fields being left uncut owing to the fact that harvesters! were taken off by the press gangs a3 soon as they appeared in the fields. Aside from this the crop was! only about eight tenths of normal owiiz to the prolonged drought in the early summer.
Just row, Szechuan is busy re-organization problems and, while appears that a real effort is be-
People are not very hopeful, for the present chief of the province, Liu Hsiang, was formerly in the me position, and at that time isnot noted for any of his accomplishments. However, it is safe bet that there will be another flare up before long, which will be the time when Liu, Lai and Teng undertake to squeeze Yuan Tal-ming and his Wweichow troops out of the province. Most people will be glad to see them go, and it will be well for them if they get out without being badly cut up. We hear persistent report that opium planting being discouraged and prohibited, (some of your correspondents please take notice). An effort to float some poper money in Teiliutsing, our neighbouring city to the East, has. met with determined opposition on the part of both the Chambers of Commerce of that city.
The people everywhere seem very friendly, though one does heaz nasty remarks from soldiers and sometimes from small children tone goes about the streets. The farmers are busy at the fall planting and plenty of rain has fallen during the last few days
ground.
[start the seeds already ig, the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.