'Authentic information as to the Aooting of Chowkiakow has now come to hand which reveals a condition of affairs worse than had been anticipated. One missionary, Mr. C. Freeman Davis, is still in' the hands of the bandits, and two women missionaries, Mrs, Davis and Miss Poppins, are. marooned at Chowkiakow unable to get away, and are living ina small Chinese house under great discomfort, with] insufficient clothing and food, but are accompanied by Pastor Ho of the, local China Inland—Mission, Church, This Pastor Ho was severely handled by the bandits, having] been tortured with red-hot irons. Rumours here attribute the looting to q band of brigands under a called Lu which had been received nto the Second Kuominchun army by the. previous Tupan Yoa Wei-chun, A letter which arrived from Chowkiakow this morning, dated the! ath instant, gives the' nam of Wang Chien-kuei of the 6th Brigade under Niu Szudling as the man responsible for the seizing of Mr. Davis.
Terror-Struck Town The city, wh portant busin Honan, was taken by the bandits on the 17th instant, and held by them until the 23rd instant, when they votived, The terrors of those. fe Gays can better be imagined than scribed. The whole towns was thoroughly looted, and property ruthlessly burnt and destroyed. 'The! properties of the China Inland sion on both sides of the river were destroyed, and the belongings of, the missionaries were taken, The: only missionaries resident at this time were Mr. and Mrs, Davis' and Miss Poppins, the other members of, the ata! not having returned after the summer holiday, and the first word that came here reported that all three had been seized and curried off by. the bandits. However it is now known that the two women swore not taken, but that on the 2ist instant. Mr, Davis was seized, and when the bandits evacuated the city fon the 23rd instant he was also taken away in company with 4 great number of captives. Tt is ald that the bandits cleaned the city of women and children and members of better class homes, and that the numbers. they took with them were so great that it was impossible to feed them or central them, The result was that hundreds Aropped out by the wayside, and the otters. give harrowing: accounts of the refugees who are filtering back to the ruins of their former homes, fand of the dead who have suecumband ave. still lying unburi around the city.
The bandits and their capt went north-west from Chowkiakow, and are supposed to be in the)
ity' of Suchow on the Kinhan is said to be in the possession of the Southern troops. This man left Chikung on the Lith instant and [the Southern troops occupied the! mountain on the following day. General Chin Yun-ao's houses on} the mountain were looted by the soklicrs and the contents sold to the villagers. It took this man} eight days to come up the railway, through sections held by several military readers, with all of whom. the was acquainted. General Tien }was at Sinyangehow, General Chin} at Yencheng, and Generals Jen and Wei and others at different points, He reported that these sections were not working la harmony, and gave fan instance of five ears of ammunition at Yencheng station that were deliberately blown up by soldiers of one section moving up the line, vather than leave them to fall into the hands of their following' The explosion caused a great deal of damage to the station' and adjoining property, and some 800 persons were killed and injured. AM south of chow on the by the Southerners, feontrolled by the allies, despite the attempts of General Fan Chung-hsia to make trouble at different points.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.