Retreat Before "Allied" Troops Which Came as Surprise] to Kuominchun Soldiers:
Wells Poisoned by Bandit Haters of Feng: Conditions in Kalgan The following extremely interesting account of the recent Kuominchun was penned to a member of the "NE. D. N." tat by a Chinese gentleman very closely in touch with official circles, Both foreign end Chinese, ix Peking, and is the result of personal investigation Peking, Oct. 6. school mate of mine returned from Suiyuan Inst night. He was tone of the doctors in the Kuominchun Hospital at Paotou where he had under his care thousands of wounded soldiers. He left Paotow Uuring the retreat of the Kuominchun forces when all of the Kuomin chun institutions were disorganized and the men scattered around the villages each trying to save this own life by running away from danger, This friend of mine stayed ith the wounded sokliers till the Inst minute, when he could not find anything £0 eat and was compelled to beg his way down to Suiyuan, where he stayed with a foreign Goctor of the Cathedral Mission, for neatly a month waiting for " train to Peking. It took him four days fand nights to get to his destination, The Peking-Suiyuan Railway nove divided into four. sections, aid fion"ot each section of the Tine ight was spent at the termina-
where a new ticket was bought for the journey.
H, ©, L. in Suiyuan, Chi-kiang saw the danger that was Jeoming but they had no more soldiers to send to meet the Fengtien cavalry forces from that Jdirection. Thus, the final decision Iwas made to withdraw. all of the [Kuiminchun troops from the front before it was too late, to save an Jadequate force for future development. ~The Allied troops did not lreach the Kuominchun defence lines until they had gone for some time, A Miserable Retreat The retreat of the Kuominchun Iwas effected to the surprise of their own men at the front and it wa Jdone in such a miserable manner. They had nothing to eat and not leven anything to drink, The trains Jwere so crowded that only a few could get on. Most of the soldiers Jand lower officers had to walk for hundreds of miles in a few days' time, What made the situation Iworse was that they could not find any water on their way to Suiyuan land Paotou, The wells which came across were either filled up. [with stone and earth or poisoned the bandits who are bitter Jenemies of the Kuominchun, The ea, ts a already very cold. The climate at ating, Cee ote for example costs $3 and a small bottle of shoe polish which sells for 20 cents in Peking costs $1.20 there at least. The increase in market prices is largely due to the depre-
North Western outlaws hated the Kuominchun more than the Allied forees that were pursuing them. Whenever they discovered a good source of water, each soldier w: Met allowed to drink more than a ten cup of it, the next thing they Idid was to water their horses and mutes. They could not use any of jthe available water until the Janimals that carried their munitions Jand supplies were satisfied. They, could not eat much when they did Bank since the fall of Nankow.
a ae a ure of the Kuominchun in August have a meal. At Paotouchen alan 5,000 pounds of brown corn flour, 30 piculs of millet salt the evacuation of Nankow was made ay, Te Ales Saou pite the heavy bombardment by the \Allied Artillery. The failure of the Kuominchun was, however, due to the fact that they stretched and they could not cover all the strategic points against their enemy' were consumed daily bj the Kuominchun. The food wa: prepared in such a way that joven the coolies of Peking would hesitate to eat, yet many of the Kuominchun troops could not Jalways get it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.