Press gangs are hard at work in Chapel, and hundreds of people' have fled over the boundary lines: into the Settlement for safety. A miniature reign of terror was set up by these gangs yesterday evening, and great excitement prevailed, The press gangs are made up of from twenty to thirty men, partly soldiers and partly police. They ave pursuing their work without kid gloves, and when men are caught they are handled rather brutally according to local reports. The peo. ple are being impressed, not soldiers but as labourers, and when a number are gathered up, they are] lashed together with ropes, put into motor-cars and sent away to the scene of operations, Eye witnesses state that it was a pitiful sight on Wednesday afternoon and evening to see the women and children hanging on to their men and being broken away by the soldiery.
As soon as a press gang appears a road, that road is immediately deserted, and it was a strange sight at times on Wednesday to see an ordinarily thickly populated road ike Chapei Road almost deserted. Round about Dixwell Rond was the chief scene of operations, whilst all along the boundaries Sikh and Chinese police (Settlement) were on duty in order to prevent the. pressmen from coming into the Settlement. Hundreds of peuple who normally live in Chapei were sleeping in the roads on this side of the border last night for the soldiers do not confine their attentions to: the people they meet on the roads, but also knock up houses and search for able bodied men, CHINESE PRESS WAR NOTES, Where Is Fukien's Tupan? Ideas on How to Stop War: Destruction on Railway A Peking telegram reports that General Sun Chuan-fang, Tupan of! Fukien-Kuangtung Border Defences, left Foochow for Yenping on August 25. The journey usually occupies three days, and Sun could not have arrived at Yenping until the even of August 28. There to Puchen, it usually takes five days to cover the distance, but at least eight days in the transportation of "an army. Should Sun's troops choose to proceed to Chekiang vid Shanjao. in gsi, they would travel on comparatively good roads. Should they fake the route of Fanlin to reach Mount Hsienhsia, they could only march onward in single file, their guns had to be carried, and be simply impossible for heavy ar lery and all big, supply carts to ypegotiate these hilly paths success-ally.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.