Amazing Story of a Communist Expedient for Keeping Down the Population: Monthly Quota of Heads favour of: his death was said to be sufficient to condemn him.
In the second class were included harlots, marriage-intermediaries, wizards and idol-mediums, Buddhi priests, and sooth-sayers. In the third were the blind, the lame, the incurably diseased.' One of " the Communist leaders went to the hospital of the English Presbyterian Mission at Swabue and asked the Chinese doctor in charge when ther leprosy was curable, He was told that there was no guarantee, as yet, that the cure by injection was effective in any individual ease, nor that it was a permanent one in any case, but that in some cases there was a marked arrest of the disease, and in some cases por-manent cures were hoped for. The Communist leader considered a moment, and then declared that Tepers must be exterminated; the hope of cure was too remote, Death for Children With regard to the fourth class, it was decided that all people over 50 years of age were to be put to death. Tt has further been re-
Peatedly said to me that children also were included in the list. This seems incomprehensible, even under Communist regime, except that with Communism there appears to have been a rooted theory that as there are too many people in the world it is necessary to reduce the numbers of any given community, The actual carrying out of this policy of widespread and merciless bloodshed seems to have followed the defeat of the "Red" forces of Generals Yeh and Ho in Swatow in September, 1927. They retreated with the remnants of their badly cut-up armies to the Hai-Lu Fung district, and their men, to the num-her, at that time, of not more than 13,000, were enrolled under Preng Pai. 'Previous to their arrival he had' had n small force of a few hundreds trained for his work.
With this force behind him, the policy outlined above was put in force, and those places, chiefly the larger centres, where his policy was not welcome were attacked.
The fortified township of Chichsheng was among them. Tt offered resistance, having some big guns, brought some time ago from the siege of Tweichow. But the ammunition gave out and the place way eked. There was a horrible wrighter, especially of one clan, which was exterminated. An old Mchu-jin" (scholar of the second degree) of this clan was paraded through the streets Tis nose war cut off, and every few yards he was compelled to kneel, and the spectators were invited to cut him with knives. So he was done to death. Nunibers of others wore decapitated and their heads pickled in salt and stowed in baskets. These were taken to Hai-fung and exhibited, and then carried to the port of Chieh-shih, a walled place which was resisting the force, and were placed before it. The inhabitants had thus a foretaste of the fate that awaited them. This place was eventually entered and partially destroyed. Tt was retaken by a small force of soldiers sent from Swatow, then, on their withdrawal, captured again and completely: destroyed.
A Monthly Quota of Meads Meanwhile the policy of exterminating undesirable classes was developed. The district was divid-into areas, and over each executioners were appointed. From them was expected a proper quota of heads every month, and thei loyalty and whole-hearted pursuit of the aims of the Government were measured by the number of heads produced. The principle would seem to have been that of the proseribed classes a certain" number was inevitable, and at least so many must be accounted for.
As the thirst for blood grew new methods were evolved. The offices of public speaker and executioner were combined. Small parties set: out daily for the villages in the district assigned to them, and when they came to a place they rounded up all the inhabitants and proceed ed to harangue them. The harangue was interspersed with public executions. Victims were sct out before the eyes of all; their ears and noses were cut off, or their eyes pat out,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.