The Last Stand of the Retreating Canton Troops: A City Distraught: But Joy Cometh in the Morning -From Our Own Correspondent.
The following letter describing one more phase in the final expulsion of Dr, Sun Yat-sen's troops from the unhappy province of Kuangsi is recommended to general attention for the amazing picture it gives of what China suffers from the disputes of her politicians.
Nanning, July 17.
The last: three months have been so crowded with events in Nanning that the ordinary citizen's mind is dulled with the constant repetition of rumours and panics. There is no business, no traffic, nowhere for money to come from. Every day and all day from morning to night and night to morning, men, women and children are gambling. For the brief period when we wore under the rule of Canton this vice was prohibited, but now the officials have caught the fever like everybody else. It is not a recreation—it is the business of life: those who do not make it their chief concern are considered freaks and oddities.
Towards the end of "April, the Canton troops began to leave Nanning, and at the same time the Canton merchants and residents took flight. The departing soldiers left no stone unturned to "press" coolies to carry their baggage and loot; some streets were closed ai both ends with sentries on guard, whud soldiers combed the houses clean of suitable men—any climbing trees or attempting escape were shot down.
An April] 26 General Yeh, the commander-in-chief, departed and Liu Chen-huan (the Kuangsi official who surrendered Wuchow to the Cantonese) arrived to take his place. As the last Canton soldier left, there was a feeling of general relief; and at every village groups of men were sitting in the open, taking the air after months of hiding from the press gangs! Some Canton stragglers and alleged sympathizers were mobbed in the open street and nearly killed by infuriated men and women with a long memory of past wrongs. The army now consisted of Kuangsi officers and mon owning allegiance te Canton.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.