As Bad or Worse Than Position in Hunan and Kiangsi Peking, Aug. 2.
While Chinese politicians in the north are using the Communist uprisings south of the Yangtze as a pretext to attack Gen, Chiang Kaishek for permitting them, reliable reports from Honan province, largely controlled by the northern coal ion, show that conditions although they have not been so widely advertised, are just as bad, or worse, than those in Hunan and Kiangsi provinces.
The situation in Honan closely parallels that in Hunan and Kiang si, The civil war compelled Gen. Chiang Kai-shek to withdraw troops from the southern provinces, giving the Communist their chance. In precisely the same manner, the civil war compelled Marshal' Feng siang to withdraw his troops from western and northern Honan, giving bandits in this province an opportunity to loot, barn and kil hich they have used to full advantage, Reports from missionaries and Chinese travellers in Honan reveal a situation so appalling that it can hardly be comprehended in the west, where such conditions have not existed since the Middle Ages. Scores of towns and villages have teen captured, looted and burned this summer; and thousands of Chinese have been killed with for ture, or carried off for ransom.
It is estimated that between 40 and 50 fairly well-organized bandit gangs cre active in western Honan at present, and few cities and, towns have' escaped their ferocity, An _eye-witnoss™ describes the" capture of Yikingpu, a good-sized town about 30 miles east of Loyang, which is fairly typical of dozens o similar outrages in Honan, A. tobber band numbering about 5,000 descended upon Yikingpu and surroundings. First the villages wore looted thoroughly, hundreds of Chinese were killed after slow torture, to learn where their money was hidden, and finally the villages were burned to the ground, They, are a heap of ashe The robbers then attacked and captured the town, where they remained for two days, looting and Killing. The deaths are estimated at 600, while 2,000 men, women and children were wounded by the robbers, who hacked at anyone they encountered. The robbers rounded up everyone suspected of having money, and carried them off for ransom, The declares the bandits were ly cruel. He declares they nailed small children to walls, and left them hanging alive and in agony, Northern Honan is the traditional home.of professional robbers, who have survived for generations in the mountains. Encouraged by the withtirawal of Feng Yushsiang''s troops, these gangs are now all active, and have devastated wide areas, They have now seized the "government," and impose "tax on the people which are nothing more than extortions. One of the Bandit leaders has called himself Honan, crops have been destroyed or never planted, and the province faces the prospect of another famine either this winter or in the early spring—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.