A. general impression was abroad yesterday morning that the truce constituted an opportunity for large [numbers of Chinese refugees in the Settlement to xevialt their sbandoned homes in Chapei and the result, was that there were scenes without, parallel in the history of the Settlement. Tt mi taken that the "happenings in "Windy Sector," the storm centre of the [Settlement defences, at present held by."A" Company of the S.V.C., were typical of the whole, and there were periods in that particular quarter when things looked pretty black. The trace officially started at 8 a.m. to last until noon, and shortly after the morning hour the Volunteers Jopened the side gates at the barriers in order to let refugees through. The subsequent invasion was beyond all estimate, The Elgin Road and Chekiang Road gate, one of the tightest cor ners in the defences, was held only by four of "A" Company's men and the corporal in charge cognised that che task was beyond him and he put through a call for supports. Eventually, every man the Company could spare and a platoon from the Russian Detachments manned the gate and, even in such strength, "they a hectic time. With commendable foresight, the non-commissioned of-tier in charge early made his men unfix bayonets and saw to it that} no rifles were loaded, and the ]wisdom of this was evident in a few minutes when the men individually, were lost in a crowd whom they were trying to assist when apparently no Jone had any better idea than to get into the Settlement, and maskee the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.