I sent you my last despatch from the Lung-Hai train en route to Kaifeng, from Hsuchowfu. I finished that letter while yet on the east side of the line that divides Kiangsu and Honan. Till the 13th no passenger train had crossed the 100 miles that divides the two large cities. Thus we had to remain in Kueiteh that night.
At Kueiteh we learned more of the movements of the Chao family than the people farther west could know. From eye witnesses we learned that the day previous to the looting of the railway area at Kueiteh—that is the night of the 1¢th—Chao Chieh, former commander of the 1st Division, with his aged mother had detrained at Kueiteh with no following at all, and had immediately taken carts for Pochow, near the Anhui border.
The following day the ex-governor with but two servants arrived at Mamuh, one station east of Kueiteh, in a third class carriage and none of the conveniences and- comforts that had ever been his accompaniments in days gone by. He was so depressed that he could not raise his head off the hands that supported it. From Mamuh his movements are unknown, but it is supposed that he followed a parallel road to that taken by the younger brother and is now in Pochow or Anhui. It is said in Kaifeng that on leaving Kaifeng, the ex-governor shaved off his flowing beard and left the city by the south gate unattended, that he might create less notice, whereas his bodyguard left by the north gate to cause a diversion. They were to have met and entrained for the east, but somehow the plans went wrong, and the poor fallen governor left, shorn not only of his whiskers but of his glory as well.
Fuscranr Grows or Poppy.
From what we travellers saw the flagrant growth of poppy along the Lung-Hai Railway in the eastern confines of this province, there would seem to be something of the' working of Nemesis in this downfall. West of Tangshan, just inside the Honan border from Kiangsu, field after field of poppy in most beautiful bloom was passed: from that city to the town of Mamuh we counted 49 small fields, gloriously radiant in their reds, pinks and whites, against the lovely green of the wheat fields. From wholly reliable: source I am in- ed formed that if one were to leave the train at Tangshan and go south throughout that peninsula of Hohan. wedged in between Anhui and Kiangsu, there would be discovered literally tens of thousands of mow of land under poppy culture.
A few weeks ago the Honan Chinese-Foreign Famine Committee had to send regretful protests. to the authorities at the removal of a very efficient magistrate, named Hsu Chia-lin, who had been doing splendid work with and for the society in the Yuugcheng district. It transpired that afagistrate Hsu was dead set against the growth of poppy, and for his interference with their source of gubernatorial revenue he was transferred to the poor magistracy of Sichuanting in the southwe.t of the province.
The story goes that when the delegation of Chinese and foreigners, selected to go to Feng Yuhsiang's lines to sue for an armistice, reached the special train in which Chao Chieh had his headquarters, near Peisha, they found him, the commander of the Ist Division, dead to the world under the influence of opium. It was this despicable creature that has from the very start used every device that he could utilize to frustrate the plans of the Anti-Opium Society. He even suborned the police department in this city to pervert and hamper the workings of justice, when the charges were those of opium trading.
Now the governor and his brother are both gone, and Feng Vu-hsiang has not been slow in getting rid of the. police commissioner Lung who ever played into the hands of. these forces of evil. The Honan Anti-Opium Socsicty—still stands self-suspended in protest against the lawlessses of this pair: It now remains to be seen what action the present governor will take in the matter of. opium suppression.. Certain it is that if the present crop is not to be gathered, immediate action must result.
Hosritats Funn or Wounpep.
At the time of writing the situation in this city and its immediate vicinity is well under the new governor's hand. The various hospitals in the city and suburbs are filled with the wounded of both sides in the late struggle. There are not less than 700 wounded here, and perhaps there are not less than twice that number in the city of Chengchow. When Bishop White returned home from the National Christian Conference in Shanghai on the first train in, he was asked, to take the matter of Red Cross organization in hand. This he has consented to do, and at present he is urging neighbouring cities to send medical units and X-ray apparatus. The China Inland Mission in the south suburb of the city, understaffed and very poorly equipped for the work, have had' 180 wounded soldiers in: and in a large military. hospital there are at present nearly 300 poor wounded fellows who cannot be properly treat-
There will be a large number of Honanese people in the south. who wit) be interested in learning that daily passenger service is restored on the Lunghai—Hsnchowfu Railway.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.