A still more distressing experience with the Chinese is that the behaviour of their military authorities, the officers in command of the troops and railway guards, and the Chinese soldiery, often differs not much from the lawlessness of the Hunghutze. The railway guards whose duty, one would think, should be te protect the line daily commit acts of violence. Official reports and newspapers are full of such occurrences. The Annual Report which we have been quoting above-gives the following eloquent figures for different outrages perpetrated on the railway by the Chinese military forces:
During 1921—not less than £&20 incidents have been registered grouped under the following head-
1.—Acts of violence against railway agents and employees 182 2—Riding on trains without tickets ard transportation of goods without documents 296 3.—Seizure of cars loaded with coal, firewood and other mater-company ials' belonging to the railway
4.—Destruction by fire of dwellings and buildings occupied by Chinese soldiers, owing to their fault or carelessness 5.—Damage done to railway property 40 6.—Arbitrary occupation of dwelling houses and other buildings belonging to the railway company 18 7.—Viclence against passengers, such as illegal searches, robbery, seizure of private luggage and goods 8 &—Disorderly and tumultuous behaviour on trains and stations 110 9.—Interruption of traffic, despatching, stopping and returning of trains without permis sion of the reflway authorities 10.—Delaying of trains by taking and discharging cargo in all 820 During the first half of the current year not less than 271 acts of violence of a more serious nature had already been reported. Minor incidents which happen daily are
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.