peace and prosperity of 1 were evidently too good to last in /Shensi for the New. Year has seen. recrudescence of Red alarms. A. large band of communist bandits, [variously estimated as from 2000 to 16,000 strong, came up from the South-feast and pillaged a number of places. They got within five li of Lonan. where the inhabitants who had experienced Red attentions before, fled in desperate panic. 'The crowd of [fugitives blocked the city gate and many dropped from the city wall in their eagerness to get away. Among them, it is said, was the local magistrate' who broke his false teeth the fall. As this city is not_much Jmore than 100 li from the railway to Sianfu there was a real peril to Jcommunications, but the Government troops seem to have headed the band into the southern mountains, where it is said they have just looted the city of Chenan. Our Military Governor, Yang Hu-chen, who has been in the Han. Valley watching the Szechuan situation, is now at Shangchow Jon the SE. road. He is said to have [degraded some of his officers for not Jmaking a better show against the Reds,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.