Town Which Preferred Own Protection Wiped Out Peking, Mar. 15.
The tragic destruction of Yang Po, a little town of 2,500 people, in' western Honan, is described in letter from an American missionary received here. The residents of the place became victims of their own attempt at independence. Yang Po's residents have been proud of "their city for generations. They wore particularly proud of the city wall, because it, was old and yet very strong; the residents kept it in fine condition, and felt. secure During the past few years, since Honan has been over-run' with: bandits, Yang Po's wal saved the city at least a hundred times. [Sometimes bandit gangs larger than the entire population of the town attacked the place, but Yang Be's people had trained' themselves in the art of self-defence, and they did a lot of harm to the bandits.
The townspeople had no faith in the Government, so they decided they must save their own city. They pooled their resources, and tought all the guns they—could. Deserting soldiers often made of with machine-guns and small field-guns, and in time Yang Po owned about 300 of these guns, many of them modern.
'A fow weeks ago, one of Feng: Vu-hsiang's subordinate gener moved into the county city near Yang Po and sent out an order that every surrounding town must pay heavily towards the upkeep of his troops. The order came asa blow to Yang Po, because the city did not want "protection" from this army. Other towns which had depended upon Government troops for protection were in ruins and Yang Po's residents were quite content to protect themselves.
The general was angry when the town's elders sent, back word that they could not undertake to supply his soldiers with food, fuel, and money. They explained that' they had their own garrison. He sent back a harsh demand for double the when Yang Po in refused, the general ordered an attack on the town with forces larger and better organized than any previous bandit gang the town had faced. The battle raged for days, and 600 of the attacking troops were killed and many oth wounded, Eventually, however, the troops broke into the town, aroused to fury by the sturdy resistance.
they entered, all discipline vanished, end they rushed everywhere, looting, killing, and setting i fire to houses and shops.
The destruction of Yang Po, according to the American. missionary, has been complete. A Chinese traveller, passing the ige, old the mi saw only a large area of barren land, cowered with scattered rui Hundreds of girls and women were carried off by the sol be sold gr kept, Enraged soldiers killed many babies outright, tearing them out of their mothers' arms and throwing them into wells—United Press. intendent. This resolution was un-on the agenda had been disposed off Mr. C. D. Dixon asked permission to propose a resolution of thanks to Mr, Dupre for his many years of service as a iller, He testified to the ty, courage and hard work Mr. Dupree brought to bear on hi service of the public. The resolution was seconded and carried unanimously amid applause. In his response Mr. Dupree showed that he was deeply touched by the way in which the resolution had been resented. He took the opportunity to disassociate himself from the remarks on the administration of S.A.D. 3 which were made recently in Tientsin by Consul-General Giles, and spoke of the way in which the British and Chinese councillors had striven to uphold the best interests of the community. He made it quite clear that such difficulties as had to bbe faced by the Council were not due to any want of harmony between the Chinese and British members of the Council. The meeting ended after a hearty vote of thanks had been accorded to the outgoing Council.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.