Railways—Amongst the worst features of the war has been the commandeering of railroads and their equipment: and the practically complete stoppage of railway traffic.
Tt is natural that in warfare an army will seck whatever. advantages the locality affords and. the waterways and railways are turned from their commercial use to the conveyance of troops and supplies. During such periods the railways in Particular suffer in many ways, The military leaders are "attracted to them by the mobility they afford and as a result, they become much art of the military machine than was the intention of their promoters, and as a consequence the contre of gravity of many of the military operations.
In the hands of an experienced railway stof, the transport of an army with ite supplies could be performed with little more ineonvenience than an undue strain on its facilities such as is occasioned from time to time in the general course of events, Unfortunately this is, not appreciated or understood by the military authorities in China, they prefer to commander rolling-stock and interfere directly with the control of railway operations. The result is seen in the disorder which immediately follows. Large concentrations of wagons are allowced to block up the cunning lines, and engines are kept to shunt them about to enable other trains to ps Engines are detained on the lines for weeks at a time without attention, Special trains are run long distances with a few unimportant Toads, or with a single coach conveying an officer and his bodyguard, the latter not infrequently followed immediately by a similar special train conveying an officer of another unit. Each individual eommand is a law unto itself—there is, no cohesion.
Railway equipment is appropriate ed to military use without regard to the impaired efficiency of the railway to transport troops and supplies, or the safety of operation The electrical appliances by which the working is controlled are usually. the first to be pur out of orde telephone and telegraph wires are diverted to military use only. Signal lamps are taken, as well as the important "tail" lamp which is used to indicate that a train arrived complete. Wagons are used as homes for the men, whilst the' well-appointed coaches' are transformed into quarters for officers. These vehicles, with many oth used as store-houses, block up si ings and running lines and cause general inconvenience. When forees have been in retreat these large concentrations of stock have been. attended with disastrous cons quences. Hurried attempts to remove scores of wagons and coaches, with numerous engines at intervals along the train, have resulted in de-ailment, damage, blockage of lines and general confusion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.