The bus leaves Kiangshan at 9 am. and reaches Pucheng, the rst large town over the Fukien border at 215 a distance of about 80 miles. further connection on this day a had to spend the remainder of the day there.
On the following morning at 7 o'clock, caught a bus to Chienow (formerly called Chienningtu) in northern Tux kien. Shortly after leaving Puchong, the road climbs over 3,000-ft. pass by wide sweeping hairpin bends; the gradient is easy and the surface in excellent repair and will stand favourable comparison with any mountain road I have travelled on in Europe.
About noon we arrived at the pic~ turesque town of Chienyang standing at the junction of two rivers, a situation that seems to be typical of most of the towns in these parts. not escape the consequences of thi conduct or bearing.
The loneliness which so irked the King who abdicated last week may have been accentuated by this refusal to give him the stimulus criticism. IL is of him that, on the polo ground at Jodhpur, fit teen years ago, he threatened to withdraw after" the first chukker unless his host, the late Sir Pertab Singh, instructed the Jodhpur team, to ride him off like any other of its opponents. The threat was heeded and the rest of the match was played according to the royal visitor's desire. No doubt that feeling often manifested itself in, other and more important issues, during his public life and the Press was the chief delinquent. of the many wu from the crisis, what can be suguevied? Mr Attlee alluded last week to the "vulgarization" of the monarchy. Perhaps he had something of the same thought in mind. If into the comment on public affairs could be introduced a livelier perception of the folly of camouflage, the danger of hyperbole and the still greater danger of suppression, there could ted_a keener grasp id. misunderstandings might be diminished. The public wants to be instructed not bemused.
Public men have the right to demand a similar consideration on their account—not the least those who have to serve the community in the rarefied atmosphere of roy This was where the two unfortunate missionary ladies, Miss Nettleton and Miss Harrison were captured bandits In 1930 and afterwards cruel murdered. Two ladies of the EMS. are back there again. The bus was put on to a special kind of ferry. with draw-bridges for the wheels at either end, a kind of miniature Pukow ferry, and taken across to the main bus station, Here we had a quite unnecessary half of three hours.
The delay was not entirely wusted, however, as it was enlivened by con: versation with two interesting and very opposite kinds of persons. The one was an inspector from the Ministry' of Justice in Nanking, What he was inspecting was not' quite clear, but from what" he said T gathered that it had more to do with Tegal dues than with seeing whether justice was being properly admini-Mered. One gather that he was not {rightfully popular in the district Much News at Hand When he saw may card he said "Ab, if you are out for news, you've struck the right person," and much to my surprise launched out into a lurid account of bandit conditions in these parts, Tt was the last thing one had expected to hear from the lips of a Nanking om cial, But apparently he himself had had several narrow escapes and had had to beat an undignified retreat, "Such are conditions here," said he, "That the people are much more afraid of the Communists (as he culled these bandits) than of the Japanese." ope you will tell them that i Nanking" said I. Yes, he had spoken fo Gen, Chiang' in Chienan about it dnd weis now going in to Chienyang to tell the general there. Well, he may have, of course, but T have my doubts. From what T saw and heard ff the bandit-suppressing, generals In these parts, it did not seem to me, as it they would listen to a lecture from a. travelling Nanking' oficial with any: patience.
The other gentleman was a mee chaute at the bus-station, a wizened sudelooking old fellow speaking ex~ cellent Straits English, He addressed me as a Tong lost brother with that aly of equal. citizenship which the Chivese acquire in our colonies. He bad lived 30 years in Penang' and was now back in his home, Chien+ yang. ten years, "Lost" Mall Bag 'The people at the bus-station regarded "him og a harmless. crank while he, for his part, referred 10 Chienyanis as this "horrible country' und its people as "all, same savage men," and spoke in tones of bast regret of the mloties of Penang. That paradise he had had to leave under cloud owing, as he put il to a lost" mail bag' when he was serving the Slate Railways. There would, of cause, have been nothing strange in such & meeting on the coast, but here in this wild mountainous cou: try, hundreds of miles from the sea, was decidedly strange.
The bus on which we had travelled from Pueheng to Chienyang had shown no signs of trouble but was, order, the second bus that started abou: 40 passengers in a space that could hold 20 with comfort, 1 suseet the real reason was that the was requisitioned by the military. For big weep movements were taking. place all along the road, as the northern divisions were being with. drawn north into Chekiang and Cantonese moving in to replace them.
"This, Ehasten to add, was no mere coincidence; for T have never yet lone a trip in the interior, when on some portion or other, the transport services were not thrown into dis orde: by military movements. "About 5 bana we avtived at Chienow which usual fies on the junction of two rivers. The bus station is on the ppvsite side of the river to the he frst. Linguistic diftculties here, and to crown all, my Tugsaze which T had seen put on nother bus at Pucheng had not ned up. And when the bus people coolly informed me, without the Slightest apology for the delay', that the baggage would arrive alright following morning, 1 was not in temper.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.