Swatow, Dec, 30.
The communist reign of terror in. the Haifung and Lufung districts has been going on unchecked now for two months, and the news which comes through indicates a state of things which for utter ghastliness can have few parallels in modern. times, except perhaps in Armeni or in that Russia of recent years from which its inspiration has come. It is not merely massacre, but mas-sacro with a fiendish delight in cruelty and gloating over the agonies of the victims. A week or more ago. the total number of them was being Put at 10,000 and there is little reason to think that this will prove an under-estimate. The figures that' are given for individual towns and villages are as often as not in hundreds, and in some cases as high as six or seven. Those are regarded as fortunate who are summarily' shot or beheaded, but many poor, wretches have to undergo the agony of dismemberment, or of the historic "slicing" process, with new refinements of cruelty, before they are allowed to quit the scene. munists, and so strip himself of the last rags of respectability to\ which he can lay claim, or, in order to save his reputation, will unite with the Kuomintang troops to subdue the communists. If he chooses the former course, the danger to Swatow and the surrounding districts will be serious, Up till now the military leaders here have been so busy with their own higher polities, that they have had no time to attend to such minor matters as saving millions of iinocent people from this reign of devilry, One or two sporadic little expeditions have been sent out, but have done more harm than good. A small force was sent by sea to the city, of Chichshih, where hundreds had been killed and a large part of the city burned; they occupied the city for some days, but found that they were too weak to advance any further, or even to hold the cit and so withdrew again, and the communist hordes returned to a new spell of burning and slaughter, the city to in future, Quota of Heads from Each Village 'The folk of the place are compelled to attend the mettings at which these atrocities are intermingled with harangues on the blessings of communism, and any indication, not merely of' sympathy, but even of horror or disgust, on the part of an onlooker is enough to bring him into the ranks of the victims. The platforms from which the orators speak festooned with heads that are cut off in the course of the meeting. Towns and, villages are heads, and, if they fail, or threatened, to greater efforts; and any failure in proper enthusiasm, in the cause is, in due time, visited with vengeance.
The scourge goes on spreading in fa steady advance from village to village, and is already threatening the districts on the side towards Swatow, It is still doubtful whether Chen Ming-ch'u's army in its march from Fukien to Canton intends to clear up this unspeakable mess, or will leave it al in its haste to get a place in the sun at Canton. If it does not occupy the region in force, there is, every reason to fear an advance of the communists in this direction.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.