(Delayed in transit)
Sutsien, Ku, May 24.
The war has struck Sutsien at last, In the middle of December, 1937, when Nanking fell, the people here e panic stricken and most of them fied front the city. Later, many of them returned and carried on their various "occupations a% best they could. Sutsien is 80 miles east-southeast of Hsuchowfu, so the hostile forces which have been- converging on that important railway' centre for some months past have also constituted a threat to Sutsien, During the great battle of Taierchwang, 60 miles from Sutsien, and at many times since then, the people here have heard the booming of cannon and the bursting of aerial bombs. Planes.have flown over Sutsien many times, without dropping bombs, On May 14, a plane dropped two small bombs about 2 miles north of the city, killing a beggar and injuring his son.
On May 15 and 16, there was very heavy bombing in the vicinity of Fushan, 30 miles to the northwest. Many people were killed or injured. Windows of the foreign houses at Sutsien rattled violently, as if in an earthquake, Sometimes' this rattling occurred when the sound of the explosion coüld not be heard.
On May 16, at 5.30 am, a plane circled over this city twerer three times, and dropped four bombs in a residential district, This was the first bombing inside the city limits, but it was not the last. Three persons were killed, and a few others were injured, all civilians, People began streaming out of the city gates, carrying bundles, Later, the Chinese soldiers at the city gates, for some unknown reason, forbade the people to carry anything out of the city.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.