The Chinese soldiers settled in the hills seem well-behaved—many of them are ex-students who have no further opportunity of continuing their studies—taxes are not oppressive, and everywhere one meets with courtesy and consideration. Here and there are pathetic evidences"of the wreck of war in houses and villages burnt out. We met recently a lad from Szechuen recruited a year ago and now to all appearances homeless and helpless. In the fighting up in the hills last winter his little company found themselves completely cut off, and for a week existed somehow on a piece or two of bread each. Starving land frozen these lads from the warmer south fought on in deep snow, their numbers thinning off one by one. A mere handful escaped with their lives, of whom this lad was one. His legs terribly frozen he somehow found his way ito a dressing station, and now six months later, effectively demobilized' and still suffering the effects of his privations, he is stranded hundreds of miles from home. Of how many others he is typical it is difficult to say. Their position is al-deviated to some extent by kindness of the Chinese peasants who take them into their-own homes and look after them until happier days arrive.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.