The demilitarized zone commences already about a mile east of Tungchow; there is a large post of the opel Provincial Police just. this side of the river that flows past the town, During the greater part of the trip we were, therefore, in this The Impression one got was that everything was perfectly peaceful and normal, and my enquiries elicited the invariable reply that all was now quite quiet, though a few weeks ago the countryside had been very disturbed. The peasants were busy working In their fields, the towns through which we passed had prosperous and lively alr, and there was a good deal of "trate on the oad, besides the buses, The area is policed partly by the ordinary country police and partly by a special Peace Preservation Corps Whose members wear uniforms of a dirty yellow, in contrast to the grey of the ordinary Chinese soldier, of whom, by the way, we did not see 4 single one during the whole trip.
An Impressive Spectacle The Eastern Tombs lie at the foot of a vast bow! in the hills and were formerly surrounded by an earth wall which ran up the slopes of the mountains joining up with the Great Wall which forms the northern side. The whole enclosure of over twenty square miles was at one time cover-fed with a wonderful forest of beautiful old pines and other conifers 'A foreigner who visited them in 'Manchu times describes the 'Tombs fas follows:" 'The general effect of the Eastern 'Tombs is most. impressive; the beautiful park with its splendid trees, against which there slond out the' Bright red walls, the iMering gold yellow-tiled roofs, and the dazzling white marble bridges and balustrades. 'While, in the background, the mountains, with the Great Wall' running along' them, give an added touch of splendour to this whole magnificent setting."
All this, "however, is now sadly changed. "Soon after the Revolution 1911 the neighbouring peasantry Invaded the enclosure and started cutting down the fine old trees, until to-day there is not a single! tree of any kind to be seen in this whole vast area. 'The park has been converted into' agricultural lend, bare fields, out of which these wonderful Buildings stand up starkly their brilliant colouring. Unfortunately this felling of the forest has mot been the only work of de-secretion that has been perpetrated, and most of the tombs are in a very ruinous and defaced condition Damage with Sledge Has In 1929 when the troops of General Sun Tien-ying were in occupation of this district they were billeted at the tombs. During their stay there they wantonly destroyed and defaced ud. this was, ordinary vandalism, for heavy sledge hammers must have been used smash some of the marble carvings, as has been done.
They even broke into some of the tomb chambers and looted the valuable funeral objects that had been. deposited with the "dead emperor and empresses—and sold them in the streets of Peiping. The coffin of the great Empress-Dowager herself was actually pulled out of the coffin chamber, broken open, and the Jewellery with which her body was Adorned" and the pearls from her famous pearl Jacket stolen At the time, the excuse was made! that this was merely the sets of the Iindiseiplined soldiery. But one has. only to see the tombs to realize that the looting must have been conducted on very carefully worked-out plans. The coffin chambers are faced with huge blocks of stone which were actually blown up. by dynamite and tunnels several yards long had to be dug through the surrounding earth mound. It must have been a work of many days, if not weeks, and can only have been accomplished with the Knowledge of Similar cts of robbery and de-see ration were committed at many of the other tombs.
The Manchus vainly appealed to! the government of the day for the protection of the tombs. Nothing. was done for a time, but at last, in deference to outraged public opinion both in China and the civilized world, a committee of enquiry was appointed. But nobody was punish-
Following the example of their superiors, amy bands of scallywags who happened to be prowling about the district descended on the unguarded tombs and continued during the next few years the work of pillaging, even stripping the bulld-Ings of thole beautiful wood carving and marvellous lacquer panelling. This was only finally put 2 stop to when the Japanese marched into the istrict in 1933.
To-day there is in existence a Commission for the Protection and Preservation of the Imperial Tombs one half of whom are members of the Kuomintang and the other of} the Manchu Imperial House, while 2 Manchoukuo garrison is now per~ manently stationed at the tombs. It 4s, therefore, safe to predict that what is left' of these" magnificent
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.