The Japanese military have published authentic monetary conversion rates. All Chinese currencies are legal tender, as are military occupation notes. They, of course, are yen notes, one of which is the equivalent of $1.30 in National currency or $1.80 in provincial money.
The $1 and $5 Provincial Bank notes printed by the Chung Hwa Book Ca., which are commonly called lai chiwan notes, will not be taken in trade, and the money dealers are buying them in at 70 cents to the $1, reselling them at 80 cents. Canton Municipal banknotes of the kind known as Five Story Pagoda notes, of $5 and $10 denominations, are taken by exchange shops at 90 per cent., of their face value. Farmer's banknotes are down about five points. in the city of Changteh. evacuation, was taxed to the limit.
Tao-yuan was bombed by the same planes that had caused destruction in Changteh, some 50 bombs finding targets within the city. Hanseo and Tso-chi were also visited by the same planes. In Tao-yuan the first two bombs caused e building to go up in flames whilst four complete city blocks were wiped out by fire. Houses crashed and the yamen and the electric light plant were among the buildings suffering from the flames. Only the front part of the yamen was damaged, however.
In the city itself and in the vicinity of Tao-yuan, over 40 crater hole: were counted by an eye.
Many were wounded and killed although no definite figures are as yet available.
People are Careless Unfortunately, the people have become very careless about air-raid alarms, since there had been no visit from Japanese planes since a very long time. It was believed, however, that over 200 persons were killed and some of the corpses have not yet been dug out of the ruins. Of the 40 odd people that were waiting near the bath-house which is next door to the church, many are also believed to have been killed.
A very strange thing happened at the church fire. On the roof of the church, two fire-fighters held out in an attempt to prevent the flames from spreading there but they had to descend as it became too hot for them. The flames had almost reached the church when the wind changed suddenly and thus not only saved the church but also a whole row of houses, from certain destruction. The people who had witnessed this spectacle began to yell "The church wan wei, the church wen wei"
Several days later, Hengy g was again bombed and the missiles fell over a large area. The magistrate's yamen, the Customs Of d the Educational Bureau, ere all destroyed by fire. One of the bom! fell in a small campus of the Presbyterian Girls school near the residence of Miss Lucinda Gernha:
The dug-out, som from the campus, was filled people whilst others had taken refuge in the basement of the school. There were approximately 200 persons in the compound but not one was injured. Part of the compound wall and, on the other side the garden wall, were destroyed. The The same day, bombs were dropped near Siangtan, probably at Chuchow, which is the railway junction. The bombing was so near that the windows in the Siangtan Presbyterian compounds, rattled extensively, but thus far, Siangtan has been spared any bombing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.