Five more SMR. employees, possibly a sixth, were added to the steadily increasing number of those who died in action on Manchoukuo soil, They were killed, according to word received at the SMR. headquarters here, by a gang of approximately 40 desperadoes who stormed a freight train, en route from Nan-fen to Antung on the Mukden-Antung Railway. The bandits also looted" the Nanfen station of arms and ammunition.
The news was received here with feelings of consternation in view of the strenuous punitive campaign and military vigilance maintained ili the so-called Triarigular Zone, southeast of Mukden and northwest of Antung, where the massacre is said to have taken place. Although the Triangular Zone has been a traditional bandit stronghold, recent reports had it that the district has at last been delivered. This tragedy is regarded here not as a negation of the contention that the forces of lawlessness have been routed but as a grim reminder that sporadic raids by otherwise converted farmers will remain a chronic symptom for some time yet to come.
'The fatal raid' is about the first reported here since the turn of the year.
The order is expected to be circulated again all along the railway Tines for sustained watchfulness against bandits, The SMR. is determined to make all avenues of p ublic travel in Manchoukuo free from molestation. The building of more inter-erossing lines in the Triangular Zone is proposed as a means of normalizing public order there. Similar network schemes for, other "bandit zones" are likewise proposed, railways having already proved their effectiveness in carrying the "light of civilization" to distant parts of Manchoukuo and checking the ex-plaits of marauding gangsters. The safely of travel on the main stem of the S.MLR. system from Dairen to Harbin is sought,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.