An old German-pattern _handaronade used in the Great War is the Chinese soldier's favourite weapon, Night, when the superior armaments the Japanese are of little use, Is the time when the Chinese come into thir own, using these deadly missiles, Their excellent intelligence service, based as it is on the natural inclinaton of the people, provides them with faecurate information on Japanese troop movements and even on details concerning the whereabouts of higher 'With their local knowledge, the at-tockers are able to operate' on the darkest nights, with a" good chance both of finding their objective and escaping unscathed. 'Every night, dozens of such attacks are made, each, T was told, insignificant in ite self,' but in their aggregate by no means negligible.
Return to Meadquarters, On returning to General Yen Hsi-shan's "headquarters, Twas shown typical examples of rifles and pistols fumed out in the Shansi arsenals, The, rifle produced was a. well: Gnished weapon, with a smooth bolt action. It resembled a. machine-made product in every respect, except that if had a smooth bore.
T was also shown pistols of patterns produced in the. two main "district The frst was an 11-millimetre automatic of a modified Browning pattern, made from. steel obtained from the Tungpu Railway. It was 4 formidable and well-balanced side-
The second was also entirely handmade, and fired. German Mauser cartridges. It was highly finished, and would have done credit to any. professional gunsmith. It hada hammer action somewhat similar 10 that of a Mauser, but was a smaller
sign. weapon and was' of purely local de-'Some hundreds of these automates could be produced every month, according to the demand for them, was told.
Japanese Influence Limited "Out of the 130 towns and villages situated in my district, the Japanese occupy only seven, while their influence extends over six' more lying between the Feng. River: and the Tungpu line. though our administra tion there works secretly," the maxlstrate of a aistriet In Shansi prov ince," through" which the railway passes, told me when T met him dur-Ing. a visit to towns adjoining the Tine.
"Sty own, town," the magistrate continued, "has. been sacked. and sulted, Once it had 5,000 inhabitants find 200 stores, but now it is a. dex Serted ruin. holding. about. three families, Even the Japanese do not bother io come there now.
"The people. of my city are scat~ tered, and their businesses ruined, yet, it the administration calls for money, itis forthcoming within a few days." "Expenses have naturally been to a fraction of the former level {in this"lsivict, and now total only $100" month." This is just enough to pay for food, as oMcials of, the Administration tecelve no salary."
One Man Government Chaoehu, an important town on the railway, 16 the south of Linfeng, had a "local government" consisting ne man only, the magistrate told me, The many Re said, was. an opium smoker—o merchant whose shop. was now closed.
"he Japanese," he went on, "have offered to rebuild the houses tree of charge in this town, if tne women and their families return, but not a single person has accepted the offer"
"Sometimes the Japanese threaten to destroy a town if the people do not return," he proceeded, "Old. men ccastonally go back, but young men, children, and women, both old and Young, ever do."
"Phe magistrate went on to describe the Japanese efforts to' consolidate their financial hold' on" the" people along the oilway. At present, mit Was 0 criminal offence for a person to possess more than 30 dollars {in Chinese. currency,. while Chinese Having more than 100 dollars were summarily. shot; yet people had. re= fused to handle the Japanese paper ime ago." the magistrate veral Japanese appeared along the railway doing business money changers. 'They offered to ive 90 cents Chinese money for one yen, 'This was done in. order establish a "black market rate' attempt to convince the" Chinese people that the Japanese money was of some value, for the Chinese treated it as worthless. This device has now been dropped. If a Chinese wished to have change for Japanese money. he was liven, for every National Government dollar, $1.10 to $1.20 in ow Chinese neies, which were counterfeits."
Many Forged Notes "The Japanese are flooding Shansi province with forged Chinese notes in an effort to discredit the Chinese money, but outr people are not to be deceived," the magistrate stated. He handed me a counterfeit ive-dotla ote purporting to have been issued by the Shensi' Provincial Bank, together with a genuine one for comparison. The imitation note was printed on thicker paper, which felt liogether different from the genuine tone, while the ink in which It was printed. was much paler, The money question, the magistrate said, was causing much trouble at present, the most serious question being that of obtaining a sufficient supply of Chinese goods. Production had practically ceased at present. Therefore, unless small-scale industry: was successfully established, people might be forced to buy Japanese goods by using Japanese money.—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.