inly in local politics, but also in those of China generally, and altogether seemed to consider themselves citizens of the world and not merely of Chienkou. This wide-awake attitude which I ascribe mainly to the motor road shows what an important role it is playing in the awakening of the remoter parts of the country.
I slept very badly on that platform Outside the sub-station.
We were up very early next morning and after another climb through very beautiful scenery, descended once more into the plains and after crossing two: rivers by ferry, skirted the important town of Kuangyuan. There is an airfield here, and we met a string of empty Government lorries returning to Chengtu from where they had been bringing up supplies of petrol for the aerodrome. In view of the then existing ation in Szechuen this may sound strange, but so it was, and I can offer no explanation.
About a couple.of miles beyond Kuangyuan the motor-road runs high up along à river, with a stone balustrade on one side and sheer cliffs on the other. This is the famous Cliff of a Thousand Buddhas, the face of the rock being carved with hundreds of small figures. Here we stopped to clean our sparking-plugs, and were just in the middle of this operation when I heard shouting down the road and looking up saw a horde of wild-looking fellows with banners, spears and ancientmuskets comingata trot down the road towards us. "We're for it" I thought, and remembered with regret that the clearance of a modern Car is so small that one cannot crawl under it very quickly. My fears, however, were groundless.
They went rushing past without taking any notice of us, dragging along iny their midst two fellows whose wfists were fastened together with chains and who were wearing very contrite expicssion: as if they knew their last moment had come, also at the end of a rope a still more mo@rnful-looking dog. Arrived at the foot of the cliff, the whole party ited. Those with arms rushed up a short grassy slope at the side to a small shrine under an overhanging rock and forcing their prisoners to kneel down and prostrate themselves
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.