Tachimen Station, the terminus of the Peiping-Hankow Railway, presented a gruesome picture when Reuters correspondent visited the scene shortly ofter a dynamite fuse -had been lighted, Ton casualties—civilions caught in the explosion—were littered amongst the debris, while all around lay moaning, Chinese soldiers who had been abandoned in the general retreat. One of these lay stripped naked, with a horrible gash in his face.
Inside the Japanese Conces: sion the Japanese barracks were gutted and. smouldering. By " the afternoon, the whole of the Concession was deserted, apart from a few Chinese stragglers.
All houses and shops had been looted, with the exception of foreign-marked property.
The retreating Chinese troops, however, had otherwise behaved in a most orderly manner.
Although by mid-day all the gates of the former British and other Concessions had been closed and the barrieades manned by bluejackets, every now and again they were opened to Tet in a batch of refugees. All armed soldiers, however, were refused admission, 4 Each time the wiles were agate closed there were scenes of complete panic, as the refugees, having left it to the last_ moment to seck safety, foured that they would be shut out, Inside the gates, British bluejackets ce-operated with the Chinese police to_keep order.
In their smart uniforms and steel helmets, their batons swinging nonchalantly, they contrasted strangely with the pathetic, bedrageted pearance of the refugees bunched on the sidewalk
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.