The Government ordered that two months' rent shall be paid by all who own and rent out houses to help meet the expenses of the war, but I hear that in this city at any rate, it has been ver: difficult for the authorities to collect, and yesterday paper stated that it has been dropped. It is certainly very hard on such people as are dependent on these rents for à living when there is but little ta rent out, Some, time ago, a German priest of Kinchow (where Mr, and Mrs, Hayman were captured by the Communists) was captured, after being shot li: the foot, by robbers and taken off: we have not heard of him since and suppose he is still in their hands. And recently two business men of Anshun were ried off by robbers, one while travelling to the south of that city and one at or near Yaopu 80 li (ten miles) from Anshun on the big motor road to Yunnan. It looks as if these gentry are not very patriotic to behave so at such a time as this: but I should not be very r= prised if these robbers are men driven to desperation by their terrible need, for even in Kweichow the two extremes of wealth and deep poverty are evident. the latter being of course the more common lot Our local Chinese dailies are now telling of the progress of the Japanese towards Nanking and at the same time they tell of Japanese retreats northward in Shansi, the strange to say. in smaller type. Some think that the Japanese retreat may be a bit of imagination on the part of the editors in order to comfort the readers lest they get too pessimisti, We are quite unable to teli for ourselves as no English papers are coming to hand these days.
In the northern halt of Shansi. which is all that the Japanese hold so far, this hold is very precarious and confined to the larger towns and to the Chen-Tai Rail According to certain foreigners just returned from those parts many of the town. and dozens of villages have been com pletely destroyed during the Japanese advance, while even Taiyuanfu itself offered very severely indeed and still shows not the slightest signs of recovery, In the mountain districts to the north and east of Taiyuanfu the alled Red forces hold undisputed swa; with the famous monastery of Wutaishan as their headquarters According to the statements of monks who have returned from there, they have not interfered with the mon steries in any way, And the same pplies to the mission-stations lying their districts, But the Taiyuanfu-'Tatung motor road is subject to their constant attacks, and this line of Japanese communications is being constantly interrupted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.