"There was no groaning or complaining, even from the stretcher Gases which were borne past me by tired boy scouts; from beginning to end, this trip was a lesson in determination and courage," said an American shortly after his arrival in Nanking a few days ago. He had made the trip from Shanghai to Nanking by train on Monday, October 22, not in the usual express time of five hours, but in 44 hours of adventure ard at times extreme peril, including one hectic moment when Japanese aeroplanes few over the train near Soochow.
"This was two days before the evacuation of Chapei by the Chinese troops and up to that date, although the Japanese had been making every effort to cut and bomb the railroad by smashing bridges and stations and machine-gun trains, a service was still being maintained by the railway Crews who repaired the lines as soon as they were damaged and always kept the trains running.
The American reached the Shani hai West Station, the-only one then in use, at 5 p.m., 18 find least 2,000 refugees already waiting for the train, which was due to pick them up an hour later, The organization, he reports, was excellent, passengers being Kept as far as possible from the station building in order to save them in the event of an attack on the station; he saw no disorder of any kind nor any victimizing or profiteering.
A pillar of smoke, like a volcano in eruption, was pouring up out of the Commercial Press building, and bombing was being carried out in several sectors. A Mr, Wang introduced himself as the station manager and endeavoured to relieve the tedium of waiting, eventually letting the few foreigners board the train first when it arrived shortly after 6 o'clock.
"Perfect for Bombing"
At 630 they started, a full moon making it almost as bright as day. "It was perfect for bombing, and some of us were a bit nervous, but we had good luck at first," he continued. All stations passed en route were more or less in ruins, but business was going on as usual. A missionary in Hangchow told him that when the station there was burned passenger trains were despatched from it even before the fire was out.
After Kashing, however, the going got slower, and, owing to the presence of troops ahead, they had to wait on a siding from 1 am, daylight, The train had hardly got going again when there came the dreaded shout of "fei chi (aeroplane)" and they came to a sudden stop. People poured out of doors and windows and glanced upwards to see four aeroplanes coming down towards them. The ditches on either side of the railway were filled with water, and there was nowhere to hide.
"Tt was a helpless situation," and he found himself holding his breath as they drew near, continued the American, but "there was nothing to do but wait for the worst. must have been out of ammuni for they left after inspecting us without so much as firing a machinegun, It was not until they were out of sight that I noloed that three freight cars with their contents were burning on the next track. There were cans of white paint, iron ci bales of burlap and military underwear scattered all over the premises.' We were luckier than the previous: train had been.
The train remained where it was for thirteen hours. There were further alarms from time to time, but the Japanese planes were too busy bombing Soochow, eight miles ahead, to take any notice of their train, There was no food or water to be had, and his lunch supply was running low. He crossed the Grand Canal, which ran parallel to the railway line, and found some shops in a village not far off where he bought some sesame cakes.
"I drank tea in the shade of a old ferry landing above the- canal,' the went on. "The water was clear and green and restful. I was getting sleepy when the keeper of the shop began to ask me questions about myself. When I told him I was an American the crowd expressed its approval. One old farmer said: We, too, are men with a country now?"
It was almost 7 pin. before the train got moving again, with frequent delays while the railway line was repaired after the day's dozen or more aerial raids. In the moonlight, steel freight cars were strangely twisted and'torn and several had been blown bodily some distance from the line—but trains were still running.
Thirty hours after leaving Shanghai the train arrived in Soochow, where the station was almost in darkness as a precaution against air raids. Seven cars loaded with wounded were attached to the already heavy train, while hundreds of convalescents climbed through the windows and wedged themselves into every available cranny in the packed cars. There were hundreds of people, man; of them women and children, but tired though they were their cheerfulness and patience was greater than his own, he stated.
The train made better time from Soochow to Nanking. Practically all the stations had been bombed, several very severely, while the area on both sides of the line had suffered very badly in the aerial raids. At Changchow he saw two passenger coaches which had been bombed recently; they had been almost entirely destroyed, while the neigh-pouring (platform was: a mess of charred wood, bloody cotton, "and other things I did not investigate. There were several severely wounded civilians, but they had already received good care and were ready to continue their journey."
There were a few more alarms, but nothing serious. At Nanking, he stopped to watch the unloading of the wounded.
"They constituted the largest mass suffering humanity I have ever concluded. "There was no g or complaining, even from stretcher cases which were borne st me by tired boy scouts. From g to end, this trip was a n in determination and courage."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.