er, who has just returned from the neighbourhood of Changsha and they deal with the efforts of civilians and the National Government who have as their goal the organization of 30,000 Industrial Ca-operatives in Chinese occupied territory, partly to solve the refugee problem and partly {o rehabilitate the nation.
It is early in the evening as the train pulls out of Changsha for its trip east to Kinhwa, two to three days away. What a nightmare were those last days of departure from the skeleton city that once held halt a million people. Yet, even as we move out, the forms of hundreds of labourers, men and women, can be seen clearing the debris from the Streets and picking over the black ruins of solid blocks of buildings. Most of the populace has, of course. run away and. scattered, but just where no one can say.
As usual: the train is very full, the coaches being piled high with families and their bundles of possessions. Quite a few, I understand, are former Changsha people—small business owners and. workers—who returned 10 see what was left of their properties and "now are convinced that life on 'a more normal scale will have to bbe carried on elsewhere, One wondders what they can find going east, for many refugees are also pouring west and down the Canton Hankow Tine from the vicinity of Changsha, Shaoyang,, in south-western Hunan, is gathering place because it is a bus terminal and refugee centre, but I did not get down there this year to see conditions for myself.
Search for Sples The regular _through-train no anger passes through Nanchang, but instead crosses the Kankiang at Changshu, about 45 miles due south. At this busy crossing I left the train and passed through the usual rigid examination of baggage and papers. Since the place is under a constant Spy scare, the officials hunt specially for maps and photographs. Here 7 boarded a bus going south to Kian, about 75 miles away, where Thad some businessmen to see, Up this valley many wounded soldiers are sent by bus, truck and river boat to be distributed to smaller com= munities for convalescence. T soon Tearned what the wounded had to endure over the roads of southern Kiangsi. Of course trucks had—or rather, took—the right of way, but such progress must had made some fof the wounded think twice about their chances of cure.
"The bus road follows the Kankiang valley winding between sharp hills that come close to the water and thus often Leave little level space for Tevel cultivation, In summer this is rice and tea country, but now the brown, hard stalks' of beans and wheat push through the soil. Everywhere there are people moving, most of them the tail end of the Yangtze Valley refugee groups.
These are the poorest of course, those who could afford to move having done so long ago, Every so often one would soe a family resting by the side of the road with their goods dumped well off the highway and perhaps a wheelbarrow or even a Flekshaw showing how the people and their belongings were carried. By far the greatest number, however, had to bear themselves and their property on foot.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.