(Delayed in Transit)
Siangtan, Nov. 27.
The fall of Canton and Wuhan struck fear into all the Hunanese, Jand since then events have been pro-feeding with great rapidity to an al-Jmost complete evacuation of " the population of this large city. The JChangsha fire was the final' thing [that seemed almost overnight to fill the streets and roads, trains and cars, Jwhere there were any, full to overflowing. There were 4,000 refugees [from outside the province, and wounded soldiers in several different /hospitals were to be evacuated at one Since there have been alarms every] Jday for days, the services Ihave been held at 9 am., for most of {the alarms come after ten. One Sunday in October the few worshippers that came were kept waiting for five hours because the alarm lasted that ong.
'The four churches of the city have united in trying to get their membership into places of safety. All these [Christians had been provided with refugee badges and with that they' could get free transportation on. the rain to Siangsiang, to. which place ]most of the Church of Christ in China Jmembers have gone, and to places the country. Col. Spear of the British Embassy came through Siangtan on November 15 and spent one night, on his way South to Hengyang, and Kweilin, and he hoped to. get Jout to Hongkong. He watched the Changsha fire for four hours. from HIMS. Wootsniper. He had taken Jsome pictures but had to leave them behind. All his clothes and baggage were left behind. He said it was the worst fire he had ever seen, The Hudson Taylor Hospital }was burned and almost everything] Host. One of the German nurses just convalescing from typhoid fever, and had to be removed to the Yale Hospital and died soon after there, Lutheran Missions Burned The Y.M.C.A., the Wesleyan Mission the two. Lutheran} was a terrible loss, and makes one feel that Ht" was wrong, for the Chinese and) not the Japanese suffer and will be obliged io rebuild. Changsha, one of the finest inland cities of China, is heap of ashes. The district covered by the fre was mostly within the old City walls. The Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and" Yale-in-China were saved. "The Hunan Bible Institute also was saved. It was the news of this fire that made Siangtan jittery, for all expected the same thing to happen here.
One day 30 soldiers came to the {Guild on the street and compelled the servants to let them stay for the ight. Elder Ho who has been took-Ing after the place, but not staying there, telephoned and since it was late Jand they were already in, and pro: nized "a leave in the morning, consent was given,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.