Compared with the cities along the Nanking-Shanghai Railway Hangchow is much more fortunate, for except the section along the Chientang River few houses were burnt down and only a few dozen civilians were killed. The Chinese themselves here admitted that the few fires that broke out following the entrance of the Japanese army were accidental (for those days were very cold) and most of the killings arose out of mutual ignorance of language.
But the women had indeed a horrible time and those who admire the excellent discipline of the Japanese army during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, will hardly believe the tales whispered among the people here. This evil, however, was greatly eliminated by the establishment of brothels and enforcement of strict discipline, Anything and everything that could be of any use to the Japanese was either carried away or destroyed by the retreating Chinese army and what remained was looted by the miserable Chinese wretches.
To the credit of the Japanese commanders the relics of West Lake are preserved in perfect condition. Even the brass statue of the 88th Division, representing two Chinese soldiers in action against the Japanese is still standing on the lake side almost intact and so are the scrolls at the of Yofeng (the tomb of the Chinese Military sage Yofei) which were written by Gen. Feng Vu-hsiang and the wording of which is sufficiently unpleasant to the Japanese. To be fair with the Japanese, merciless and harsh as they are where it considered of military necessity, they are not destitute of kindness and even civil justice.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.