For the first few months normal communications were entirely dis id, and no mall reached ws for least six months. One of the most trying features of those unusual days was the absence of reliable news. "A thick fog-blanket seemed to have settled over the countryside, and. we. groped our way through a maze of rumour, speculation and propaganda. Now the heavily pro-ceted railway is running with methodieal regularity, while in the wide spaces" which have reverted Chinese control, the Post OMice has speedily reorganized a. courier xer~ vice which extends from the Ping-lilian railway right across Shani to. the Yellow River and boyerd. Some: sixty postal und receiving offices are fold to be operating in south Shans. Another service operates from Pel binge along the Cheng-tai railway to} Taiyuan, and there is some hope that this may be extended shortly:
far south as. Linfen, Travel is "Steeplechase"
Away from the zone of ocetpation all main roads have been cut liberately every mite or two, so that travelling inthe hills becomes a perpetual steeplechase at the best of Nimes, and when snow and ice are the. tracks they are wearisome Burnt and ruined these routes too often mark the searing kand of wae but, While there hasbeen suffering and Toss, there docs not appear to be the acute distress which less-favoured. provinees are enduring. Some cases Of real need have been assisted from the Lord Mayor's Fund, and the: Central Government has "recently made available considerable sum, for relief and industrial development. Behditry is sporadic in a few places, hut, venerally speaking, ones" the ditiiculties of almost impassable roads fre surmounted, it will be safe to (ravel {rom plice to place, as. the friendliness. of the people and their steady optimism are unmistakable. exes are increasing, and Vikin is being levied again in some places but after all, someone has got to pay the costs of war.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.