Under the shelter of the hills and poplar, cypress, and eucalyptus fringed dykes which help drain the plateau streets where the locally-made copper, pewter, and silver ware and jade ornaments may be bought, new shops, branches of the big stores of Shanghai and Nanking, seem to open every day; department stores, The Caravans Here the caravans come from Chungking, Kweichow, Talifu, and the West, led by weather-beaten men, made strange by the turbaned scarves they all twist round their heads as a protection against both heat and cold. The pick of the ponies and mules head the procession, -decorated conspicuously with large red tassels and clanging bells.
Petrol is short and there are severe restrictions, but until the shortage could no longer be ignored the sky on every fine day was screeching with aeroplanes of various makes, piloted by Chinese cadets from the local air-field or the distant schools and Kunming Lake Gen. Lung Yun, Governor of Yunnan factories which nest their flocks in remoter mountain fastnesses. Even Yunnan, this last line of defence and most favourably situated, is within range of the Japanese air bases of Pakhoi and Hainan; already there have been two air raids and many alarums; much damage has been wreaked on Mengtz, over a hundred miles to the south, and people live in daily expectation of heavy bombing.
Here may be seen men of all races. The French have been established for many years in Kunming; they have their own social and recreation club—used also by other foreigners,—a fine Government hospital, and a school They and the French-speaking Annamites form a considerable community. During a brief stroll through the streets one may encounter an Annamite priest in a sky-blue tunic and turban, French Catholic fathers and sisters in their long black gowns, British or German merchants in rickshaws, ese nurses in uniform from a n Government MUS aer a hospital and Mohammedans in white fezes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.