Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1920-07-29
Troops Loot yochow City.
Letter From Miss Marion FirOr
Tells of Killing of Rev. REIN
ert at Lakeside School.

| i 1AAlAAh5 VA INV 81 ASSAAAA
ert at Lakeside School.
The following is portion of letter re-
ceived by Rev and Mrs. Marion l.. Firor
of Burkittsville, this county, from their
daughter Miss Marion, missionary in
China, telling of the mutiny of Chinese
troops at Yochow, and the death of Rev.
Reimert.>
Chinkun gshan, June %, 1920
Dear Mother:
In the long interval that has elapsed
since l wrote you last, many have been
the Experiences I've been through. OF
the most important of these I'll tell you
as briefly as l can and the newspaper
accounts enclosed will help you to under
stand the political situation here.
Of the attempted mutiny of WI Kuang
Hsin's soldiers on the third of the third
moon and the significance of it, wrote
you before. For long time the people
of Yochow, ourselves included. had been
under great tension. not knowing what
these troops would break into. At Hsin-
Wang in Human, this same generals. SOL
diers have stormed foreign compound,
looted and killed one foreign man, all be-
cause they had received no pay for months
and months. Our troopsin Yochow were
the same.
But as long as the Twentieth division
soldiers under Gen. Fan Kuo Chang were
in Yochow we felt perfectly safe. Then
came the military moves which led to our
Yochow disaster. WI Pu Fu, the north
ern general who had been guarding The
line between north and South, who had
an understanding with the south not to
fight, was recalled north. He received
huge sum of me ney from the south and
it is said brought about his own recall to
the north.
Chang Gin Yao, this tyrant, despcahle,
northern governor of Human should then
have taken up the defense. However.
having pocketed the money which should
have gone to his troops, but paying only
his own brigade, which would protect
himself he ordered the troops south to
Hengchow to hold back the south.
What happened is characterize of the
Chinese The troops went, our own
"precious" goth division included, but on
reaching the front they simply smiled at
the southerners. refused to lift finger
against them and let them pass on m
molested towards the provincial capital
Changsha.
General Fan and Brigadier General
Suen still remained in Yochow. The i'm
portance of this you see later on in the
narrative.
Rumors of fighting at Changsha, of
Gin Yao's retreat, of Changsha in ashes,
all reached US, but we seemed to be cut
off from all communication with our Con-
sui in Changsha end could verify none of
these reports.
In the meanwhile here were WI Gwang
Hsin's troops in control of Yochow.
Crowd and crowds of people began fee
ing from Yochow. Some of our own
teaching staff left. We held station
station meeting and decided what should
I be done. All danger seemed to be for
our city compound. A joint meeting
with the chief men of the city was held
and we decided to let all church members
come into the church and women's school
and to build sheds on the compound for
all other refugees.
Owing to the fact that it is very dan
gerous to have lot of girls together in
one place at such times we decided to
break the rules of our Human Education
al Association and hold the exams at
once and send the girls to their homes.
The last exams were held on Saturday
and then the streets had already become
very unsafe. Chang Gin Yao's solid RS
had begun retreating to Yochow. We
did our best to clear the school of girls,
but on Sunday there were over 40 left.
! On Saturday evening Chang Gin YaO
himself arrived and then we knew that
Changsha had really been evacuated Our
magistrate, Mr.. Ding Immediately fled.
Terror reigned. Mr.. Heinrichsohn, on
request, went to see the governor and
General Chang and the rascal would say
nothing. He gave no promise of pro-
lection nor promise of controlling his
troops. All night long we waited for
something to happen, but got through
the night safely
On Sunday morning / decided to go to
the street chapel ard hold services as
usual, but thought best to take none of
the girls, only coolie. For the first
time during my four years in China | was
afraid of soldiers. | have seen awful
! looking creatures, but never any that
! looked like these half beasts. They were
filthy dirty, had the most savage, cruel
faces and armed with every kind of fight
ing implement man could carry. Some
of them had even impressed coolies to
help carry their guns, knives and swords.
On reaching the street chapel found
the evangelist had the place locked up.
After considerable banging he let me
in. On consultation we found it not adj
visable to hold service. Word had just
come that soldiers had begun looting the
shops. Then he begged me o take his
16 year old daughter and his small son
and daughter to the compound with me-
| could not refuse. Whata walk it was