Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-03
AMERICANS WORRY
CONSULS IN CHINA
Foreigners Who Penetrate
Remote Areas Declared
Taking Risk.
~ REGINALD swEETLAND.

RLOANAA<D "AA@ SfAANDs
Special corrsspondenee Of the ch:ssso ,J peiy
News Foreign Service. Copyrlsht, 1884,
the Chcago Daily News, Inc.
SHANGHAI. China. Americans and
other foreigners are to be discouraged
as much as possible from travelling in
the interior of this vast country, partly
as a matter of protection and partly to
avoid charges Of seditious activitles.
Such is the sense OF declaration
made by DR.. c. T. Wang, minister of
foreign affairs. and it is to be expected
that full sympathy with DR.. Wangs at
titude will be found in the American
consulates throughout the country.
Every time a foreigner takes 1aunt
into the interior he causes tWinge OF
pain to his consul, since in the final
ANALYSIS the latter is responsible to his
own State Department for the safety
Of his nationals.
All Forms of Banditry Rage.
The interior of China is not safe
place for an American or other foreign
subject to be these days. There are
enough menaces to life and property to
bring gray hairs to those in the lega-
tions and consulates. For example,
there are Communists who Will persist
in burning towns and villages ana
elaughtering their inha bitants, TO men
tion nothing of kidnapping a missionary
or two for ransom.
Then there are the rowing bandit
gangs. made no mostly of deserving or
disbanded troops They have rifles ana
machine guns and prey upon the coun-
trvside. A captive foreigner is wonder
FIJI bait and can be used to obtain either
money or arms or. IN some instances
full abSolution for their CIVIC crimes.
There are other dangers. For eA,
aranle nirates The rivers. lakes and
coastal Shipping lanes abound with dis
cinles of Capt. Kidd. Every coastal YES
sci carries an armed guard. as 90 snips
along certain sections of the Yangtze
and other navigable rivers. Husky SKINS
armed with modern rifles stand WaGcn
outside your cabin and on the Drloge
curing the night journey from Hong
kong to Canton American naval rat
tngs armed with a machine gun ana
rifles guard the vessels flying the Amerl-
can flag from Hankow to Chungklng.
Turn Machine Guns on Ships.
Not alone are there pirates, but gangs
of outlaw soldiers, sometimes to the
tune of several thousand, line the mar
row banks of the Yangtze ana turn
rifles and machine guns onto the river
ships.
Then there is the danger Of war.
American residents have been warned
out of Chengchow, Feng Yu-hslangs
base of operations in the present con-
fiict against Marking. Four to six BOMBS
have been dropping on the town daly,
though the damage has been slight
Perhaps it was for this reason that
American missionaries refused to heed
the warning. More gray hairs for the
American Minister to China.
Three provinces, with an area Of three
Of Americas largest States, have been
declared unsafe for the residence or
a0n
Honan and Human, though KiangSl has
long been described as too dangerous for
foreign safety. Hupeh and Honan suf-
fer from warfare, and the others from
such things as Communists, bandits and
pirates.
While the Northern alliance would
not be at all displeased to see the
Marking government engulfed IN an
international incident which the death
of a foreiger or two might entail, the
Chiang-Kai-SI1ek government has its
own idea about such matters.
Business Men Stick to Posts.
China as a whole has never been
completely prepared to receive the for
eiQner within her gates. Missionaries
may reside and travel IN the great back
country, known as the interior, but not
business men. These later must confine
their activities to the cities opened to
them by treaties. If a foreign business
man would do business in the interior.
then he must appoint Chinese agent
whose residence in the interior is I'M
questioned.
Most of the people one meets while
travelling In the interior are kindly
folk; men with tired backs. women
with sad eyes and children who have
lost the wonderment of life at an all
too early age The burdens of life
press hard upon them. They sow and
they reap, but they cannot always mar
ket their crops because they cannot
move them. Railroads are almost en-
tirely given over to the movement of
troops. Passenger trains are days late
and will take anywhere from IA to 80
hours to travel 300 miles.
Great stacks of sacked grain line the
depots. They are last years crop and
are sprouting as they stand under all
varieties of weather. There are days
when the great Yangtze, China's great
est waterway, is almost deserted OF ma
tive craft Many have been COM
Wandered and others are in hiding.
Foreign and Chinese steamships carry
steel plates behind which passengers
and crew hide from bullets. National